•Withdraws US from Paris Climate Treaty, WHO
News Update
Donald Trump has been sworn in as the 47th President of the United States.
Trump was sworn in at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.
The day began with Trump and the First Lady, Melania attending services at St. John’s Church, marking the start of the official inauguration activities.
Despite legal challenges, including an indictment and an FBI raid at his Mar-a-Lago residence, Trump’s
supporters celebrated his return to office.
Donald Trump signed a series of executive actions Monday, which included revoking 78 of Joe Biden’s policies, hours after officially becoming the 47th president of the United States.
Other actions signed today are aimed at prompting an immigration crackdown, withdrawing the US from the Paris Climate Agreement and mandating in-person work for federal employees.
Pardons for January 6 rioters:
Trump on Monday pardoned US Capitol rioters, saying the pardon would cover more than 1,500 people, which would appear to cover nearly everyone charged since the attack on January 6, 2021. He also commuted the sentences of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
TikTok gets 75-day extension:
Trump signed an executive action that delays enforcement of the TikTok ban for 75 days. The law gives the president broad discretion on how to enforce the ban, but TikTok’s ultimate fate in America remains in doubt.
Pardons for January 6 rioters:
Trump on Monday pardoned US Capitol rioters, saying the pardon would cover more than 1,500 people, which would appear to cover nearly everyone charged since the attack on January 6, 2021. He also commuted the sentences of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Trump announces US withdrawal from World Health Organization
President Donald Trump announced Monday he is withdrawing the US from the World Health Organization, a significant move cutting ties with the United Nation’s public health agency on his first day in office.
Trump has long been critical of the WHO, and his administration formally withdrew from the organization in July 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic continued to spread.
The text of the executive order cites the “organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic that arose out of Wuhan, China, and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states,” as reasons for the US withdrawal.
“That’s a big one,” Trump told an aide as he began to sign the executive order, pointing to his 2020 decision and his belief that the US was paying too much money to the organization compared to other countries.
The order also says that the WHO “continues to demand unfairly onerous payments” from the US.
Trump ends all January 6 cases with pardons, commutations and dismissals
In one fell swoop, President Donald Trump ended all of the nearly 1,600 cases stemming from the January 6 US Capitol attack.
He signed a proclamation Monday pardoning nearly all 1,270 people convicted in the January 6 attack, directing the Justice Department to drop about 300 pending cases, and ordering the release of a small group of 14 other defendants who were charged in the most serious sedition cases. (Trump misspoke earlier tonight when he said the pardon would cover about 1,500 people.)
These actions go farther than many — including Trump’s own advisers and GOP allies — were expecting. Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson said in recent days that Trump should only pardon nonviolent offenders.
But the proclamation he signed, granting a “full, complete and unconditional pardon,” covers roughly 600 people with felony convictions for assaulting police officers or impeding police during a riot.
That group includes convicted rioters like Julian Khater, who assaulted US Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick and later pled guilty to assaulting officers with a dangerous weapon; Devlyn Thompson, who hit a police officer with a metal baton; and Robert Palmer, a Florida man who attacked police with a fire extinguisher, a wooden plank and a pole.
Trump commuted the sentences for 14 of far-right extremists from the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who were convicted or charged with seditious conspiracy. The commutation will pave the way for their imminent release from prison, though the clemency isn’t as far-reaching as a pardon.
The order also directs the US attorney general to dismiss all pending cases, which would cover about 300 cases that are still pending in court.
Trump signs promised executive action to delay TikTok ban for 75 days
As he promised Sunday, President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive action that delays enforcement of the TikTok ban for 75 days.
The action directs the US Justice Department not to enforce the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which passed with broad bipartisan support in Congress and was signed in April by former President Joe Biden. The law required that starting January 19, TikTok be banned in the United States unless it sells to a buyer from America or one of its allies.
The law gives the president broad discretion on how to enforce the ban. Trump’s promise in a Truth Social post that he would sign an executive action Monday so that the law will not be enforced served as a sufficient enough pledge that TikTok, which took itself offline for more than 12 hours Saturday night into Sunday, went back online Sunday afternoon.
But TikTok’s ultimate fate in America remains in doubt. It’s unclear that TikTok’s China-based owner, ByteDance, would want to sell to a buyer, even if it were a deal brokered by Trump.
From the Oval Office: Trump told reporters Monday that he changed his mind on TikTok because he “got to use it.”
“And remember, TikTok is largely about kids, young kids. If China is going to get information about young kids out of it. To be honest, I think we have bigger problems than that,” Trump said in the Oval Office.
