Trump pardons rioters Jan. 6, ends Biden’s executive actions and pulls out of climate pact on day one

Donald Trump on Monday issued a pardon for about 1,500 people accused of the January 6 attack, hours after he was inaugurated for a second term as US president. He also reduced the sentences of the six.

The pardon fulfills Trump’s campaign promise to free supporters who tried to violently overturn his election defeat four years ago.

“These are hostages,” he said as he signed paperwork in the Oval Office.

Asked when he would impose the trade tariffs he has proposed on Canada on Mexico, Trump said, “I think we will do it” on February 1.

Trump has also signed a number of executive orders including withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accord; hiring freezes and requiring federal workers to return to full-time, personal work; repealing orders that promoted and protected LGBTQ+ people and racial minorities; re-adding Cuba to the US list of state sponsors of terrorism; and an order seeking a 75-day delay in implementing the TikTok ban.

Trump completed his stunning political comeback on Monday when he was sworn in as America’s 47th president, during which he promised tariffs, deportations and a new approach to race and gender.

In his inaugural address inside the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Trump began detailing his executive orders on the first day.

The first was the declaration of a state of emergency on the southern border. He said he would send troops to the border and begin deporting “illegal” immigrants. Trump has vowed to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and invoke the Alien Enemy Act of 1798 to oust the gangs as soon as possible.

Trump mentioned his plan to impose trade penalties in passing, but remained vague. “We will impose customs duties and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” he said.

He promised to roll back Biden’s green energy policies, including the electric vehicle mandate, and “Drill, baby, drill” for more oil.

Trump said his government’s position would be that there are only “two sexes: male and female.” He also vowed to end efforts to “socially inject race” into every aspect of public and private life and “create a color-blind, merit-based society.”

Promises of world peace, astronauts on Mars

Trump overcame impeachment, criminal indictments and two assassination attempts to win his second term in the White House, during which his Republican Party will take control of Washington.

Trump is only the second president in American history to serve non-consecutive terms and the first criminal to hold the most powerful political office in the world. Prisegu je položio na neuobičajeno maloj ceremoniji u rotondi daleko od javnosti, nakon što je zbog hladnog vremena premještena u zatvoreni prostor.

The 78-year-old’s speech was more upbeat than the one he gave during his inauguration in 2017. He began by saying, “America’s golden age begins right now,” and later added, “From this moment forward, the decline of America is complete.”

Speaking about the assassination attempt on him in Pennsylvania, he said that God saved him to restore the country.

Trump has said he will be a peacemaker and “stop all wars,” while also saying he intends for the U.S. to regain control of the Panama Canal. “We’re bringing him back,” he said, without specifying how that would happen.

He also said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and restore the former name of Alaska’s Mount McKinley — named after former US President William McKinley — overturning its current indigenous name, Mount Denali.

Trump vaguely mentioned expanding US territory, something that has not happened in generations. He previously talked about making Canada a country and annexing Greenland, but offered no further details in his address.

“The United States will again be regarded as a growing nation—one that increases our wealth, extends our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag to new and beautiful horizons.”

Trump then said the US would continue to send astronauts to Mars – a longtime goal of billionaire Elon Musk, who has sided with Trump and will sit in the new Department of Government Efficiency.

Billionaires were prominent among those present inside the Capitol.

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was also inside the Rotunda, sitting in an area usually reserved for former presidents, family members and other distinguished guests. The US banned the social media app over the weekend only for Trump to reverse the ban hours later.

Bezos and Zuckerberg later attended Trump’s congressional luncheon and each pledged to donate US$1 million to Trump’s inaugural committee.

Trump gave a less measured impromptu speech to supporters inside the Capitol after his inauguration, in which he promised to pardon those convicted in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and condemned Biden’s last-minute pardons, which included members of a congressional committee investigating Jan. 6.

Trudeau congratulates Trump

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement congratulating Trump on his inauguration, saying Canada and the US have the most successful economic partnership in the world.

“Canada is strengthening this mutually beneficial relationship. We are investing heavily to strengthen cross-border trade, strengthen our supply chains and create jobs on both sides of the border,” he said.

“We are strongest when we work together and I look forward to working with President Trump, his administration, members of the United States Congress and officials at the state and local levels to ensure prosperity for our people – while protecting and defending the interests of Canadians.”