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President Donald Trump has vowed to be a peacemaker in his new term, but his aggressive early actions threaten to alienate US friends in a way that could hinder his ambitions, experts say.In an inaugural address on Monday, Trump said that his “proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and a unifier” and pointed to his support for a new ceasefire in Gaza.Speaking to reporters as he returned to the White House after four years, Trump also suggested he would press Russia to make a deal to end its three-year invasion of Ukraine, quipping that President Vladimir Putin — with whom he had famously warm relations in the past — knows he is “destroying” his own country.But in the throwback to the bedlam of his 2017-2021 term, Trump’s return was also consumed by rage over grievances at home, and the most memorable foreign-policy line of his inaugural address was a vow to take back the Panama Canal, which the United States returned in 1999 but where Trump charges that China has gained too strong a foothold.Trump has also spoken of seizing Greenland from NATO ally Denmark, moved to send the military to the Mexican border to stop migration, vowed tariffs even against close allies and announced the withdrawal of the United States from the World Health Organization and Paris climate accord, both home to almost every other country.”Trump’s worldview seems to be contradictory. He has a streak that is pro-peace and another streak which seems more confrontational and militarist,” said Benjamin Friedman, policy director at Defense Priorities, which advocates restraint.During his first stint in power, Trump ordered a strike that killed senior Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani and vowed confrontation with China, although he also boasted of keeping US troops out of new wars and sought diplomacy with North Korea.”In the first term, the more confrontational and militarist streak won out more often than not” on tension spots such as Iran, Friedman said.This time, he said, at least on Ukraine and the Middle East, Trump appears to have shifted to a more progressive stance.But on Latin America, and in his selection of aides with hawkish views on China, Trump remains hawkish, Friedman said.He said that Trump essentially had a 19th-century philosophy in line with populist president Andrew Jackson, feeling a comfort with threatening the use of force to achieve national interests.Such a way of thinking, for Trump, “isn’t consistent necessarily with being a peacemaker or a warmonger” but rather is a mix.- Lesson from China? -Trump made no clear mention of US allies on his inaugural day. In the past he has described NATO allies as freeloaders and pushed them to pay more for their own security.However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was meeting Tuesday with counterparts from Japan, India and Australia — the so-called Quad of democracies which China sees as an effort to contain its rise.Jon Alterman, a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that Trump should be mindful of lessons from China, whose assertive “Wolf Warrior” diplomacy brought together a number of Asian countries on the receiving end.”It would be a profound shift if the United States went from being seen as the principal provider of security to being the principal source on uncertainty,” Alterman said.Trump, as he seeks to negotiate deals, “has an interest in keeping friendly countries on his side,” Alterman said.Kori Schake, who served in senior defense planning roles under former president George W. Bush, said it was too early to tell the impact of Trump’s “chaos” on peacemaking and said that early actions could have been even more severe.”But the actions he did take are still damaging. Withdrawing from the World Health Organization will give us less warning of emergent disease,” she said.”Antagonizing Panama is counterproductive and will fan anti-Americanism throughout the hemisphere,” she said.

Elon Musk’s hand gestures at an inauguration event for US President Donald Trump, which quickly drew comparisons to Nazi salutes, appear to have resonated in some far-right extremist spaces online.Several neo-Nazi leaders have shared clips of the viral moment from Musk’s Monday speech, in which the billionaire brought his hand to his chest and extended it straight out, twice, before saying: “My heart goes out to you.””Donald Trump White Power moment,” the head of a neo-Nazi group in Australia wrote on Telegram, in one of several posts AFP reviewed.Many people, including several historians, have likened the movement to the “sieg heil” used by Nazi leader Adolf Hitler — criticism that Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, has dismissed as “dirty tricks” and “propaganda.”On the neo-Nazi forum Stormfront, a user posted an image of Musk striking the pose under text reading, “Heil Hitler.”A chapter of the far-right Proud Boys militia group, whose members were among those Trump pardoned Monday for storming the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, also shared video of the moment on Telegram.The group offered a slightly different message: “Hail Trump!””There is no question among white supremacists that Musk was making a Nazi salute,” Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told AFP.Beirich said far-right figures were “more than thrilled” and that “generally, they believe Musk’s raised arm is an endorsement of their beliefs.”The University of Virginia’s T. Kenny Fountain, who studies rhetoric and extremism, said that Musk’s “intention is important, but so is reception.””If an eager audience interprets this gesture as a meaningful acknowledgment, we are in dangerous territory,” Fountain wrote on Bluesky. “Unsurprisingly, it seems many on the far-right are reading it that way.”Andrew Torba, founder of the social media platform Gab, posted a photo of Musk and wrote, “Incredible things are happening already.”Christopher Pohlhaus, the leader of the neo-Nazi group Blood Tribe, shared a side-by-side video edit to Telegram that lined Musk’s movements up with footage of the group’s masked members making Nazi salutes while carrying swastika flags.Followers reacted with lightning bolt emojis, a reference to the Nazi regime’s SS paramilitaries.On Musk’s social media platform X, an anonymous account that has Hitler speeches pinned on its page shared another mashup video comparing Musk’s gesture to clips of Hitler.”Sieg Heil?? Are we so back?” the post says. It received more than 2 million views.

