Donald Trump began erasing Joe Biden’s legacy immediately after taking office as the nation’s 47th president on Monday, pardoning nearly all of his supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and issuing a blizzard of executive orders that signal his desire to remake American institutions.
It was an aggressive start for a returning president who feels emboldened and vindicated by his unprecedented political comeback. Four years after being voted out of the White House, Trump has a second chance to launch what he called “a golden age” for the country.
He signed orders for increasing border security, designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, limiting birthright citizenship, freezing new regulations and establishing a task force for reducing the size of the federal government. He also rescinded dozens of directives issued by Biden, including those relating to climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
Trump said that walking back into the already-remodeled Oval Office after his inauguration was “one of the better feelings I’ve ever had.” Unlike during his first term, when new staff members scrambled to figure out what exactly their president was trying to achieve, Trump moved rapidly and methodically to advance his agenda Monday.
His first action after arriving at the White House was pardoning about 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack, even if they had been convicted of assaulting police officers. Trump commuted the sentences of another 14 people, including leaders of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.
The decision amounted to a sweeping cloak of impunity for Trump supporters who upended the country’s tradition of peaceful transfers of power by trying to overturn his election defeat four years ago. Trump described them as “hostages” and said he expected them to be freed shortly. A crowd gathered outside a Washington, D.C., jail to welcome their release.
Trump’s inauguration combined formal ceremony and freewheeling rhetoric, a reminder of how Trump can abide solemnity for only so long before going off script with a blend of humor and vitriol. Before leaving the White House for an evening of inaugural balls, Trump spent nearly an hour parrying questions by reporters.
He promised that tariffs on Canada and Mexico were coming, suggested that he might visit China and praised the decorators for the new look of his Oval Office. Among other changes, a portrait of Franklin Delano Roosevelt that had been hung by Biden was replaced with one of George Washington.
Frigid weather rewrote the particulars of the day. Trump’s swearing-in was moved indoors to the Capitol Rotunda—the first time that has happened in 40 years—and the inaugural parade was replaced by an event with marching bands at Capital One Arena.
In his inaugural address, Trump declared the beginning of “the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense.”
Trump said the government faces “a crisis of trust.” He claimed to have “a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal,” promising to “give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom.”
“From this moment on,” he added as Biden watched from the front row, “America’s decline is over.”
Also present at the ceremony was Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden on the ballot after he abandoned his reelection bid last summer, only to be defeated by Trump in the general election.
Trump said he would lead a government that “expands our territory,” a reference to his goals of acquiring Greenland from Denmark and restoring U.S. control of the Panama Canal.
He also pledged to “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars” by launching American astronauts to Mars. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and the owner of a space rocket company with billions of dollars in federal contracts, cheered and flashed two thumbs up as Trump spoke.
Trump supporters who descended on the city to watch the incoming president take the oath of office from the National Mall were left to find other places to view the ceremony when it was moved inside. But a cadre of tech titans—including Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai—were given prominent positions in the Rotunda. They mingled with Trump’s incoming team in a striking display of wealth for a Republican president who is also a billionaire but branded himself as a working-class crusader.
After the ceremony, Trump walked with Biden to the building’s east side, where the Democrat left via helicopter to begin his post-presidential life.
Trump’s inaugural address was just the beginning of the thoughts he shared on his second first day as president.
Trump followed Biden’s departure with extended and unscripted remarks to supporters in the Capitol that revisited a litany of conspiracy theories about voter fraud and criticisms of perceived enemies such as former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, whom he called “a crying lunatic.”
He spoke for even longer than in his inaugural address, saying, “I think this is a better speech than the one I gave upstairs.”
Then he went to the Capital One Arena to begin signing executive orders as thousands of supporters cheered, melding the theatrics of his campaign rallies with the powers of the presidency.
“We won, we won, but now the work begins,” Trump said before a crowd of people in “Make America Great Again” hats.
He abandoned the more earnest tone of his inaugural address and taunted his predecessor while scrawling his name in thick black ink on his executive orders.
“Could you imagine Biden doing this?” he said. “I don’t think so!”
When finished, he tossed the pens into the crowd.
Trump’s inauguration realized a political comeback without precedent in American history. Four years ago, he was voted out of the White House during an economic collapse caused by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Trump denied his defeat and tried to cling to power. He directed his supporters to march on the Capitol while lawmakers were certifying the election results, sparking a riot that interrupted the country’s tradition of the peaceful transfer of power.
But Trump never lost his grip on the Republican Party and was undeterred by criminal cases and two assassination attempts as he steamrolled rivals and harnessed voters’ exasperation with inflation and illegal immigration.
Now Trump is the first person convicted of a felony—for falsifying business records related to hush money payments—to serve as president. He pledged to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution from the same spot that was overrun by his supporters on Jan. 6.
“We all believe God’s hand has been on this man to be elected,” said Pam Pollard, 65, a longtime Republican official from Oklahoma, who came to Washington to see him sworn in.
Trump has promised retribution against his political opponents and critics, and he’s placed personal loyalty as a prime qualification for appointments to his administration.
With minutes to go before leaving office, Biden issued preemptive pardons to his siblings and their spouses to shield them from the possibility of prosecution. He also pardoned current and former government officials who have been the target of Trump’s anger. Biden said “these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.”
Trump, talking to reporters in the Oval Office late in the day, criticized Biden’s pardons, saying “that makes him look very guilty.”
A reporter asked Trump if Biden had left him a note in the desk, a tradition during presidential transitions. Trump looked in a drawer and found an envelope.
“Maybe we should all read it together?” Trump joked when holding it up for the cameras. But he didn’t open the envelope.
