The Headlines - Trump Takes Office, and the TikTok Roller Coaster

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

Plus, women’s history in the National Mall.   On Today’s Episode:Trump Aims for Show of Strength as He Returns to Power, by Jonathan Swan and Maggie HabermanGazans and Israelis Dare to Hope as Cease-Fire Takes Hold, by Aaron Boxerman, Bilal Shbair, Hiba Yazbek, Isabel Kershner and Christopher MaagTikTok Engineered Its Shutdown to Get Saved. But Trump’s Solution May Fall Short, by David E. SangerHow a Monument to Women Finally Won a Place on the National Mall, by Jennifer Schuessler Tune in every weekday morning. To get our full audio journalism and storytelling experience, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter.Tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. 

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, January 20th. Here's what we're covering. Today is Inauguration Day. This morning, Donald Trump will be welcomed to the White House by President Biden. The two will meet behind closed doors before they travel together to the Capitol. There, just before noon, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th president of the United

States. The ceremony will happen inside the Capitol building, a last-minute shift because of the freezing cold temperatures in Washington. Every living president will be there, along with a host of billionaires, CEOs, and foreign leaders. Times reporter Jonathan Swan is reporting on Trump's return to power. I covered Trump's first term in office, and you just can't emphasize how different Washington was when he arrived here last time. It was a city primed to resist his presidency. But

he now returns with fewer guardrails, a depleted opposition, a court system that he transformed in his first term, and a Congress that's much, much more compliant than existed in his first term. And he's also got the big money on his side. He has Elon Musk, the world's richest man, literally working for his government. He's got all these tech billionaires, people like Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, people who used to be his adversaries but are now scrambling to curry favor with him. In fact, when I talk to people close to Trump, there's a point that keeps reemerging, which is

he's always needed an enemy. He's always thrived on opposition. The difference this time is these enemies are all but vanquished. So Trump faces a different challenge, actually governing. He's going to be judged more than ever over the next four years by his ability to deliver on the promises that he made to his voters. Every radical and foolish executive order of the Biden administration will be repealed within hours of when I take the oath of office. Trump is expected to start putting some of his campaign promises into action as soon as this afternoon.

Oh, you're going to have a lot of fun watching television. Somebody said yesterday, sir, don't sign so many in one day. Let's do it over a period of weeks. I said, like hell we're going to do it over weeks. We're going to sign them at the beginning. At a pre-inauguration rally in D.C., he teased signing a flurry of executive orders immediately. Among other things, Trump is expected to make it easier to fire federal workers, which could allow him to clear out those who challenge his agenda.

And he plans to undo some of Biden's climate initiatives. Some of his most dramatic first moves may center on immigration. Trump has plans to essentially seal the U.S.-Mexico border and carry out mass deportations. By the time the sun sets tomorrow evening, the invasion of our borders will have come to a halt and all the illegal border trespassers will in some form or another be on their way back home. The Times has learned that the Trump administration is planning immigration raids in Chicago this week under a plan called Operation Safeguard.

The goal is to send the message that it will crack down on so-called sanctuary cities like Chicago, which refuse to hand over undocumented immigrants to federal authorities. Trump's border czar Tom Homan said, quote, if they're not going to help us, then we'll just double the manpower in those cities. Hundreds of immigration and customs enforcement agents were asked to volunteer for the Chicago raid. It could begin as soon as tomorrow,

though Homan said the final decision hasn't been made yet. Yesterday at 11.15 a.m. local time, the ceasefire in Gaza went into effect. After 470 days of war, Israel and Hamas are now observing a six-week truce. Israeli troops will fall back from populated areas, and Hamas will release 33 hostages in exchange for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The first of the hostages to be released were three women who were taken from Israel on October 7th. They were reunited with their families to tears and relief. Well in Gaza, people poured into the streets to celebrate the ceasefire, but also to begin the grim work of surveying what's left.

Most of the territory has been destroyed. Some of the most striking images of the pause in fighting so far have come out of Gaza City, where videos showed Hamas militants in their uniforms fanning out, with Israeli troops gone. Usually when we've seen clips of the fighting in Gaza, we've seen young men in civilian clothes, sometimes in flip-flops. We haven't seen them in this very coordinated fashion, wearing their uniforms, carrying their assault rifles,

wearing balaclavas and green Hamas bandanas. Patrick Kingsley is The Times Jerusalem bureau chief. When we saw zoomed out drone imagery of these militants surrounded by crowds of supporters, we could see that these were actually not very many people. But nevertheless, it was clearly a very pointed attempt by Hamas to project strength, to show not only to Israel, but also to their own people, the Palestinians in Gaza, that they, Hamas, remain the dominant force in town,

and that they will have to be reckoned with in any conversation about who gets to govern Gaza in a post-war for me for years now. And it got me through really, really hard times in my life. For TikTok users in the U S it was a roller coaster of a weekend as the app shut down, citing the law that banned it over national security concerns. Oh my God. I've already opened and closed the app probably six times already just to keep getting the same stupid warning message. Oh my God, I've already opened and closed the app probably six times already just to keep getting the same stupid warning message

Oh my god, like starting late Saturday night people who open tik-tok got a pop-up message saying it was unavailable But that the company was working with Trump to find a way around that Just hours later. Yo, it's Sunday. What what happened? What why is tick-tock back up? It's Sunday. What happened? Why is TikTok back up? Trump announced that he would issue an executive order to push back the ban, and the app flickered back to life. It was only 12 hours, but it felt like so much more, you guys. This time with a new message, quote, as a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the US.

But the future of the app is still very much up in the air. The law in question was passed by Congress and unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court. So legal experts say Trump trying to block it would be uncharted territory. Trump says he's trying to find a solution by striking a deal. The law requires TikTok to find a non-Chinese owner. Trump's proposing that an American entity buy out 50% of the app. But TikTok had previously said a sale was impossible, and the Chinese government has signaled it might block one. For the moment, people who already have TikTok can keep scrolling, though Apple and Google have both dropped it from their app stores, since they faced fines of up to

$5,000 per person for anyone who uses their platforms to access it. For more on what could happen next for TikTok, listen to today's episode of The Daily. And finally, for more than a century, the National Mall has been home to monuments honoring presidents, veterans, the Postal Service, even horses. But there's never been one specifically honoring women. In one of Biden's last official acts, he signed a bill allowing the creation of a monument to the women's suffrage movement. The effort to get this kind of thing has been underway almost since women got the right to vote. The most recent effort required a years-long push by lawmakers and an exception to an existing law that forbids any new additions to the National Mall. The monument's exact location

and design are still being worked out, but it's expected to be unveiled in about five years. Notably, there was an early statue honoring suffragettes that was displayed in the U.S. Capitol back in 1921. It was up for exactly one day before it was banished to a service closet for 75 years. Those are the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.