Blizzard of executive orders gives shape to Trump 2.0

After a day full of pomp and pageantry, the second administration of President Donald Trump began taking shape in the evening hours of Monday with a blizzard of executive orders on everything from immigration to Jan. 6 pardons to rules around kitchen appliances.

Many of the executive orders are likely to be challenged in court, but Trump II promises major changes to the status quo as it was under former President Joe Biden.

Among President Trump's actions on his first day was issuing full pardons to nearly all of the 1,600 people charged with storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. A total of 13 Connecticut residents have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot.  

Connecticut Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy took aim at the pardons at a news conference on Monday, warning that the actions normalize political violence. “I just couldn't become part of the window dressing for that kind of assault on democracy,” Murphy said of Trump’s pardons, explaining his decision to skip the inauguration. 

In a wide-ranging Oval Office news conference after the formal inaugural festivities, President Trump also proposed a “partnership” with the owners of TikTok, an app accused by politicians of both parties of posing a potential security threat to the U.S. A deal with TikTok could net the government half a trillion dollars, the president claimed to reporters.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong vowed to sue over another action by the new president, an attempt to revoke birthright citizenship to those born to undocumented immigrant parents.

“Abolishing birthright citizenship will cause chaos across Connecticut and the United States, with babies born here lacking legal status anywhere,” Tong said in a statement.

“The 14th Amendment says what it means, and it means what it says — if you are born on American soil, you are an American. Period. Full stop. There is no legitimate legal debate on this question,” Tong said.

Also from the Oval Office, President Trump signed orders withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization, suspending the admission of refugees and eliminating subsidies favorable to electric vehicles. 

President Trump offered more details of his economic policies in a speech at Capital One Arena at 6 p.m., then signed directives imposing an “immediate regulation freeze” at federal agencies, mandating a return to work for government employees and withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement.

Targeting actions by former President Biden described as “deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the federal government,” President Trump first signed a directive revoking 78 separate Biden executive orders.

Among the Biden policies revoked: DEI and other racial equity programs across government, a range of COVID-19 orders, gender identity anti-discrimination measures, efforts to strengthen Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and a range of immigration and refugee resettlement measures. 

President Trump also revoked Biden orders lowering prescription drug costs, regulating the use of artificial intelligence and banning oil and gas drilling off the U.S. Arctic coast.

Every department and agency in the federal government was also required “to address the cost of living crisis that has cost Americans so dearly,” according to the text of another directive signed Monday night to loud cheering from the crowd. Some measures suggested in the text: taking unspecified action to “lower the cost of housing and expand housing supply,” striking rules that “raise the costs of home appliances” and revoking “harmful, coercive ‘climate’ policies that increase the costs of food and fuel.”

In a rally-style speech moments before, the new president said he would impose a hiring freeze on new Internal Revenue Service agents.

Speaking to a group of Israeli hostage families standing the stage with him, President Trump also said the attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, would never have happened if he had remained in office after his first term.

Immigration changes

Vowing to declare a national emergency at the southern border in his inaugural address, President Trump said he would immediately step up removal of immigrants who have committed crimes. He was expected to sign executive orders related to border security later on Monday.

“All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” President Trump said in his address. He expanded on his determination to end illegal immigration in remarks after his formal address to an overflow crowd in the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall, repeating disputed assertions that migrants come from mental institutions and prisons and boasting of the immigration issue’s political power. 

“I made it my number one,” Trump said of the immigration issue. “I talked about inflation too, but you know, how many times can you say that an apple has doubled in cost? I'd say it and I'd hit it hard. But then I go back to the fact that we don't want criminals coming into our country.”

“It sure as hell worked for politics,” Trump said later, addressing Texas governor Greg Abbot, who was seated in the overflow room.

Connecticut immigrant advocates and city leaders have vowed in recent weeks to resist mass roundups of immigrants and uphold policies that limit local cooperation with federal authorities.

Trump's legacy wish

In a striking moment during his address, President Trump spoke of the assassination attempt of July 13, in which a bullet grazed his ear at a rally in Pennsylvania before the attacker was killed by police. 

