Closing summary
Two days after TikTok was officially banned in the US as a supposedly grave threat to national security, Donald Trump told reporters that he might download it to his phone, after suspending the ban to allow time to arrange the sale of a controlling interest in the app’s US version to an American buyer. The president said his affection for the app was prompted by his belief that it had helped him to win a majority of young voters in the recent election, which he did not.
The Department of Homeland Security is not waiting for a new secretary to be confirmed before taking drastic action to put Trump’s promised crackdown on undocumented people into effect. The DHS acting secretary, Benjamine Huffman, fired the head of the coast guard, Commandant Linda Lee Fagan, citing her supposed mismanagement of border security and embrace of diversity and inclusion initiatives. Huffman also rescinded a rule that protected migrants sheltering in “sensitive areas”, such as churches, hospitals and schools, from being arrested by immigration officers and reinstated so-called “expedited removal” to allow US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) to deport any undocumented person arrested inside the country who can’t prove they have been here continuously for more than two years.
After the Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, urged Trump to rethink some of his hardline policies, particularly towards immigrants and transgender people, during a morning prayer service, Trump told reporters, “I didn’t think it was a good service,” and Georgia Representative Mike Collins suggested: “The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list”.
When infrastructure week, which was seemingly promised every week of Trump’s first administration but never arrived, finally came on the first full day of his second term, it was in the form of private sector investment in an AI joint venture, revealed by Trump at the White House on Tuesday. Trump made brief remarks on the subject, before inviting the three partners in the venture, the heads of Oracle, OpenAI and Softbank, to make bold claims for its possible benefits. Trump then took questions for more than 40 minutes, during which he defended his decision to pardon violent rioters who attacked police officers on 6 January 2021 by claiming, falsely, that many people were killed during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 and the long sentences handed out to Proud Boys and Oathkeepers for storming the Capitol were “ridiculous”.
Here’s what else happened today:
Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol on 6 January 2021, in a failed attempt to keep him in office by force, began pouring out of federal prisons, following his sweeping pardons.
At her confirmation hearing before the Senate foreign relations committee, Donald Trump’s pick for United Nations ambassador Elise Stefanik denied that Elon Musk made a fascist salute yesterday. Germans disagree.
Senators reportedly received an affidavit from the former sister-in-law of Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s controversial pick for secretary of defense, alleging that the nominee’s aggressive behavior prompted his second wife to fear for her safety.
Mexicans rolled their eyes at Trump’s decision to take a metaphorical Sharpie to the world map by renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America.
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Trump pardons Silk Road drug marketplace creator, Ross Ulbricht
Trump announced on his social media platform that he has pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who created and ran the Silk Road drug marketplace and is considered a hero by many libertarians for his early adoption of Bitcoin as a means for facilitating black market transactions.
Ulbricht, a/k/a “Dread Pirate Roberts”, was sentenced to life in prison in Manhattan federal court in 2015, following his prosecution by Preet Bharara, then the United States Attorney for the southern district of New York.
The pardon was praised by prominent libertarians, including Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, who wrote: “Thank you for keeping your word to me and others who have been advocating for Ross’ freedom, Mr. President!”
Read the full story here:
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Nebraska representative Don Bacon, a Republican who narrowly won re-election in a district that voted for Kamala Harris, is a rare voice of dissent among Republicans on Trump’s sweeping pardons for rioters who stormed the Capitol and assaulted police officers during the attempt to keep Trump in power on 6 January 2021. “If they didn’t come in violence against police or vandalize, maybe they should get some mercy,” Bacon told Chad Pergram of Fox News on Tuesday. “But I think anybody that hit the police or vandalized this building should be held accountable,” Bacon added.
Bacon was restating a position he took earlier in the month during an interview with KETV7, Omaha’s ABC affiliate. But Representative Mike Flood, another Nebraska Republican who told the same outlet just two weeks ago “I don’t think I would support a pardon” for anyone who assaulted a law enforcement officer, has been silent so far on Trump doing just that. In a post on Twitter/X on Tuesday, Flood instead wrote that Trump’s “early executive actions signal a return to normalcy in America and an end to the radical liberal policies pushed by the Biden-Harris administration”.
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Trump suggests he would download TikTok, claiming it helped him win the election
Trump just stopped taking questions from reporters after his brief AI infrastructure announcement. “For the second day in a row, President Trump is taking several questions from the White House press pool. 40+ minutes and counting,” Weijia Jiang, senior White House Correspondent for CBS News, observed on Twitter.
Trump’s availability to the press stands in obvious contrast to his predecessor, Joe Biden, who rarely took questions, but the question for the White House press corps is whether they will be able to extract much useful, or accurate, information from this president during these freewheeling exchanges. In the one that just finished, Trump repeated many of his campaign talking points, and said several things that were obviously untrue, including that the 2020 election was “rigged”.
On his way out the door, a reporter asked Trump if had TikTok on his phone. Trump stopped to say that he did not, but maybe he would do so immediately since, in his view, it helped him win over young voters in the 2024 election.
“By the way, again, we won the youth vote,” he said, incorrectly. “I think I won it through TikTok.” In fact, Kamala Harris won a narrow majority of young voters, according to exit polls.
Trump has mistakenly claimed multiple times since the election that he won a majority of young voters. Although Trump did increase his share of the vote among those 18-29 by about 30%, from 36% of the vote in 2020 to 46% of the vote in 2024, he mistakenly claimed during a news conference last month and again in his pre-inaugural victory speech on Sunday that he “won the youth vote by 36 points”.
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Trump defends January 6 pardons, claiming sentences were 'ridiculous'
After his AI infrastructure announcement, Trump was asked by a reporter about his decision to pardon Capitol rioters who violently attacked police, such as Daniel “DJ” Rodriguez, who pleaded guilty to shocking Metropolitan police officer Michael Fanone with a stun gun while he was surrounded by the pro-Trump mob.
Trump asked if Rodriguez was pardoned, and when the reporter confirmed that he was, the president shifted to whatabout-ism, suggesting that nothing had happened to Black Lives Matter protesters following riots in cities like Seattle and Portland in 2020. “Portland, a lot of people died,” Trump said, falsely. During months of racial justice protests in Portland, Oregon, following the murder of George Floyd that year, just one counter-protester, Aaron “Jay” Danielson, was killed by a self-described anti-fascist, Michael Reinoehl, after a pro-Trump car caravan drove through the city.
Reinoehl was later shot and killed by a US marshals task force on 3 September 2020 in Lacey, Washington, just outside of Olympia. Witnesses said that the task force opened fire on Reinoehl opened fire without warning.
Trump was also asked whether there is room in the political conversation for the Proud Boys, whose leaders on January 6, including Enrique Tarrio and Joe Biggs, were pardoned by Trump on Monday. “Well, we have to see,” Trump said. “They’ve been given a pardon. I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive.”
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Trump announces $500bn in private sector AI investment
Speaking at the White House, Donald Trump announced $500bn dollars in private sector investment over the next four years to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in the United States. Trump was flanked by the heads of three firms who have formed a joint venture called Stargate: Larry Ellison, the chairperson of Oracle, Masayoshi Son, chief executive of SoftBank, a Japanese investment firm, and Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive.
