Trump's Trials - President Trump signed a slew of executive actions on day one

Episode Date: January 21, 2025

President Trump issued pardons and commutations to every defendant charged and convicted in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, which injured more than 140 police officers. Then, President Trump kicked off a slew of executive actions related to immigration in a signing ceremony at the Oval Office on Monday evening. Hear the latest on on those policies. Support NPR and hear every episode sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

I'm Scott Detro and you're listening to Trump's terms from NPR. We're going to be doing all sorts of things nobody ever thought was even possible. It's going to be a very aggressive first hundred days of the new Congress. An unpredictable, transformative next four years. The United States is going to take off like a rocket ship. Each episode we bring you the latest news about the 47th president and the policy changes he is pursuing on his own terms. We know from experience that means challenging precedent, busting norms, and pushing against set ideas about what the federal government can and can't do.

It all raises questions about how much Washington and the country will change over the course of this term. NPR is covering it all in stories like the one you are about to hear, right after this. You're listening to Trump's terms from NPR is covering it all in stories like the one you are about to hear, right after this. You're listening to Trump's terms from NPR. I'm Leila Faldon. And I'm A. Martinez. President Trump issued pardons and commutations to every single defendant charged and convicted in connection with the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Yeah, that includes people convicted of assaulting police on that day with bathpoles, pepper spray and other weapons. More than 140 officers were injured on January 6th and their injuries included crushed spinal discs, traumatic brain injuries and a heart attack. And Pierce Tom Drysbuck has been covering the attack and the pardons and he joins me now. Good morning. Good morning.

So take us through the pardons and the commutations that Trump issued. Right, so almost every single defendant got a full unconditional pardon. That means their conviction is forgiven. If they're locked up, they get released. If they were convicted of a felony, they get their gun rights back. And that group includes more than 400 people charged or convicted of violent assaults on law enforcement, driving a stun gun into an officer's neck, for example, beating officers with a bat. And then just 14 people are getting these commutations.

So they still have a felony on the record, but they are getting out of prison. And all of those people are linked to the far-right groups involved in January 6th, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys. Most of that group were convicted of seditious conspiracy. But I should say the headline here is, everyone charged in connection with January 6th, whether they pleaded guilty or lost at trial, whether they assaulted cops or not,

whether they were found to be violent extremists or not, they are all getting relief from Trump. I mean, it's not a surprise, right, that Trump had promised pardons for January 6th rioters for years, but were you surprised by the scope? Well, yeah, members of the incoming administration had said this would not happen. Vice President J.D. Vance told Fox News earlier this month that, quote, obviously they should not pardon people who assaulted police.

In fact, Trump has embraced, however, even the violent January 6 defendants for years. At his rallies, he featured a song with the January 6th defendants Recorded on a jailhouse phone singing the Star-Spangled Banner He calls them hostages says they were treated unfairly and even rioters were attending inaugural events including a writer named Timothy Hale Cusinelli who prosecutors described as a Nazi sympathizer and he once went to work at a naval base with a Hitler mustache Nazi sympathizer and he once went to work at a naval base with a Hitler mustache, compared Orthodox Jews to a plague of locusts, and he actually posted his invite to the inauguration on social media. Wow.

Where does this leave the January 6 cases? Well federal law enforcement said that January 6th and the attack then was an act of domestic terrorism and they launched the largest single criminal investigation in the history of the Justice Department in response. Trump has essentially undone all of that with the stroke of a pen. And for police officers who were hurt, their families, this was the worst case scenario. They are watching people who assaulted them or their family member get out of prison. Of course, many defendants, on the other hand, are celebrating today. Jacob Chansley, the rioter many people know

as the QAnon Shimon, the guy with the horns that was seen in the Capitol, he said he's gonna buy some guns now that he can legally. And then there's the larger concern I've heard from counter-terrorism experts, extremism experts, that this essentially is an endorsement of political violence by the incoming Trump administration,

as long as that violence is against Trump's opponents. The Proud Boys have kept a much lower profile since January 6, but they were actually back out on the streets in D.C. on Inauguration Day, and given their history of violence, that has a lot of people worried. That's NPR's Tom Dreisbach. Thank you so much for your reporting. Thanks, Laila.

You're listening to Trump's Terms from NPR. I'm Scott Detro, and what you just heard was not the only big news we have to share today about the incoming Trump administration. Here's another story from NPR's latest coverage. Immigration is at the center of Trump's first moves as president, a key part of his campaign message and rise back to power. As commander in chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and

invasions and that is exactly what I am going to do. We will do it at a level that nobody's ever seen before. He signed a handful of actions tied to immigration yesterday evening and rescinding other Biden administration policies on asylum and the border. Some though push the legal bounds of the law and the Constitution. NPR's immigration policy reporter Jimena Ostio has been covering all of this and joins me now. Hi Jimena. Good morning. Good morning. So Trump has made some very specific promises around immigration. What actions did he take yesterday? Trump signed executive actions

aimed at increasing border security and reducing pathways for legal migration. Some included his boldest promises like reinterpreting the 14th Amendment to mean that those born in the US do not get automatic citizenship, as has been the most common interpretation. Trump also brought back some policies from his first term, resuming border wall construction and pausing refugee resettlement. A few other things happened yesterday as well. He shut down the CPB-1 app. This was something President Joe Biden created, which allowed migrants to schedule appointments at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. This created immediate impact at the southern border.

People who had waited months to be able to schedule an appointment suddenly lost that chance. Is everything he's signing legal and constitutional. I'm thinking of birthright citizenship. I mean, can he just end it? The 14th Amendment of the Constitution says all persons born in the United States are citizens. This is something that he has long promised to do, though this is already being challenged in courts.

Last night, a coalition of civil rights and civil liberty groups filed a lawsuit in New Hampshire saying Trump's decision was unconstitutional and goes against congressional intent and longstanding Supreme Court precedent. And others are looking into this too. And there's a lot of unknowns generally about the ability to implement many of these actions. For example, Trump says he wants to send the military and National Guard to the border, but there's no clarity on who would go, how many, or to do what. I mean, and just a reminder, I mean, Trump's been in power for not even a full day yet.

That starts today. But he does have some of his cabinet in place, like Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Does he have his immigration team assembled? Trump selected South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem to lead homeland security, but she has not been confirmed yet by the Senate. There are also key posts at the Defense Department that may need to be in place to deploy resources to the southern border. And agencies like DHS do need congressional funding to scale up their operations. And while there is interest in having border security be a part of the next budget-related measure, that's still several weeks away, if not months.

And speaking of Congress, I mean, lawmakers did actually take action on immigration last night. What did they do? 12 Democrats joined Republicans to pass the Lake and Riley Act. This is a bill that would lower the bar for who the immigration and customs enforcement agents can detain and deport based on their crimes, such as theft or assault against law enforcement. The bill now goes back to the House, which is expected to pass it, and this could reach Trump's desk as the first legislation that he signs in his second term. But it might be pretty hard to implement. I got an internal memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that said that they'd

need $26 billion in just the first year to comply with the order to house those they detain and to hire more people to process them. NPR's Jimena Bustillo. Thank you, Jimena. Thank you. Before we wrap up, a reminder, you can find more coverage of the incoming Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new

episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks as always to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsor messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detrow. Thanks for listening to Trump's terms from NPR.