By Jeff Mason, Tim Reid, Andy Sullivan and David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump pardoned about 1,500 of his supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol four years ago as he moved quickly to impose his will on the U.S. government just hours after regaining the presidency on Monday.
After a day of ceremony, Trump signed a series of executive actions to curb immigration and roll back environmental regulations and racial and gender diversity initiatives. He took no immediate steps to raise tariffs, a key campaign promise, but said he could impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico on Feb. 1.
His decision to pardon supporters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 is sure to enrage police, lawmakers and others whose lives were in danger during an unprecedented episode in modern US history.
About 140 police officers were assaulted during the attack, some sprayed with chemical irritants and others hit with pipes, poles and other weapons. Four people died during the chaos, including a Trump supporter who was shot and killed by police.
Trump ordered the early release of 14 leaders of the far-right militant groups Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who were serving long prison sentences, but left their sentences intact.
Earlier in the day, Trump, 78, took the oath of office in the Capitol Rotunda, where a mob of his supporters had rampaged on Jan. 6 in a failed attempt to overturn his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
At the ceremony, Trump presented himself as a savior chosen by God to rescue a faltering nation. His inauguration amounts to a triumphant return for a political disruptor who survived two assassination attempts and won the election despite a criminal conviction and prosecution stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
“God saved me to make America great again,” he said.
Trump is the first president in more than a century to win a second term after losing the White House and the first felon to occupy the White House. He is the oldest president to be sworn in and is supported by Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.
Trump moved quickly to clamp down on illegal immigration, a signature issue since he first entered politics in 2015.
Shortly after he was sworn in, U.S. border authorities shut down a program that allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants to enter the United States legally by scheduling an appointment via smartphone. Existing appointments have been cancelled.
Nearly 1,660 Afghans who had been authorized by the US government to resettle in the US, including family members of active-duty US military personnel, were having their flights canceled under a Trump order suspending Afghan refugee programs. USA, an American official and a prominent refugee resettlement. the lawyer said Monday.
BORDER EMERGENCY DECLARED, CLIMATE AGREEMENT REJECTED
At the White House, Trump signed an order declaring a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border, which would unlock funds and allow him to send troops there. He signed an order that would end a policy that grants citizenship to those born in the United States, which is sure to trigger a long court fight. Another executive order designated Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
Trump once again withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, removing the world’s largest historical emitter from global efforts to fight climate change for the second time in a decade.
“We’re getting rid of all the cancer…caused by the Biden administration,” Trump said as he signed a stack of executive orders in the Oval Office.
Other orders revoked Biden administration policies governing artificial intelligence and electric vehicles. He also imposed a federal hiring freeze and ordered government workers to return to the office, rather than work from home. He also signed documents to create a “Department of Government Efficiency,” an outside advisory board headed by billionaire Elon Musk that aims to cut large swaths of public spending.
At the State Department, more than a dozen top nonpartisan diplomats were asked to resign as part of a broader plan to replace nonpartisan public officials with loyalists.
He also said he would issue orders to eliminate federal diversity programs and require the government to recognize only genders assigned at birth.
While Trump attempted to portray himself as a peacemaker and unifier during his half-hour speech, his tone was often starkly partisan. He repeated false campaign claims that other countries were emptying their prisons in the United States and voiced family complaints about his criminal proceedings.
With Biden sitting nearby, Trump delivered a blistering critique of his predecessor’s policies, from immigration to foreign affairs.
“We have a government that has given unlimited funds for the defense of foreign borders, but refuses to defend American borders, or more importantly, its own people,” Trump said.
Numerous technology executives who have tried to curry favor with the incoming administration, including the world’s three richest men, Tesla (NASDAQ 🙂 and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Amazon (NASDAQ 🙂) founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta (NASDAQ 🙂) CEO Mark Zuckerberg occupied prominent seats on stage, alongside cabinet candidates and members of Trump’s family.
Trump said he would send astronauts to Mars, prompting Musk, who has long talked about colonizing the planet, to raise his fists.
Trump vowed to rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and reiterated his intention to regain control of the Panama Canal, one of several foreign policy pronouncements that have caused consternation among U.S. allies.
RETURN TO POWER
Trump took the oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the US Constitution at 12:01 pm ET (17:01 GMT), administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. His vice president, JD Vance, was sworn in just before him.
Outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in November, was sitting next to Biden in a section with former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, sat with her husband Bill. Obama’s wife, Michelle, decided not to attend.
The ceremony was moved indoors due to the extreme cold that hits much of the country.
Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration and has continued to falsely claim that the 2020 election he lost to Biden was rigged.
Biden, in one of his last official acts, pardoned several people whom Trump had threatened with retaliation, including Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who Trump said should be executed for holding side talks with China. Milley’s portrait was removed from the Pentagon shortly after Trump’s inauguration.
He also pardoned five members of his family minutes before leaving office, citing fears that Trump would attack them.