Donald Trump is scheduled to take the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States at the US Capitol on Monday.
The event has been moved indoors on account of sub-zero temperatures in Washington, DC. There have also been security concerns, given that Trump barely survived an assassination attempt last July on the campaign trail.
Just a week later, President Joe Biden bowed out of the race in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump proceeded to win the Electoral College, the popular vote, and all seven swing states in the November 5 election.
Trump is only the second US president ever to be sworn in for non-consecutive terms. Grover Cleveland was the 22nd (1885-1889) and the 24th president (1893-1897).
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21 January 2025
Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino has firmly rejected US President Donald Trump’s recent statements about reclaiming control over the Panama Canal.
Mulino emphasized that the Panama Canal is Panamanian territory, resulting from “generational struggles,” and asserted, “there is no presence of any nation in the world that interferes with our administration.” “We will exercise the right that protects us,” he concluded.
Donald Trump has signed an executive order to withdraw the United States from the World Health Organization (WHO). This action initiates a 12-month withdrawal process, during which the US will halt financial contributions to the WHO.
President Trump has criticized the organization for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and alleged undue influence from certain member states.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order suspending all US foreign assistance programs for 90 days. The move aims to review and align these programs with his administration’s policy goals.
The order emphasizes prioritizing US security and prosperity in foreign aid decisions. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated the review will determine which programs serve American interests effectively.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer criticized President Donald Trump’s pardoning of over 1,500 individuals involved in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot, stating, “Donald Trump is ushering in a Golden Age for people that break the law and attempt to overthrow the government.”
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also condemned the pardons as “an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol.”
Donald Trump has signed an executive order aiming to end birthright citizenship for children born in the US to non-citizen or non-legal permanent resident parents.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other advocacy groups promptly filed a lawsuit, challenging the order’s constitutionality.
They argue that the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to all individuals born on US soil, regardless of parental status. The ACLU emphasized that birthright citizenship is a fundamental promise of equality and inclusion in America.
President Trump’s order contends that the 14th Amendment has not been universally interpreted to grant citizenship to everyone born in the country, noting its original intent to ensure citizenship for Black individuals post-Civil War.
President Donald Trump has reinstated Cuba on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, reversing former President Joe Biden’s January, 14 decision.
Biden’s removal followed a Vatican-mediated agreement in which Cuba agreed to release over 500 prisoners, including those detained during the 2021 protests.
Trump’s action reimposes sanctions such as restrictions on US foreign assistance and a ban on defense exports. Cuba has consistently denied allegations of supporting terrorism. Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel condemned the move in social media as an “act of mockery and abuse.”
Trump has signed an executive order aimed at “defending women from [the] gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.”
According to the document, the US recognizes only two sexes, male and female. “These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality,” the order says.
The document draws a distinction between sex, which is based on immutable biological characteristics, and “gender identity”, which “reflects a fully internal and subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality and sex.”
Trump has formally established the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was given a 18-month mandate to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.”
The new commission will be set up in the Executive Office of the President in place of the US Digital Service.
Trump originally said that DOGE would be led by tech entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. On Monday, a spokesperson for the commission announced that Ramaswamy was quitting DOGE in favor of running for an elected office. It was reported that he intends to run for governor of Ohio.
Trump has signed an executive order to protect TikTok from prosecution for 75 days. The viral social media app was shut down for 14 hours over the weekend after its failure to meet a January 19 deadline imposed by the government.
TikTok will still be required to fully or partially divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance due to the US government’s concerns about national security and potential misuse of the personal data collected from Americans.
Trump has designated foreign-based drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations.” Fighting organizations such as the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua is a priority for the president, according to the White House.
Trump plans to leverage the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to battle organized crime organizations on US soil, the statement said.
According to the order published on the White House website, Trump granted “full, complete and unconditional pardon” to everyone convicted in relation to the riot, and commuted the sentences of 14 individuals.
He described the pardons as a measure to rectify “a grave national injustice” and a step towards “national reconciliation.”
In the Oval Office, Trump has signed “full pardons” for around 1,500 people linked to the US Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, according to the New York Times.
He said that he also commuted sentences of six more defendants, but did not elaborate who they were.
As part of his first actions in office, Trump has frozen the hiring of new federal employees. The order does not apply to military, national security, public safety or immigration enforcement officials.
The president also ordered the government to ensure that all employees ”return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis.”
Trump has signed an order banning government officials from censoring constitutionally protected speech “under the guise of combating ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation.’”
Trump has signed an executive order to “end the weaponization of the federal government,” accusing the Biden administration of using its power to interfere in democratic processes.
The Department of Justice, under the previous administration, “ruthlessly prosecuted more than 1,500 individuals” associated with the US Capitol riots, while “dropping nearly all cases against BLM rioters,” the executive order said.
Donald Trump has signed an executive order formally withdrawing the US from a key international treaty on climate change. While Trump initially withdrew from the Paris Agreement in 2017 during his first term in office, Joe Biden rejoined the accord on his first day as president in 2021
The order signed by Trump says that the US had previously joined international agreements that “do not reflect our country’s values or our contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives,” and “steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people.”
20 January 2025
In his speech after inauguration, Trump promised to revoke aroud 80 executive orders signed by Joe Biden. “They’ll all be null and void,” Trump said.
Multiple US media outlets reported that Trump is planning to pardon his supporters who stormed the Capitol building on January 6, 2021.
CNN cited sources as saying that the president wants to pardon non-violent offenders. Reuters said that he intends to commute the sentences of “some people” who attacked police officers.
