WASHINGTON — Donald Trump, who overcame impeachments, criminal indictments and a pair of assassination attempts to win another term in the White House, was sworn in Monday as the 47th U.S. president, taking charge as Republicans claim unified control of Washington and set out to reshape the country’s institutions.
Trump’s swearing-in ceremony moved indoors due to intense cold. After being inaugurated, he attended a parade in his honor at Capital One Arena and signed a number of executive orders and pardons for his supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Here’s the latest:
Pelosi calls pardons for Jan. 6 defendants ‘shameful’
House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi said Trump’s actions to pardon and commute sentences of those convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capito; attack are “shameful.”
“The President’s actions are 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,” Pelosi said in a statement. “It is shameful that the President has decided to make one of his top priorities the abandonment and betrayal of police officers who put their lives on the line to stop an attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power.”
She said that despite Trump’s decision, the country must remember the “extraordinary courage and valor of the law enforcement heroes who stood in the breach and ensured that democracy survived on that dark day.”
Trump praises Bill Clinton’s ‘great political sense’
As he sat down to sign executive orders, Trump was asked which former president he would call for advice.
He responded that Bill Clinton was a “very interesting politician” and said he had a “great political sense.”
Trump said Clinton was “disrespected” and “not used properly.”
Trump was also asked about his friendly chat with former President Barack Obama during former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral.
“We were having some crazy conversations,” he said.
Trump moves to withdraw the US from the World Health Organization — again
Trump has signed an executive order beginning the process of withdrawing the U.S. from the World Health Organization.
It was the second time in less than five years that he’s ordered the country to withdraw from the organization, despite it being a move many scientists fear could roll back decadeslong gains made in fighting infectious diseases like AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.
Experts also warn it could weaken the world’s defenses against dangerous new outbreaks capable of triggering pandemics.
Trump vs. Biden
The contrast couldn’t be more dramatic.
Trump is continuing to riff and answer questions from reporters in the Oval Office as he signs another round of executive action.
He’s been joking and opining on everything from foreign policy to drones to the way he’s redecorated the ornate room and seems at ease and supremely confident.
Biden was known to rarely engage with reporters at length.
Trump says he’ll talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin soon
“Most people thought that war would have been over in one week,” Trump said of Russia’s nearly three-year war on Ukraine. He added, “I think he’d be very well off to end that war.”
Trump said that he thinks Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants to make a deal to end a conflict.
Trump says the US should own half of TikTok
Trump says the United States as a country should own half of TikTok, which he estimated could be worth $1 trillion.
“I think the US should be entitled to get half of TikTok and, congratulations, TikTok has a good partner and that would be worth, you know, could be $500 billion,” Trump says.
The president was speaking about the social media platform with a China-based owner as he was signing an order to keep TikTok open so that it can find a potential buyer and avoid being shut down on national security grounds.
Trump calls birthright citizenship ‘ridiculous’ as he tries to end it
Trump says he favors legal immigration as he signed orders declaring a national emergency on the U.S. border with Mexico, suspending refugee resettlement and ending automatic citizenship for anyone born in the United States.
Trump acknowledged an imminent legal challenge to overturning birthright citizenship, which has been enshrined in the U.S. Constitution since 1868. He said automatic citizenship was “just ridiculous” and that he believes he was on “good (legal) ground” to change it.
“That’s a big one,” he bantered with reporters while signing an order declaring the border emergency.
Trump said immigrant labor was needed for investment that he anticipates will accompany higher tariffs.
“I’m fine with legal immigration. I like it, we need people,” he said.
Trump executive order keeps TikTok online for now
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday to keep TikTok operating for 75 days, a relief to the social media platform’s users even as national security questions persist.
TikTok’s China-based parent was supposed to find a U.S. buyer or be banned on the previous Sunday. Trump’s order would give them more time to find a buyer.
“I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok,” Trump says.
Former President Joe Biden declined to enforce the bipartisan measure that he signed into law, while Trump has pledged to keep TikTok open after crediting it for helping his 2024 election victory. Trump’s legal authority to preserve TikTok is unclear under the terms of the law recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Lawyer calls commutation for Proud Boys client ‘wonderful’
Norm Pattis, an attorney for former Proud Boys organizer Joseph Biggs, said it was “wonderful” to learn that Trump commuted his client’s 17-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy.
“It gets him out of prison,” Pattis told The Associated Press. “He had 13, 14 more years to go, and there’s no place like home.”
Trump says tariffs on US neighbors could come next month
Trump says he could place 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting on Feb. 1. He declined to give a date on China tariffs.
Trump has talked extensively about his tariff plans and his affection for the levies on imported goods during multiple public remarks Monday.
No West Wing office for Musk
Trump says Elon Musk won’t get a desk in the West Wing.
The president made the comment while signing executive orders in the Oval Office.
Trump has named Musk, the Tesla CEO and X owner, as head of the Department of Government Efficiency.
Trump finds letter from Biden while signing executive orders
Trump found a letter from Biden in the Oval Office’s Resolute desk, but only after a journalist reminded him to look for it.
While signing a series of executive orders, a journalist asked Trump if he’d received a letter. Trump said he didn’t know and checked the desk drawers, holding up the letter for the cameras.
“Maybe we should all read it together,” Trump said before setting it aside. He said he’ll read it himself before sharing it publicly.
The letter’s envelope has “47″ handwritten in what looks like pencil and underlined.
A new round of executive actions
Trump is using the first appearance of his second term in the Oval Office to sign another series of executive actions. Here are some of the key things he’s signed:
— pardons and commutations that Trump said would cover about 1,500 people criminally charged in the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021
— overhauling the refugee admission program to better align with American principles and interests
— declaring a “national emergency” at the U.S.-Mexico border
— designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations
Trump issues sweeping pardon for Jan. 6 rioters
Trump issued pardons for participants in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, one of his first acts after being sworn in as the country’s 47th president on Monday.
