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5 hours ago
Donald Trump launched his second term as US president with a barrage of day one executive orders reaching into a broad swathe of American life, from pardoning hundreds of his supporters who attacked Congress on January 6, including rightwing extremists convicted of seditious conspiracy, to rolling back LGBTQ+ rights and environmental rules while declaring an immigration emergency on the southern border.
Trump and his allies had long promised a “shock and awe” approach to regaining control of the US government. They did not hold back.
The first round of orders were signed on stage at the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, where the inaugural parade was moved to avoid freezing temperatures outside. Many more orders were signed shortly afterwards at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
Among measures signed on stage to cheers from a raucous crowd was an order for the US to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, a step the president took in his first term before Joe Biden recommitted the US to that attempt to tackle the worsening climate crisis.
Gleefully, Trump said about his signing ceremony: “Could you imagine Biden doing this? I don’t think so.”
From the White House, Trump gave what he called “full, complete and unconditional” pardons to around 1,500 people convicted of crimes over the deadly January 6 attack on Congress that he incited, by telling supporters to “fight like hell” in support of his lie about electoral fraud in his 2020 defeat by Biden.
Trump also said he signed sentence commutations for six unnamed offenders. Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys street gang, convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 22 years in jail, was among those pardoned and set for release.
In response, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic former House speaker who was in that role on January 6, lamented “an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the constitution”.
At the Capitol, in remarks delivered after his inaugural address; at the Capital One Arena; and in back-and-forth with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump delivered rambling grievances and inaccurate claims including numerous repetitions of his lies about 2020. Even his formal inaugural address included attacks on political opponents.
At the White House, Trump complained about Biden’s decision earlier in the day to issue preemptive pardons to members of the House January 6 committee, high-profile public officials who criticized Trump, and members of Biden’s own family, all believed at risk of political prosecution.
Trump said he was “surprised” Biden took such actions, “because that makes them look very guilty”. He did not issue such pardons to himself, allies and his family when he left power after January 6, he said, because it would have made him look guilty and ended his political career.
Trump signed a slew of other high-profile orders.
Among them was an order for the US to withdraw from the World Health Organization. On immigration, Trump declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border; designated criminal cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations”; and redefined birthright citizenship, a move against children of undocumented migrants born on US soil that contravenes the 14th amendment to the US constitution, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born on American soil.
Other measures included a recision of 78 Biden-era executive measures; a federal regulatory freeze “until we have full control of the government”; a freeze on all federal hiring except in the military and some other categories; and a requirement that federal workers return to full-time in-person work. Trump directed every department of government “to address the cost of living crisis”, and issued directives “preventing government censorship” and ordering the end of the “weaponization of the government against the adversaries of the previous administration”.
Trump rescinded Biden’s removal of Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, announced just last week, and removed Biden-era sanctions on Israeli settlers and entities in the West Bank. He told reporters he would impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico from 1 February.
While talking to the press, Trump reached into the top drawer of the Resolute Desk and removed an envelope apparently containing a letter from Biden, traditional when presidents leave power, Biden having said that four years ago Trump left him a “shockingly gracious” note in his turn.
Back in the flow of invective, untruths and executive orders, Trump signed an order “unleashing Alaska’s energy potential for the entire nation”, related to his campaign promise to focus on fossil fuels and “drill, baby, drill.” He also signed a declaration of a “national energy emergency”.
He revoked Biden orders which sought to reduce the use of private prisons, end the use of chokeholds in federal arrests and reduce the use of no-knock warrants. He signed an order “protecting women against radical gender ideologies”.
He seemed particularly eager to sign an order delaying the federal ban on TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media app, as mandated by a law passed last year. Trump told reporters his order gave him the right to close or sell an app his campaign used effectively last year, amid the push to ban the app on national security grounds, a push Trump once supported. The chief executive of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, attended Trump’s inaugural address.
That setpiece was also moved indoors to escape the cold. Trump delivered his address in the Capitol rotunda, a hallowed space through which his supporters rampaged four years ago. Back at the scene of so many crimes, Trump completed an astonishing political escape act.
His national emergency at the southern border, he said, would halt “all illegal entry… [and] begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”
Crossings at the southern border are currently low, as a result of policies under Biden. The number of undocumented migrants on US soil convicted of crimes does not run anywhere close to “millions and millions”. Undocumented migrants also offend at a lower rate than US citizens.
Regardless, Trump promised to “send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country” and added: “By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to US soil, including our cities and inner cities.”
Shifting to domestic policy, Trump said he would “end the Green New Deal” – an umbrella name for progressive environmental goals, rather than laws passed under Biden – and outlined moves to end government support for electric vehicles. He also took shots at Biden and other opponents for supposedly failing to tackle climate disasters in North Carolina, hit by Hurricane Helene, and in California, where Trump claimed without evidence that not “even a token of defense” had been mounted against devastating wildfires in Los Angeles.
Trump promised to establish an External Revenue Service, to “tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens”; and to establish the “Department of Government Efficiency”, a cost-cutting effort championed by the tech billionaire Elon Musk, a key ally and donor. Musk’s project is already the subject of legal challenges. On stage at the Capital One Arena, Musk appeared to give two fascist salutes.
It was a historic day but Trump did not always reach for solemn tones. Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, left Washington after hosting Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, at the White House. In his arena address, Trump performed a mocking impression of Biden, centered on his age. Biden is 82. Trump is 78.
In his inaugural address, Trump made outlandish promises: to “change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America”, to “take back” the Panama Canal, and to “launch American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars”.
The executive orders he signed offered more concrete evidence of his intentions in office.
Read more of the Guardian’s Trump coverage
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