Trump pardons Jan. 6 rioters, ends Biden executive actions and withdraws from climate pact on Day 1

Donald Trump on Monday issued pardons for about 1,500 people charged over the Jan. 6 attack, hours after he was inaugurated as U.S. president for a second time. He also commuted six others' sentences.

The pardons fulfil a campaign promise Trump made to release supporters who tried to violently overturn his election defeat four years ago.

"These are the hostages," he said while signing the paperwork in the Oval Office. 

Asked when he would impose his proposed trade tariffs on Canada on Mexico, Trump said, "I think we'll do it" on Feb 1. 

Trump also signed a number of executive orders including withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization; a hiring freeze and a requirement that federal workers return to full-time, in-person work; rescinding orders that promoted and protected 2SLGBTQ+ people and racial minorities; adding Cuba back to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism; and an order seeking a 75-day delay on the enforcement of a TikTok ban.

Trump completed his stunning political comeback Monday when he was sworn in as the 47th U.S. president, during which he promised tariffs, deportations and a new approach to race and gender.

In his inaugural address inside the Capitol Rotunda in Washington, Trump began laying out the details of his first-day executive orders.

First up was declaring a national emergency at the southern border. He said he will send troops to the border and begin deporting "illegal" immigrants. Trump promised to designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expel gangs as quickly as possible.

Trump referred in passing to his plan to impose trade penalties but remained vague. "We will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens," he said.

He promised to undo Biden's green energy policies, including an electric vehicle mandate, and to "Drill, baby, drill" more oil.

Trump said his government's view will be that there are only "two genders: male and female." He also vowed to end the effort to "socially engineer race" into every aspect of public and private life and "forge a society that is colour-blind and merit-based."

Trump overcame impeachments, criminal indictments and two assassination attempts to win his second term in the White House, during which his Republican party will take control of Washington.

Trump is only the second president in American history to serve non-consecutive terms and the first felon to hold the most powerful political office in the world. He took the oath during an unusually small ceremony in the rotunda away from the general public, after it was moved indoors due to cold weather. 

The 78-year-old's speech was more optimistic than the one he gave during his 2017 inauguration. He started by saying, "The golden age of America begins right now," and later added, "From this moment on, America's decline is over."