Ellison said that Stargate, the new AI infrastructure company, is already constructing 10 buildings in Texas, and expects to expand further soon.
According to Ellison, examples of the kind of AI applications that the company is working on include: early cancer detection, the search for a cancer vaccine, and the use of electronic health records, “not just maintaining them but helping to provide health care plans”, so that doctors in remote locations can instantly check on the type of care doctors at leading cancer hospitals would provide.
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Trump administration scraps ban on immigration raids in churches, hospitals and schools
The Department of Homeland Security has issued two new directives from the acting secretary, Benjamine Huffman.
The first directive “rescinds the Biden Administration’s guidelines” that prohibited immigration enforcement from so-called “sensitive areas”. As Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, explains, the sensitive locations policy “prevented Ice from carrying out enforcement arrests inside churches, hospitals, and schools”.
The second directive reinstates with immediate effect so-called “expedited removal” nationwide. Under this authority, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) can quickly deport any undocumented person arrested inside the country who can’t prove they have been here continuously for more than two years.
The DHS sent reporters the following comment to be attributed to an anonymous DHS spokesperson:
This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens – including murders and rapists – who have illegally come into our country. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America’s schools and churches to avoid arrest. The Trump Administration will not tie the hands of our brave law enforcement, and instead trusts them to use common sense.
Jamelle Bouie, a New York Times columnist, commented on Bluesky: “I said a few times here and there before the election that we’ll see what the mass deportation plan looks like when it’s ICE agents dragging grandmothers out of churches and, well, here we are.”
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Trump dismisses bishop’s call for mercy for immigrants and LGBTQ people
After a prayer service this morning, in which the Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, urged the President Donald Trump to rethink some of his hardline policies, particularly towards immigrants and transgender people, Trump was asked by reporters what he made of the sermon. “Not too exciting, was it”, he said. “I didn’t think it was a good service. They could do much better”.
Georgia Representative Mike Collins, a Republican, posted video on X showing Trump’s visible displeasure during that part of the sermon. “The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list”, Collins commented.
Here are the comments from the bishop that so irked Trump.
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Senators have reportedly received an affidavit from the former sister-in-law of Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump‘s controversial pick for secretary of defense, alleging that the nominee’s aggressive behavior prompted his second wife to fear for her safety.
NBC News reports that the former sister-in-law, Danielle Hegseth, submitted the affidavit after the top Democrat on the Senate armed forces committee, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, sent her a letter requesting a statement on her “personal knowledge about Mr Hegseth’s fitness to occupy this important position”.
A photo of part of the affidavit, shared by Punchbowl News, shows Danielle Hegseth’s account that Hegseth’s second wife, Samantha Hegseth, instituted a system of sending two friends a safe word to signal when she feared for her safety because of her husband’s erratic behavior.
According to Danielle Hegseth, she shared details of Hegseth’s allegedly aggressive behavior with the FBI when the bureau conducted a background check on the nominee last month.
Samantha Hegseth, who divorced Hegseth in 2017, disputed the characterization of her marriage, telling NBC News, “There was no physical abuse in my marriage. This is the only further statement I will make to you, I have let you know that I am not speaking and will not speak on my marriage to Pete. Please respect this decision.”
A lawyer for Hegseth similarly denied the accusation against him, saying, “Sam has never alleged that there was any abuse, she signed court documents acknowledging that there was no abuse and recently reaffirmed the same during her FBI interview.”
As of now, Hegseth is expected to be narrowly confirmed by the Senate despite concerns over allegations of sexual assault, financial mismangement and excessive alcohol use.
Trump to speak from White House following meeting with GOP congressional leaders
Donald Trump is expected to deliver remarks from the White House at 4pm, after he meets with Republican congressional leaders.
The new president has signaled two main legislative priorities: extending tax cuts enacted during his first term, and funding his plans for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. However, debate is ongoing among Republicans over whether it would be better to address these priorities in one bill, or two – a subject Trump could weigh in on in his remarks.
The president could also talk about other legislation making its way through Congress, such as proposals to assert US control of Greenland and Panama, and the Laken Riley Act, which targets undocumented immigrants accused of crimes.
We’ll let you know what Trump has to say once he starts speaking.
At her confirmation hearing before the Senate foreign relations committee, Donald Trump’s pick for United Nations ambassador Elise Stefanik said she does not think Elon Musk made a fascist salute yesterday.
“No, Elon Musk did not do those salutes,” Stefanik replied, when asked about the gesture by Democratic senator Chris Murphy at the hearing today. She continued:
I was not at the rally, but I can tell you I’ve been at many rallies with Elon Musk, who loves to cheer when President Trump says we need to send our U.S. space program to Mars. Elon Musk is a visionary. I’m looking forward to his work in DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency, and I look forward to seeing how we can be more efficient and effective. But that is simply not the case, and to say so is– the American people are smart. They see through it. They support Elon Musk. We are proud to be the country of such successful entrepreneurs. That is one of our greatest strengths as Americans.
Here’s more about Musk’s gesticulations:
Donald Trump yesterday ordered the Gulf of Mexico renamed to the Gulf of America – drawing cheers from his faithful, and eye rolls south of the border.
From Reuters, here’s what Mexicans think of the US president’s move to rename the body of water stretching along both countries’ coasts:
As for whether or not the American president can order such a name change, the answer depends on which country you are in:
Former national security adviser John Bolton says Trump withdrew his Secret Service protection
John Bolton, who served as national security adviser during part of Donald Trump’s first term but has since fallen out with him, says the president has taken away his Secret Service protection.
In a statement on X, Bolton said the agents have protected him from an assassination plot linked to Iran. Here’s what he wrote:
I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has decided to terminate the protection previously provided by the United States Secret Service. Notwithstanding my criticisms of President Biden’s national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to extend that protection to me in 2021. The Justice Department filed criminal charges against an Iranian Revolutionary Guard official in 2022 for attempting to hire a hit man to target me. That threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone trying to arrange for President Trump’s own assassination. The American people can judge for themselves which President made the right call.
Donald Trump’s administration has ordered the termination of the head of the coast guard, citing her mismanagement of border security and embrace of diversity and inclusion initiatives, Fox News reports.
Commandant Linda Lee Fagan’s removal is the latest example of the new president going after top government officials who have fallen short of his expectations on two of the issues he campaigned on. Trump has promised American voters that he will improve border security and deport undocumented immigrants en masse, and also dismantle federal government initiatives intended to diversify the workforce.
A senior homeland security department official told Fox concerns over Fagan’s handling of a sexual assault scandal and various administrative issues also played a role in her dismissal. Here’s more, from their report:
Adm. Linda Lee Fagan, 61, has been terminated by the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Benjamine Huffman, the official said.
Fagan has demonstrated leadership deficiencies, operational failures and an inability to advance the strategic objectives of the Coast Guard.
These include the failure to address border security threats, insufficient leadership in recruitment and retention, mismanagement in acquiring key acquisitions such as icebreakers and helicopters, excessive focus on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and an “erosion of trust” over the mishandling and cover-up of Operation Fouled Anchor, which was the Coast Guard’s internal investigation into sexual assault cases at the Coast Guard Academy.
Fagan is accused of ineffective deployment of Coast Guard assets to support national border security, including in intercepting fentanyl and other illicit substances. She also had insufficient coordination with DHS to prioritize operations along maritime borders.