“I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again,” President Trump said.

Promising to both strengthen the military and keep the nation out of wars, President Trump said, “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.” He also ramped up calls to reclaim the Panama Canal. 

“China is operating the Panama Canal, and we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And we’re taking it back,” President Trump said. He also formally announced that the Gulf of Mexico would be renamed the Gulf of America, and that Alaska’s Denali peak would revert to its former name of Mount McKinley.

Notable for Connecticut’s many aerospace suppliers, President Trump also said he would push for a manned mission to Mars. Connecticut residents may even take the trip; a UConn engineering professor took part in a 45-day simulated mission to Mars at the Johnson Space Center in Houston this summer.

Citing America’s “chronic disease epidemic,” President Trump also promised to “keep our children safe, healthy and disease-free.” His choice of vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the nation’s next health secretary has drawn criticism from Connecticut health experts but President Trump gave few specifics on health policy in his Inauguration Day comments.

On the subject of tariffs, a top concern for Connecticut businesses with import-export links, President Trump gave few details in his Inauguration Day remarks on Monday beyond a pledge to “tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens.”

President Trump repeated a promise to establish a new "External Revenue Service" to collect tariffs, duties and other import-related revenue. “It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources,” he said.

On the topic of education, President Trump focused on conservative critiques around the teaching of history and race relations. Connecticut resident Linda McMahon, a former CEO of Stamford-based wrestling entertainment giant WWE, has been picked by President Trump as his nominee for secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.

“We have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves in many cases, to hate our country despite the love that we try so desperately to provide to them. All of this will change starting today, and it will change very quickly,” President Trump said. 

President Trump also promised an immediate pivot to the right on issues around affirmative action and gender identity. 

“I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life,” President Trump said. “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”

Tong said in a statement on Monday that the state’s laws would protect the rights of LGBTQ+ citizens.

“I don’t know what the president is doing about gender, but suffice it to say that it is the policy of the state of Connecticut to respect and honor, protect the LGBTQ+ community and I’m going to do that.”

Connecticut reacts

Although President Trump said he deliberately tried to take a moderate tone in his second inaugural address, Connecticut Democratic U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal blasted the remarks as polarizing in a statement on Monday afternoon.

“I was hoping for a unifying message – a speech seeking to bring us together and heal our differences,” Blumenthal said. “Instead, it was replete with grievance and grandiosity – playing to cultural and political divisions.”

Blumenthal also criticized the high profile of wealthy donors like Elon Musk at the event. Musk, standing next to Trump's son Barron for much of the ceremony, was seen at several points reacting to the new president's remarks, giving a double thumbs-up to the cameras at mention of plans “to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”

“I was struck by the panorama of Big Tech billionaires on a platform raised above Supreme Court justices, placed ahead of Cabinet members,” Blumenthal said. “It was a picture of a government for sale.”

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont ‒ and all state governors, Republican and Democrat ‒ were relegated to a separate room at the Capitol for the main inaugural events. Lamont, one of only two Democratic governors at the Capitol for Inauguration Day, said he felt like “an anthropologist in Trumpland,” discussing issues like energy costs with his fellow state executives.

Connecticut Republicans in Washington for the festivities were scrambling for tickets to major Inauguration Day events after attendance was sharply cut back when ceremonies were moved indoors. Temperatures in the nation’s capital were forecast at 24 degrees at 12 noon, only a few degrees higher than midday temperatures in most of Connecticut.

In New Haven, a group of Trump fans gathered at 144 Temple restaurant to watch the main Inauguration Day ceremonies on TV, which included performances by operatic tenor Christopher Macchio and country star Carrie Underwood. 

Sponsors of the New Haven event said they had high hopes for the new Trump administration and looked forward to more assertive policies for the nation on the border and other issues.

“We’re the leader of the free world, we’ve gotta lead by strength,” said George Agnelli.

Includes reporting by Dan Haar, Peter Yankowski, Ken Dixon, Cris Villalonga-Vivoni and Jordan Fenster.