Welcome to a special Inauguration Day edition of From the Politics Desk. Donald Trump is president once again after taking the oath of office this afternoon. We’ll take you through the very different speeches he delivered and the executive orders he has planned, as well as Joe Biden’s last acts in the White House.
— Adam Wollner
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A tale of two Trump speeches
By Jonathan Allen
America got a long look Monday at two Donald Trumps, one in his official inaugural address and one in a free-wheeling second speech inside the Capitol.
Get used to it.
In the newly sworn-in president’s first set of remarks, delivered in the Capitol Rotunda in front of former presidents, lawmakers, family and high-end supporters, Trump proclaimed a new “golden age” for America, pledged to pursue unity and outlined an aggressive agenda that closely hewed to the promises he made on the campaign trail and during his transition.
In other words, the first Trump was the more focused, policy-driven candidate who won the 2024 election and the national popular vote. He was serious, if lurid, in his descriptions of “America’s decline” and his plans to reverse it.
“The golden age of America begins right now,” Trump said.
Paired with a sweeping set of executive orders he planned to issue Monday, the first remarks of Trump’s second presidency signaled that he intends to test the limits of presidential power in aggressively pursuing his agenda. And he has set a high bar for himself, piling up promises that may be hard to fulfill.
Within the hour, he made his way to Emancipation Hall in the Capitol and let loose with wild claims, old grievances and attacks on his political adversaries to a crowd of supporters. It was raw, emotional and more energetic than the official address.
He returned to his oft-repeated false claim that the 2020 election was “totally rigged.” He blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for failing to protect the Capitol from his own backers when they stormed it to try to keep him in office four years ago. And he called members of the committee that investigated his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, “thugs.”
“I think this was a better speech than the one I made upstairs,” he told the crowd before he left.
Trump often likes to take both sides of an issue — including whether to give in to his thirst for retribution. If Monday was any indication, that won’t change in his second term.
Read more on Trump’s remarks →
Trump prepares a slew of executive orders
Trump will deliver a third set of remarks this evening at Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, where he’s expected to begin signing a flurry of executive orders.
Among those on his Day 1 priority list include:
- Declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border
- Ordering construction on his border wall to resume
- Seeking to end birthright citizenship
- Reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy (though it’s unclear whether that country had agreed to any terms on it)
- Declare a “national energy emergency” that would give him authority to increase U.S. energy production
- Terminating diversity programs in federal agencies
- Requiring more federal workers to return to work in person
- Proclaiming that the U.S. government will recognize only two sexes, male and female
- Creating the Department of Government Efficiency (which Vivek Ramaswamy is already set to depart as he plans a run for Ohio governor)
- One changing the name of Alaska’s Mount Denali back to Mount McKinley and another seeking to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America (though it’s not clear he has that authority, since it’s considered international waters)
The scope and number of orders Trump is expected to sign far exceed what he did on his first day in office in 2017, when he signed one executive order that targeted the Affordable Care Act.
It also goes beyond the number signed by Joe Biden on his first day in office. Biden signed nine executive orders on topics ranging from ethics commitments for executive branch personnel to combating discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, while also signing orders reversing Trump directives on immigration and deregulation.
Read more on the executive orders →
Biden issues pre-emptive pardons in his final acts in the White House
In his final hours as president, Joe Biden announced a set of sweeping pre-emptive pardons for members of his family.
Biden said he issued the pardons out of concern that his family has faced politically motivated attacks, and “I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”
“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in announcing that he was pardoning his brothers James and Francis, his sister, Valerie Biden Owens, as well as James and Valerie’s spouses.
Biden had criticized the notion of an outgoing president pre-emptively pardoning family members in an interview with CNN in 2020. At the time, it was suggested that Trump might take such a move.
Earlier on Monday, Biden issued pre-emptive pardons for several other officials that he said have been “threatened with criminal prosecutions,” including lawmakers and staffers who served on the committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, and the police officers who testified before that committee. Biden also pardoned former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley and Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Although Biden stressed that those receiving pre-emptive pardons had not committed any crimes, Republicans were quick to criticize the moves as admissions of guilt.
Biden also commuted the life sentence of Leonard Peltier, a Native American rights activist convicted of killing two FBI agents and escaping from federal prison.
That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Bridget Bowman.
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