Donald Trump on Monday pardoned about 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6 attack, hours after his second inauguration as US president. He also commuted the sentences of six other people.
The pardons fulfill Trump's campaign promise to free supporters who tried to brutally overturn his election defeat four years ago.
“These are hostages,” he said while signing documents in the Oval Office.
Asked when he would impose his proposed trade tariffs on Canada and Mexico, Trump replied on February 1: “I think we will.”
Trump also signed a number of executive orders, including withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization; a hiring freeze and a requirement that federal workers return to full-time manual labor; repealing orders promoting and protecting 2SLGBTQ+ people and racial minorities; adding Cuba back to the US list of state sponsors of terrorism; and a provision for a 75-day delay in enforcing the TikTok ban.
Trump capped off his stunning political comeback on Monday by being sworn in as the 47th US president, during which he promised tariffs, deportations and a new approach to race and gender.
In his inaugural address in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Trump began providing details of his orders issued on day one.
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, marking his return to power by signing a series of executive orders within hours of taking office on Monday. Andrew Chang explains what Trump's inaugural speech tells us about his vision for America in the next four years.
First, a state of emergency was declared on the southern border. He announced that he would send troops to the border and begin deporting “illegal” immigrants. Trump has promised to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expel the gangs as quickly as possible.
Trump casually alluded to his plan to impose trade penalties, but remained vague. “We will impose tariffs and taxes on foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” he said.
He promised to reverse Biden's green energy policies, including the electric vehicle mandate, and to “drill, baby, drill” more oil.
Trump said his government would believe there are only “two genders: male and female.” He also vowed to end efforts to “socially engineer race” in every aspect of public and private life and “create a color-blind and merit-based society.”
Promises of world peace, astronauts on Mars
Trump overcame impeachments, indictments and two assassination attempts to win a second term in the White House, during which his Republican party will take control of Washington.
Trump is only the second president in American history to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first felon to hold the most powerful political office in the world. He took the oath during an extremely intimate ceremony in the rotunda away from the public, after being moved indoors due to the cool weather.
The 78-year-old's speech was more optimistic than the one he delivered at the 2017 inauguration. He began by saying, “America's golden age is now beginning,” and later added, “From that moment on, America's decline was complete.”
US President Donald Trump, speaking after the inauguration of his second term, promised Americans a “golden age” and pledged to rebuild the country's institutions. “From this moment on, America's decline is complete,” Trump said, unveiling a series of executive orders that will address everything from trade and border issues to energy and place names.
Referring to the assassination attempt on him in Pennsylvania, he said he was saved by God to restore the country.
Trump said he would be a peacemaker and “stop all wars,” while also announcing he intended to regain U.S. control of the Panama Canal. “We're taking it back,” he said, without specifying how that would happen.
He also said he would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the American Gulf and restore the previous name of Mount McKinley in Alaska – named after former US President William McKinley – invalidating its current indigenous name, Mount Denali.
Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc, speaking to Adrienne Arsenault after several U.S. media outlets reported that new President Donald Trump's tariffs would not be implemented on Monday, said Canada is prepared no matter what happens.
Trump vaguely referred to the expansion of US territory, which, however, did not take place in generations. He has previously talked about making Canada a country and annexing Greenland, but he did not provide further details in his speech.
“The United States will once again see itself as a rising nation – one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag to beautiful new horizons.”
Trump then said the United States would continue sending astronauts to Mars – a longtime goal of billionaire Elon Musk, who has become friends with Trump and will serve on the new Department of Government Effectiveness.
Billionaires took a prominent place in the Capitol.
Musk, along with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google's Sundar Pichai – a quartet whose combined GDP exceeds that of many countries – had the best seats, sitting closer than some members of Trump's future cabinet.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was also in the Rotunda, located in an area usually reserved for former presidents, family members and other distinguished guests. The United States banned the social media app over the weekend, but Trump reversed the ban hours later.
Bezos and Zuckerberg later attended a Trump congressional luncheon and each pledged to donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee.
After the inauguration, Trump delivered a less measured, impromptu speech to supporters on Capitol Hill in which he promised to pardon those convicted in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and criticized Biden's last-minute pardons, which also included members of the congressional committee investigating the Jan. 1 incident. 6.
Trudeau congratulates Trump
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement congratulating Trump on his inauguration, saying that Canada and the United States have the world's most effective economic partnership.
“Canada is strengthening this mutually beneficial relationship. We are making huge investments to strengthen cross-border trade, strengthen our supply chains and create jobs on both sides of the border,” he said.
“We are strongest when we work together, and I look forward to working with President Trump, his administration, members of the United States Congress, and officials at the state and local levels to ensure the prosperity of our nations – while protecting and defending the interests of Canadians.”