He also told reporters the action that he signed on TikTok gave him the right to either “sell it or close it.”
“I have the right to either sell it or close it, and we’ll make that determination,” Trump added.
Trump says he plans to meet Putin and wants the Ukraine war over “as quickly as possible”
President Donald Trump says he plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin once talks are set up, a process he said was already underway.
After saying as a candidate he could end the Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office, Trump noted he still had half a day to accomplish the goal.
We’re going to try and get it done as quickly as possible. You know, the war with Ukraine and Russia should have never started,” he told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump’s pick for Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said earlier Monday that he couldn’t put a timeframe on ending the war between Russia and Ukraine but told reporters that each side would have to concede “something,” as a natural part of resolving any conflict — while also acknowledging Russia as “the aggressor.”
Trump orders release of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys in prison for seditious conspiracy
President Donald Trump on Monday commuted the sentences of Oath Keepers and Proud Boys who were convicted of seditious conspiracy, paving the way for their imminent release from prison.
Trump displayed a copy of the commutation during the signing ceremony, revealing a list of names of people who got commutations. The people on the list were members of the far-right extremist groups who were charged in the high-profile seditious conspiracy case.
Most of the convicts on the commutation list were found guilty of seditious conspiracy, but some were acquitted of that charge, though they were all found guilty of other felony charges.
The list of commutation recipients includes Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes, among others. These people received some of the longest prison sentences of anyone charged in connection with January 6.
Trump’s order on birthright citizenship seeks to keep certain US documents from being issued
President Donald Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship prohibits federal agencies from issuing certain documents that would normally be provided to a US citizen, according to a fact sheet obtained by CNN.
The order, which applies to children born after 30 days of the measure, applies in circumstances where parents are unlawfully present in the US, and in situations where the mother is temporarily on the US, like on a visa, and the father is a noncitizen.
“It requires the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and the Commissioner of the Social Security Administration, as the primary distributors and custodians of citizenship-related identification materials and benefits, to take all appropriate implementation and enforcement steps,” the fact sheet states.
The order hinges on the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” in the 14th amendment. Some immigration hardliners have argued that children of undocumented immigrants are not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the US and shouldn’t be considered citizens under the Constitution.
Legal experts previously told CNN they were skeptical such an argument would fly in court, arguing that such the relevant language was aimed at children of foreign diplomats who were subject to US laws, and at situations where a foreign nation has invaded and is occupying part of the country.
Trump allies and officials are keenly aware that the action will likely get legally challenged and eventually land before the Supreme Court.
“Something has to kick off the legal battle,” one source previously told CNN.
Trump signs order revoking security clearances of former officials who signed Hunter Biden laptop letter
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order Monday revoking the security clearance of 51 former intelligence officials who signed a 2020 letter arguing that emails from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden carried “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Many of the 51 former officials are long retired and no longer hold active clearances — meaning that the move may have limited practical impact on their careers — but the order nevertheless suggests that Trump intends to act on threats he’s made to penalize national security and intelligence professionals whom he deems to be his enemies.
“They should be prosecuted for what they did,” Trump said of the 51 former officials who signed the letter, at a campaign rally in June.
The letter was signed by a number of top former officials from both the Obama and Bush administrations, including former director of national intelligence Jim Clapper, former CIA director John Brennan, and former acting CIA directors John McLaughlin and Michael Morell.
In the four years since the letter was written, its authors have become a key target for Republican lawmakers and supporters of Trump. GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill have made the origins of the letter a key focus point, calling up a number of signatories to testify behind closed doors and issuing several reports on the matter.
Acting FBI director chosen while Trump’s nominee Kash Patel awaits confirmation
Senior FBI special agent Brian Driscoll has been installed as acting director of the FBI, according to an email from him to employees.
Acting Attorney General James McHenry also tapped Robert Kissane, special agent in charge for counterterrorism in New York, to serve as acting deputy director of the FBI.
Driscoll and Kissane now lead the bureau following the resignation of FBI Director Christopher Wray, and subsequent retirement Monday of FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate.
President Donald Trump has nominated Kash Patel as FBI director, but he has yet to be confirmed.
“We will work closely with the current FBI leadership team and the transition team at the Department of Justice to serve as a bridge between the FBI’s previous permanent leadership team and the next one,” wrote Driscoll, who was recently named as the special agent in charge of the Newark Field Office.
“In the meantime, our goal is to keep the focus on the Bureau’s essential work, those we do the work with, and those we do the work for — the American people.”
(Culled from CNN)