Trump has repeatedly described the Capitol rioters as patriots and argued that their prosecution was politically motivated. He has denied encouraging the riot with his claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged in favor of Joe Biden.
A ‘tall stack’ of executive orders has been prepared for Trump to sign on the stage at the Capital One Arena, where some 20,000 of his supporters have watched the inauguration ceremonies.
The new president is scheduled to attend three inaugural balls and sign even more executive orders inside the Oval Office before the day is done, according to Fox News.
Amid reports that he would be signing hundreds of executive orders right away, Trump has posted a priorities list suggesting the things he intends to tackle first.
At the top of the list is securing the US-Mexico border, including by deploying the military, while deporting those in the US illegally and halting all refugee resettlement. This will be followed by revoking the Biden administration’s “policies of climate extremism” and revoking restrictions on “vehicles, showerheads, toilets, washing machines, lightbulbs and dishwashers.”
Federal employees will be ordered to return to the office, while the “useless and overpaid DEI activists” that had been hired in recent years will be dismissed.
The White House website has been updated with a photo of Trump and the caption “America is back.”
Trump has also begun to sign executive orders, starting with cabinet and agency appointments, acting directors of various departments, and the directive to fly the US flag at full-staff until tomorrow, when it is supposed to be lowered to half-staff again in honor of the recently deceased President Jimmy Carter.
“The Return of the King,” Elon Musk said on X, referring to the grand finale of J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ epic, with a picture of Trump’s presidential account alongside a screenshot of him getting banned from the social media platform four years ago.
“I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do. In America, impossible is what we do best,” Trump said, referring to his political comeback and near-miraculous survival. “We are Americans. The future is ours. And our Golden Age has just begun.”
The US will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and restore the name of Mount McKinley in Alaska, Trump said. Washington also has designs on the Panama Canal, he added, because “we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama – and we’re taking it back.”
“We will forge a society that is color-blind and merit-based,” Trump announced, establishing as US government policy that “there are only two genders: male and female.”
All members of the military fired over Biden’s vaccination mandates will be reinstated with full back pay and all “indoctrination” – presumably referring to critical race theory or “equity” policies of the former administration – will end.
“The Golden Age of America begins right now,” Trump said in his inaugural speech. In the 30-minute address, he announced that “America will soon be greater, stronger, and far more exceptional than ever before.”
Trump vowed to secure the US-Mexico border, declare drug cartels as terrorist organizations, stop censorship and political prosecutions, drill for oil and gas, and make the US a manufacturing country once again.
In his inauguration speech, Trump said his election is a mandate to “completely and totally reverse” the “many betrayals that have taken place,” in the last four years. Referring to his attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania last year, Trump said he believed he was “saved by God to make America great again.”
Donald J. Trump has taken his oath of office as the 47th president of the United States, administered by Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court John Roberts.
J.D. Vance has taken the oath of office as US vice-president, administered by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
As Biden walked into the Capitol Rotunda, the White House published his blanket pardons for his brothers James and Francis, sister Valerie, and their spouses, for all crimes they may have committed from January 1, 2014 to this day.
Biden and Harris have arrived at the Capitol Rotunda to the tune of the presidential fanfare ‘Hail to the Chief’ for one last time. They were followed in by Trump and Vance.
Senator John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, has caused a minor scandal by arriving at the inauguration ceremony wearing shorts and a hooded sweatshirt. Every other member of the Senate and the House of Representatives attending the event came in appropriate formalwear.
Melania and Barron Trump have arrived at the Capitol Rotunda, along with the justices of the US Supreme Court, two of whom will perform the swearing-in ceremonies for Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.
Elon Musk has also been spotted in the Capitol Rotunda along with the so-called tech-elite. The owner of X openly backed Trump during the 2024 election campaign and has been informally dubbed ‘first buddy’ for his proximity to the president-elect.
He has been joined by Big Tech barons, who did not get involved in the election this time, including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple's Tim Cook and Google’s Sundar Pichai.
In his inaugural address, Trump is expected to declare that “today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders. With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” according to Fox News.
Speaking at a rally on Sunday, Trump vowed to “act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country.” Asked how many measures he intended to enact, he said “lots of them, lots” and “close to 100, in fact.” Fox News has put the number of expected executive orders at “more than 200.”
Biden signed 17 executive orders on his first day in office, and a total of 42 in his first 100 days, mostly repudiating four years of Trump’s administration.
President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump have departed the White House for the US Capitol to attend the inauguration ceremony. They were accompanied by Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat who chairs the Joint Congressional Inauguration Committee.
First lady Jill Biden and her successor Melania Trump left the White House a little earlier.
Around 800 people will be expected in the Capitol Rotunda for the inauguration ceremony, with another 1,300 in Emancipation Hall and 500 more inside the Capitol Visitor’s Center, for a total of 2,600, the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies told CNN.
At least 20,000 people are expected at the Capital One Arena, a hockey and basketball venue several blocks away, to watch the ceremony on big screens indoors.
Controversy over the size of the inauguration crowd dogged the first Trump administration, while no general public was allowed at Biden’s swearing-in, which was held under heavy armed guard two weeks after the Capitol riot.
President Joe Biden and his wife Jill have posted “one more selfie for the road” from the official POTUS account on X with the caption, “We love you, America.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent congratulations to Trump ahead of the inauguration and said that Moscow “welcomes” his statements about wanting to restore relations with Russia and prevent the current proxy conflict over Ukraine from developing into World War Three.
Trump and his wife Melania have arrived at the White House for a final meeting with the Bidens. Joe and Jill Biden are scheduled to attend the inauguration and then take a helicopter to Joint Base Andrews outside the US capital, from where they will take an airplane to California.