Donald Trump has pardoned people accused of participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and declared Mexico's drug cartels terrorists in a slew of executive orders.
Trump said he pardoned about 1,500 defendants and issued six commutations.
The pardon fulfills Trump's promise to release supporters who tried to help him overturn his election defeat four years ago.
“These are the hostages,” he said as he signed the papers in the Oval Office.
After hours of celebrating his new administration, Trump makes his first Oval Office appearance.
Trump has promised to sign a series of executive actions from behind the famed Resolute Desk in the oval room.
He drew a first wave at the Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, where thousands of his supporters gathered to celebrate an inaugural parade that was moved indoors because of the cold.
The president signed several other orders, including one order revising the refugee admissions program to better align with U.S. principles and interests and another order declaring a “national emergency” at the U.S.-Mexico border, designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Donald Trump has pardoned people accused of participating in the January 6 riot at the US Capitol
Trump said he pardoned about 1,500 defendants and issued six commutations
Earlier, Trump turned his rally in a downtown Washington arena into a signing ceremony as he took up his pen and issued multiple executive actions to make major policy changes.
Trump has officially halted more than 78 Biden-era executive orders, announced a regulatory freeze that prevents bureaucrats from issuing rules until the Trump administration has full control of the government, and a freeze on all but in the military field and a few other essential areas.
He also ordered a requirement that federal employees return to full-time in-person work, a directive for every department and agency to address the cost of living, and announced the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
Trump also signed a government order that restored freedom of speech and prevented censorship of free speech, and an order that ended the “government's weaponization of the previous administration's political opponents.”
Some of the orders he signed first included a Biden border bill, a regulatory freeze and a freeze on federal hiring.
The setup included a small desk, chair and microphone, where Trump sat to sign off on official actions.
He flashed his signature as he signed a first set of executive orders before throwing the pens into the crowd.
Trump declared during his indoor parade that he will sign pardons for “many people” convicted of the attack on the US Capitol, as the crowd cheered enthusiastically.
The president signed several other orders, including an order revising the refugee admissions program to better align with U.S. principles and interests, and another order declaring a “national emergency” at the U.S.-Mexico border, drug cartels were designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
“We won, we won, but now the work begins,” Trump said at the start of his speech at the end of the parade in the packed Capitol One Arena in Washington, DC.
The orders are signed statements about how the president wants the federal government to be run.
These may be instructions to federal agencies or requests for reports.
Many orders may be unacceptable, such as giving federal employees time off the day after Christmas.
They can also set important policies. For example, President Joe Biden signed an order to create a structure for establishing regulations on artificial intelligence.
But executive orders—and their policy sausage-making siblings, the proclamation and the political memorandum—are also used by presidents to pursue agendas they can't get through Congress.
New presidents can – and often do – issue orders to cancel the orders of their predecessors.
On his first day, Trump revoked 78 orders and actions signed by Biden. Trump's revocations included a Biden order that canceled some of the orders signed by Trump during his first term.
As the American Bar Association notes, the orders do not require congressional approval and cannot be overturned directly by lawmakers. Still, Congress could prevent an order from being implemented by removing funding or creating other hurdles.
