First lady Melania Trump, President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance attend the Commander in Chief Ball, part of the 60th Presidential Inauguration, in Washington on Monday. | AP/PTI
LIVE | Day 1 of Trump 2.0: Migrants stranded as US tightens security on southern border
No move yet on F-1, H-1B visas; undocumented migrants anxious as Trump moves to realise pledge of mass deportations of 11 million people living in US illegally
Freshly inaugurated American President Donald J Trump on Monday (January 20) promised a blitz of executive orders as he announced the beginning of a "golden age" of America.
In a fiery inaugural address, 78-year-old Trump laid out his vision for the next four years, described January 20, 2025 as the "liberation day" for the US and declared that "America's decline is over" as he will bring changes "very quickly".
Trump signed executive orders to beef up security at the southern border that began taking effect hours after he was inaugurated, making good on his defining political promise to crack down on immigration and marking another wild swing in White House policy on the divisive issue.
Some of the orders revive priorities from his first administration that his predecessor had rolled back, including forcing asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico and finishing the border wall. Others created sweeping new strategies, like an effort to end automatic citizenship for anyone born in America, pulling the military into border security and ending use of a Biden-era app used by nearly a million migrants to enter America.
However, there is no word yet on the policy changes in the issuance of H-1B and other work visas.
In locations like Tijuana in Mexico, migrants from Haiti, Venezuela and around the world were seen waiting for their appointments to legally enter the US.
But US Customs and Border Protection announced Monday that the CBP One app that worked as recently as that morning would no longer be used to admit migrants after facilitating entry for nearly 1 million people since January 2023. Tens of thousands of appointments that were scheduled into February were canceled, applicants were told.
Here is Trump's speech's full text
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Read updates below
Live Updates
- 21 Jan 2025 10:46 AM IST
Canada ‘ready to respond’ if Trump follows through with sweeping tariffs
Top Canadian ministers have said that Canada will be ready to retaliate after President Donald Trump said he was thinking of imposing a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico on February 1.
Trump has been threatening to impose sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico and other trading partners.
“We’re thinking in terms of 25% on Mexico and Canada,” Trump said late Monday night in the Oval Office. “I think February 1st.”
Trump pledged in his inaugural address that tariffs would be coming and said foreign countries would be paying the trade penalties, even though those taxes are currently paid by domestic importers and often passed along to consumers.
Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said they “will continue to work on preventing tariffs” but said they are also “working on retaliation”. Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said Trump can be unpredictable.
“None of this should be surprising,” he said. “Our country is absolutely ready to respond to any one of these scenarios.” Canadian leaders earlier expressed relief the tariffs were not imposed on the first day of Trump taking office.
Canada is one of the most trade-dependent countries in the world, and 75% of Canada's exports, which include automobiles and parts, go to the US.
Canada is the top export destination for 36 US states. Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian (US$2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day.
Despite Trump’s claim that the US doesn’t need Canada, a quarter of the oil America consumes per day is from there.
“It would be a mistake for the American government to proceed with imposing tariffs, in terms of the cost living in the United States, in terms of jobs in the United States and the security of supply chains,” LeBlanc said.
- 21 Jan 2025 8:51 AM IST
Trump not confident ceasefire in Gaza will hold
Trump said Hamas is weakened, but he's hardly certain that the temporary truce between Israel and Hamas will hold.
“I'm not confident,” Trump told reporters. “That's not our war. It's their war.” He said that his administration “might” help rebuild Gaza, which he compared to a “massive demolition site.” “Some beautiful things could be done with it,” said Trump, the real estate developer turned commander in chief, noting the territory's coastline and “phenomenal” weather and location.
“Some fantastic things could be done with Gaza. Some beautiful things could be done with Gaza.”
- 21 Jan 2025 8:50 AM IST
Trump signs death penalty order directing attorney general to help states get lethal injection drugs
Trump signed a sweeping execution order on the death penalty Monday, directing the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions.
In the order signed in the first hours of his return to the White House, Trump said “politicians and judges who oppose capital punishment have defied and subverted the laws of our country.” A moratorium on federal executions had been in place since 2021, and only three defendants remain on federal death row after Democratic President Joe Biden converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison.
The Trump administration carried out 13 federal executions during Trump's first term, more than under any president in modern history.
- 21 Jan 2025 8:50 AM IST
Trump says tariffs on Canada could be slapped on Feb 1
Canadian leaders expressed relief Monday that broad tariffs were not applied to Canadian products on the first day of Donald Trump's presidency, but Trump later said he could impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canada and Mexico on February 1.
Trump has been threatening to impose sweeping tariffs on Canada, Mexico and other trading partners. An incoming White House official who insisted on anonymity pointed reporters on Monday morning to a Wall Street Journal story saying Trump will only sign a memorandum telling federal agencies to study trade issues.