Donald Trump was forced Tuesday to sit through a sermon by a bishop begging him to have “mercy” on gays and poor immigrants as the Republican celebrated the start to his second term as US president.Trump scowled as the Washington National Cathedral’s Mariann Edgar Budde pleaded the case from the pulpit for LGBT people and illegal migrants — two groups that Trump targeted with executive orders within hours of being sworn in on Monday.Trump had gone to the traditional presidential service to commemorate his inauguration and was clearly not expecting the criticism.”I ask you to have mercy, Mr President,” the bishop said softly, evoking the “fear” that she said is felt across the country.”There are gay and lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families,” she said.”The people who pick our farms and clean our office buildings, who labor in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals — they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation,” she said.”But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”An unsmiling Trump, who sat in the first pew, looked back at Budde and sometimes away. His family and Vice President JD Vance seemed similarly surprised and displeased at the intervention.Asked later by a reporter for his reaction, Trump said: “I didn’t think it was a good service.””They could do much better.”Among scores of executive orders signed late Monday were measures to suspend the arrival of asylum seekers and expel migrants in the country illegally.Trump also decreed that only two sexes — male and female, but not transgender — will be recognized.

Donald Trump has claimed a mandate from God to reshape America — but the earthly powers of the US courts, a super-thin majority in Congress and foreign capitals may have other ideas.The Republican president unleashed a “shock and awe” blitz of executive orders in his first 24 hours back in power that overturned many of his predecessor Joe Biden’s policies.The question now is how many of the 78-year-old’s sweeping directives — on everything from immigration to gender, climate and the TikTok video app — will actually succeed.”The storm of executive orders from Trump — particularly those aimed at immigration and birthright citizenship — are probably going to end up as big constitutional losers,” veteran political strategist Mike Fahey told AFP.Many of Trump’s orders focused on immigration — including the declaration of a national emergency on the US southern border with Mexico.But the one ending the automatic right to citizenship for anyone born in the United States could cause him the most problems. The right is enshrined in the US Constitution, and has also been upheld by the US Supreme Court.Rights groups have already filed lawsuits against the move.”You could be right. You’ll find out,” Trump said Monday during an Oval Office signing ceremony when asked whether his birthright citizenship plans could be derailed.Another early target for lawsuits is the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, a cost-cutting agency headed by billionaire Elon Musk.- ‘Edges of executive power’ -Trump is far from the first US president to issue a flurry of orders to show policy wins from day one.And for America’s greatest political showman, the visuals may be as important as the substance. His pardons for more than 1,500 of the pro-Trump rioters who attacked the US Capitol in 2021 will also appeal to his supporters.”These types of changes are red meat for his base,” said Nicholas Jacobs, associate professor of government at Maine’s liberal arts Colby College.”While much of it is symbolic and will face legal challenges, it is exactly the type of dramatic action his supporters want to see.”But Trump’s blizzard of orders was exceptional and genuinely tests the limits of presidential power.Trump is feeling so emboldened by his election win that he even declared in his inaugural address that he was “saved by God to make America great again” after surviving an assassin’s bullet at a July campaign rally.”The basic nature and the sheer number of Trump’s Day One actions suggest a presidency that will press hard on the edges of executive power,” said Fahey.Trump will also try to get some of his executive orders enshrined by Congress to prevent a future president doing exactly what he has done to many of Biden’s prized achievements.But Trump’s tiny majority in the House of Representatives means passing any legislation will be a struggle.- ‘Biggest obstacle’ -The courts could be a still bigger problem, even if the US Supreme Court is now conservative-dominated thanks to Trump’s three appointments to the nine-member bench in his first term.”The biggest obstacle Trump faces in implementing his wide-ranging agenda is the legal system,” said political analyst Gerard Filitti, senior counsel at legal think tank The Lawfare Project.On the world stage, Trump is counting that a return of his disruptive style will force other countries to make deals — but that depends on whether they are ready to play the game.Trump said he would impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada, “take back” the Panama Canal and get Denmark to sell Greenland to the United States.On TikTok, he has ordered a 75-day pause on enforcing a law effectively banning TikTok in the US, as he floated an idea of partnering with the app’s Chinese owner.”I may do the deal or I may not do the deal,” Trump said.On his order to declare drug cartels as terrorist organizations, he said that “Mexico probably doesn’t want that but we have to do it.”Trump has even made out-of-this world promises, claiming it was America’s “manifest destiny” to “plant the Stars and Stripes” on the planet Mars.

Donald Trump’s nominee to represent Washington at the United Nations railed against “anti-Semitic rot” in the global organization as she was grilled by senators at her confirmation hearing on Tuesday.New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik noted that America contributes more to the UN than any other country and called for reform to ensure its tax dollars were not “propping up entities that are counter to American interests, anti-Semitic, or engaging in fraud, corruption or terrorism.”A right-wing firebrand who was considered a moderate before the Trump era, Stefanik is seen as one of the most vocal supporters in Congress of both Israel and US Jewish causes.”It’s one of the reasons why, in my conversation with President Trump, I was interested in this position — because if you look at the anti-Semitic rot within the United Nations, there are more resolutions targeting Israel than any other country, any other crisis, combined,” Stefanik told the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.Stefanik, 40, made the same criticism of the US higher education system as she touted her record of holding the feet of college administrators to the fire during aggressive questioning last year over anti-Semitism on campuses. “My oversight work led to the most viewed testimony in the history of Congress,” she said.”This hearing with university presidents was heard around the world and viewed billions of times, because it exposed the anti-Semitic rot in colleges and universities and was a watershed moment in American higher education.”Stefanik was pushed on her views on the war in Gaza, and noted that she voted to defund UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Former president Joe Biden halted its US funding over allegations that members were possibly involved in the October 7 Hamas attacks. Stefanik also revealed that she agreed with far-right Israeli ministers who believe Israel has a “biblical right to the entire West Bank” — but avoided being pinned down on whether she supported Palestinian self-determination.Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman is the only Democrat to have pledged his support for Stefanik, but others have indicated they may wave her through and she is expected to be confirmed with little drama in a vote of the full Senate. “If confirmed, I will work to ensure that our mission to the United Nations serves the interest of the American people, and represents American President Trump’s America First, peace-through-strength foreign policy,” she said.

US President Donald Trump’s sweeping pardons of Capitol rioters drew starkly contrasting reactions on Tuesday, largely embraced by his Republican supporters and vehemently condemned by Democrats.Former Democratic House speaker Nancy Pelosi denounced as “shameful” Trump’s pardons of participants in the January 6, 2021 attack on the congressional session held to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.”The president’s actions are 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,” Pelosi said.Michael Fanone, a former Washington police officer who was repeatedly shocked with a Taser and badly beaten by members of the pro-Trump mob, said he has been “betrayed by my country.””And I’ve been betrayed by those that supported Donald Trump,” Fanone told CNN. “The leader of the Republican Party pardoned hundreds of violent cop assaulters. Six individuals who assaulted me as I did my job on January 6… will now walk free.”Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, described Trump’s pardons of members of “a mob of Trump-inspired thugs” as a “national embarrassment.”But the pardons were welcomed by January 6 defendants and their Republican backers.Jacob Chansley, the “QAnon Shaman” who became one of the faces of the Capitol riot because of his red, white and blue facepaint, bare chest and unusual horned headgear, welcomed the pardon in a post on X.”I GOT A PARDON BABY! THANK YOU PRESIDENT TRUMP!!!” said Chansley. “J6ers are getting released & JUSTICE HAS COME…””God bless President Trump!!!” said far-right Republican lawmaker Marjorie Taylor Greene.”It’s finally over. J6’ers are being released,” Greene said on X. “Never forget what the Democrats did.”- ‘I think it was a bad idea’ -Not all Republican lawmakers were as ecstatic as Greene about the blanket pardons.”Many of them probably it was the right thing to do,” Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina told Spectrum News.”But anybody who is convicted of assault on a police officer — I can’t get there at all. I think it was a bad idea.”Other Republicans who had advised against pardoning those convicted of assaulting police officers were silent, including Vice President JD Vance, who just a week ago told Fox News “if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned.”Trump, hours after being sworn in on Monday, granted pardons to more than 1,500 people who stormed the Capitol including those convicted of assaulting police officers.He described them as “hostages” and ordered that all pending criminal cases against Capitol riot defendants be dropped.Among those pardoned was David Dempsey, 37, a California man who pleaded guilty to assaulting two police officers and was described by prosecutors as one of the “most violent” members of the pro-Trump mob.Dempsey used his “hands, feet, flag poles, crutches, pepper spray, broken pieces of furniture, and anything else he could get his hands on, as weapons against the police,” prosecutors said.Dempsey had been serving a 20-year prison sentence.Also receiving a pardon was Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for directing a military-style assault on the Capitol.The pardons were celebrated in posts on Proud Boys Telegram channels, with several chapters using them as recruiting tools and others volunteering to help enforce Trump’s pledge to deport millions of migrants.Stewart Rhodes, the leader of another far-right group, the Oath Keepers, was also among those released after his 18-year prison sentence was commuted to time served. Both Tarrio and Rhodes had been convicted of seditious conspiracy.The Capitol assault followed a fiery speech by then-president Trump to tens of thousands of his supporters near the White House in which he repeated his false claims that he won the 2020 race. He then encouraged the crowd to march on Congress.Trump was charged with conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.But the case never made it to trial, and was dropped following Trump’s November election victory under the Justice Department’s policy of not prosecuting a sitting president.

