President Trump quickly asserted the sweeping powers of the presidency at his second inauguration at the Capitol on Monday, announcing a series of executive orders that would radically change U.S. policy if left in place.
He also suggested that he would pardon some or all of his loyalists who attacked the same Capitol building in a failed attempt to keep him unlawfully in power four years ago, repeatedly referring to them as “hostages” and saying, that there would soon be “a lot of action” in their cases.
Trump's orders – which were expected but not yet passed during Monday afternoon's ongoing ceremonies – reflected an aggressive start to the conservative agenda he promised on the campaign trail, aimed at curbing illegal immigration, US manufacturing and strengthen the overall economy and restrict LGBTQ+ rights, strengthen American dominance abroad, and bend the sprawling federal bureaucracy to its will.
His expected pardons would follow a last-minute decision by President Biden to exercise the same power on his way out of the White House by pardoning members of Congress and their staff who investigated the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, as well as others former US officials who have drawn Trump's ire for challenging his authority in the past.
The orders, which Trump detailed in his inaugural address Monday morning, reflected how deeply divided the nation is politically — and the extent to which Trump feels emboldened to buck tradition and precedent since he was the first president not to have one won his second consecutive term in the White House in the last 132 years.
While Trump promised the return of a “Golden Age of America” under his leadership, he declared two national emergencies – one related to border crossings in the South and one related to energy independence. He promised several measures to address both, including completely closing the border to asylum seekers – including by reinstating his “Remain in Mexico” policy and sending military troops to the border – and repealing federal energy regulations to allow oil and gas producers can do this “drill, baby, drill.”
In the first sign of the measures being implemented, immigrants with asylum claims at the southern border were told Monday that scheduled interviews with U.S. Customs and Border Protection had been canceled.
Trump said he would declare that there are only “two genders” – a swipe at transgender people that echoed Trump's campaign's attacks – and repeal regulations mandating the country's transition to electric vehicles. He said he would impose many new tariffs on foreign goods, create a new “External Revenue Service” to collect related revenues and create a new Ministry of Government Efficiency to reduce waste – the latter of which would be headed by Elon Musk's owner X and Tesla and the richest man in the world.
Musk appeared cheerful in his own speech, saying Trump's return would be a “fork in the road of human civilization.”
Trump also said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and take over the Panama Canal from Panama.
He framed his series of orders as a way to restore America to greatness and end a period in which “the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete decay.”
“With these actions, we will usher in the full restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” Trump said during his inaugural address in the Capitol Rotunda. “It comes down to common sense.”
Whether Trump's policies will survive and how quickly they will be implemented remains unclear. The survival of the most controversial and legally questionable decrees will depend on the courts, experts said. Implementation will depend in part on how quickly Trump can get his Cabinet appointments confirmed by the Senate and impose his new administration, they said.
Advocates for immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and other targeted groups joined liberal leaders, including in California, in vowing to fight back against Trump's agenda, including in court if necessary.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said last week that his office would monitor what Trump does on Monday and respond accordingly, including through prepared legal briefs presuming certain actions the state would find illegal in court. are illegal.
San Francisco City Atty. David Chiu said Monday that Trump has delivered a “dark, dangerous and authoritarian vision for our country” and that his office will analyze Trump's orders in the coming days and weeks and “do everything in our power to protect San Francisco and… “To protect our country residents from illegal federal actions.”
The Jan. 6 pardons could lead to quicker action and less opposition — since a president's pardon powers are generally uncontested.
Lawyers for some of the jailed defendants said before the inauguration that they were closely monitoring Trump's actions and would be prepared to respond with legal requests for their clients' immediate release.
In addition to the House committee investigating the January 6 attack, Biden also pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who led the country's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mark A. Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who has criticized Trump's handling of the insurrection.
Trump and his supporters had threatened everyone with possible criminal charges and investigations. Biden called them officers who “have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the target of unwarranted and politically motivated prosecutions.”
Trump called Biden's pardons “regrettable” and “disgraceful.” NBC News' Kristen Welker said Trump wrote to her saying many of those pardoned “committed serious crimes”!
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the former chairman of the Jan. 6 committee, issued a statement on behalf of the committee's former members, saying they were grateful to Biden “for the recognition we gave.” and our families have been subjected not only to constant harassment, lies and threats of criminal violence, but also to concrete threats of prosecution and imprisonment from members of the new administration simply for doing our work and honoring our oath of office.
“We were pardoned today not for breaking the law,” Thompson said, “but for upholding it.”
One of the committee members, Sen. Adam B. Schiff of California, said he was proud of the committee's work and believed Biden's pardon of its members was “unnecessary and unwise because of the precedent it sets.”
However, Schiff – one of Trump's favorite targets for ridicule – said he also understood why Biden issued the pardons “in light of ongoing and unfounded threats from Donald Trump and individuals who are now among his law enforcement nominees.”
Exercising presidential powers on a new president's first day in office – or, in Biden's case, his last – is not new.
Presidents have often issued pardons upon leaving office, and they have always struggled to fulfill campaign promises and deliver quick political results.
The idea that a president should be judged by his achievements within his first “100 days” in office has been a “touchstone” of American politics since at least the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, wrote Ben Wilhelm, an analyst at the Congressional Research Service , in an article formal analysis of executive orders and presidential transitions last year.
However, in recent decades, the number of executive orders issued at the start of new administrations has increased under both Democratic and Republican presidents, Wilhelm noted. This is partly because new presidents have issued orders reversing the orders of their predecessors.
Biden did it to reverse orders from Trump. On Monday, Trump did so to reverse Biden's orders.
Trump suggested Monday that his actions on “Day 1” were particularly justified. He said he was saved by God from assassination attempts during the campaign so he could “make America great again” and repeatedly cited a “mandate” from voters to carry out his agenda – suggesting his victory over Biden in November was monumental.
“My recent election is a mandate to completely undo a terrible betrayal and all the many betrayals that have taken place and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom,” Trump said.
Trump won a significant victory in the Electoral College and won victories in every swing state in the country. However, his popular vote majorities – both as a percentage of the total vote and in raw votes – have historically been small.
Out of more than 152 million votes cast, Trump won by just over 2 million votes. And he won less than 50% of the total vote – with 49.9%, compared to 48.4% that Vice President Kamala Harris received, according to the Associated Press. This means that while Trump enjoys massive support for his agenda, there are also almost as many Americans who voted against him and that agenda.