SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Farrah Tomazin
Washington: The US will once again withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement, its military will be used to deport undocumented immigrants and almost everyone involved in the deadly January 6 Capitol attack will be pardoned for their crimes as Donald Trump embarks on one of the most expansive uses of presidential power in American history.
Within moments of being sworn in for a second term, the 47th US president unleashed a wave of executive orders allowing him to bypass Congress to deliver on his election promises, accusing the Biden administration of fuelling the nation’s “decline” over the past four years.
“America will soon be greater, stronger and far more exceptional than ever before,” he said in his inauguration speech as outgoing leaders Joe Biden and Kamala Harris sat stony-faced behind him.
“We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.”
He has also promised retribution against his political opponents and critics, and placed personal loyalty as a prime qualification for appointments to his administration.
Trump’s inauguration marks the first time a convicted felon has ever occupied the Oval Office. It is also the end of an era for Biden after a political career spanning almost half a century.
But hours before Trump vowed to pardon hundreds of people charged with storming the Capitol building in 2021, Biden issued his own set of pre-emptive pardons – most notably, for five members of his own family.
In a bid to protect more of his family members from potential revenge after issuing a pardon to his son Hunter last month, Biden issued pre-emptive pardons for his brother James Biden and his wife, Sara Jones Biden; his sister, Valerie Biden Owens and her husband, John Owens; and another brother, Francis Biden.
“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me – the worst kind of partisan politics,” the now-former president said in a statement issued during Trump’s inauguration speech.
The duelling pardons underpinned an extraordinary inauguration ceremony that Trump was forced to move indoors, from the steps of the US Capitol, due to freezing weather conditions in Washington.
The festivities began in the morning with a traditional church service at St John’s Episcopal Church opposite the White House.
Guests included media mogul Rupert Murdoch, tech billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Tesla chief executive and so-called “first buddy” Elon Musk.
Then the Trumps were off to the White House for morning tea with the outgoing president and wife Jill – yet another inauguration tradition.
“Welcome home,” Biden said to Trump after he stepped out of the car.
They then headed to the US Capitol rotunda where Vice President J.D. Vance was sworn in first, taking the oath read by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on a Bible given to him by his great-grandmother. Trump followed, using both a family Bible and the one used by president Abraham Lincoln at his 1861 inauguration as Chief Justice John Roberts administered his oath.
President Donald Trump attempts to kiss First Lady Melania Trump but is blocked by her hat.Credit: AP
There he vowed to usher in a new “golden age” and a “revolution of common sense”.
“The journey to reclaim our republic has not been an easy one,” he said, drawing on his extraordinary near-death experience last July at the hands of a would-be assassin.
“Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and, indeed, to take my life. Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”
President Donald Trump, center, gestures as he is joined on stage by Vice President JD Vance after being sworn in.Credit: AP
Declaring the government faced a “crisis of trust”, Trump claimed “a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal” and promised to “give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom”.
“From this moment on,” he added, “America’s decline is over.”
On immigration, Trump vowed to declare a national emergency at the US-Mexico border, send in the military to guard it, and promised to designate criminal cartels as terror groups.
He also issued orders to overhaul the public service by eliminating diversity programs; end work-from-home policies; and hit pause for 75 days on a law banning TikTok unless it divests from its Chinese-based company, ByteDance.
But it was his decision to grant blanket pardons to about 1500 Capitol riot defendants and to commute the sentences of 14 that shocked observers the most, given Trump had initially suggested he would limit the pardons to non-violent offenders.
More than 140 police officers were injured in the 2021 attack, in which Trump told supporters to “fight like hell” to stop Biden’s victory from being certified. The riots also led directly and indirectly to the deaths of several Trump supporters and police officers.
“These are the hostages, approximately 1500 for a pardon, full pardon,” Trump said, during remarks from the Oval Office. “This is a big one.”
The mother of Enrique Tarrio, a leader of the far-right Proud Boys militant organisation who was sentenced to 22 years’ prison over the January 6 attack said her son was ready to come home.
“He’s very excited,” Duarte Tarrio told Florida news website local10.com. “It’s surreal to him. He’s ready to go.”
However, former Democrat House speaker Nancy Pelosi, who refused to attend Trump’s inauguration, described the move as an “outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress and the Constitution”.
Biden and Trump, who have spent years bitterly criticising each other, shared a limousine on the way to the Capitol. After the ceremony, Trump walked with Biden to the building’s east, where Biden departed via helicopter to begin his post-presidential life.
President Donald Trump shakes hands with former President Joe Biden after being sworn in.Credit: AP
Trump then headed to Capital One Arena in downtown Washington, where 20,000 fans had watched his inauguration on livestream.
On stage, he greeted family members of Israeli hostages released by Hamas this week, and lashed out at Biden for leading the “worst administration in history”.
Former President Joe Biden and Jill Biden, aboard a Marine helicopter, lift off from the US Capitol en route to Joint Base Andrews.Credit: AP
He then signed a swath of executive orders at the stadium, and later at the Oval Office, before heading to three inauguration balls: the Commander in Chief Inaugural Ball, for military members; the Liberty Inaugural Ball where rapper Nelly, country singer Jason Aldean and disco legends the Village People were scheduled to perform; and the Starlight Ball, an event for high-dollar donors.
