The Headlines - What Trump Did on Day 1, and Biden’s Final Acts

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

Plus, an Olympic medal fail.   On Today’s Episode:What Trump Did on Day 1: Tracking His Biggest Moves, by Chris CameronTrump Grants Sweeping Clemency to All Jan. 6 Rioters, by Alan FeuerBiden in Final Hours Pardons Relatives and Others to Thwart Trump Reprisals, by Peter Baker and Michael D. ShearC.E.O.s, and President Trump, Want Workers Back in the Office, by Emma GoldbergParis Olympics Medals Are Tarnishing, Putting LVMH in the Spotlight, by Tariq Panja and Liz Alderman 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 is Tuesday, January 21st. Here's what we're covering. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear. In Washington, D.C., yesterday, Donald Trump was sworn into office,

returning to power as the 47th president of the United States. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations, Mr. Trump. Within hours, Trump got to work, moving to a nearby arena where a crowd watched him sign executive orders that will transform the federal government and reshape some of the biggest policy issues in American life. So I'm revoking nearly 80 destructive radical executive actions of the previous administration. They'll all be null and void within about what five minutes.

Is that them over there? Five minutes. The president sat at a desk placed on a red carpet on the arena floor and signed order after order as an aide handed them to him under the jumbotron. The next item, sir, is a freeze on all federal hiring, accepting the military and the number of other... Trump took aim at the government itself, moving to strip some federal employees of their job protections

and ending diversity and inclusion programs. He also gutted protections for transgender Americans, withdrew the US from the World Health Organization, and rolled back a long list of efforts to fight climate change. Thank you sir. The next item here is the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Treaty. Yeah! It's the kind of quintessential Trump moment. You have this combination of somebody who has been in reality TV and also somebody that is now leading the free world. Zolan Kano-Youngs is a Times White House correspondent. He says that among Trump's most significant

moves yesterday were his efforts to start fundamentally changing America's immigration system. Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border and ordered the military to play a direct role in immigration enforcement. He suspended refugee resettlement to the U.S. and he moved to end automatic citizenship for children born to undocumented immigrants, even though birthright citizenship is protected by the Constitution. A lot of these executive orders are, I would say,

an attempt to turn campaign promises that had been sort of the centerpiece of his political identity into tangible policy. And make no mistake, he's testing the law with these executive orders as well. You know, the implementation of these orders are gonna be something to watch here. Just how much they run into lawsuits,

they run into the courts, and we have to see how effective the new Trump administration is in implementing some of these policies. You know, an announcement is one thing, and it can certainly galvanize a base, particularly when you're, they're packed into a basketball arena when you're signing these orders. Implementing them so that it actually makes good on commitments that you stated during the campaign is another thing. Later on Monday,

What they've done to these people is outrageous. There's rarely been anything like it in history, in the history of our country. President Trump issued sweeping pardons to nearly all 1,600 people charged in connection with January 6th. The pardons covered those charged with nonviolent offenses and people convicted of assaulting police officers. We are so grateful to President Trump. Promises made, promises kept.

Promises made, promises kept. In D.C., a crowd gathered outside of a jail to cheer on two men who were released just days after they were sentenced. Trump had signaled for months that he would issue the pardons. Some people had hired cars in advance to meet them at their prisons. Others, who'd already served their sentences, were following along from so-called pardon watch parties.

The pardons underscore Trump's effort to rewrite the violent history of January 6th, which he's tried to reframe as a day of love. A former federal prosecutor who supervised many of the riot cases told the Times, quote, these pardons suggest that if you commit acts of violence, as long as you do so on behalf of a politically powerful person, you may be able to escape consequences. Meanwhile, Joe Biden also issued pardons yesterday in an effort to shield his family and those who worked closely with him from Trump's promised retribution. In his final moments in office, Biden granted preemptive pardons to five family members,

including his brothers, trying to head off potential investigations into what Trump has called the Biden crime family. He also pardoned others who have been high-profile targets for Trump, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and the lawmakers on the House Committee that investigated January 6th. Some thanked Biden for the pardon, saying it was a relief, while others had said they didn't want them, arguing it gives the impression that they had committed a crime. After the inauguration, it's been the honor of my life to serve as your president. And I tell you what, a greater honor is being able to serve with all of you. You're incredible. Biden spoke to his staff, who gathered to say goodbye at Joint Base Andrews.

The former president ordered a plane to California for vacation. Then he's expected to return home to Delaware. The CEOs of some of America's biggest companies are making an aggressive push to get employees back in the office five days a week. Amazon and AT&T implemented return to office policies this month, and JPMorgan will require its workforce to be fully in person starting in March. It's part of a major shift away from hybrid and remote work flexibility, which came in during the pandemic and stuck around as what many workers considered a perk and a boon for work-life balance.

Now, economists say that a tighter labor market has empowered companies to roll it back. That could push some workers to quit, and in some cases, that seems to be the goal. Companies have put the policies in place knowing some workers may leave. It essentially lets them cut their headcount without having to do layoffs. It's not just happening in the private sector. One of the executive orders Trump signed yesterday requires all federal employees to return to the office five days a week, too. That may help him follow through on his promise to shrink the US government.

And finally. I mean, look at that thing. It's looking rough. The medals from last year's Olympic Games in Paris seem to be falling apart. Starting to chip off a little. Athletes who swam, sprinted, and back flipped their way to victory have been sharing pictures of their medals looking rusty, tarnished, even chipped.

More than 100 athletes have already asked for theirs to be replaced. The International Olympic Committee has apologized, and the French Mint has stepped up to take the blame, saying there was a technical problem with the varnish. But it's put a harsh spotlight on the company that designed the medals for the 2024 Games, LVMH, the luxury goods empire behind Louis Vuitton and other high-end brands. The medals were supposed to be a representation

of fine craftsmanship, not, as one swimmer put it, flaky metal crocodile skin. Those are the headlines. Today on The Daily, Times reporters Peter Baker and Jonathan Swan explain what Trump's first day in office says about his second term as president. That's next in the New York Times audio app, or you can listen wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.