Canada vowed strong pushback while Mexico urged calm on Tuesday in the face of US President Donald Trump’s trade threats that risk throwing their economies into disarray.The US president has accused both neighbors of being lax in preventing migrants and illicit drugs from coming into the United States, and called for a tightening of the borders.Hours after taking his oath of office on Monday, he signaled that 25 percent punitive tariffs against the United States’ two major trading partners could come as early as February 1.He also said he would order troops to its border with Mexico to stem migrant flows.”Canada will respond and everything is on the table,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a news conference, adding that Ottawa’s reaction would be “robust and rapid and measured,” but also match dollar for dollar the US tariffs on Canadian imports.A Canadian government source told AFP that Ottawa is considering higher duties on US goods including steel products, ceramics like toilets and sinks, glassware and orange juice — in a first phase of tariffs that could be extended.Provincial and opposition leaders have also called for blocking exports of Canadian oil, electricity and critical minerals.Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, meanwhile, downplayed the tariff threat while urging calm in the face of Trump’s announcement of severe new restrictions on migration.”It’s important to always keep a cool head and refer to signed agreements, beyond actual speeches,” she said at her regular morning conference.- Bad neighbors -Trump defended the tariffs on his first day in office, telling reporters as he signed an array of executive orders that Canada and Mexico are allowing “vast numbers of people to come in, and fentanyl to come in.”He signed an order directing agencies to study a host of trade issues including deficits, unfair practices and currency manipulation.These could pave the way for further duties.Sheinbaum, who has reacted to months of threats from Trump with a mix of pragmatism and firmness, noted that several of the measures dated from Trump’s first mandate.On trade, Canada and Mexico are theoretically protected by the Canada-United States-Mexico Free Trade Agreement (USMCA), signed during Trump’s first term and hailed as “the best and most important trade agreement ever signed by the United States.”The pact replaced an earlier continental trade agreement from the 1990s and included new labor provisions aimed in particular at improving worker rights in Mexico.It is due to be reviewed in 2026.”For now, the trade treaty remains in effect,” Sheinbaum noted.Mexico leapfrogged China in 2023 to become the United States’s largest trading partner. That year, the American trade deficit with Mexico rose to US$150 billion.Trade conflicts between the three signatories have multiplied in recent years, concerning for example American genetically modified corn, Canadian dairy products, and trade in auto parts.Trudeau on Tuesday warned that a trade war would cost the United States, but also “there will be costs for Canadians.””This is a crucial moment for Canada and Canadians,” he said.According to economists, a trade war could plunge Canada — which sends approximately 75 percent of its exports to the United States, led by its energy and auto sectors — into a recession.One scenario from Scotiabank suggests that any bilateral trade disruption could slash more than five percent from Canadian GDP, increase unemployment significantly and fuel inflation.US GDP could fall by 0.9 percent, analyst Jean-François Perrault said in a research note.According to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, tit-for-tat tariffs would cause Canadian GDP to fall by 2.6 percent, while American GDP would suffer a decline of 1.6 percent.burs-amc/st

President Donald Trump has removed Admiral Linda Fagan — the first woman to lead one of the six US military services — as the head of the Coast Guard, with an official citing alleged “leadership deficiencies.””She served a long and illustrious career, and I thank her for her service,” acting Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary Benjamine Huffman said in a message Tuesday to the Coast Guard.But a senior official from the DHS — which oversees the service — was far more critical, saying Fagan was dismissed “because of her leadership deficiencies, operational failures, and inability to advance the strategic objectives of the US Coast Guard.”The admiral failed to address border security threats, mismanaged acquisitions, including helicopters, and put “excessive focus” on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, the official said on condition of anonymity.There was also an “erosion of trust” in the Coast Guard due to its handling of an investigation into sexual assault allegations.”The failure to adequately address the systemic issues exposed by this investigation has underscored a leadership culture unwilling to ensure accountability and transparency,” the official added.