Biden readies orders to dismantle Trump legacy

Joe Biden plans to sign a blizzard of executive orders in his first days as president.

Joe Biden, centre, arrives at St. Joseph on the Brandywine Roman Catholic Church in Wilmington, Delaware on Monday (AEDT). Picture: AFP

Joe Biden plans to sign a blizzard of executive orders in his first days as US president to begin the process of unwinding Donald Trump’s legacy.

Within days of his inauguration on January 20, the 77-year-old president-elect plans to sign key orders impacting climate change, the coronavirus, the economy and immigration.

The plan comes as former Republican president George W. Bush congratulated Mr Biden on his victory, a move that further isolates Mr Trump from his own party as he refuses to recognise the election result.

George W. Bush’s congratulations for Joe Biden further isolated Donald Trump from the Republican Party. Picture: AFP

“I extended my warm congratulations and thanked him for the patriotic message he delivered last night,” Mr Bush said. “Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unite our country,” Mr Bush said.

Mr Trump on Monday Australian time continued to resist conceding, repeating claims by Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich that the election was stolen and blaming the media for calling it in Mr Biden’s favour.

“Since when does the Lamestream Media call who our next president will be? We have all learned a lot in the last two weeks!” he wrote on Twitter.

The president, who played golf again on Monday has said his team will take evidence of election fraud to the courts from Tuesday, but the team has not detailed the nature of those cases.

Melania Trump also alleged without evidence that there was “illegal” activity, and wrote on Twitter: “We must protect our democracy with complete transparency.” Behind the scenes, however, the first lady was counselling Mr Trump to concede, while sons Donald Jr and Eric were urging him to continue to resist, Politico reported.

Several prominent Republicans, including Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz, have backed Mr Trump’s fight, but other senior Republicans have kept silent.

Mr Biden spent his first full day as president-elect attending a Sunday church service in Wilmington before visiting the grave of his late son, Beau Biden.

The official Biden-Harris transition team also outlined its priorities, and said it would move on four key areas once Mr Biden was in the White House: COVID-19, economic recovery, racial equity and climate change.

Republican senator Lindsey Graham. Picture: AFP

In the first days after he takes office on January 20, Mr Biden plans to send a letter to rejoin the Paris climate pact, appoint a COVID-19 tsar, overturn Mr Trump’s Muslim travel ban and sign an order increasing the US refugee intake.

Mr Biden will also sign orders to re-establish environmental regulations initiated under Barack Obama but removed by the Trump administration, and seek to restore the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to allow undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children to remain. But he confronts a growing COVID disaster, with the US averaging more than 100,000 new cases daily and recording 464 deaths on November 8 — 238,031 in total.

“People want the country to move forward,” said Kate Bedingfield, the Biden deputy campaign manager. “(Biden has) the opportunity to do the work, to get the virus under control and to get our economy back together.”

“Every president wants to come out of the gate strong and start fulfilling campaign promises before lunch on the first day,” Dan Pfeiffer, a senior adviser to president Barack Obama, told Politico. “Executive orders are the best way to do that.”

Mr Biden on Monday named a former surgeon-general, Dr Vivek Murthy, and former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David Kessler, as co-chairs of a coronavirus working group. Mr Biden is expected to exert greater federal control over the COVID fight rather than follow Mr Trump’s policy of leaving it to individual states.

Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia