NPR News Now - NPR News: 01-20-2025 8PM EST

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

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Lately on the NPR Politics Podcast, we're talking about a big question. How much can one guy change? What will change look like for energy? Schools? Healthcare? Follow coverage of a changing country? On the NPR Politics Podcast. Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Jack Spear.

Donald Trump has been sworn in today in Washington as the nation's 47th president. After achieving something only one other president before him has done, went re-election to a non-consecutive second term. The first was Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s. Trump, during inauguration, was moved into the Capitol Rotunda because of cold weather promising another golden age for America.

From this moment on, America's decline is over. Trump also laid out a blitz of executive actions, including efforts to reduce prices. I will direct all members of my cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices. Later at Washington's Capital One arena and at the White House, Trump has been signing executive actions, among them freezing federal hiring, except the military rescinding the previous Biden administration actions. And tonight he pardoned 1,500 people involved in the January 6 protests.

NPR's Windsor Johnson reports the directives will address a wide range of issues that Trump has promised on day one, including policies that would dramatically overhaul U.S. border and immigration policy. The flurry of executive actions is a show of strength as Trump aims to roll back Biden administration policies and reinstate orders from his first term in office. Matthew Dalek is a presidential historian at George Washington University. He is going to use his power and then try to push the boundaries of the Constitution to enact what he said he would enact. Beyond that though, I think that some seem quite audacious and or unconstitutional and problematic. Many of Trump's executive actions, including ending birthright citizenship, are likely to be met with legal challenges.

Windsor-Johnston and PR News, Washington. The Senate has unanimously confirmed Florida Republican Marco Rubio to be the next Secretary of State. And here's Michelle Kellerman reports. Once he's sworn in, Rubio is expected to dive into work hosting foreign ministers from India, Japan and Australia at the State Department. The group, known as the Quad, is a key partnership

in the Pacific and part of the US efforts to counter China's influence. The three ministers are in Washington for Trump's inauguration. Marco Rubio has been a hawkish voice in the Senate on China, and in his confirmation hearing, he described China as a potent and dangerous adversary. He said the U.S. needs to build up its domestic industrial base so that Americans won't have

to depend so much on goods from China. Michelle Kellerman, NPR News, Washington. You're listening to NPR News in Washington. Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations are being held across the country today, including at King's former congregation in Atlanta, where a 70-member choir performed hallelujah during the ceremony at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. There was also a warning from Dr. King's daughter, the Reverend Bernice King, about anti-woke rhetoric she says is being used to divide and distract people from real issues of injustice.

Residents across the U.S. are facing frigid temperatures this week, even in the typically balmy Gulf South. Arby Juhuis of Member Station WWNO reports from New Orleans. Some parts of Louisiana could get record-breaking snowfall, and at least a few inches of snow and sleet as well as ice are forecast for pretty much the entire region. Here's the state's governor, Jeff Landry. This creates a very dangerous situation, not only for travel, but for people, pipes, pets, and plants. Louisiana is borrowing plows and salt spreaders from Arkansas, since the state doesn't have its own.

Still, Landry says some roads and bridges will be closed, and people should plan to stay home. This is the time when you can cook you a big pot of gumbo. You won't even have to keep it in the refrigerator, he says. Just put it outside. For NPR News, I'm Aubrey Yuhas in New Orleans. While U.S. financial markets are closed today for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and the U.S. presidential inauguration, the cryptocurrency Bitcoin has been surging on global markets,

Bitcoin rising above $109,000 earlier today. Donald Trump on the campaign trail vowed to make the U.S. quote the crypto capital of the world. I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington. This message comes from Wwise, the app for doing things and other currencies, sending I'm Jack Spear, NPR News in Washington.