- Review of senior officers -Trump and other Republicans have long railed against government programs aimed at fostering diversity, and border security is a key priority for the president, who declared a national emergency at the US frontier with Mexico on Monday, the first day of his new term.Trump has had a contradictory relationship with America’s armed forces, at times lauding their power but also claiming they were depleted and in need of rebuilding.He has clashed with former top US military officer Mark Milley, with the retired general’s portrait at the Pentagon removed on the same day that Trump was sworn in for his second term.Pete Hegseth, Trump’s as-yet-unconfirmed nominee to head the Defense Department, said last week that senior officers “will be reviewed based on meritocracy, standards, lethality and commitment to lawful orders,” indicating that further dismissals are possible.Fagan had led the Coast Guard since 2022, and previously held posts including vice commandant of the service.She “served on all seven continents, from the snows of Ross Island, Antarctica to the heart of Africa, from Tokyo to Geneva, and in many ports along the way,” according to an archived version of her biography, which is no longer available on the Coast Guard website.

The Taliban government said Tuesday it had released two American citizens from prison in return for an Afghan fighter held in the United States, in a deal brokered by Qatar.Outgoing US president Joe Biden agreed on the deal shortly before leaving office on Monday, with the exchange finally taking place after Donald Trump returned to the White House, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.”An Afghan fighter, Khan Mohammed, imprisoned in America has been released in exchange for American citizens and returned to the country,” the Afghan foreign ministry said in a statement.The ministry said Mohammed had been serving a life sentence in California after being arrested “almost two decades ago” in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.Mohammed, who was convicted of narco-terrorism by a US court, returned to the province on Tuesday, where he was greeted by a crowd and presented with garlands of flowers. He told journalists he was grateful to the Taliban authorities for his release and he was “very happy” to be reunited with his family.”A lot of innocent people are imprisoned, my request is that all of them can be released and be able to return to their homes,” he said.His son, Rafiullah Mohammed, said his father was innocent and that the family demanded compensation.Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP two US nationals had been released, declining to provide any further details on the exchange.- ‘Overwhelming gratitude’ – The family of US citizen Ryan Corbett, who was detained by the Taliban in 2022, confirmed he was released and thanked both the Biden and Trump administrations, as well as Qatar.”Today, our hearts are filled with overwhelming gratitude and praise to God for sustaining Ryan’s life and bringing him back home after what has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives,” the family said on their website.They called for two other Americans still held in Afghanistan to be released.The person familiar with the deal confirmed William McKenty as the second released American detainee. Little is known about what he was doing in Afghanistan and his family asked for privacy.Qatar’s lead negotiator, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al-Khulaifi, confirmed the Gulf state’s mediation in the exchange, with all the released people going through Doha.Two other Americans are believed to remain in detention in Afghanistan, former airline mechanic George Glezmann and naturalised American Mahmood Habibi.In August 2024, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said it was seeking information about the disappearance of Afghan-American businessman Habibi two years previously.- ‘New chapter’ -Biden came under heavy criticism for the chaotic withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in 2021, more than a year after Trump presided over a deal with the Taliban insurgents to end US and NATO involvement in the two-decade war.After Trump’s election win in November, the Taliban government had said it hoped for a “new chapter” in ties with the United States.Taliban authorities have repeatedly said they want positive relations with every country since sweeping back to power in 2021.No state has officially recognised their government, with restrictions on women’s rights a key sticking point for many countries, including the United States.The Taliban government on Tuesday called the exchange “a good example of resolving issues through dialogue, expressing special gratitude for the effective role of the brotherly country of Qatar in this regard”.”The Islamic Emirate views positively those actions of the United States that contribute to the normalisation and expansion of relations between the two countries,” it added, using the Taliban authorities’ name for their government.A 2008 US Department of Justice statement named Mohammed — in his 30s at the time — as a member of “an Afghan Taliban cell” and said he was arrested in October 2006 and sentenced in December 2008 to “two terms of life in prison on drug and narco-terrorism charges”. It was the first narco-terrorism conviction in a US federal court, the statement said.At least one Afghan prisoner remains in detention at the secretive US prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, Muhammad Rahim, whose family called for his release in November 2023. In February last year, two former prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay until 2017 were welcomed home to Afghanistan, more than 20 years after they were arrested. 

