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New president declares emergency at southern border, pardons 1,500 January 6 convicts, withdraws US from World Health Organization and Paris climate accord and delays TikTok ban among flurry of orders
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Donald Trump signed a deluge of executive orders on Monday, hours after being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, leaving global banks working through the night in “war rooms” to make assessments of the likely consequences, according to a report from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
After being inaugrated as commander-in-chief at the US Capitol rotunda and delivering an address that both chastized Joe Biden’s outgoing administration and promised a new “golden age of America”, Trump set to work, as he had promised, on signing a stack of executive orders.
On immigration alone, the commander-in-chief moved to declare a national emergency at the southern border, end birthright citizenship, designate Central America’s cartels terrorist organizations, reinstate his “Remain in Mexico” policy and ended “catch and release” practices.
He also pardoned 1,500 “J6 hostages”, withdrew the US from the World Health Organization and Paris climate accord, affirmed that US government recognizes only two genders, renamed the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Mount Denali, overturned 78 Biden-era regulations, froze federal hiring and postponed the implementation of a law banning Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok for 75 days.
It’s easy to forget now that the president initially called for a ban on TikTok during his first term in 2020.
He told reporters at the White House on Monday that he had changed his mind as he “got to use” the platform, adding that he aimed to give its parent company ByteDance more time to find a suitable American buyer.
Dismissing initial privacy concerns, he said: “TikTok is largely about kids, young kids.
“If China is going to get information about young kids out of it, to be honest, I think we have bigger problems than that.”
Trump’s revisionist attitude comes after he credited the platform with helping him to secure the support of younger voters in last year’s election, which it may or may not have actually done.
Vishwam Sankaran reports.
Order aimed at giving TikTok parent company more time to find suitable buyer
The newly sworn-in president vowed yesterday to overturn climate-focused policy, promising once again to “drill, baby, drill” for the “liquid gold” largely responsible for the world’s life-threatening warming.
“Today I will sign a series of historic executive orders. With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” he told his inauguration attendees.
Included in his calls for a return to “common sense”, Trump declared a national energy emergency, tying energy costs to inflation.
He said that America would be a manufacturing nation, stating that the country has the “largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth.”
“And, we are going to use it,” he said, adding that the US would fill strategic reserves up “right to the top.”
“We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it,” he declared.
Here’s more from our climate correspondent Julia Musto.
The U.S. saw some of its costliest natural disasters in the last few months during the Earth’s hottest year on record because of greenhouse gases emitted by fossil fuels
“World Health ripped us off,” Trump said in the Oval Office as he signed his order initiating a US withdrawl from the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations global health body that monitors pandemics and supports vaccinations efforts around the world.
Monday’s action starts a one-year countdown clock until the final exit, as WHO members are required to give one year’s notice and fulfill existing funding obligations before leaving the group.
Here’s Josh Marcus on the aghast reaction of healthcare professionals.
President criticized WHO over size of funding commitments and handling of Covid
During his address yesterday, Trump claimed his administration would “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”
The White House has described the orders as part of its immediate priorities to “protect women from radical gender ideology” and “bring back American values.”
One of the planned orders deals with gender, holding that there are two immutable sexes, male and female, defined by whether an individual is born with eggs or sperm, officials told the Associated Press.
This definition is at odds both with the lived experience of the estimated nearly 2 million people who are trans in America, as well as the determinations of expert groups like the American Medical Association, which holds that gender identity exists along a spectrum, rather than an immutable male-female binary.
Josh Marcus has more.
Trump has signed flurry of executive orders on first day of office as 47th president
Trump signed full pardons for roughly 1,500 people charged with crimes related to their involvement in the January 6 2021 Capitol riots yesterday.
He also issued six commutations.
“I hope they come out tonight,” he said as he flourished his customary Sharpie.
Some 1,583 individuals have been charged criminally in federal court as of January 6 2025, according to the Department of Justice.
Here’s Alex Woodward’s report on the overturning of Tarrio’s 22-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy.