The DHS official said Fagan had significant failures in recruiting personnel, which worsened issues related to operational readiness. The official added that the lack of innovative strategies to address retention struggles in critical specialties weakened workforce sustainability.
Under her leadership, there were also persistent delays and cost overruns in acquiring essential platforms, including icebreakers and helicopters, that the official said undermined Coast Guard capabilities in the Arctic and other strategic regions. The official further cited inadequate accountability for acquisition failures that were highlighted during President Trump’s first administration.
Fagan also made DEI policies a priority, including at the Coast Guard Academy, which diverted resources and focus from operational essentials.
New York Representative Elise Stefanik, Donald Trump’s nominee for UN ambassador, expressed support for Israeli claims of biblical rights to the entire West Bank during a tense confirmation hearing exchange.
Maryland senator Chris Van Hollen confronted Stefanik about her agreement of a position that aligns her with the Israeli far-right, including Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir derived from a private conversation ahead of the hearing.
“You told me that, yes, you shared that view,” Van Hollen said during questioning. “Is that your view today?”
“Yes,” Stefanik said.
The hearing remains heavily focused on the UN’s stance on Israel, with this particular exchange a clear example on how Stefanik’s stance might affect US diplomatic efforts during ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, particularly regarding Palestinian self-determination and territorial disputes.
Still, Van Hollen warned that such positions could hamper peace negotiations.
“It’s going to be very difficult to achieve peace if you continue to hold the view that you just expressed,” he said.
Donald Trump has reinstated an executive order allowing him to impose economic sanctions against the international criminal court (ICC), paving the way for the US to hit the judicial body and its staff with draconian measures.
Among the blizzard of executive orders made on Monday evening, Trump revived an order issued during his presidency that used emergency powers to create a sanctions regime targeting the court.
The powers were used in 2020 to impose asset freezes and travel bans against the ICC’s former chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, and one of her top officials. The order was revoked in April 2021 by Joe Biden.
Trump’s reinstatement of the order comes as the ICC braces itself for a volley of aggressive sanctions by the new US administration in response to arrest warrants it has issued against Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister.
The Guardian reported on Monday the court is planning for a worst case scenario in which the US imposes sanctions against the institution in addition to measures targeting senior figures including its judges and current chief prosecutor Karim Khan.
SEC launches new 'crypto taskforce' as rollback of Biden approach expected
America’s top markets watchdog, now under Donald Trump’s leadership, wasted no time in announcing a new “crypto taskforce” as the industry cheers on the new administration.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said the taskforce will aim to set a “sensible regulatory path” for crypto, claiming the agency “can do better” than its previous approach – widely deemed a crackdown – under Joe Biden.
On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to transform the US into a “bitcoin superpower” and the crypto capital of the world. His election victory triggered a crypto rally that propelled bitcoin to record highs.
The SEC’s crypto task force will be led by Hester Peirce, a commissioner who accused the Biden administration of welcoming the “extinction of new technology” through its regulation of crypto.
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The lawsuits argue that the executive order violated the right enshrined in the citizenship clause of the US constitution’s 14th amendment that provides that anyone born in the United States is considered a citizen.
The complaints cite the US supreme court’s 1898 ruling in United States v Wong Kim Ark, a decision holding that children born in the United States to non-citizen parents are entitled to US citizenship.
If allowed to stand, Trump’s order would mean more than 150,000 children born annually in the United States would be denied for the first time the right to citizenship, according to the office of the Massachusetts attorney general, Andrea Joy Campbell.
“President Trump does not have the authority to take away constitutional rights,” she said in a statement.
Updated
Reuters has a bit more on the birthright citizenship lawsuit:
It follows a pair of similar cases filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, immigrant organizations and an expectant mother in the hours after Trump signed the executive order, marking the first major litigation challenging parts of his agenda since he took office.
“State attorneys general have been preparing for illegal actions like this one, and today’s immediate lawsuit sends a clear message to the Trump administration that we will stand up for our residents and their basic constitutional rights,” the New Jersey attorney general, Matthew Platkin, said in a statement.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuits were all filed in federal courts in Boston or Concord, New Hampshire. More lawsuits by Democratic-led states and advocacy groups challenging other aspects of Trump’s agenda are expected, with cases already on file challenging the Elon Musk-led, ill-defined “department of government efficiency” and an order the Republican signed weakening job protections for civil servants.
Any rulings from judges in Massachusetts and New Hampshire would be reviewed by the Boston-based 1st US circuit court of appeals, whose five active federal judges are all appointees of Democratic presidents, a rarity nationally.
The day so far
It’s Donald Trump’s first full day as president, and his administration is getting to work on making his laundry list of campaign promises a reality. Border czar Tom Homan said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers will begin raids targeting undocumented immigrants today, and a White House spokesperson said Trump would make an unspecified announcement about infrastructure this afternoon. Fox News reports that his administration has already rescinded a Biden-era ban on immigration raids at schools, churches and other sensitive areas, while a former acting Ice director told CNN that Trump’s order to the military to construct detention camps is a sign he is ready to make good on his promise of carrying out mass deportations. Meanwhile, at the Capitol, Republican senators pleaded ignorance of Trump’s blanket pardons to people who attacked the Capitol, or shrugged the decision off entirely.
Here’s what else has happened today:
Democratic-led cities and states have filed a lawsuit to halt Trump’s executive order signed yesterday that restricts birthright citizenship.
Federal judge Aileen Cannon has blocked the release to a small group of lawmakers of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on his aborted prosecution of Trump in the classified documents case.
Elon Musk will reportedly be given office space in the White House as part of work with the “department of government efficiency”.
Updated
Democratic-led states and cities sue over Trump attempt to end birthright citizenship
Eighteen Democratic-led states and two cities have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to block his executive order issued yesterday intended to end birthright citizenship for some.
The lawsuit, led by California, Massachusetts and New Jersey, argues that a federal law and the constitution’s 14th amendment grants most children born on US soil citizenship, and asks a court to halt Trump’s executive order.
Here’s California attorney general, Rob Bonta:
The president’s executive order attempting to rescind birthright citizenship is blatantly unconstitutional and quite frankly, un-American. As home of Wong Kim Ark, a San Francisco native who fought – successfully – to have his US citizenship recognized, California condemns the president’s attempts to erase history and ignore 125 years of Supreme Court precedent. We are asking a court to immediately block this order from taking effect and ensure that the rights of American-born children impacted by this order remain in effect while litigation proceeds. The President has overstepped his authority by a mile with this order, and we will hold him accountable.
In his executive order signed yesterday, Trump attempted to confine birthright citizenship only to children with at least one parent that is either a US citizen, or lawful permanent resident. Here’s more:
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Trump urged to show mercy to LGBTQ people and immigrants in church service
Donald Trump and JD Vance, together with their spouses, this morning attended the National Prayer Service, another inauguration custom.
During the service, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, Mariann Edgar Budde, appealed directly to the president to rethink some of his hardline policies, particularly towards immigrants and transgender people.
Here’s what she said:
Let me make one final plea, Mr president. Millions have put their trust in you, and as you told the nation yesterday, you have felt the providential hand of a loving God.
In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now. There are gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families, some who fear for their lives. And the people, the people, who pick our crops and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meatpacking plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals, they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation, but the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbors.
