Skip to main content
Activists slam President Trump as he takes office with a blitz of pardons and executive orders
US President Donald Trump holds up an executive order commuting sentences for people convicted of January 6 offences in the Oval Office of the White House, January 20, 2025, in Washington

ACTIVISTS slam Donald Trump as he fires off a blitz of pardons and orders immediately after taking office as the 47th president of the United States.

Mr Trump began his new term by pardoning around 1,500 of his supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6 2021, as well as commuting the sentences of another 14 people, including leaders of the far-right Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys.

Five people died within 36 hours of the attack, including one person shot by Capitol Police, and a police officer who died a day after being assaulted by rioters.

The new president also issued a blizzard of executive orders.

Among them, Mr Trump reversed several immigration orders from Joe Biden’s presidency, including one that narrowed deportation priorities to people who commit serious crimes, are deemed national security threats or were stopped at the border. 

The president also declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border and he plans to send US troops to help support immigration agents and restrict refugees and asylum.

Mr Trump is also trying to end birthright citizenship. It is unclear, though, whether his order will survive inevitable legal challenges, since birthright citizenship is enshrined in the US constitution.

The new president temporarily suspended the US Refugee Admission Programme and ended the Biden-era border app that gave legal entry to nearly a million migrants.

Mr Trump also formally withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreements and the World Health Organisation.

He also declared an energy emergency as he promised to “drill, baby, drill,” and said he will eliminate what he calls Mr Biden’s electric vehicle mandate.

President Trump also revoked sanctions on Israeli settlers involved in acts of violence against settlers in the West Bank.

Black Agenda Report executive editor Margaret Kimberley told the Morning Star that Mr Trump has also threatened “to undo the Carter administration treaty which returned the Canal Zone to Panama, but how is that different from invading Iraq or using proxies to destroy the Libyan government?

“His talk of an ‘exceptional’ country is no different from that of his predecessors.”

Journalist Ben Norton posted on X that during his inauguration Mr Trump “invoked the colonialist ‘Manifest Destiny,’ promised to ‘expand our territory,’ and vowed to forcibly take over the Panama Canal (falsely and absurdly claiming China runs it).

“This is blatant imperialism. He is not even hiding it.”

Morning Star Conference - Race, Sex & Class
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
Smoke rises to the sky following an Israeli strike in Gaza City, June 1, 2025
Middle East / 1 June 2025
1 June 2025

Israeli military accused of killing at least 40 Palestinians near aid distribution site in Rafah

Similar stories
Police stand during an immigrant rights protest, February 3,
World / 5 February 2025
5 February 2025
US President Donald Trump salutes as Melania Trump (third ri
World / 20 January 2025
20 January 2025
Activists vow to oppose Trumpism by fighting for ‘social and environmental justice, working-class organisation and universal human and civil rights’
A cargo ship traverses the Agua Clara Locks of the Panama Ca
World / 23 December 2024
23 December 2024