Donald Trump issued pardons for participants in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, including those convicted of assaulting police, in his first official action after returning to the White House as the country’s 47th president on Monday.
The pardons of about 1,500 people fulfilled Trump’s promise to release supporters who tried to help him overturn his election defeat four years ago. Another 14 people had their sentences commuted.
Trump signs slew of executive orders on Day 1: A full list
“These are the hostages,” he said while signing the paperwork in the Oval Office. Trump said he hopes many are freed shortly.
His desk was covered with executive orders for increasing border security, designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, limiting birthright citizenship and establishing a task force for reducing the size of the federal government. It was an aggressive start for Trump’s second presidency as he claimed a mandate to reshape American institutions and unravel Joe Biden’s legacy.
While sitting at the desk, a reporter asked if Biden left him a note, a tradition during presidential transitions. Trump looked in a drawer and found an envelope.
“Maybe we should all read it together?” Trump joked when holding it up for the cameras. He didn’t open the envelope.
Trump began signing executive orders onstage at a downtown arena earlier in the day as thousands of supporters cheered, melding the theatrics of his campaign rallies with the formal powers of the presidency. He froze the issuing of new regulations, asserted his control over the federal workforce and withdrew from the Paris climate agreement.
Trump also rescinded dozens of directives issued by Biden, including those relating to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, global warming and sanctioning Israeli settlers involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. When finished, he tossed the pens into the crowd.
“We won, we won, but now the work begins,” Trump said before a crowd of people in “Make America Great Again” hats.
The Republican President abandoned the more solemn tone of his inaugural address from earlier in the day and taunted his Democratic predecessor while scrawling his name in thick black ink on his executive orders.
“Could you imagine Biden doing this?” he said. “I don’t think so!”
In the four years since losing to Biden, Trump overcame impeachments, criminal indictments and a pair of assassination attempts to win another term in the White House, and his re-ascendence was fervently welcomed by his followers.
“We all believe God’s hand has been on this man to be elected,” said Pam Pollard, 65, a longtime Republican official from Oklahoma.
Trump declared in his inaugural address that the government faces a “crisis of trust.” Under his administration, he said, “our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced.”
Trump claimed “a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal,” promising to “give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom.”
“From this moment on,” he added as Biden watched from the front row, “America’s decline is over.”
Published – January 21, 2025 07:54 am IST
