Donald Trump was expected to launch his second term as US president on Monday with a barrage of executive orders, many set to be signed at a desk set up in the Capitol One Arena in downtown Washington, where the inaugural parade was moved to avoid freezing temperatures outside.
“With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” Trump said earlier, in an inaugural address at the US Capitol that was also moved indoors. “It’s all about common sense.”
Trump spoke in the Capitol rotunda, a hallowed space through which his supporters rioted to deadly effect four years ago, as they sought to block certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory on the basis of Trump’s electoral fraud lie.
Four years on, having completed an astonishing political escape act, Trump focused on executive orders concerning immigration.
“First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border,” he said. “All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”
Crossings at the southern border are currently low, as a result of hardline policies under the Biden administration. The number of undocumented migrants on US soil convicted of one or more crimes does not run anywhere close to “millions and millions”. Undocumented migrants also offend at a lower rate than US citizens.
“We will reinstate my remain in Mexico policy,” Trump said, referring to a Covid-era measure that lapsed under Biden. He also promised to “end the practice of catch and release” of undocumented migrants and said he would “send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country”.
The US Department of Defense was reported to have been planning for such deployments, in anticipation of Trump’s orders.
Trump was reportedly set to sign an order attempting to end birthright citizenship – which is guaranteed by the 14th amendment to the US constitution and not thus not subject to removal by executive order.
In his inaugural address, he said: “Under the orders I sign today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to US soil, including our cities and inner cities.”
Shifting to domestic policy, Trump said he would direct his cabinet to “defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices”, though he did not say how.
He would “declare a national energy emergency”, he said, adding a campaign-trail expression of support for renewed focus on fossil fuels: “We will drill, baby, drill.”
Trump also said he would “end the Green New Deal” – an umbrella name for progressive environmental goals, rather than any laws passed under Biden – and outlined moves to end government support for electric vehicles. He was expected to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, repeating a step from his first four years in power.
Elsewhere in his speech, Trump took shots at Biden and other opponents for supposedly failing to tackle climate disasters: in North Carolina, hit hard by Hurricane Helene, and in California, where Trump claimed without evidence that not “even a token of defense” had been mounted against devastating wildfires raging around Los Angeles.
He promised to establish an External Revenue Service, to “tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens”; to sign into being the “Department of Government Efficiency”, the government cost-cutting measure championed by the tech billionaire Elon Musk, a key ally and donor; and said he would “sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America”.
The attempt to slash trillions of dollars in public spending under Musk is already the subject of legal challenges by progressive groups.
Among other orders expected from Trump were a move to politicize thousands of federal government appointments, and the institution of a new travel ban on Muslim-majority countries.
Trump said: “Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents, something I know something about.”
He was referring to his conviction in New York on 34 criminal counts related to hush-money payments to an adult film star, which makes him the first felon ever to become president, as well as to multiple criminal charges concerning his election subversion and retention of classified information which did not reach trial before his return to power.
Trump was speaking shortly after Biden’s last acts in power included pre-emptive pardons for members of the House committee that investigated the Capitol attack; public officials including the former scientific adviser Anthony Fauci and Gen Mark Milley, a former chair of the joint chiefs of staff; and members of the former president’s own family, all thought likely to face politically motivated persecution under Trump.
Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, left Washington after hosting Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, at the White House before the inaugural ceremonies.
In his speech, Trump said: “We will restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law, and we are going to bring law and order back to our cities.”
Later, he was expected to issue pardons and other acts of clemency for supporters convicted in relation to the Capitol attack of 6 January 2021, a riot now linked to nine deaths including law enforcement suicides.
Looking towards culture-war issues that drove his campaign, Trump said he would “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is color-blind and merit-based.
“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. This week, I will reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the Covid vaccine mandate with full back pay and I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty. It’s going to end immediately. Our armed forces will be free to focus on their sole mission: defeating America’s enemies.”
Though Trump said “my proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and a unifier”, he continued to outline orders and policies that promise to stoke rancor and division.
“A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” Trump said, without indicating how international waters might be so renamed, “and we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley where it should be and where it belongs.”
The highest peak in North America, in Alaska, was known as Mount McKinley until 2016, when it was changed to Denali, its indigenous name.
Trump also promised to “take back” the Panama Canal and said his administration would “launch American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars”.
“Ambition is the lifeblood of a great nation,” Trump said.
The executive orders he was set to sign, however, offered more concrete evidence of his intentions in office.
Read more of the Guardian’s Trump coverage
