Donald Trump is back in the White House after a bizarre inauguration day packed with controversies, executive orders and surprise celebrity appearances.
The 78-year-old was sworn in yesterday behind the doors of the US Capitol Rotunda Hall after freezing -6C temperatures forced the ceremony inside for the first time in 40 years. His supporters watched on from venues across the country and inside a nearby arena in Washington, where Trump himself later held a rally. A host of former presidents and political foes surrounded the new president as he returned to power, including his former Vice President Mike Pence, Barack Obama, Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton. At 12pm (5pm UK time), Trump swore the oath of office – though did not touch the bible held in front of him – and officially became president of the United States replacing Joe Biden, the very same man who had defeated him four years earlier.
Trump marked his first day in office by signing a flurry of executive orders, making sweeping changes to the economy, immigration and reversing climate change policies. He announced several of these in his rambling inaugural speech, in which he promised a “new golden age of America”. Here are some of the biggest moments of the day:
One of the loudest cheers of the inauguration ceremony came when Trump said he would “declare a national emergency at our southern border”. He added: “All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places in which they came.”
Within hours he had signed a slew of executive orders aimed at illegal immigration, including ending birthright citizenship for future children born to mothers who are in the United States unlawfully or temporarily, a reinstatement of the “remain in Mexico” policy for asylum processing and the deployment of troops to the border. The orders also designated cartels and foreign gangs MS-13 and Tren de Aragua as foreign terrorist organisations.
Trump also pledged to “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars” by launching American astronauts to Mars. Elon Musk, whose space rocket company SpaceX has billions of dollars in federal contracts, cheered and flashed two thumbs up in the crowd as Trump spoke.
The new president signed an order stating his government would only recognise two genders – male and female. It means federal prisons and other institutions including shelters will strictly be segregated by biological sex. Trump said in his inauguration speech: “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
Musk sparked a wave of controversy later in the afternoon after making what some said looked like a ‘Hitler’ salute during Trump’s inaugural parade. The Tesla CEO, who will head his own department in Trump’s administration, was seen raising his right arm twice in a manner that drew comparisons to the infamous gesture associated with Nazi Germany.
It sparked a huge response on social media, though Musk remained uncharacteristically quiet about the accusations, only replying to one user who mentioned the controversy. They wrote “Can we please retire the calling people a Nazi thing?”, to which Musk said “Yeah exactly” and added a “yawning” emoji.
A whole host of celebrity guests came out for Trump on his big day – with some surprising faces among them. Russell Brand was spotted by the Mirror near the Capitol before the inauguration, though he refused to tell our reporter whether he was invited or not. Also among the guests were Irish mixed martial artist Conor McGregor, YouTube stars Jake and Logan Paul, podcaster Theo Von and Joe Rogan. Tech billionaires were also given a prominent position near the front of the ceremony, with Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai standing alongside Musk,
President Trump has now pardoned or commuted the prison sentences of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the January 6 2021 riot at the US Capitol – including people convicted of seditious conspiracy and assaulting police officers. In addition to the pardons, Trump ordered the Attorney General to seek the dismissal of roughly 450 cases that are still pending before judges. Trump has claimed the rioters were unfairly treated by the Justice Department.
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