Still, Trump pledged in his inaugural address that tariffs would be coming and said foreign countries would be paying the trade penalties, even though those taxes are currently paid by domestic importers and often passed along to consumers.
“We're thinking in terms of 25 per cent on Mexico and Canada,” Trump said Monday night in the Oval Office. “I think February 1st." Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc earlier said reprieve is too strong of a word but said he felt good.
“If they decide to take a close look at the US Canadian relationship when it comes to trade that's a very good thing,” LeBlanc said at a Cabinet retreat in Montebello, Quebec. “Both countries are stronger and more secure when we respect and honour the comprehensive free trade agreement.” Trump said he would establish an external revenue service to collect all tariffs, duties and revenues and that it would lead to “massive amounts of money pouring into our country coming from foreign sources.” Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly said they are “very cautious” but they know they can make sure it is a win-win relationship.
- 21 Jan 2025 8:48 AM IST
Trump signs executive order to protect free speech
Trump on Monday signed an executive order directing government agencies not to infringe on the free speech of Americans.
“In America, we believe in free speech and we're bringing it back starting today to stop the weaponisation,” Trump said before signing the executive order at the Capitol One Arena.
The executive order is to immediately end the federal government's censorship of the American people, he said.
Over the last four years, the previous administration trampled free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms, often by exerting substantial coercive pressure on third parties, such as social media companies, to moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech that the federal government did not approve, the executive order said.
Under the guise of combatting “misinformation”, “disinformation”, and “malinformation”, the federal government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the US. , it said. Government censorship of speech is intolerable in a free society, it added.
The executive order said it is the policy of the United States to secure the rights of the American people to engage in constitutionally protected speech; and ensure that no federal government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.
- 21 Jan 2025 8:47 AM IST
Trump signs executive order extending TikTok operations for 75 days
Trump on Monday signed an executive order that extended the operations of TikTok, the Chinese controlled video short sharing platform, by 75 days, during which he plans to pursue a resolution that protects national security while saving a platform used by 170 million Americans.
“I am instructing the attorney general not to take any action to enforce the Act for a period of 75 days from today to allow my Administration an opportunity to determine the appropriate course forward in an orderly way that protects national security while avoiding an abrupt shutdown of a communications platform used by millions of Americans,” said the executive order signed by Trump.
Signed into law by Joe Biden in April last year, the bill passed by wide bipartisan majorities in the House and the Senate gave TikTok’s parent company ByteDance 270 days to divest from the app or face a ban from US app stores.
January 19 was the last date for this.
The popular video sharing app went dark on January 18, but it restored its services after Trump promised to extend its deadline a day later.
- 21 Jan 2025 8:45 AM IST
What Melania Trump wore to inauguration - including the hat
While red baseball caps have become synonymous with Trump, first lady Melania Trump made her own millinery-related fashion statement, sporting a navy wide-brimmed hat by an American designer on Inauguration Day.
The hat, designed by Eric Javits, shielded the first lady's eyes as her husband was sworn in Monday for the second time. Javits said dressing the first lady has been one of the greatest honours of his career.
“My art background gave me an edge in bringing harmony and balance to the face by creating hat shapes that would flatter and enhance every kind of face,” he said in a statement.
“In this specific case that was not difficult to do, in that Mrs Trump is blessed with great bone structure, beauty and a wonderful sense of style.” The hat made its mark throughout the inauguration ceremony: As Trump went to kiss his wife after entering the Capitol Rotunda, the hat left only room for an air kiss. Even now-former President Joe Biden had to navigate around the hat while trying to talk to her husband on the other side.
Trump, speaking in Emancipation Hall after the swearing-in ceremony, joked about his wife's hat nearly blowing away. The first lady had held onto her hat as a military helicopter taking off with Biden generated wind.
“She almost blew away,” Trump said with a laugh. “She was being elevated off the ground.” In a departure from 2017's sky blue cashmere dress and gloves by Ralph Lauren, this time, Melania Trump paired a muted navy silk wool coat with a navy skirt and an ivory silk crepe blouse underneath, all by independent American designer Adam Lippes.
- 21 Jan 2025 8:43 AM IST
Trump suspends US foreign assistance for 90 days pending reviews
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday temporarily suspending all US foreign assistance programmes for 90 days pending reviews to determine whether they are aligned with his policy goals.
It was not immediately clear how much assistance would initially be affected by the order as funding for many programs has already been appropriated by Congress and is obligated to be spent, if not already spent.
The order, among many Trump signed on his first day back in office, said the “foreign aid industry and bureaucracy are not aligned with American interests and in many cases antithetical to American values” and “serve to destabilise world peace by promoting ideas in foreign countries that are directly inverse to harmonious and stable relations internal to and among countries.”
Consequently, Trump declared that “no further United States foreign assistance shall be disbursed in a manner that is not fully aligned with the foreign policy of the President of the United States.”
