President Trump quickly wielded the sweeping powers of the presidency during his second inauguration at the Capitol on Monday, signaling a series of executive orders that would radically alter American politics if allowed to stand.
He also suggested he would forgive some or all of his loyalists who attacked the same Capitol building in a failed attempt to illegitimately keep him in power four years earlier, repeatedly referring to them as “hostages” and saying there would soon be “many hostages.” action” in their cases.
Trump’s orders, which were anticipated but not yet adopted amid the ongoing festivities on Monday afternoon, reflected an aggressive start to the conservative agenda he promised during the election campaign, aimed at curbing illegal immigration, strengthening the American manufacturing and the economy as a whole, roll back LGBTQ+ rights. , strengthening American dominance abroad and bending the growing federal bureaucracy to its will.
Their expected pardons would follow a last-minute decision by President Biden to exercise the same power upon leaving the White House by pardoning members of Congress and their staff who had investigated the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, as as well as other former US officials who have drawn Trump’s ire for challenging his authority in the past.
The orders, which Trump described in some detail in his inaugural address Monday morning, reflected how sharply divided the nation has become politically and the degree to which Trump feels encouraged to circumvent tradition and legal precedent as the first president. to win a second non-consecutive term. tenure in the White House over the past 132 years.
While promising the return of a “golden age of America” under his leadership, Trump declared two national emergencies: one related to southern border crossings and the other to energy independence. He promised several measures to address each of them, including closing the border entirely to asylum seekers – in part by reinstating his “Remain in Mexico” policy and sending military troops to the border – and eliminating federal energy regulations so that Oil and fuel producers can “Drill, baby, drill.”
In an early sign of policies being implemented, migrants with asylum claims at the southern border were told Monday that their scheduled interviews with U.S. Customs and Border Protection had been canceled.
Trump said he would declare that there are only “two genders” (an attack on transgender people that echoed attacks by the Trump campaign) and repeal regulations aimed at transitioning the nation to electric vehicles. He said he would institute many new tariffs on foreign goods, launch a new “external revenue service” to collect the associated revenue, and launch a new Department of Government Efficiency to reduce waste; the latter of which would be led by Elon Musk, the owner of X and Tesla and the richest man in the world.
Musk seemed cheerful in his own speech, saying that Trump’s return marked a “fork in the road of human civilization.”
Trump also said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and take the Panama Canal away from Panama.
He presented his series of orders as a way to return America to greatness and end a period in which “the pillars of our society lay broken and apparently in complete disrepair.”
“With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” Trump said during his inauguration speech in the Capitol Rotunda. “It’s about common sense.”
It is still unclear whether Trump’s directives will survive and how quickly they will be implemented. Experts say the survival of the most controversial and legally dubious decrees will depend on the courts. Implementation will depend in part on how quickly Trump can get the Senate to confirm his Cabinet appointments and defend his new administration, they said.
Advocates for immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and other targeted groups joined liberal leaders, including in California, to vow to fight Trump’s agenda, including in court if necessary.
California Lawyer. Commonwealth Rob Bonta said last week that his office would be watching what Trump does on Monday and respond in kind, even with the help of pre-written legal briefs that anticipate certain actions the state will argue in court as illegal.
San Francisco City Attorney. David Chiu said Monday that Trump had laid out a “dark, dangerous and authoritarian vision for our country,” and that his office would review Trump’s executive orders in the coming days and weeks and “do everything in our power to protect San Francisco and our residents from illegal federal actions.”
The Jan. 6 pardons could result in faster action and less resistance, given that a president’s pardoning powers are generally unquestioned.
Lawyers for some of the jailed defendants said before the inauguration that they were closely watching Trump’s actions and would be willing to respond with legal motions seeking the immediate release of their clients.
In addition to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack, Biden also pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who helped lead the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as Mark A. Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who criticized Trump’s handling of the insurrection.
All had been threatened with possible criminal charges and investigations by Trump and his supporters. Biden called them public servants who “have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be subject to unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.”
Trump called Biden’s pardons “unfortunate” and “shameful.” Kristen Welker of NBC Information said Trump sent her a text message telling her that many of those pardoned “are guilty of BIG CRIMES!”
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), former chairman of the Jan. 6 committee, issued a statement on behalf of former committee members, saying they were grateful to Biden “for recognizing that we and our families have been targeted.” We continually face not only harassment, lies, and threats of prison violence, but also specific threats of criminal prosecution and imprisonment by members of the incoming administration, simply for doing our jobs and upholding our oaths of office.
“Today we have been pardoned not for violating the law,” Thompson said, “but for respecting it.”
One of the committee members, Senator Adam B. Schiff of California, said he was proud of the committee’s work and believed that Biden’s granting of pardons to its members was “unnecessary and, because of the precedent it sets, reckless.” ”.
However, Schiff, one of Trump’s favorite targets for mockery, said he also understood why Biden had granted the pardons “in light of the persistent and baseless threats issued by Donald Trump and people who are now some of his candidates.” to enforce the law.”
The exercise of presidential powers on a new president’s first day in office (or last, in Biden’s case) is not new.
Presidents have often granted pardons upon leaving office and have always struggled to fulfill their campaign promises and show policy results quickly.
The notion that a president should be judged by his accomplishments within his first “100 days” in office has been a “touchstone” of American politics at least since the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he wrote in a article by Congressional Research Service analyst Ben Wilhelm. Formal analysis of last year’s executive orders and presidential transitions.
However, in recent decades, the number of executive orders issued at the beginning of new administrations has increased, under both Democratic and Republican presidents, Wilhelm noted. This is partly because incoming presidents have issued orders undoing the orders of their predecessors.
Biden did it to undo Trump’s orders. On Monday, Trump did so to undo Biden’s orders.
Trump suggested Monday that his “Day 1” actions were especially justified. He said God had saved him 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 that his victory over Biden in November It was monumental.
“My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all of these betrayals that have taken place, and give back to the people their faith, their wealth, their democracy and, indeed, their freedom,” Trump said.
Trump racked up a significant victory in the electoral college and won victories in every swing state in the country. However, their standard vote margins (both as a percentage of total votes and raw votes) were historically small.
Of more than 152 million votes cast, Trump won by just over 2 million. And he won less than 50% of the total votes: 49.9%, compared to the 48.4% obtained by Vice President Kamala Harris, according to Related Press. That means that while Trump enjoys massive support for his agenda, there are also nearly as many Americans who voted against him and that agenda.
