Jan. 20: Trump Declares 'National Emergency' At Southern Border
Biden pardons; AOC's inaugural refusal; Ramaswamy out at DOGE
The Big Story
Donald Trump has been inaugurated into office as the 47th president of the United States. If the blitzkrieg of executive orders that Trump announced for his first day in office is to be believed, it is clear that cracking down on illegal immigration and drug cartels will be the top priority of his administration’s broad agenda. Indeed, during his inauguration address, Trump said that the first of his orders will be to declare a national emergency at the southern border. The president also vowed to halt the processing of all illegal migrants, begin the process of mass deportations, reinstate the “remain in Mexico policy,” end the practice of “catch and release,” send troops to the border to “stop the disastrous invasion,” designate cartels as terrorist organizations, and direct the government to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs on U.S. soil.
While the 10 orders announced on the call specifically target his top issue, immigration, The New York Times reports that Trump is expected to sign more than 100 orders altogether, and the first wave will address issues such as gender politics, DEI, and the federal workforce. Trump also declared a national energy emergency—“We will drill, baby, drill!”—and vowed to protect freedom of speech.
Both Congress and the courts can block executive orders—sure to happen with some of Trump’s more controversial orders—so it’s best to understand these as a statement of intent. Taken together, the orders announced during his speech and those leaked to the press indicate a broad and even radical vision for how Trump wants to use the presidency to implement his agenda.
Adam Shaw and Bill Melugin of Fox News obtained details of three of the 10 immigration-related executive orders that Trump plans to sign:
1. Trump will immediately direct the federal government to resume construction of the border wall, which was ended under the Biden administration. The same order will end some of Biden’s unpopular immigration policies, such as the use of the CBP One app to allow parole migrants into the United States and the parole processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV)—under which 30,000 nationals a month were allowed to fly in and be admitted under parole. Nearly 1.5 million migrants have been allowed in under CHNV and CBP One. The order will also mandate that government agencies reinstate the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols, known as the Remain in Mexico policy, ended by the Biden admin, which orders migrants to stay in Mexico for the duration of the appeals process.
2. Trump will order U.S. troops to be deployed to the border under U.S. Northern Command.
3. Trump will designate international cartels and organizations, including MS-13 and the bloodthirsty Tren de Aragua, as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists. An FTO designation allows for targeted action against members, including financial penalties.
On the more controversial end of the immigration-related executive orders, Trump also plans to end birthright citizenship for the children of illegal migrants, the New York Post reports—a move that will likely trigger a legal battle related to the 14th Amendment, which states that anyone born in the United States is an American citizen. Few details, however, have been offered about how Trump’s order could be implemented.
In his inauguration address, Trump took aim at what he said were the failures of the regime that preceded his, while transmitting confidence that he could deliver on his agenda: “Our sovereignty will be reclaimed, our safety will be restored, the scales of justice will be rebalanced, the vicious and violent weaponization of our justice system will end. Our top priority will be to build a nation that is proud, prosperous, and free.”
The Rest
→Former President Joe Biden, who has the unique distinction of being the most unpopular president of all time ( 25% of Americans think Biden has been a “good or great president,” according to CNN,) used his last day in office to make one more decision that is likely to go down as widely unpopular as well: Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and the members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol riots have all been pardoned in what is being called an “extraordinary” use of the powers of the presidency. Bizarrely, Biden also pardoned members of his own family—James B. Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens, and Francis W. Biden—in the final moments of his presidency.
Biden’s pardons—which previously included Chinese spies, the judge convicted in 2011 over the “kids-for-cash” scandal (where he took kickbacks for wrongfully sending children to juvenile detention centers), and Biden’s corrupt, drug addict son, Hunter Biden—have already been controversial and eye-raising. For one, Biden has pardoned up to 8,000 people—the most pardons made by any president in history and far more than any president since Andrew Johnson, who pardoned more than 7,000 people. Biden’s 8,064 pardons are roughly eight times the number of pardons made by Barack Obama, the only other modern president who issued more than 1,000 pardons. This final round of pardons will do nothing to dial down that controversy.
What’s most extraordinary about these pardons, of course, is that while it’s normal for a president to use his office to grant clemency to some citizens convicted of crimes on his last day in office, Biden’s last wave of pardons provides clemency to public officials who haven’t been convicted of a thing. Biden justified his decision by pointing toward Trump’s warning of an “enemies list” filled with those who crossed him. Biden says that he wants to avoid those pardoned being subjected to Trump’s weaponization of the Justice Department (coincidentally, exactly what the Biden admin did to Trump). Nevertheless, one can’t help but detect a major incongruity in this justification; if someone hasn’t committed a crime, why should they fear the investigative process?
“These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions,” Biden said in a statement.