“I ask you to have mercy, Mr President, on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away, and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here,” Budde said.
Neither Trump nor Vance showed much obvious reaction to her words.
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In the hours since Donald Trump gave blanket pardons to January 6 rioters, supporters of the detained insurrections gathered outside Washington DC’s jail, and the leaders of two far-right groups implicated in the attack walked free from facilities elsewhere. Here’s the latest on this story, from the Guardian’s Marina Dunbar:
Extremist supporters of Donald Trump who attacked the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 or were involved in planning the insurrection began leaving prison on Tuesday, after the newly installed president issued sweeping pardons shortly after being sworn in on Monday.
The Republican president’s pardon of 1,500 defendants on Monday drew outrage from lawmakers who were endangered in the attack, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
Two of the biggest names of the far right and the most serious offenders tied to the plot, Enrique Tarrio of the Proud Boys and the former Oath Keeper Steward Rhodes, were both set free on Tuesday.
Rhodes, the former leader of the Oath Keepers militia who had his 18-year prison sentence for seditious conspiracy commuted, was released just after midnight on Tuesday in Cumberland, Maryland. He did not enter the US Capitol during the mob’s breach but was found guilty of plotting to use force against Congress to try to prevent the election certification of Biden’s victory over Trump. He was also accused of helping to stockpile firearms at a hotel in nearby Virginia that could be ferried across the river to Washington DC.
Tarrio was serving a 22-year sentence. He also did not take part in the breach of the Capitol but was convicted of orchestrating the plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power. The two men’s attorneys on Tuesday confirmed their release.
Updated
Add newly sworn in secretary of state Marco Rubio to the Republicans dodging questions about Donald Trump’s blanket pardons to January 6 rioters.
As a senator, Rubio spoke out forcefully against the attack, but changed his tone this morning, when asked about the pardons on ABC News:
As a senator, I had an opinion all kinds of domestic matters, but now I’m focused singularly on foreign policy, on how I interact with our allies.
Republican senators shrug off or plead ignorance of January 6 pardons – report
CNN went around the Capitol today, asking Republican senators for their thoughts on Donald Trump’s pardons to just about everyone facing or convicted of criminal charges over the January 6 insurrection.
Those who spoke to the network did not have any particularly strong words of opposition to the president’s decision, even though all were in the Capitol when Trump’s supporters attacked.
Here’s John Thune, the Senate majority leader:
“We’re not looking backwards, we’re looking forward,” he said, while contending the 1,000-plus pardons were not blanket pardons.
“I think they were case by case.” Biden “opened the door” to pardons, Thune argued, saying that the former president engaged in the “most massive use of the pardon power that we’ve seen in history”.
Susan Collins of Maine said she did not know much about the widely reported development:
“I don’t know whether there were pardons given to individuals who assaulted police officers,” she said, “or whether there were pardons given to people who damaged property, who rummaged through desks, who broke windows in the Capitol. I disagree with those pardons if they were given.”
Tommy Tuberville of Alabama managed to be simultaneously enthusiastic and disappointed:
Senator Tommy Tuberville said he was “100%” for “everyone” of the pardons, adding of the rioters in prison that “they’ve been there long enough.”
Pressed by reporters that some of those who were pardoned assaulted police officers, “No, that’s not acceptable. But I didn’t see it,” Tuberville said.
Asked him if he doesn’t believe police officers were beaten, Tuberville said, “I don’t know whether I don’t believe, because I didn’t see it. Now, if I see it, I would believe it, but I didn’t see that video.”
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Trump repeals ban on immigration raids at schools, hospitals and churches – report
Donald Trump’s administration has rescinded a memo issued under Joe Biden that curbed immigration enforcement in and around schools, healthcare facilities, churches and facilities providing disaster relief, among other locations, Fox News reports.
The decision comes as Trump administration officials vow to today begin rounding up people in the United States illegally, as part of the new president’s promise to carry out “mass deportations”. Under his administration’s new policies, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are now encouraged to use “a healthy dose of common sense” when picking locations to find undocumented people.
Here’s more on the new regulations, from Fox:
The first memo, a draft of which was reviewed by Fox News, rescinds a 2021 memo by Mayorkas, which provided an expanded list of areas that are “protected areas” where ICE could not engage in immigration enforcement. It said the policy was designed to make sure enforcement did not limit “people’s access to essential services or engagement in essential activities.”
Those areas include schools, universities, healthcare facilities, places of worship, “places where children gather,” social service establishments, food banks, religious or civil ceremonies and disaster or emergency response and relief centers.
“In our pursuit of justice, including in the execution of our enforcement responsibilities, we impact people’s lives and advance our country’s well-being in the most fundamental ways. As a result, when conducting an enforcement action, ICE and CBP agents and officers must first examine and consider the impact of where actions might possibly take place, their effect on people, and broader societal interests,” Mayorkas said in a statement at the time.
The memo issued Monday rescinded that guidance and said that common sense should be used instead.
“Going forward, law enforcement officers should continue to use that discretion along with a healthy dose of common sense,” the new memo said. “It is not necessary, however, for the head of the agency to create bright line rules regarding where our immigration laws are permitted to be enforced.”
ICE agents who spoke to Fox News said they believe that rescinding the Mayorkas order is going to free them up to go after more illegal immigrants, because illegal immigrants have until now been able to hide near schools and churches and avoid arrest.
Updated
Donald Trump signed a pile of executive orders yesterday that both undid Joe Biden’s policies and took aim at longstanding constitutional rights.
Here’s a look back at what the new president did:
Among the barrage of executive orders Donald Trump signed yesterday were several targeted at the federal workforce.
The new president froze hiring for federal employees, barred diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and ordered government workers back into their offices, among other decisions.
The American Federation of Government Employee has hit back at these orders, saying they will make the government less effective. Of the rollback of DEI initiatives, the union’s national president Everett Kelley said:
Undoing these programs is just another way for President Trump to undermine the merit-based civil service and turn federal hiring and firing decisions into loyalty tests. Our nation’s military leaders have said that eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion programs within the defense department risks undermining military readiness. Programs that promote an inclusive workforce ensure that the rules are applied evenly to everyone, plus they help build a federal government that looks like the diverse population it serves.
And of the hiring freeze:
There is no legitimate rationale for slashing the size of the federal workforce. The number of federal workers has grown by roughly 6% over the past 50 years, while the US population served by the federal government has increased by 57%. Meanwhile, spending on the vast shadow workforce of federal contractors has ballooned to account for 11.4% of the federal budget – nearly $760 billion annually – while just 4.3% of the budget goes to pay federal employees.
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Elon Musk is likely to be given office space in the White House complex as part of his work on the “department of government efficiency” downsizing initiative.
The Tesla chief has been tasked by Donald Trump with coming up with ways to dramatically downsize the federal government. Democrats believe this is cover for going after social safety net programs that Republicans typically target when they are in power.
The New York Times has details of Musk’s new office setup:
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, is likely to be given office space in the West Wing, putting him close to President Trump as Mr. Musk steers a project that aims to cut as much as $2 trillion in government spending, two people with knowledge of the planning said on Monday.
