Donald Trump began his presidency with a dizzying display of force, signing a blizzard of executive orders that signaled his desire to remake American institutions while also pardoning nearly all of his supporters who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
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Trump directed his Justice Department to pause enforcement of the TikTok ban until early April, but a host of questions remain - including whether Trump has the authority to issue such an order and whether TikTok’s China-based parent would be amenable to selling the popular social media platform.
Read more about the next steps with TikTok
Right-wing extremists are celebrating Elon Musk’s straight-arm gesture during a speech Monday, although his intention wasn’t totally clear and some hate watchdogs are saying not to read too much into it.
Musk himself was dismissive of the critics who saw it as a Nazi salute, though he didn’t offer further explanation.
But the confusion and plea for calm hasn’t stopped critics and fans alike of the world’s richest man from reading into the gesture what they wanted.
Read more about Musk’s controversial gesture
Marco Rubio was confirmed by the Senate for secretary of state with unanimous support.
Now comes the hard part that could make or break his tenure: retaining the full backing of his new boss, Donald Trump.
Read more about the challenges Rubio may face
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is mocking Trump’s promise of a “golden age,” saying the flurry of executive orders the president signed created a “golden age” for big monied interests and law-breaking Jan. 6 rioters.
“With a flick of a pen, President Trump took steps to make it harder to enroll in health care,” and “did nothing, nothing” for lowering the cost of groceries, housing or other aspects of everyday living, Schumer said.
“It ain’t a golden age for you, average American, that’s for sure,” Schumer said.
President Donald Trump will sit down with Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity on Wednesday, the network announced.
Hannity, a long-time backer of Trump and his agenda, will tape the appearance from the Oval Office Wednesday and it will air during his show at 9 p.m. Eastern. The network says Trump and Hannity will discuss “the executive orders he’s signed thus far, his first 100 days in office and news of the day.”
The National Treasury Employees Union late Monday filed a lawsuit against the new Trump administration over the President’s executive order that reclassifies large numbers of federal employees with the intent of making them at-will workers.
The lawsuit states that the executive order “is contrary to Congress’s intent in establishing broad protections for most federal employees.”
NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald said Trump’s action “is a dangerous step backward to a political spoils system that Congress expressly rejected 142 years ago, which is why we are suing to have the order declared unlawful.”
Bolton has been the subject of assassination plots by Iran. He served in Trump’s administration for nearly a year and a half as national security adviser before releasing a book in 2020 that was sharply critical of Trump and embarrassing for the president amid his failed reelection effort.
“I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has decided to terminate the protection previously provided by the United States Secret Service,” Bolton said in a statement.
It’s the latest in a string of actions by Trump in his first hours in office to punish political opponents.
President Joe Biden extended Secret Service protection to Bolton in 2021 in light of ongoing threats from Iran, and his Justice Department charged an Iranian official a year later with trying to orchestrate a plot of Bolton’s life.
“That threat remains today, as also demonstrated by the recent arrest of someone trying to arrange for President Trump’s own assassination,” Bolton said. “The American people can judge for themselves which President made the right call.”
President Donald Trump on Tuesday will announce investments worth up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence by a new partnership formed by OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank.
The new entity, Stargate, will start building out projects needed for the further development of the fast-evolving AI in Texas, according to the White House.
Joining Trump for the announcement fresh off his inauguration will be Masayoshi Son of SoftBank, Sam Altman of OpenAI and Larry Ellison of Oracle.
Speaking at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Gov. Andy Beshear said any policies that jeopardize jobs, health care, safety, schools and other “issues that the American people are worried about … that’s when we should be pushing back.”
He expressed concerns about the prospect that tariffs — which Trump has promised — could drive up prices, recalling how retaliatory tariffs against U.S. goods in the president’s first term affected products like Kentucky bourbon.
“That was hundreds of millions of dollars of negative economic impact that we are still feeling that cost jobs — that that cost us in exports,” Beshear said.
Eighteen states, plus the District of Columbia and San Francisco sued in federal court to block Trump’s order.
New Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matt Platkin said Tuesday the president cannot undo a right written into the Constitution with a stroke of his pen.
“Presidents have broad power but they are not kings,” Platkin said.
Not long after Trump signed the order, immigrant rights groups filed suit to stop it.
Chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union in New Hampshire, Maine and Massachusetts along with other immigrant rights advocates filed a suit in New Hampshire federal court. The suit asks the court to find the order to be unconstitutional.
The 14th Amendment did not always guarantee birthright citizenship to all U.S.-born people. Congress didn’t authorize citizenship for all Native Americans born in the United States, for instance, until 1924.
In 1898, an important birthright citizenship case unfolded in the U.S. Supreme Court. The court held that Wong Kim Ark, who was born in San Francisco to Chinese immigrants, was a U.S. citizen because he was born in the country. After a trip abroad, he had faced denied reentry by the federal government on the grounds that he wasn’t a citizen under the Chinese Exclusion Act.
But some advocates of immigration restrictions have argued that while the case clearly applied to children born to parents who are both legal immigrants, it’s less clear whether it applies to children born to parents without legal status.
Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. People, for instance, in the United States on a tourist or other visa or in the country illegally can become the parents of a citizen if their child is born here.
It’s been in place for decades and enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, supporters say. But Trump and allies dispute the reading of the amendment and say there need to be tougher standards on becoming a citizen.
Trump moved to end birthright citizenship when he ordered the cancellation of the constitutional guarantee that U.S.-born children are citizens regardless of their parents’ status.
