WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump began erasing Joe Biden’s legacy immediately after taking office as the nation’s 47th president, pardoning nearly all of his supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and issuing a blizzard of executive orders that signal his desire to remake American institutions.
It was an aggressive start Monday for a returning president who feels emboldened and vindicated by his unprecedented political comeback. Four years after being voted out of the White House, 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 organizations, limiting birthright citizenship, freezing new regulations and establishing a task force for reducing the size of the federal government. He also rescinded dozens of directives issued by Biden, including those relating to climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Trump said that walking back into the already-remodeled Oval Office after his inauguration was “one of the better feelings I’ve ever had.” Unlike during his first term, when new staff members scrambled to figure out what exactly their president was trying to achieve, Trump moved rapidly and methodically to advance his agenda Monday.
His first action after arriving at the White House was pardoning about 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, even if they had been convicted of assaulting police officers. Trump commuted the sentences of another 14 people, including leaders of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.
The decision amounted to a sweeping cloak of impunity for Trump supporters who upended the country’s tradition of peaceful transfers of power by trying to overturn his election defeat four years ago. Trump described them as “hostages” and said he expected them to be freed shortly. A crowd gathered outside a Washington, D.C., jail to welcome their release.
Trump’s inauguration combined formal ceremony and freewheeling rhetoric, a reminder of how Trump can abide solemnity for only so long before going off script with a blend of humor and vitriol. 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. Among other changes, a portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that had been hung by Biden was replaced with one of George Washington.
Frigid weather rewrote the particulars of the day. 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, Trump declared the beginning of “the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense.”
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 Biden watched from the front row, “America’s decline is over.”
Also present at the ceremony was Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden on the ballot after he abandoned his reelection bid last summer, only to be defeated by Trump in the general election.
Trump said he would lead a government that “expands our territory,” a reference to his goals of acquiring Greenland from Denmark and restoring U.S. control of the Panama Canal.
He also pledged to “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars” by launching American astronauts to Mars. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and the owner of a space rocket company with billions of dollars in federal contracts, cheered and flashed two thumbs up as Trump spoke.
