Dive into the first day of Donald Trump's second presidential term as we break down the most significant executive orders and policy changes. From Jan. 6 rioters' clemency to TikTok's fate, border policies, and climate action, we're unpacking the most controversial moments of Trump's return to the White House.
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00:00As commander-in-chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country
00:04from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do.
00:10Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're breaking down what President Donald J. Trump got up to
00:16on his first day back in office as the 47th American president.
00:21Could you imagine Biden doing this? I don't think so.
00:26January 6th rioters.
00:28First, we have a list of pardons and commutations
00:31relating to events that occurred on January 6th, 2021.
00:35Okay, and how many people is this?
00:38I think this order will apply to approximately 1,500 people, sir.
00:42So this is January 6th, and these are the hostages.
00:46The January 6th, 2021 Capitol riots will live on in political infamy.
00:51As soon as it became clear that Joe Biden had emerged victorious in the 2020 election,
00:57President Trump called on his supporters to storm the Capitol in violent protest.
01:02When the dust settled, over 1,500 people found themselves charged with federal crimes,
01:07like disorderly conduct and unlawful entry.
01:10As such, Trump repeatedly vowed to come to the jailed rioters' aid during his 2024
01:16reelection campaign. On January 20th, 2025, four years after the initial attempted coup,
01:23Trump made good on his promise, granting sweeping clemency on January 6th participants.
01:29Full pardon.
01:32Full pardon or commutation?
01:34Full pardon. We have about six commutations in there where we're doing further research.
01:41These included Enrique Tarrio, former national chairman of the neo-fascist Proud Boys organization,
01:47and Stuart Rhodes, founder of the far-right militia group, the Oath Keepers.
01:51Said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, Donald Trump is ushering in a golden age for
01:57people that break the law and attempt to overthrow the government.
02:01It's virtually everyone, Lester. I believe there were 1,600 people
02:05total who had been convicted of crimes on January 6th. It's important to note
02:11172 of them were convicted of assaulting police officers.
02:14The TikTok ban.
02:16And as of today, TikTok is back.
02:22Chances are, no matter whether or not you actually use the app, you're at least
02:27somewhat familiar with the nail-biting legal saga currently faced by TikTok.
02:31Labeled by President Trump as a national security risk during his first term,
02:36the 47th commander-in-chief has since reversed his position.
02:40We have no choice. We have to save a lot of jobs. We don't want to give our business to
02:44China. We don't want to give our business to other people.
02:47Former President Biden followed in Trump's initial footsteps,
02:51signing into law acts that first banned the app on government devices,
02:55then called for TikTok to be banned entirely unless sold by its parent company to an American firm.
03:01He is going to say is okay, is that ByteDance, the parent company owns 50% of it, remains
03:07involved, and then some type of American owner gets involved, whether that's a company,
03:12whether that's an individual. Let me walk you through some of the names that have been thrown
03:15around. Elon Musk is something that has been floated. When Biden's January 19th deadline
03:20wasn't met by ByteDance, the Chinese corporation that owns TikTok, users panicked as the app went
03:27dark. Thankfully for TikTokers, Trump signed an executive order on his first day back in office,
03:32granting the app's owners a 75-day extension to reach a mutually beneficial business decision.
03:39Trump has also claimed that the U.S. government will, at least for the moment,
03:43decline to enforce Biden's previous legislation regarding use of TikTok on American soil.
03:48If you do approve, they're worth like a trillion dollars. They're worth some crazy number.
03:53So I said, I'll approve, but let the United States of America own 50% of TikTok. I'm approving on
04:02behalf of the United States. So they'll have a partner, the United States, and they'll have a
04:08lot of bidders, and the United States will do what we call a joint venture. Undoing the Biden
04:14years. Don't be fooled by Biden and Trump's civility at the latter's inauguration ceremony,
04:20or by Trump's apparent friendliness with mortal enemy Barack Obama at Jimmy Carter's funeral.
