Donald Trump aims to erase Joe Biden’s legacy with pardons and executive orders
His first action after arriving at the White House was pardoning around 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6 Capitol riots.
US President Donald Trump has started erasing his predecessor Joe Biden’s legacy after taking office.
Mr Trump, who became the nation’s 47th president on Monday, has pardoned nearly all of his supporters who rioted at the US Capitol on January 6 2021 and issued executive orders that signal his desire to remake American institutions.
Four years after being voted out of the White House, Mr Trump has a second chance to launch what he called “a golden age” for the country.
He signed orders for increasing border security, designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organisations, limiting birthright citizenship, freezing new regulations and establishing a taskforce for reducing the size of the federal government. He also rescinded dozens of directives issued by Mr Biden, including those relating to climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
His first action after arriving at the White House was pardoning around 1,500 people charged in connection with the January 6 attack, even if they had been convicted of assaulting police officers. Mr Trump commuted the sentences of another 14 people, including leaders of the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys extremist groups.
The decision amounted to impunity for supporters of Mr Trump who upended the country’s tradition of peaceful transfers of power by trying to overturn his election defeat four years ago. Mr Trump described them as “hostages” and said he expected them to be freed shortly. A crowd gathered outside a prison in Washington DC to welcome their release.
Mr Trump’s inauguration combined formal ceremony and freewheeling rhetoric. Before leaving the White House for an evening of inaugural balls, Mr Trump spent nearly an hour fielding questions from reporters.
Frigid weather rewrote the particulars of the day. Mr Trump’s swearing-in was moved indoors to the Capitol Rotunda – the first time that has happened in 40 years – and the inaugural parade was replaced by an event with marching bands at Capital One Arena.
In his inaugural address, Mr Trump declared the beginning of “the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense”.
Mr Trump said the government faces “a crisis of trust”. He claimed to have “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 Mr Biden watched from the front row, “America’s decline is over”.
Also present at the ceremony was former vice president Kamala Harris, who replaced Mr Biden on the ballot after he abandoned his re-election bid last summer, only to be defeated by Mr Trump in the general election.
Mr Trump said he would lead a government that “expands our territory”, a reference to his goals of acquiring Greenland from Denmark and restoring US control of the Panama Canal.
Trump supporters who descended on the city to watch the incoming president take the oath of office from the National Mall were left to find other places to view the ceremony when it was moved inside. But a cadre of tech titans – including Mr Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai – were given prominent positions in the Rotunda.
After the ceremony, Mr Trump walked with Mr Biden to the building’s east side, where the Democrat left via helicopter to begin his post-presidential life.
Mr Trump followed Mr Biden’s departure with extended and unscripted remarks to supporters in the Capitol that revisited a litany of conspiracy theories about voter fraud and criticisms of perceived enemies such as former Republican representative Liz Cheney, whom he called “a crying lunatic”.
He spoke for even longer than in his inaugural address, saying: “I think this is a better speech than the one I gave upstairs.”
Then he went to the Capital One Arena to begin signing executive orders as thousands of supporters cheered.
“We won, we won, but now the work begins,” Mr Trump said before a crowd of people in Make America Great Again hats.
He abandoned the more earnest tone of his inaugural address and taunted his 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!”
When finished, he tossed the pens into the crowd.
Mr Trump denied his defeat and tried to cling to power. He directed his supporters to march on the Capitol while members of Congress were certifying the election results, sparking a riot that interrupted the country’s tradition of the peaceful transfer of power.
But Mr Trump never lost his grip on the Republican Party and was undeterred by criminal cases and two assassination attempts as he steamrolled rivals and harnessed voters’ exasperation with inflation and illegal immigration.
Now Mr Trump is the first person convicted of a crime – for falsifying business records related to hush money payments – to serve as president. He pledged to “preserve, protect and defend” the constitution from the same spot that was overrun by his supporters on January 6.
“We all believe god’s hand has been on this man to be elected,” said Pam Pollard, 65, a long-time Republican official from Oklahoma, who came to Washington DC to see him sworn in.
Mr Trump has promised retribution against his political opponents and critics, and he has placed personal loyalty as a prime qualification for appointments to his administration.
With minutes to go before leaving office, Mr Biden issued pre-emptive pardons to his siblings and their spouses to shield them from the possibility of prosecution. He also pardoned current and former government officials who have been the target of Mr Trump’s anger. Mr Biden said “these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing”.
Mr Trump, talking to reporters in the Oval Office late in the day, criticised Mr Biden’s pardons, saying “that makes him look very guilty”.
A reporter asked Mr Trump if Mr Biden had left him a note in the desk, a tradition during presidential transitions. Mr Trump looked in a drawer and found an envelope.
“Maybe we should all read it together?” Mr Trump joked when holding it up for the cameras. But he did not open the envelope.