The pardons fulfill Trump’s promise to release supporters who tried to help him overturn his election defeat four years ago.
“These are the hostages,” he said while signing the paperwork in the Oval Office.
Trump said he was pardoning about 1,500 defendants and issuing six commutations.
Trump makes his Oval Office debut
After hours spent celebrating his new administration, Trump is making his first Oval Office appearance.
Trump has pledged to sign a series of executive actions from behind the oval-shaped room’s famous Resolute Desk.
Those come after he signed an initial flurry at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, where thousands of his supporters gathered to celebrate an inaugural parade that was moved indoors due to the cold.
Trump rescinds 2021 Title IX order
Trump rescinded a 2021 order signaling the Education Department would use Title IX to protect against discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
The Biden administration later went further to cement that interpretation into federal regulation, but it was overturned after Republican-led states challenged the rule in federal court.
Rescinding the 2021 order won’t have much effect on schools and colleges, but it clears the slate for other action by the Trump administration.
Trump also rescinded a COVID-19-era executive order directing federal officials to give schools guidance on reopening during the pandemic. That order, issued on Biden’s second day in office, also required the Education Department to explore the pandemic’s “disparate impacts” on students of color and students with disabilities.
Before order, DeSantis starts calling it ‘Gulf of America’
Trump has not signed an executive order to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “Gulf of America” but Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has begun calling it just that.
He declared a state of emergency due to winter weather expected along the Gulf Coast.
A closer look at Trump’s executive action freezing Biden’s action on Cuba
Trump has reversed an executive order issued by Biden that moved to lift the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Biden formally notified Congress just last week of his decision to lift the designation as part of a deal facilitated by the Catholic Church to free political prisoners on the island.
The day after the announcement, Cuba began releasing people who were convicted of various crimes, including some who were arrested after taking part in the historic 2021 protests, according to Cuban civil groups following the cases of detainees on the island.
A closer look at Trump’s executive action freezing many new orders by Biden
Trump has issued an order freezing many new or pending federal regulations, effectively blocking last-minute protections issued by the Biden administration.
Such an order is fairly common when a new administration takes over, but it could be the first in a series of moves designed to tamp down what the new president and other top Republicans have consistently decried as “federal overreach.”
The move recalled the first day of Trump’s first administration in 2017. Then, he froze all pending federal regulations, effectively suspending Obama-era actions that were new or closer to implementation.
That “immediate regulatory freeze” did not apply to some regulations being implemented for emergency situations relating to health, safety, financial or national security. Implementation of the new administration’s order is likely to include similar language allowing for key exceptions
Trump returns to the White House
Trump has officially returned to the White House as president once again.
He walked through the doors shortly after 7 p.m., joined by his wife, his son Barron and his father-in-law.
A closer look at Trump’s executive action ordering federal employees back to work 5 days a week
Among the executive orders Trump signed with a flourish in front of a cheering crowd was one mandating that federal workers return to their offices five days a week.
The move followed the new president’s pledge to end the work-from-home culture that became common during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last month, at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump said he planned to dismiss federal employees who don’t return to the office to comply with the order.
A closer look at Trump’s executive order on the federal hiring freeze
Trump has ordered a federal hiring freeze on his first day back in office, mirroring an action he took at the start of his first term to try to reduce the size of government.
The order suspends hiring for new positions and many open ones. It includes exceptions for posts related to national security and public safety, as well as the military.
During his campaign, Trump pledged to dismantle a federal bureaucracy that he derided as the “deep state.”
The order eight years ago was intended as a temporary, 90-day measure until federal budget officials, as well as those in charge of the government’s personnel office, could devise a longer-term strategy for reducing the size of the federal government — and it was effectively lifted that April.
How long the latest freeze may last is less clear. It is a drastic step away from the Biden administration, which took steps to increase the federal workforce and give pay raises to many in its ranks.
What Trump has signed orders on
1. Halting 78 Biden-era executive actions
2. A regulatory freeze preventing bureaucrats from issuing regulations until the Trump administration has full control of the government
3. A freeze on all federal hiring except for military and a few other essential areas
4. A requirement that federal workers return to full-time in-person work
5. A directive to every department and agency to address the cost of living crisis
6. Withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty
7. A government order restoring freedom of speech and preventing censorship of free speech
8. Ending “weaponization of government”
Trump promises to pardon ‘J6 hostages’
Trump announced he will pardon people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot, calling them “hostages” while flanked by the families of people taken hostage by Hamas as militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
The jarring juxtaposition came moments after Steve Witkoff, Trump’s appointee for special envoy for peach in the Middle East, introduced the relatives, some of whom are seeking the return of remains of their loves ones who were killed while held captive.
“Tonight I’m going to be signing on the J6 hostages, pardons, to get them out,” Trump said, using a shorthand for people charged with crimes for their alleged actions on Jan. 6, 2021. “And as soon as I leave I’m going to the Oval Office and we’ll be signing pardons for a lot of people. A lot of people.”
Trump went on to welcome home people who were released by Hamas as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel, which was finalized in the waning days of Biden’s administration.
Trump also talked about how the Israel-Hamas war wouldn’t have happened had he been in office instead of Biden. He appeared to mix up that conflict with Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“Three years. It’s ridiculous,” Trump said. The Israeli conflict occurred not even 18 months ago.
By ZEKE MILLER, CHRIS MEGERIAN and MICHELLE L. PRICE. Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro, and Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Lindsey Bahr, Will Weissert and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
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