04:26The new president has made it abundantly clear that his administration will stand for the exact
04:31opposite of whatever it is Biden and Obama stood for. Four years ago, Barack Obama had told you
04:37that the top threat to the country was going to be North Korea. Did Joe Biden tell you what he
04:41thinks the top threat to the country is right now? No. I think we have a lot of them right now. I
04:48think we have a lot. I think North Korea turned out to be good. I was very friendly with him. He
04:53liked me. I liked him. To that end, among the literal dozens of executive orders Trump signed
04:58on January 20th, almost 80 of them were specifically dedicated to reversing Biden era policies. We'll
05:05get into the specifics in a bit, but just to give you an example, Trump followed up on his 2023
05:11pledge to reissue a first term executive order that would restore the president's authority to
05:16remove rogue bureaucrats. I was surprised that President Biden would go and pardon his whole
05:27family because that makes him look very guilty. And I could have pardoned my family. I could have
05:31pardoned myself, my family. I said, if I do that, it's going to make me look very guilty. I don't
05:36think I'd be sitting here, frankly. According to Axios's Avery Lotz, the executive order
05:41reestablishes a new Schedule F employment category for federal employees, increasing the president's
05:48power to oust civil servants who historically were shielded during changing administrations.
05:54The first item that President Trump is signing is the rescission of 78 Biden era executive actions,
06:00executive orders, presidential memoranda, and others.
06:10Thank you, sir. Cracking down on immigration and the border. I will declare a national emergency
06:16at our southern border. President Trump pulled no punches on his first day,
06:21intending to deliver on his many campaign pledges to revitalize the American economy
06:26and stem the flow of illegal immigrants at the US-Mexico border. True to his word,
06:31Trump almost immediately declared a national emergency at the border, ordering the Pentagon
06:37to provide support for border wall construction, detention space, and migrant transportation,
06:43and empowering the Secretary of Defense to send troops to the border as needed.
06:48According to Reuters, Ted Hessen and Alexandra Ulmer,
06:51all illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions
06:58and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We will reinstate my
07:07remain in Mexico policy. The president also ordered former President Biden's CBP-1 entry
07:15program shuttered. Initially intended to make commercial trucking easier, the app was later
07:20transformed by Biden into the definitive method of booking asylum appointments for unauthorized
07:26migrants. Migrants with existing appointments were left high and dry, with their appointments
07:31cancelled and no further recourse available to them. Trump also clamped down on birthright
07:36citizenship and broadened the scope of ISIS abilities. Swift climate action.
08:06In a number of cases, President Trump picked up where he left off in 2021, but this time,
08:16he's learned from his previous mistakes and has a better understanding of the American
08:20government's inner workings. For example, one of Trump's first executive orders in 2017
08:27ordered the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Climate Accords.
08:31But when Joe Biden took office in 2021, he almost immediately led the U.S. to rejoin.
08:37In yet another example of Trump revoking Biden-era policies, the new president once again
08:42pulled the country out of the international treaty. The Paris Agreement is a legally binding
08:47accord requiring signatories to publish plans for reducing their planet warming emissions.
08:53When President Trump did this in his first term, it took four years for the U.S. to leave,
09:02because that's the way the statutes were set up in the Framework Convention.
09:06Other climate-focused executive orders removed limits placed on the American fossil fuel
09:10industry and downplaying the clean energy sector. Said Trump as he signed the orders,
09:16the United States will not sabotage its own industries while China pollutes with impunity.
09:21When that stuff goes up in the air, it doesn't stay there.
09:24It floats into the United States of America after three and a half to five and a half days.
09:30The real effect of the Paris Agreement is not so much the pledges that are made,
09:34but the domestic action that's taken. And that's, you know, that's the prerogative of the U.S.
09:40administration and to some extent the U.S. Congress. And that is certainly going to fall
09:45off as a result of this decision. Before we continue, be sure to
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10:02Gender Identity and DEI
10:05This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to
10:10socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.
10:16The ongoing culture war and wokeism represent arguably some of the most crucial issues that
10:21President Trump campaigned on. Early into his second term, Trump proved that he wasn't kidding
10:26around, signing into effect executive orders that aimed at preventing discrimination based
10:31on gender identity or sexual orientation, according to the BBC.
10:36We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit based.
10:42During his inaugural address, Trump stated unequivocally that as of today, it will henceforth
10:48be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders,
10:53male and female. Other executive orders took aim at perceived woke Biden politics and dismantled
11:00diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government. Trump also signed an
11:05executive order which would see the U.S. withdrawing from the World Health Organization,
11:10increasing speculation that his administration would break with their recommendations
11:14regarding transgender rights. It is such an erroneous misuse given the type of people
11:20that he has nominated who actually are not merit based appointees. You cannot claim to
11:27unite the country while enacting policies designed to erase an entire community.
11:32Which of President Trump's first day executive orders surprised you the most?
11:37Be sure to let us know in the comments.
12:02Transcribed by https://otter.ai