What to know about Inauguration Day
- Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president today — the second president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first convicted felon to hold the office. Vice President JD Vance was sworn in shortly before Trump; he is one of the youngest vice presidents in U.S. history.
- After he was sworn in, Trump delivered a speech reminiscent of his first inaugural address, vowing to impose hard-line border and immigration measures while promising the restoration of American greatness. He gave separate remarks in the Capitol that resembled one of his campaign rallies, repeating false claims about the election and the Jan. 6 attack.
- Trump addressed thousands of supporters at Capital One Arena before he signed a handful of executive orders seated in front of a cheering crowd. He rescinded Biden-era executive actions and later tossed pens from the signing into the crowd.
- Upon returning to the White House, Trump signed a flurry of additional executive orders, including orders declaring a national emergency at the southern border, ending birthright citizenship and delaying the TikTok ban.
Coverage of this event has ended. For the latest news, click here.
Trump says he's firing José Andrés, Mark Milley and two others from advisory committees
Early Tuesday morning, Trump said on his Truth Social account that he's firing José Andrés from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council.
He also dismissed former U.S. special representative to Iran, Brian Hook, from the Wilson Center for Scholars and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President’s Export Council.
"You're fired!" he wrote in all caps.
Biden issued a pre-emptive pardon for Milley yesterday morning after Trump had made threatening remarks about him.
Andrés responded on X saying that he had already submitted his resignation last week and that his two-year term was already up.
Marco Rubio refuses to comment to Trump's pardons of Jan. 6 rioters
Newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio refused to comment this morning on Trump's pardons of 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters despite saying after the 2021 attack on the Capitol that it was "one of the saddest days in American history."
In an interview on NBC's "TODAY" show, Rubio was asked what message the pardons send to the rest of the world, but deflected the question as outside his foreign policy purview.
"We’re going to focus on what makes America stronger and more prosperous and safer," Rubio said. "I’m not going to engage in domestic political debates. I can’t in the role of State Department. My job is to focus on the president’s foreign policy."
Pressed again to react to the pardons, Rubio said, “My days at least in the time I’m at Department of State, my engaging in domestic politics will be put aside as I focus on the affairs of the United States has around the world."
Rubio said he's going to be working on foreign policy issues and criticized host Craig Melvin for asking questions about domestic politics.
After the Jan. 6 riot, Rubio put the attack in foreign policy terms. "Today, America looks like the countries that they came here to get away from. Vladimir Putin loved everything that happened today, because what happened is better than anything he could have ever come up with to make us look like we're falling apart," he said."
Trump to meet with congressional leaders today
Republican House and Senate leaders are expected to meet with Trump today, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters yesterday.
The meeting will be at the White House in the afternoon, a congressional leadership source familiar with the meeting told NBC News.
Birthright citizenship and other Trump executive actions likely to face pushback from the courts
Trump’s plan to roll back the constitutionally protected right to birthright citizenship is just one of several contentious executive actions that are likely to face pushback from judges and could be struck down by the Supreme Court.
Other policies that could be legally vulnerable include a plan to invoke an 18th century law called the Alien Enemies Act to round up and deport certain immigrants, legal experts said. Efforts to re-allocate congressional funding to build a border wall and refusing to spend money appropriated by Congress for environmental policies would also most likely be challenged.
Civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general are likely to sue over a number of Trump policies. In fact, lawsuits were filed challenging Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency within minutes of his taking the oath of office.
But not all lawsuits are created equal, and many will fail.
National Education Association says executive orders will hurt students
Trump's actions “hurt students, public schools, and communities,” the head of the nation's largest teacher's union has said in response to the president's slew of executive orders.
"Rather than listen to parents or work with educators to strengthen public schools, he is prioritizing the extreme Project 2025 playbook that aims to divide us," National Education Association President Becky Pringle said in a statement last night, refering to the conservative policy blueprint.
The National Education Association is one of the largest labor unions in the country, representing more than 3 million people. Among its members are public school teachers, retired educators, higher education faculty and school administrators.
One of Trump's executive orders yesterday proclaimed that the U.S. government would end diversity, equity and inclusion programs inside federal agencies, while another proclaimed the U.S. would recognize only two sexes, male and female.
Pringle said students "need to be respected for who they are, no matter their race, place, background, sexual orientation, or gender identity," adding that it is important to learn both the "good and bad of our history."