The five preemptive pardons issued toward his own family were justified by Biden’s claims that his family has been subjected to “unrelenting attacks.” The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman James Comer (R-KY) blasted the familial preemptive pardons, which he sees as an admission of the family’s corruption, in a statement: “Our investigation revealed that at least 10 members of the Biden Crime Family raked in over $30 million by selling Joe Biden’s influence …”
In an example of how troubling these pardons are, Fauci’s unconditional pardon dates back to 2014. According to the National Institutes of Health, that was the exact year that gain-of-function research began. Gain-of-function research is now believed by many scientists to have been the origin of the COVID-19 virus.
Biden didn’t just pardon those not convicted of crimes; his last-day pardons of convicted criminals are equally scandalous. In another pardon that one Tablet contributor describes as “frankly insane,” Biden has commuted the sentence of Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of two federal agents in 1975. Michael Byrd, the officer who killed the unarmed Jan 6. protester Ashli Babbit, has also been pardoned.
Another Tablet writer believes that there was never much of a case for Trump to make against Gen. Milley and that prosecuting Fauci might’ve been embarrassing for Trump since the newly inaugurated president implemented many of Fauci’s policies in 2020. The contributor believes that the best way to go after Milley, Fauci, and others, such as former FBI Director James Comey, would have been to go after their money: “Who paid for their various deals?” the contributor asks. “Was it money laundering? Bribes?”
→Vivek Ramaswamy, President Trump’s pick to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency alongside Elon Musk, is expected to step away from the task force, CBS News reports. CBS says Ramaswamy has been undercut by Elon’s DOGE staff for weeks, some of whom report being frustrated with Ramaswamy’s lack of participation in the “heavy lifting.”
“Vivek has worn out his welcome,” said a source close to Trump.
According to a source who spoke with Politico, the breakdown of labor at DOGE was that Musk would focus on big-picture items, Ramaswamy would focus on deregulation, and the broader staff would focus on the implementation of their ideas. Musk and Ramaswamy have, according to sources, not worked closely together for weeks. Last week, Trump encouraged Ramaswamy to run for Vice President J.D. Vance’s vacant Senate seat, but Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine passed over him in favor of Lt. Gov. Jon Husted. Ramaswamy is now expected to announce his bid for the seat of Ohio’s governor in a move that sources close to the matter say is likely to pave the path for Musk to run DOGE on his own terms.
Though reporting of this story hasn’t mentioned it, Ramaswamy’s place at DOGE might have first been complicated by his Dec. 26 X post in which he advocated in favor of the H-1B visa that facilitates foreign “skilled” workers coming to the United States. When MAGA loyalists started piling on Ramaswamy for what they viewed as a betrayal of the MAGA ideology, citing the rampant abuse of the H-1B visas by Indians in particular, Ramaswamy slightly amended his position by conceding that there was abuse in that particular visa system. But Ramaswamy’s denigration of what he called a “culture problem” was taken as an offense toward American workers, and the damage was already done. While it warrants mention that Musk, too, was supportive of H-1Bs, it appears he was forgiven by the MAGA base because his work was so helpful for the 2024 Trump campaign, particularly his purchase of X.
→Just hours before the inauguration, Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Trump on his victory and said he was open to meeting with Trump on matters related to the war in Ukraine and nuclear arms. “We see the statements by the newly elected president of the United States and members of his team about the desire to restore direct contacts with Russia,” said Putin. “We also hear his statement about the need to do everything possible to prevent World War Three. We of course welcome this attitude and congratulate the elected president of the United States of America on taking office.”
Putin’s statement reflects a cautiously optimistic belief by Russia that under Trump, Russia and the United States could improve their diplomatic relations, which have plummeted to their lowest point since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Reuters reports. Putin said his talks with the new president should be aimed at not a “temporary cease-fire,” but a “long-term peace” based on the legitimate interests of all citizens of both countries. While Trump didn’t address Putin directly, he did vow to make world peace a central focus of his administration during his inauguration address, an allusion to his broader “Strength Through Peace” vision of foreign policy.
→Quote of the Day
Let me make myself clear: I don’t celebrate rapists. So no, I’m not going to the inauguration.
That’s New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez defending her decision not to attend today’s inauguration of Donald Trump to the presidency. AOC’s statement is not only potentially libelous (George Stephanopoulos was forced to pay $15 million in damages for making the same claim,) It’s also being attacked by many as another example of the left’s rank hypocrisy: Just last week, AOC was one of 145 Democrats who voted “nay” against the Violence Against Women by Illegal Aliens Act, which aims to get sex crimes committed by illegal aliens under control by making aliens convicted of sex crimes inadmissible to the U.S. and immediately deported.
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AOC's comments are a classical example of woke hypocrisy and disregard of the truth-Trump's inaugural spech was spectacular
Trump IS NOW the 47th president of the United States. He WAS thr 45th.