Washington (AP)As soon as he took office as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, Donald Trump started to erase Joe Biden’s legacy. He pardoned almost all of his supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and issued a flurry of executive orders that indicate his intention to restructure American institutions.
For a returning president who feels empowered and validated by his historic political resurgence, it was an assertive beginning. Trump has another opportunity to usher in what he has dubbed a golden age for the nation, four years after he was thrown out of the White House.
He issued instructions to strengthen border security, prohibit birthright citizenship, designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, freeze new regulations, and create a task force to reduce the size of the federal government. Additionally, he revoked scores of Biden directives, including those concerning diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and climate change.
After his inauguration, Trump claimed that returning to the already-remodeled Oval Office was one of the best experiences he had ever experienced. Trump advanced his agenda quickly and deliberately on Monday, in contrast to his first term when new staff members rushed to understand what their president was attempting to do.
He pardoned almost 1,500 individuals charged with the Jan. 6 attack, even if they had been found guilty of attacking police officers, as his first move after taking office. Trump also commuted the sentences of 14 other individuals, including the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders.
The ruling amounts to a broad blanket of impunity for Trump supporters who attempted to overturn his election loss four years ago, upending the nation’s custom of peaceful handovers of power. Trump said he anticipated their release soon and referred to them as hostages. To celebrate their release, a crowd gathered outside a jail in Washington, D.C.
Trump’s inauguration, which had both a formal ceremony and free-flowing speech, served as a reminder that he can only maintain solemnity for so long before veering off course with a mix of anger and humor. Trump dodged reporters’ questions for almost an hour before departing the White House for an evening of inaugural balls.
He commended the decorators for the new look of his Oval Office, hinted that he would travel to China, and vowed that taxes on Canada and Mexico were on the horizon. Among other things, Biden replaced the portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that was hung with one of George Washington.
The specifics of the day were rewritten by the cold weather. For the first time in forty years, Trump’s swearing-in ceremony was held indoors at the Capitol Rotunda, and the inaugural parade was swapped out for a marching band event at Capital One Arena.
Trump announced the start of the common sense movement and the full restoration of America in his inaugural address.
Trump claimed that there is a crisis of faith in the administration. He asserted that he had been given the mandate to fully undo a terrible betrayal and pledged to return the people’s democracy, prosperity, faith, and even their freedom.
As Biden observed from the front row, he declared, “From now on, America’s decline is over.”
Vice President Kamala Harris, who took Biden’s place on the ballot when he dropped out of the race for reelection last summer and lost to Trump in the general election, was also in attendance at the ceremony.
In regard to his plans to retake the Panama Canal and buy Greenland from Denmark, Trump declared that he would head a government that “expands our territory.”
He also promised to send American astronauts to Mars in order to fulfill our manifest destiny. As Trump spoke, Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and the owner of a space rocket firm with billions of dollars in federal contracts, applauded and gave a two-finger salute.
When the ceremony was moved inside, Trump fans who had flocked to the city to watch the incoming president take the oath of office from the National Mall were forced to find alternative viewing locations. However, important spots in the Rotunda were awarded to a group of tech titans, including Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, and Sundar Pichai. In a startling display of wealth for a Republican president who is also a millionaire but has positioned himself as a working-class activist, they mixed with Trump’s new team.
Following the ceremony, Trump and Biden strolled to the east side of the building, where the Democrat departed by helicopter to start his life after the presidency.
Trump’s ideas on his second first day as president went far beyond his inaugural address.
Following Biden’s exit, Trump made lengthy, spontaneous speeches to supporters in the Capitol that rehashed a long list of conspiracy theories regarding voter fraud and attacked alleged adversaries including former Republican Representative Liz Cheney, whom he referred to as a sobbing maniac.
“I think this is a better speech than the one I gave upstairs,” he said, continuing to speak for even longer than he had in his inaugural address.
As thousands of fans applauded, he then proceeded to the Capital One Arena to start signing executive orders, fusing the presidential authority with the spectacle of his campaign rallies.
In front of a crowd wearing Make America Great Again hats, Trump declared, “We won, we won, but now the work begins.”
While writing his name in strong black ink on his executive orders, he mocked his predecessor, eschewing the more solemn tone of his inaugural address.
Do you think Biden would do this? “I said.” Not in my opinion!
He threw the pens into the crowd after he was done.
With Trump’s inauguration, a political resurgence unprecedented in American history was achieved. During the economic crisis brought on by the fatal COVID-19 pandemic four years ago, he was voted out of the White House. Trump attempted to hold onto power while denying his defeat. While parliamentarians were confirming the election results, he ordered his followers to march on the Capitol, igniting a riot that disrupted the nation’s custom of a peaceful handover of power.
However, Trump maintained his hold on the Republican Party despite two assassination attempts and criminal prosecutions, using people’ frustration with illegal immigration and inflation to his advantage.
Trump is now the first person to be found guilty of a felony for fabricating financial records pertaining to hush money payments in order to gain the presidency. From the same location that his followers had taken over on January 6, he vowed to uphold, defend, and maintain the Constitution.
Pam Pollard, a 65-year-old Oklahoma Republican official who traveled to Washington to witness his inauguration, stated, “We all believe God’s hand has been on this man to be elected.”
Trump has made personal loyalty a requirement for selections to his government and has pledged retaliation against his political rivals and detractors.
In order to protect his siblings and their spouses from potential punishment, Biden granted them preemptive pardons just minutes before he left office. Additionally, he granted pardons to both former and present government officials who have been the object of Trump’s ire. “These are extraordinary circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden stated.
In a late-afternoon interview with reporters in the Oval Office, Trump attacked Biden’s pardons, claiming they made him appear extremely guilty.
As is customary during presidential transitions, a reporter questioned Trump about whether Biden had left him a message on the desk. Trump discovered an envelope in a drawer.
Perhaps we ought to read it together. As he held it out to the cameras, Trump made a joke. He did not, however, open the packet.
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By Michelle L. Price, Chris Megerian, and Zeke Miller The Associated Press
This report was written by Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Lindsey Bahr, Gary Fields, Will Weissert, and Aamer Madhani, with assistance from AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro.