Mr. Musk had been expected to be situated in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, which is in the White House complex but not in the West Wing proper. But he has for many days been asking about his level of access, signaling a desire for proximity to Mr. Trump, according to the people.
Mr. Trump had wanted Mr. Musk to have the space, one of the people said. Mr. Musk has been given a badge for the White House complex and was said to be working there on Monday. He has filled out paperwork to be brought onboard for the role and already has a government email address.
Trump officials and an official with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting project that Mr. Musk leads, did not respond to requests for comment.
Judge blocks release of former special counsel report on Trump's classified document possession – report
A federal judge has declined to allow a small group of lawmakers to read a report detailing former special counsel Jack Smith’s case against Donald Trump for possessing classified documents, Politico reports.
Smith dropped charges brought against Trump in the case after he won re-election, but wrote a report outlining his evidence. The justice department under Joe Biden, had argued for its release to the top Republicans and Democrats on the House and Senate judiciary commmitees, but federal judge Aileen Cannon has denied that request.
It’s unclear if the justice department will continue pursuing its release, now that Trump is in office.
Updated
Hours after Donald Trump was sworn in, the Senate passed legislation that could give immigration authorities new tools to go after undocumented migrants. Here’s more on the bill, from the Guardian’s Joan E Greve:
The Senate has passed legislation requiring the detention of undocumented immigrants charged with theft-related crimes, with the chamber approving its first bill of the new Congress just hours after Donald Trump took the oath of office.
The vote was 64 to 35, as a dozen Democrats joined every present Republican in supporting the Laken Riley Act, named after a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan national.
The measure now goes to the House, which passed a slightly different version earlier this month. If the House approves the bill, as expected, it will next go to the president’s desk for his signature, giving Trump the first legislative victory of his second term.
Former acting Ice director John Sandweg added that an executive order Donald Trump signed yesterday telling the military to construct detention camps was a sign that he was serious about carrying out his campaign promise of mass deportations.
“They’re laying the groundwork for this mass deportation in a way that we haven’t seen before, including on an explicit directive for the military to start creating detention camps, which addresses one of the real resource issues that they would face if they ever carried out this – this mass deportation effort,” Sandweg told CNN.
“I can’t remember us ever seeing this in modern, you know, immigration enforcement history. Certainly not since the creation of [the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)] […] He’s going to – direct the military to provide operational support to DHS, including explicitly detention camps and transportation services. But it’s the detention camps that really caught my eye because we’ve never seen detention camps in military bases.”
John Sandweg, a former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement under Barack Obama, said today’s expected raids will likely target undocumented immigrants who have interacted with the criminal justice system, but been able to remain in the country.
“I don’t expect what they’re going to do tomorrow operationally is that different from what the Biden administration has been doing. I think what’s going to change here is the public emphasis and the attention they draw to their operations,” Sandweg said.
Ice often targets for deportation undocumented people who wind up in jail, but Sandweg said “a certain percentage of people slip through the cracks.”
Those people will likely be prime targets for the wave of raids Tom Homan promised:
But what Ice will do is they’ll go through and look at probation records and then target those individuals and go out into the cities and make apprehensions of them when they’re at large.
What I think Ice has planned for this week is going to be a massive, what we used to call a cross-check operation, where they go out there and hit the streets looking for these individuals on probation or parole. So, in that sense it’s not going to be different than what we’ve seen historically under Biden, under President Obama, under the first Trump administration.
Trump border czar says raids targeting undocumented immigrants to begin today
Immigration agents will fan out across the United States today to arrest and deport undocumented migrants, Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, said in an interview late yesterday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) “is going to start doing their job and more. They haven’t been able to do the job for last four years, and now they’re going to start enforcing the law like there should be,” Homan told Fox Business Network.
He declined to say where the raids would take place or if they would target “sanctuary cities” that do not cooperate with immigration authorities, but did say they would be nationwide:
They’re going to do it throughout the country. We have offices throughout the country, and every Ice officer is going to be out there and enforce the law starting tomorrow morning.
The raids will follow executive orders Trump signed yesterday that implemented hardline policies intended to prevent undocumented migrants from entering the country. Here’s more:
Updated
Trump plans 'massive' infrastructure announcement today, spokesperson says
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Donald Trump will announce a “massive” infrastructure initiative this afternoon.
Leavitt told Fox News the announcement will come at 4pm ET, but did not provide details.
Updated
One of the best known rioters to attack the Capitol on January 6 is Jake Angeli-Chansley, who went in shirtless and wearing horns and furs on his head.
He was pardoned by Donald Trump yesterday, and wrote the following on X when he got the news:
I JUST GOT THE NEWS FROM MY LAWYER... I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!! NOW I AM GONNA BUY SOME MOTHA FU*KIN GUNS!!! I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!! J6ers are getting released & JUSTICE HAS COME... EVERYTHING done in the dark WILL come to light!
Summary of the day so far …
Donald Trump’s second administration hit the ground running as the newly inaugurated 47th president of the US issued a blitz of day one executive orders.
The slew of instructions targeted Joe Biden’s legacy, immigration, environmental standards, federal employment structures, trans and gender-identity rights, and Trump ordered the US to withdraw from the World Health Organization and the Paris climate agreement.
Trump declared a national border emergency in his immigration crackdown, and the US Senate passed a migrant detention bill hours after Trump was sworn in.
The World Health Organization has said it regrets the announcement the US intends to withdraw from the global agency under Trump’s direction.
Wopke Hoekstra, the European Commission’s commissioner for climate, net zero and clean growth has described the US exit from the Paris agreement as “a truly unfortunate development”. European Commission president Urusula von der Leyen has said she still supports the Paris climate agreement, and “Europe will stay the course”.
Trump’s executive order trying to end US birthright citizenship for some children born in the US is already subject to at least two legal challenges.
Joe Biden’s last-minute pardons of his family members drew ire from both sides of political divide.
The Democratic party former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has described it as “shameful” and “an outrageous insult” that Trump has made pardons for those involved in the 6 January Capitol riot a top priority.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed president Trump and their relations with the US during a lengthy phone call on Tuesday.
Elon Musk appeared to make back-to-back fascist salutes at Trump’s inauguration rally.
That is it from me, Martin Belam, in London. I am handing over to my colleague Chris Stein in the US
Updated
In Germany, the president of the Jewish community in Munich and Upper Bavaria, Charlotte Knobloch, described Elon Musk’s apparent fascist salute gesture as “highly irritating”.
“Far more worrying are Elon Musk’s political positions, his offensive interference in the German parliamentary election campaign and his support for a party whose anti-democratic aims should be under no illusions,” she said in a statement, Reuters reports.
In the US, the Anti-Defamation League described it as “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Donald Trump and their relations with the US during a lengthy phone call on Tuesday.
Citing a read-out of the call from Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov, Reuters reports that the two leaders spoke for one hour and 35 minutes.
The read-out states that Xi told Putin about his call with Trump, and the pair confirmed both countries were ready to build relations with the US on a mutually beneficial and respectful basis if the Trump team shows interest.
Ushakov also said that Russia is yet to receive any specific proposals from Washington over contacts with Moscow.
ACLU files legal challenge to Trump's order to try to end birthright citizenship
President Donald Trump’s executive order trying to end the right to citizenship for some children born in the US is already subject to legal challenges.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has filed one suit, and another has been filed in Massachusetts, asking the court to declare the order unconstitutional and issue an injunction preventing enforcement.
