Trump issues pardons for participants in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump issued pardons for participants in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, one of his first acts after being sworn in as the country’s 47th president on Monday.

The pardons fulfilled Trump’s promise to release supporters who tried to help him overturn his election defeat four years ago.

“These are the hostages,” he said while signing the paperwork in the Oval Office. Trump said he hopes many are released shortly.

His desk was covered with executive orders for increasing border security, designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, limiting birthright citizenship and establishing a task force for reducing the size of the federal government. It was an aggressive start for Trump’s second presidency as he claimed a mandate to reshape American institutions and unravel Joe Biden’s legacy.

While sitting at the desk, a reporter asked if Biden left him a note, a tradition during presidential transitions. Trump looked in a drawer and found an envelope.

“Maybe we should all read it together?” Trump joked when holding it up for the cameras. He didn’t open the envelope.

Trump began signing executive orders onstage at a downtown arena earlier in the day as thousands of supporters cheered, melding the theatrics of his campaign rallies with the formal powers of the presidency. He froze the issuing of new regulations, asserted his control over the federal workforce and withdrew from the Paris climate agreement.

Trump also rescinded dozens of directives issued by Biden, including those relating to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, global warming and sanctioning Israeli settlers involved in violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. When finished, he tossed the pens into the crowd.

“We won, we won, but now the work begins,” Trump said before a crowd of people in “Make America Great Again” hats.

The Republican president abandoned the more solemn tone of his inaugural address from earlier in the day and taunted his Democratic predecessor while scrawling his name in thick black ink on his executive orders.

“Could you imagine Biden doing this?” he said. “I don’t think so!”

In the four years since losing to Biden, Trump overcame impeachments, criminal indictments and a pair of assassination attempts to win another term in the White House, and his re-ascendence was fervently welcomed by his followers.

“We all believe God’s hand has been on this man to be elected,” said Pam Pollard, 65, a longtime Republican official from Oklahoma.

Trump declared in his inaugural address that the government faces a “crisis of trust.” Under his administration, he said, “our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced.”

Trump claimed “a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal,” promising to “give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom.”

“From this moment on,” he added as Biden watched from the front row, “America’s decline is over.”

Also present at the ceremony was Vice President Kamala Harris, who replaced Biden on the ballot after he abandoned his reelection bid last summer, only to be defeated by Trump in the general election.

Trump’s executive orders are the first step in what he called “the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense.” Other goals will prove more difficult, perhaps testing the patience of supporters who were promised quick success. Trump has talked about lowering prices after years of inflation, but his plans for tariffs on imports from foreign countries could have the opposite effect.

Frigid weather rewrote the pageantry of the day. Trump’s swearing-in was moved indoors to the Capitol Rotunda — the first time that has happened in 40 years — and the inaugural parade was replaced by an event with marching bands at Capital One Arena. Trump supporters who descended on the city to watch the ceremony outside the Capitol from the National Mall were left to find other places to view the festivities.

At the Capitol, Vice President JD 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. Chief Justice John Roberts administered his oath.

A cadre of billionaires and tech titans — including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai — were given prominent positions in the Rotunda, mingling with Trump’s incoming team before the ceremony began. It was a striking display of wealth for a president who is a billionaire himself but branded himself as a working-class crusader.

Before going to the Capitol, Trump and his wife, Melania, were greeted at the White House by Biden and first lady Jill Biden for the customary tea and coffee reception. It was a stark departure from four years ago, when Trump refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory or attend his inauguration.

“Welcome home,” Biden said to Trump after the president-elect stepped out of the car. The two presidents, who have spent years bitterly criticizing each other, shared a limo to the Capitol. After the inaugural ceremony, Trump walked with Biden to the building’s east side, where Biden departed via helicopter to begin his post-presidential life.

Trump followed Biden’s departure with freewheeling remarks to supporters, revisiting a litany of conspiracy theories about voter fraud and grievances against perceived enemies such as former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, whom he called “a crying lunatic.”

He spoke for even longer than in his inaugural address, saying, “I think this is a better speech than the one I gave upstairs.”

Trump’s inauguration realized a political comeback without precedent in American history. Four years ago, he was voted out of the White House during an economic collapse caused by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Trump denied his defeat and tried to cling to power. He directed his supporters to march on the Capitol while lawmakers were certifying the election results, sparking a riot that interrupted the country’s tradition of the peaceful transfer of power.

But Trump never lost his grip on the Republican Party and was undeterred by criminal cases and two assassination attempts as he steamrolled rivals and harnessed voters’ exasperation with inflation and illegal immigration.

Now Trump is the first person convicted of a felony — for falsifying business records related to hush money payments — to serve as president. He pledged to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution from the same spot that was overrun by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021.

Eight years after he first entered the White House as a political newcomer, Trump is far more familiar with the operations of federal government and emboldened to bend it to his vision. He has also promised retribution against his political opponents and critics, and placed personal loyalty as a prime qualification for appointments to his administration.

With minutes to go before leaving office, Biden issued preemptive pardons to his siblings and their spouses to shield them from the possibility of prosecution. Earlier in the day, he also pardoned current and former government officials who have been the target of Trump’s anger. Biden said “these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.”

Trump has pledged to go further and move faster in enacting his agenda than during his first term, and already the country’s political, business and technology leaders have realigned themselves to accommodate him.

Democrats who once formed a “resistance” are now divided over whether to work with Trump or defy him. Billionaires have lined up to meet with Trump as they acknowledge his unrivaled power in Washington and his ability to wield the levers of government to help or hurt their interests.

Long skeptical of American alliances, Trump’s “America First” foreign policy is being watched warily at home and abroad as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will soon enter its third year, and a fragile ceasefire appears to be holding in Gaza after more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas. Trump, who had promised to end the Ukraine war even before he was sworn in, did not mention the conflict in his inaugural address.

Trump said he would lead a government that “expands our territory,” a reference to his goals of acquiring Greenland from Denmark and restoring U.S. control of the Panama Canal.

He also said he would “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars” by launching American astronauts to Mars. Musk, the owner of a space rocket company with billions of dollars in federal contracts, cheered and pumped his arms above his head as Trump spoke.

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AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro, and Associated Press writers Josh Boak, Lindsey Bahr, Will Weissert and Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump.

Zeke Miller, Chris Megerian And Michelle L. Price, The Associated Press