With the exception of the presidential election last November, no period will be more full of political headlines than the weeks just past and the few weeks ahead. The transition from one administration to another on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2025, was both politically momentous and historic. This is especially true when the two political parties are handing over power from one to the other.
It’s fair to say that Americans are most interested in Trump's first day actions in the form of executive orders, policy statements and moves that will be made in the days ahead. We cover that in detail below. But Inauguration Day for a new president is also the final day for the outgoing president. We'll begin with a quick look at Joe Biden's final desperate acts.
Biden remained true to form as a dirty political hack who seemed not to know where he was or what he was doing but could at least sign any document shoved in front of his face by his far-left-wing staff. Among his last-minute acts were blanket pardons of some of the worst criminals of the past four years.
Most egregious were Biden's pardons of members of the Biden Crime Family including his brothers Frankie and Jim, his sister Valerie and their spouses. The reasons for this are clear. The Biden money laundering and tax evasion operations that were ancillary to the main bribery operation required various parties to open bank accounts, receive wires, write checks to the Big Guy, and otherwise blur the paper trail on the corruption. That's where family members including spouses and children came in.
Of course, Hunter Biden was the main bagman and shakedown artist, but he was pardoned last month. Now the cover-up of the Bidens receiving bribes from China, Ukraine and even Russia in exchange for selling out U.S. national security is complete.
These pardons also included Liz Cheney, who was credibly suspected of witness tampering in connection with the January 6, 2021 (J6) committee hearings. Also pardoned was public health official Anthony Fauci, who financed the creation of the pandemic virus in a bioweapons lab in Wuhan, China and later forced Americans to take a fake mRNA vaccine that was really an experimental gene-modification therapy.
Fauci's fake vaccine side effects caused millions of deaths and injuries covered up by his own agencies. He may have been the worst medical criminal since German doctor Josef Mengele (known as the Angel of Death) for his inhuman experiments in the Nazi death camps.
Fauci and Cheney were among the best known of those suspected criminals who received pardons. But the most egregious pardons were granted to individuals most Americans have never heard of.
At the top of that list is Mary McCord. She was an Assistant U.S. Attorney and congressional staffer. Here's a short list of her actions: She submitted the fraudulent FISA application to spy on Trump. She ginned-up the ancient Logan Act charges against General Michael Flynn. She worked with Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler on the Trump impeachment committee. She was a staff attorney to the kangaroo court J6 Committee. She worked with Fani Willis to push criminal charges against Trump in Fulton County, Georgia. McCord also worked with Jack Smith in the J6 prosecution of Trump. It's difficult to think of anyone who did more harm and launched more attacks on Trump than Mary McCord. She has now been pardoned by Joe Biden.
Pardons were not the only last day damage done by the Biden team. His Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announced $22.9 billion in loan guarantees to Green New Scam energy projects. Over $14 billion of those guarantees went to companies in Granholm's home state of Michigan to reward her political supporters going back to her 2006 campaign for governor of Michigan. Most such loans are never repaid. The recipients skim the proceeds in the form of benefits and dividends and then leave the company in bankruptcy with U.S. taxpayers holding the bag.
So, yes, January 20, 2025, was a big day for Trump and MAGA. But it was also a busy day for Joe Biden, his crime family and his corrupt associates as they looted the country and covered their tracks one last time.
Now, for more pleasant news. The pomp and circumstance surrounding Trump's inauguration were spectacular and gave Americans something to be proud of (and reason to breathe a sigh of relief) after four years of Biden lies, incompetence and falling down stairs. But for our purposes, we want to focus on his substantive legal and policy actions more than the marching bands and ballroom dancing.
Trump signed over 60 Executive Orders (EOs) and proclamations on January 20th. He will likely sign 100 more in the coming days. This was happening so quickly; it was hard to keep up.