ABC News’ Peter Charalambous reports the lawsuit is being brought by “an undocumented expectant mother who is due in March and two nonprofit groups”
He reports the lawsuit claims:
This unprecedented attempt to strip citizenship from millions of Americans with the stroke of a pen is flagrantly illegal. The president does not have the power to decide who becomes a citizen at birth.
Those victimized in this way by the executive order would be shorn of their national identity, stigmatized in the eyes of those who should be their fellow citizens, and forced to live with the shame, uncertainty, and fear that comes with potential banishment from their native country. Many would be rendered immediately stateless.
Updated
Sam Jones is the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent
Spain’s culture minister, Ernest Urtasun, has joined his colleague Yolanda Díaz by announcing that he will no longer use X because of Elon Musk’s political interference with the platform.
Announcing his decision on X on Tuesday morning, Urtasun wrote: “Social networks are a tool for public debate. This one, however, has become a megaphone for a far-right oligarch and his tentacles, which promote hate and disinformation. And that is why I am today ceasing to use this account.”
Díaz earlier described Musk’s apparent back-to-back fascist salutes at Donald Trump’s inauguration rally as “emulating the Nazi salute” and “a very stark image”.
Several moments from the inauguration ceremony have gone viral on social media, including this moment when former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton was seen to laugh at president Donald Trump’s announcement that, for the purposes of the US, he would be renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Here is a fuller version of the World Health Organization (WHO) statement on president Donald Trump’s order that the US withdraw from the global agency:
The World Health Organization regrets the announcement that the US intends to withdraw from the Organization.
WHO plays a crucial role in protecting the health and security of the world’s people, including Americans, by addressing the root causes of disease, building stronger health systems, and detecting, preventing and responding to health emergencies, including disease outbreaks, often in dangerous places where others cannot go.
The US was a founding member of WHO in 1948 and has participated in shaping and governing WHO’s work ever since, alongside 193 other member states, including through its active participation in the World Health Assembly and Executive Board.
For over seven decades, WHO and the US have saved countless lives and protected Americans and all people from health threats. Together, we ended smallpox, and together we have brought polio to the brink of eradication.
American institutions have contributed to and benefited from membership in WHO.
With the participation of the US and other member states, WHO has over the past seven years implemented the largest set of reforms in its history, to transform our accountability, cost-effectiveness, and impact in countries. This work continues.
We hope the US will reconsider and we look forward to engaging in constructive dialogue to maintain the partnership between the US and WHO, for the benefit of the health and wellbeing of millions of people around the globe.
Wopke Hoekstra, who is the European Commission’s commissioner for climate, net zero and clean growth has described the Trump-ordered US withdrawal from the Paris Climate deal as “a truly unfortunate development.”
In a statement on social media, Hoekstra said:
It’s a truly unfortunate development that the world’s largest economy, and one of our closest allies in the fight against climate change, is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.
Despite this setback, we remain committed to working with the US and our international partners to address the pressing issue of climate change.
The science is crystal clear: every incremental increase in global temperatures will come with enormous costs, economically, socially but also in human lives.
The Paris Agreement has strong foundations and is here to stay.
World Health Organization wants Trump to 'reconsider' US withdrawal
A World Health Organization spokesperson said on Tuesday that it regrets US president Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the global agency and hopes that it will change its mind.
“We hope that the US will reconsider, and we really hope that there will be constructive dialogue for the benefit of everyone, for Americans, but also for people around the world,” Reuters reports WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević told a Geneva press briefing.
Updated
Speaking at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, European Commission president Urusula von der Leyen has said she still supports the Paris Climate agreement.
Reuters quotes von der Leyen saying:
Europe will stay the course, and keep working with all nations that want to protect nature and stop global warming.
During her speech, in a clear reference to the change of direction in US policy signalled by Donald Trump, von der Leyen said the use of sanctions, export controls and tariffs was likely to increase, and that in dealing with the US, she said:
Our first priority will be to engage early, discuss common interests, and be ready to negotiate. We will be pragmatic, but we will always stand by our principles. To protect our interests and uphold our values – that is the European way
Trump yesterday ordered the US withdraw from the Paris Climate agreement, as he did during his first term, a decision reversed by Joe Biden just hours after he was sworn in as president in 2021.
Summary: all the key policy actions taken by Donald Trump on inauguration day
Long-term observers of president Donald Trump’s political tactics will remember his tendency to adopt what Steve Bannon calls “flooding the zone”, and yesterday’s inauguration day blitz of executive orders was in part intended to overwhelm the media and opponents so that it is harder to focus on any one issue.
Here is a list of all the key explainers and articles the Guardian has published over the last few hours documenting the areas the second Trump administration has already acted in:
Trump declares national border emergency in immigration crackdown
What is US birthright citizenship and what does Trump’s executive order do?
From meeting Putin to Middle East doubts: What were Trump’s foreign policy moves on day one?
Trump signs order to withdraw US from Paris climate agreement for second time
Trump vows to “unleash” oil and gas drilling as he rolls back climate rules
Donald Trump signs order to withdraw US from World Health Organization
Trump issues 1,500 “unconditional” pardons over January 6 Capitol attack
Trump rolls back trans and gender-identity rights and takes aim at DEI
Trump reclassifies thousands of federal employees, making them easier to fire
Trump signs order to rename Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s Denali
Also worth noting among yesterday’s Trump-related events:
Over at CNN, Stephen Collinson has offered his regular analysis of US political events, writing of yesterday:
The new president set off simultaneous political alarms in multiple foreign capitals with off-the-cuff foreign policymaking, instantly turning the US away from the internationalism embraced by every president apart from him since the second world war.
In a freewheeling news conference back in the Oval Office, Trump demonstrated a capacity to drive his own message and move geopolitical chess pieces in public in a way that Biden lost when age caught up with him. The imagery was of a well-briefed new president eyeing big goals, confident that his first term gives him a heads-up on how to wield the levers of power and determined to make the most of a second chance.
But Trump also laced the pageantry of inauguration day with rally-style grievance politics and vast doses of untruths, twisted facts and an increasingly messianic sense of his own power, which was a foreboding omen for the rule of law.
Alexandra Villarreal has this explainer on what Donald Trump’s executive order on US birthright citizenship seeks to achieve:
What does Trump’s executive order do?
The executive order signed on Monday tries to make it so that children born in the US, but without at least one parent who is a lawful permanent resident or US citizen, are no longer automatically extended US citizenship.
It also disallows federal agencies from issuing or recognizing documentation proving US citizenship for such children.
Notably, the executive order targets kids born to both unauthorized immigrants and people legally in the US on temporary visas.
Could Trump actually end birthright citizenship?
Maybe – although likely not, and almost definitely not through executive order.
The Citizenship Clause is part of the US constitution, the nation’s founding document. Generally, legal scholars strongly suggest that neither executive action nor legislation should be able to supersede the constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship for those born on US soil.
Forcing the supreme court to reinterpret the 14th amendment is likely part of the long game that the Trump administration is playing with its executive order.
Read more of Alexandra Villarreal’s explainer here: What is US birthright citizenship and what does Trump’s executive order do?