President Donald Trump announced plans to weed out some 1,000 opponents from the US government Tuesday on his first full day in power after taking office with a shock-and-awe blitz of executive orders.Trump was due to meet with leaders of the narrow Republican majority in Congress at the White House as he tries to get his agenda, including tax cuts, approved at rapid pace.In a post shortly after midnight on his Truth Social app, Trump said four people had already been “FIRED!” from advisory roles and made clear they were the tip of the iceberg as he seeks to quickly tighten his grip on the government bureaucracy.”My Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again,” he posted.One of those fired was retired general Mark Milley from an infrastructure advisory body. Milley was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff during Trump’s first presidency but became one of the Republican’s most prominent critics after he tried to overturn the 2020 election.The acting head of the Department of Homeland Security separately announced the firing of Coast Guard chief Linda Fagan, who was appointed under Democrat Joe Biden and was the first woman to head one of the six branches of the US military.Trump was inaugurated Monday in the Capitol’s ornate Rotunda, with ceremonies forced indoors due to bad weather for the first time in decades.Only a select group was able to attend in person, rather than the usual massive crowd on the Mall for inaugurations.In an unprecedented display of influence from America’s super-rich, major tycoons including Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos were among those with the best seats.After taking the oath, 78-year-old Trump — the oldest person ever to be sworn in as US president — signed a blizzard of executive actions intended to transform the country.These included pulling the United States from the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organization, while pardoning hundreds of supporters convicted of crimes while attacking the Capitol four years ago in the attempt to overturn the election.- Media relations -Trump attended a prayer service at Washington’s National Cathedral on Tuesday, where just last month he had joined outgoing president Biden and the other living ex-presidents for the funeral of late president Jimmy Carter.Newly installed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would also make a “big infrastructure announcement” later, although she did not say what this would be.One thing not happening Tuesday was a traditional daily White House press briefing by the top spokeswoman, who indicated that — as during his first term — Trump himself would do the messaging.“I can confirm the American people won’t be hearing from me today, they’ll be hearing from the leader of the free world once again. President Trump will be speaking to the press later at the White House,” she told Trump-friendly Fox News.Trump likes to berate the “fake news media” and call journalists “the enemy of the people” but also encourages intensive press coverage — in stark contrast to the media-shy Biden.- ‘Golden age’  -Trump’s inaugural address in the Rotunda mixed dark imagery about a failing America with promises that he would usher in a “golden age.”After the pomp and ceremony, it was the showman Trump — along with the sometimes strongman-style rhetoric — that quickly took over.”Could you imagine Biden doing this? I don’t think so,” Trump told cheering supporters in a sports arena as he tossed them the pens used to sign a first round of orders.Once in the Oval Office, Trump held an impromptu 50-minute press conference as he signed multiple more orders, including the one pardoning around 1,500 Capitol rioters.He also declared a national emergency at the Mexican border and said he would deploy US troops to tackle illegal immigration — a key campaign issue in his November election victory over Kamala Harris.The returning president pledged to impose trade tariffs on Mexico and Canada, rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America,” and take “back” the Panama Canal, which has been controlled by the Central American country since 1999.He confirmed he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.