He signed a batch of EOs before even leaving the Capitol after being sworn in. He signed another pile of EOs (each in a handsome dark blue leather binder with the presidential seal stamped in gold on the cover) in front of a crowd of supporters at the Capitol One Arena in downtown Washington. Then he signed another thirty or so EOs in the Oval Office while conducting an impromptu press conference during the signing. When asked by Trump, one reporter admitted that the number of times Joe Biden had conducted such a press conference was "zero."
It will take days to digest the full import of these EOs and others on the way. Here are the highlights of what Trump did on Day One:
Declare drug cartels to be terrorists. This is more than pro forma. It allows the president to use the national security apparatus (satellite surveillance, electronic intercepts, special operations, foreign intelligence sharing, etc.) instead of being limited to traditional law enforcement.Declare a national emergency at the southern border. Again, this allows special measures including the use of the U.S. military to fight illegal border crossers.End the "catch and release" border enforcement policy. From now on, those apprehended crossing the border illegally will be deported immediately or put into detention.Direct the U.S. military to work with the Department of Homeland Security to fully secure the southern border.Put an end to offshore wind leases. This is the beginning of the end of the Green New Scam. It will also stop the killing of whales from sonic seabed testing.Open Alaska to drilling for oil and natural gas. "Drill, baby, drill."Terminate the electric vehicle (EV) mandate. EVs will still be around but they will lose government subsidies and government mandated purchase and use.Withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. This will end efforts to transfer trillions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers to corrupt third world countries under the banner of "climate change." Another nail in the coffin of the Green New Scam.Withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO is controlled by Communist China and directed by an African terrorist leader. WHO was working on a global health passport that would control the movements of U.S. citizens. Now that's over. WHO is on their own without U.S. funds and without U.S. support.A complete freeze on new government hiring with limited exceptions.Federal workers will have to report to the office in person. No more "work from home," which has continued for years after the pandemic was over.Shut down the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) app that allowed illegal immigrants to make appointments at ports of entry where they would be granted entry into the U.S. Outstanding appointments will be cancelled and applicants will be denied entry.Put an end to DEI in favor of merit-based hiring and promotion. Trump also declared that there are only two sexes - male and female - and all other assumed "genders" do not exist. This will keep men out of women's sports, lockers rooms and showers. This order goes beyond sports to include prisons, schools and any other facilities where a distinction based on genetic sex is appropriate.Trump will resume construction of the border wall immediately.Trump pardoned over 1,600 J6 defendants and ordered that those in prison be released immediately. He directed his Chief of Staff to begin the releases as early as the evening of Inauguration Day if possible.Trump said that the 80,000 new IRS agents hired by Biden would be ordered to stop targeting American taxpayers. He mused that "maybe we can put them to work on the border."Trump also signed more broadly worded EOs that eliminated "government censorship of free speech" and the "weaponization of government" against "political adversaries of the previous administration."Trump made a number of important policy statements during the impromptu press conference held simultaneously with signing EOs in the Oval Office.
He said that he would put 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico on February 1, 2025, but that those tariffs might be increased once more time had been given to study specific imports and their impact on U.S. industry.
He said that he expected to visit China this year and would meet with Vladimir Putin in the near future to pursue an end to the War in Ukraine.
In other news, Marco Rubio was confirmed as Secretary of State in a 99-0 Senate vote. Pete Hegseth's nomination as Secretary of Defense advanced to a full Senate vote and he is expected to be confirmed in the coming days.
Other nominations are proceeding smoothly. Trump's full cabinet should be confirmed by next week, which is a significant improvement in the tempo of confirmations compared to Trump's first term in 2017.
As a precaution, Trump named loyalists as Acting Secretaries of numerous Cabinet level agencies so that Deep State actors cannot run these agencies even briefly while the confirmations are being approved.
On the whole, it was a mind-boggling display of determination to undo the damage caused by the Biden administration and to set America on a new course toward energy independence, respect for merit, secure borders and a return to the rule of law.
We'll be covering these initiatives and many more to come in the days and weeks ahead. It is truly a new "golden age" for America as Trump declared in his second inaugural address. Not all will go smoothly during Trump's administration. But Day One was a good day for our country.
The Daily Reckoning