Refugee program suspension puts Afghan allies at risk, advocacy group warns
Thousands of Afghans cleared to resettle in the U.S. are facing flight cancellations after Trump ordered the suspension of refugee programs, a refugee resettlement advocate said.
They include unaccompanied minors, family members of active-duty U.S. service members and partner forces who fought alongside U.S. troops against the Taliban, in some cases saving their lives, said Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of U.S. veterans and advocacy groups.
“It’s unconscionable to abandon them,” he said, noting that many of those remaining in Afghanistan are at great risk there.
The suspension of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, which takes effect next Monday, is one of a series of immigration-related executive orders Trump issued yesterday. The order does not say when the suspension will end, only that it will last “until such time as the further entry into the United States of refugees aligns with the interests of the United States.”
VanDiver said the suspension would affect about 2,000 Afghans on the verge of being resettled in the coming months, and potentially tens of thousands of others still waiting in Afghanistan and other countries if the program is not reinstated. The Afghan refugees, who are extensively vetted, have been waiting for resettlement since the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces from Afghanistan in 2021.
Trump, who negotiated the withdrawal deal with the Taliban in his first term, was highly critical of the way it was handled by the Biden administration during the presidential campaign. During the transition, VanDiver said, his group and others repeatedly warned the Trump team that Afghan allies could be adversely affected by the suspension of refugee resettlement.
“We’re hoping that this was an oversight, and they’re going to fix it quickly,” he said.
World Health Organization says it hopes U.S. will reconsider withdrawing
The World Health Organization said it regretted Trump's decision to withdraw U.S. membership in the global agency and that it hoped the U.S. would reconsider.
"WHO plays a crucial role in protecting the health and security of the world’s people, including Americans, by addressing the root causes of disease, building stronger health systems, and detecting, preventing and responding to health emergencies, including disease outbreaks," the Geneva-based agency said in a statement, noting that the U.S. was a founding member in 1948.
The withdrawal was one of a flurry of executive orders Trump issued after his inauguration yesterday. He had criticized the agency's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, accused it of being politically influenced by member states and complained that U.S. payments were "unfairly onerous" compared with those made by larger countries such as China.
The agency said that with the participation of the U.S. and the other 193 member states, "WHO has over the past 7 years implemented the largest set of reforms in its history, to transform our accountability, cost-effectiveness, and impact in countries."
Trump calls North Korea a ‘nuclear power,’ drawing a rebuke from Seoul
Denuclearization of North Korea is a prerequisite for global stability, South Korea said Tuesday after President Donald Trump described the reclusive regime as a “nuclear power,” raising concern that the U.S. could be moving toward recognizing the North as a nuclear-armed state.
Since Trump was last in office, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has vowed to “exponentially” boost his nuclear arsenal and ramped up weapons testing, including of missiles that could potentially strike the continental United States and overwhelm U.S. treaty ally South Korea.
The newly inaugurated Trump, who met with Kim three times during his first term to discuss North Korea’s U.N.-sanctioned weapons programs, spoke enthusiastically Monday about his past relationship with Kim, saying they liked each other.
“Now, he is a nuclear power,” Trump said while signing a series of executive orders in the Oval Office. “I think he’ll be happy to see I’m coming back.”
China signals sanctions on Rubio won't be a problem
The Chinese government appears poised to overlook its sanctions against Marco Rubio now that he has been confirmed as Trump's secretary of state.
"China will firmly safeguard its national interests," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun said in response to a question from NBC News at a regular briefing in Beijing today. "At the same time, high-level officials of both China and the U.S. need to maintain contact in an appropriate manner."
Rubio, one of many China hard-liners in the new Trump administration, was among multiple U.S. individuals and companies sanctioned by the Chinese government in 2020 over their criticism of Beijing's actions in the Chinese territory of Hong Kong and the western Chinese region of Xinjiang. This is the first time that a secretary of state has been sanctioned by China.
American held in Afghanistan has been released, his family says
At least one American detained in Afghanistan was released amid the U.S. presidential transition, according to his family, in an apparent prisoner exchange with the Taliban.
The Taliban had confirmed that they were holding Ryan Corbett, an American arrested in Afghanistan in August 2022 and whom the State Department had classified as wrongfully detained.
“Today, our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” his family said in a statement on their website early Tuesday.
In a statement, the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs said “American citizens” had been released in exchange for Khan Muhammad, who was arrested in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar about two decades ago and who had been serving a life sentence in California.