Writing for The Hill political website in the US, Niall Strange has highlighted president Joe Biden’s late issuing of pardons as one of their five key takeaways from yesterday’s inauguration day. He wrote:
Biden issued pre-emptive pardons to five members of his own family. The family pardons, in particular, seemed an inglorious way for the outgoing president to depart.
Prior to the Hunter Biden pardon, the elder Biden had repeatedly argued that Trump was the one who sought to bend the justice system to his personal benefit.
Now, on his way out the door, the 46th president has issued blanket pardons to his brother James, his sister Valerie and their respective spouses. He also pardoned his other brother, Francis.
Announcing the pardons, Biden contended that “my family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me – the worst kind of partisan politics.”
Still, the last-minute nature of the pardons was a bad look for a president who had presented himself as a defender of democratic and legal norms.
Pelosi: 'shameful' that Trump has made 6 January pardons a top priority
The Democratic party former House speaker Nancy Pelosi has described it as “shameful” and “an outrageous insult” that newly inaugurated president Donald Trump has made pardons for those involved in the 6 January Capitol riot a top priority.
In the statement, Pelosi said:
Tonight, the president announced pardons and commutations of sentences for those who violently attacked the Capitol and law enforcement officers on 6 January. The president’s actions are an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the constitution.
It is shameful that the president has decided to make one of his top priorities the abandonment and betrayal of police officers who put their lives on the line to stop an attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power. Despite the president’s decision, we must always remember the extraordinary courage and valor of the law enforcement heroes who stood in the breach and ensured that democracy survived on that dark day.”
Trump on Monday issued “full, complete and unconditional” presidential pardons for about 1,500 people who were involved in the January 6 attack on Congress, including some convicted of violent acts. Among those whose sentences were commuted was Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the far-right Oath Keepers militia.
Updated
Sam Jones is the Guardian’s Madrid correspondent
Spain’s labour minister and deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz, has announced that she has stopped using X following Elon Musk’s apparent Nazi salute at Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday.
In a post on Bluesky, Díaz wrote: “For months now, Elon Musk has been using X for political ends. It has stopped being a tool for communication, or a social network, and has become a propaganda mechanism that uses its algorithm to favour some ideas over others and, by doing so, affect public opinion. Last night, the entire planet could see Elon Musk emulating the Nazi salute in the context of Donald Trump’s inauguration. It was a very stark image that has led me to make a decision I’ve been considering for months … From now on, I will not be using my [X] account.”
Díaz’s announcement came hours after Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, urged Europe to resist a big tech “class” trying to influence western governments and public debate through its “absolute power over social media”.
On Monday, Sánchez told a conference on artificial intelligence: “Faced with this we have to fight back and we must put forward alternatives … Europe must stand up to this threat and defend democracy.”
Elsewhere in Spain, the media have noted that Trump yesterday incorrectly claimed that Spain is among the BRICS nations (chiefly Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), and the country could face 100% US tariffs on its products.
My colleague David Smith in Washington had this sketch of yesterday’s events:
When the obituary of planet Earth is written, there may be a prominent slot for what took place in a basketball and ice hockey arena in downtown Washington on 20 January, 2025.
It was here that, with a wry head shake and gleeful twirl of the pen, Donald Trump again withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement, to the joy and jubilation of 20,000 spectators apparently indifferent to fate of the pale blue dot they live on.
“We’re going to save over a trillion dollars by withdrawing from that treaty,” gushed an aide at Trump’s prompting, implying that watching the world burn is a small price to pay.
This was the moment it really hit home. Trump is back. The human wrecking ball who left a trail of chaos and division in his first four years has returned with a vengeance. America voted for this. People will get hurt.
Monday’s first batch of executive orders, contained in black folders, was also a reminder of Trump’s insatiable appetite for spectacle. His swearing in and inauguration parade had been brought indoors because of extreme cold weather. Naturally he saw an opportunity to turn it into a reality TV show.
Read more of David Smith’s sketch here: Trump the wrecking ball brings chaos to order, executing a parade of grievances
China concerned by Trump's withdrawal from Paris agreement
There has been diplomatic reaction from China to president Donald Trump’s opening blitz of policy announcements on inauguration day.
During the regular daily foreign ministry briefing, spokesperson Guo Jiakun said China is concerned at Trump’s announcement the US is again withdrawing from the Paris climate deal. Reuters quotes the official saying China is actively responding to climate change and will jointly promote global green and low-carbon transition.
The spokesperson also said that the World Health Organization should only be strengthened, not weakened. He said China would continue to support it in fulfilling its responsibilities. Trump has ordered the US to pull out of the UN health agency.
Updated
If you didn’t watch any of Donald Trump’s inauguration yesterday, or just want a reminder, our video team have put together this report highlighting the key moments.
For the Guardian’s First Edition newsletter this morning, my colleague Archie Bland has this to say about Donald Trump’s inauguration speech yesterday:
The closest to an “American carnage” style soundbite this time around was the much more anodyne promise that 20 January would be remembered as “liberation day”. And Trump read out some poor speechwriter’s attempt at soaring rhetoric in the same tone he might use to repeat a particularly complex delivery order.
Still, if you listened to the detail, the same nihilistic picture, of a nation in a state of catastrophic decay, emerged among the attempts at nationalist fervour. As Margaret Sullivan notes in this panel of reaction from Guardian US columnists:
Donald Trump spoke of love, of God and of a new golden age for the United States of America. But just beneath that gilded surface, his inaugural speech sent a different message entirely.
That message: America has been invaded by “millions of criminal aliens” who would be sent home, while a state of emergency would be declared to allow the deployment of the military at the southern border with Mexico. The government would recognise “only two genders, male and female”. Support for electric cars would be reversed, and a “national energy emergency” declared to allow the suspension of environmental regulations and more drilling for oil and natural gas.
Read more from Archie Bland here: Tuesday briefing – What inauguration day told us about Trump’s plan for power
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov has reacted to Donald Trump’s words over the future of the Panama Canal.
State-owned Russian news agency reports, in response to a question, he said:
We expect that during the expected discussions between the leadership of Panama and US president Donald Trump on issues of control over the Panama Canal, which certainly falls within the sphere of their bilateral relations, the parties will respect the current international legal regime of this key waterway.
The canal was built by the US in the early 1900s after an earlier failed attempt by France, and a treaty signed by the late president Jimmy Carter in 1977 transferred the canal to Panama in 1999 and allowed any nation to use it.
The US launched a military invasion of Panama in 1989 that left as many as 1,000 people dead as it overthrew president Manuel Noriega.
Trump supporters who stormed US Capitol begin to leave prison
Donald Trump supporters who attacked the US Capitol four years ago will begin to leave prison on Tuesday, after the newly installed president issued a sweeping pardon that signalled he intends to make aggressive use of his executive power, Reuters reports.
The Republican president’s pardon of 1,500 defendants on Monday drew outrage from lawmakers who were endangered in the 6 January, 2021, attack, when thousands of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Congress from certifying his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.
Stewart Rhodes, the former leader of the Oath Keepers militia who had his 18-year prison sentence commuted, was released early on Tuesday after midnight in Cumberland, Maryland.
Rhodes did not enter the US Capitol on 6 January, but he was found guilty for plotting to use force against Congress to prevent the election certification.