Trump pardons nearly all January 6 defendants in sweeping executive order on his first day in office
In his inaugural address yesterday, Donald Trump boasted his second term in office marks the beginning of “a golden age” for the United States and declared that God had saved him from an assassin’s bullet “to make America great again”.
In a characteristically bombastic speech from the Capitol in Washington DC, the 47th President of the United States laid out a radical right-wing domestic and foreign agenda.
Surrounded by members of Congress, former presidents and Supreme Court justices, he pledged: “Every single day… I will very simply put America first.”
Here’s a full report on an often shocking speech from David Maddox.
After taking the oath of office, America’s 47th president tells crowds in freezing cold Washington DC he was ‘saved by god to make America great again’
Here’s a handy video reminder of yesterday’s pomp and ceremony from Washington DC in what was truly a whirlwind day.
Here’s Richard Hall to attempt to make sense of it all.
The last time this many red MAGA hats descended on the capital, American democracy faced a mortal threat, he observes.
Four years later, and many believe the same may be true again.
The last time this many red MAGA hats descended on Washington D.C., American democracy faced a mortal threat. Four years later, and many believe the same may be true again, writes Richard Hall
Before we take a closer look at the new president’s blitz of executive ordes, let’s recap the events of last night, beginning with the first couple’s dance to Elvis Presley’s “An American Trilogy” at the Commander-In-Chief Inaugural Ball.
Here’s Amber Raiken on the praise for Melania’s custom Herve Pierre dress and the night’s sartorial choices.
The First Lady’s inaugural ball gown was made by her stylist of eight years
After being inaugrated as commander-in-chief at the US Capitol rotunda and delivering an address that both chastized Joe Biden’s outgoing administration and promised a new “golden age of America”, Trump set to work, as he had promised, on signing a stack of executive orders.
On immigration alone, the commander-in-chief moved to declare a national emergency at the southern border, end birthright citizenship, designate Mexico’s cartels terrorist organizations, reinstate his old “Remain in Mexico” policy and ended “catch and release” practices.
He also pardoned 1,500 “J6 hostages”, withdrew the US from the World Health Organization and Paris climate accord, affirmed that US government recognizes only two genders, renamed the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Mount Denali, overturned 78 Biden-era regulations, froze federal hiring and postponed the implementation of a law banning Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok for 75 days.
Here’s Alex Woodward, Andrew Feinberg, Kelly Rissman and Katie Hawkinson with an overview of everything Trump signed yesterday.
Trump has declared an emergency at the southern border and rolled back trans rights as he signs dozens of executive orders from the Oval Office
Good morning!
Donald Trump signed a sweeping executive order on the death penalty on Monday, hours after being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States, that directs the US attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions.
Trump’s order compels the Justice Department to not only seek the death penalty in appropriate federal cases but also to help preserve capital punishment in states that have struggled to maintain adequate supplies of lethal injection drugs.
Trump had been expected to restart federal executions, which have been on hold since a moratorium was imposed by former attorney general Merrick Garland in 2021.
Only three defendants remain on federal death row after Democratic President Joe Biden recently converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison.
Trump directed his new attorney general – likely to be former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, assuming she is confirmed by the Senate – to pursue federal jurisdiction and seek the death penalty “regardless of other factors” when the case involves the killing of a law enforcement officer or capital crimes “committed by an alien illegally present in this country.”
He’s also instructing the attorney general to seek to overrule Supreme Court precedents that “limit the authority of State and Federal governments to impose capital punishment.”
“The government’s most solemn responsibility is to protect its citizens from abhorrent acts, and my administration will not tolerate efforts to stymie and eviscerate the laws that authorize capital punishment against those who commit horrible acts of violence against American citizens,” Trump’s order said.
Trump’s administration carried out 13 federal executions during his first term, more than under any president in modern history, and the president has spoken frequently of expanding executions. In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign, Trump called for those “caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.”
He later promised to execute drug and human smugglers and even praised China’s harsher treatment of drug peddlers.
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