He was also accused of helping to stockpile firearms at a hotel in nearby Virginia that could be ferried across the river to Washington.
Updated
Trump’s immigration crackdown
Among the barrage of Trump’s executive orders was one that aimed at making good on his central campaign promise to crack down on immigration and unauthorised crossings at the US-Mexico border.
In his first appearance from the White House’s Oval Office after being inaugurated as the 47th president, Trump signed an order declaring a “national emergency” paving the way to send US troops to the southern border.
“Because of the gravity and emergency of this present danger and imminent threat, it is necessary for the Armed Forces to take all appropriate action to assist the Department of Homeland Security in obtaining full operational control of the southern border,” the executive order said.
World leaders react to Trump’s consequential first day
International leaders have responded with a mixture of wariness, anger and enthusiasm to Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president, with Panama pushing back on his pledge to retake the Panama Canal and Mexico vowing to defend its people ahead of a crackdown on migrants.
After Trump declared that the Panama Canal was a “foolish gift” to Panama that “should never have been made”.
Read more from the Guardian’s Helen Livingstone on how global leaders have greeted the first day of Trump 2.0.
Among the most interesting comments was from Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who said in a post on X: “Now it’s our turn to shine! It’s our turn to occupy Brussels!”
US withdrawing from Paris agreement 'devastating for the future of the planet', aid group says
US withdrawal from Paris agreement puts world’s vulnerable at greater risk, says Mercy Corps.
Donald Trump on Monday moved to withdraw the US, the world’s second biggest emitter of planet-heating pollution, from the Paris climate agreement for a second time, and put the United Nations on notice.
On his first day back as president, Trump signed an executive order on stage in front of supporters at an arena in Washington DC which he said was aimed at quitting what he called the “unfair one-sided Paris climate accord rip off”.
“Today’s announcement by the U.S. government to withdraw from the Paris Agreement is devastating for the future of the planet and those facing the most significant disruption to their lives and livelihoods due to climate change,” Tjada D’Oyen McKenna, CEO of Mercy Corps said in a statement.
“The decision comes just after 2024 was named the hottest year on record and is a huge step backward at a time when the world urgently needs greater ambition and clear leadership to address the climate crisis, not retreat, said McKenna.
“Climate change is no longer a distant threat; it is a daily reality with devastating impacts for hundreds of millions of people who have contributed the least to climate change — from severe droughts in the Horn of Africa to deadly floods in Pakistan.”
Updated
Trump says his team in process of removing more than 1,000 Biden appointees
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday his team was in the process of removing more than a thousand appointees from the administration of former president Joe Biden, as the Republican announced four removals on social media, including of celebrity chef Jose Andres and former top general Mark Milley, Reuters reports.
Trump said he was dismissing Milley, who was given a pre-emptive pardon by Biden on Monday, from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council. Andres was removed from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
New Zealanders are not typically ones for splitting hairs, but when it comes to who split the atom, you had better have your facts straight – particularly if you have just been sworn in as the 47th US president.
During his inaugural address on Monday, Donald Trump reeled off a list of US achievements, including a claim that its experts split the atom.
However, as the Guardian’s Eva Corlett writes, that honour belongs to revered physicist Sir Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealander who managed the historic feat in 1917 at Victoria University of Manchester in England. The element rutherfordium was named after him in 1997.
Read about New Zealand’s diligent factchecking here.
President Donald Trump on Monday issued “full, complete and unconditional” presidential pardons for about 1,500 people who were involved in the January 6 attack on Congress, including some convicted of violent acts, making good on his promise to act in such cases on day one of his second term.
“This is a big one. We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” Trump said while signing the pardons in the Oval Office on Monday night after he referred to those convicted as “hostages”.
Trump also directed the justice department to dismiss all pending indictments against people related to January 6.
Updated
The Liberty Ball – in pictures
President Trump and first lady, Melania.
Guests enjoy the party.
Vice president, JD Vance and his wife Usha.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
Trump and ‘The Golden Era’.
Updated
'Fast and furious' foreign policy on Trump's first day
Newly inaugurated president Donald Trump wasted no time signing off on a number of consequential foreign policy moves, from withdrawing from the World Heath Organization to reversing sanctions on violent Israeli settlers.
The Guardian’s David Smith has this handy recap of what you ned to know in terms of Trump’s foreign policy moves so far.
Opening summary
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Donald Trump’s inauguration and first day in office.
Immediately after his swearing-in ceremony on Monday the new US president set into motion a slew of executive orders seeking to make good on his campaign promises and undo the legacy of his predecessor Joe Biden, including the pardoning of January 6 defendants and a crackdown on immigration to the US.
Trump signed multiple executive orders in front of a raucous crowd of his supporters at the Capital One Arena in DC. “Could you imagine Biden doing this? I don’t think so,” he asked the crowd gleefully at one point. He then signed more during a press conference in the Oval Office.
The blossoming relationship between Trump and Elon Musk was also on full display at the inauguration; the billionaire sat with other tech titans including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos next to Trump family members and ahead of cabinet nominees.
Trump said that walking back into the already-remodelled Oval Office after his inauguration was “one of the better feelings I’ve ever had.”
Before leaving the White House for an evening of inaugural balls, Trump spent nearly an hour parrying questions by reporters. He promised that tariffs on Canada and Mexico were coming, suggested that he might visit China and praised the decorators for the new look of his Oval Office. Here is a rundown of how he was greeted by international leaders.
Here’s a rundown of his executive orders:
Trump pardoned about 1,500 January 6 defendants facing prosecution for their role in the 2021 storming of the US capitol. Among those pardoned is Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison on seditious conspiracy charges. Trump also commuted the sentence of Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers militia, who had been sentenced to 18 years in prison on sedition charges.
He also signed an executive order seeking to revoke birthright citizenship – automatic citizenship for people born in the US – for the children of undocumented immigrants. Birthright citizenship is protected by the 14th amendment and the order will almost certainly be challenged in court.
One order declared a “national emergency” at the southern border, paving the way to send US troops to the area and another that designated drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
He signed an executive order too, for a second time, withdraw the US from the Paris climate accords. He also declared a national energy emergency as part of a barrage of pro-fossil fuel actions and efforts to “unleash” already booming US energy production.
Another order will remove the US from the World Health Organization (WHO). “World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen any more,” Trump said at the signing. The withdrawal of the US would dramatically cut funding from the global public health organization.
He issued an executive order requiring federal agencies revoke the use of “gender” and “gender identity” and instead use a binary definition of “sex” in implementing policy – including in issuing passports, a move that LGBTQ+ rights groups have vowed to challenge in court.
Another order reclassified thousands of federal employees as political hires, making it much easier for them to be fired. Key aides to Trump have called for mass government firings. Project 2025 made attacks on the deep or administrative state a core part of Trump’s second term.
One order renamed the 617,800 sq mile Gulf of Mexico and Alaska’s 20,000ft Denali. The Gulf of Mexico will be renamed the Gulf of America, and Denali, the highest mountain in North America, will revert to Mount McKinley, which it was called before Barack Obama changed the name in 2015. The order will have no bearing on the names being used internationally.
Trump also signed an executive order temporarily delaying the enforcement of a federal ban on TikTok for at least 75 days. “I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally,” Trump said at the White House.
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