Fresh off his trip to the inauguration, New York City Mayor Eric Adams said he had instructed officials to lawfully cooperate with Trump’s agenda around immigration and other issues, while flatly refusing to criticize the president or any of his policies.
“I’m not going to be warring with the president,” Adams told reporters. “I’m going to be working with the president.”
Adams was elected as a Democrat and previously criticized the “abusive rhetoric and tactics” of the first Trump era. But he has increasingly embraced Trump in recent months, raising speculation that he is angling for a pardon in his federal case on bribery and campaign finance charges.
On Tuesday, Adams declined to say whether he opposed Trump’s executive orders that pardoned Jan. 6 defendants, revoked birthright citizenship and withdrew the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement. And he repeatedly ducked questions about how the city would respond to large-scale immigration raids promised by Trump.
“You shouldn’t start out the gate criticizing,” Adams said. “You should start trying to collaborate, trying to cooperate.”
It came as Rubio took the helm of the State Department just hours after taking the oath of office.
Trump’s first confirmed cabinet appointment, Rubio entered the department through its main entrance to loud applause and cheers before addressing his new employees in the same lobby in which former Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered farewell remarks to the building Friday.
“The voters decide the course of our nation, both domestically and abroad, and they have elected Donald J. Trump as our president when it comes to foreign policy on a very clear mission,” Rubio said. “And that mission is to ensure that our foreign policy is centered on one thing, and that is the advancement of our national interest, which (was) clearly defined through his campaign as anything that makes us stronger or safer or more prosperous.”
Trump has been publicly skeptical of the value of the State Department since his first term in office and, as he has done with with other agencies, accused some in the diplomatic corps of working to blunt or derail his policy priorities.
Some senators are urging Collins to fight the federal hiring freeze Trump declared Monday, saying it will sap the Department of Veterans Affairs’ ability to provide medical care or even run veteran cemeteries.
“This hiring freeze should not apply to direct care workers,” said Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent who caucuses with Democrats.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, noted the text of the order says it won’t adversely affect Social Security, Medicare and veterans benefits. He asked Collins whether that meant the VA was exempt from the freeze. Collins said he’s still examining what it means “but we support the president’s initiative in this phase.”
Collins also said he believes there are numerous opportunities to streamline the VA, but said Trump will protect care.
“I was told by the president to take care of veterans,” Collins said. “We’re going to take care of veterans.”
Speaking at a Federalist Society forum Tuesday, John Yoo, a University of California law professor and former government official who’s promoted the idea of expansive presidential authority, said Trump’s decision to allow TikTok to continue to operate, for now, appears to run afoul of the law that called for it to shut down by Sunday. The law gave the president the authority to extend the deadline, but Yoo noted that the window when that was allowed had closed by the time Trump took office and signed the order.
Yoo also said the order to end birthright citizenship appears to be unconstitutional. And sending to the military to seal the southern border may have gone too far, he said, because it relies on the premise that the U.S. is being invaded.
Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said during the forum that the state could consider suing the Trump administration to try to undo Trump’s executive order allowing TikTok to continue operating.
Collins says he supports giving veterans access to private medical care but is disavowing any intention to privatize or dismantle the existing VA health system.
“There will always be a VA health system for the veteran” Collins said. But he says the VA “exists for the veterans” and that particularly newer veterans may prefer private providers.
Democrats are urging Collins to protect the current system, saying it provides valuable expertise. But some Republicans in particular say it should be easier for veterans to access private medical care because of long distances.
Scott Bessent is one step closer to confirmation after a favorable committee vote.
He was approved with a bipartisan tally of 16-11. The vote clears the way for the full Senate to weigh his confirmation in the coming days.
The approval came over the protest of Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden who said, “this nominee is not square on his taxes.”
Former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon cheered the vote, saying on his podcast that Bessent “was magnificent.”
Former U.S. Rep. Doug Collins said he’ll reexamine whether the Department of Veterans Affairs should provide abortions, repeatedly saying in his confirmation hearing Tuesday that he believes a 1992 law bans the VA from performing abortions.
“The law specifically stated that the VA is not to be doing abortions… ,” said Collins, a former Republican congressman from Georgia. “The situation came up in 2022, in which they were told to look at a rule that would get around that. To me, it’s time for us to take a look at the rule and make sure, just as in every other area of VA life, that we’re actually doing what the law and the intent of this body is.”
The Biden administration announced in 2022 that VA facilities would provide abortion counseling and abortions to veterans when when the life or health of a pregnant veteran was endangered by a pregnancy or when a woman became pregnant because of rape or incest.
The men were freed in a swap with the Taliban brokered by Biden’s administration.
“We celebrate the release of Ryan Corbett and William McKenty who will soon reunited with their families and loved ones, and also thank the Government of Qatar for their assistance,” National Security spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement. “The Trump Administration will continue to demand the release of all Americans held by the Taliban, especially in light of the billions of dollars in U.S. aid they’ve received in recent years.”
The deal to free Corbett and McKenty was completed by Biden administration officials before the Democratic administration’s term ended Monday, according to a Trump administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly and requested anonymity.
The two U.S. citizens were exchanged for Taliban figure Khan Mohammed, who was serving two terms of life imprisonment in California on drug trafficking and terrorism charges.
With President Trump in attendance, the Right Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, gave a sermon focused on national unity.
She said they gathered “to pray for unity as a people and a nation — not for agreement, political or otherwise — but for the kind of unity that fosters community across diversity and division.”
She ended her sermon with a direct appeal to Trump, to have mercy on LGBTQ+ people and undocumented migrant workers: “You have felt the providential hand of a loving God. In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now.”
Budde has criticized Trump before, rebuking his “racialized rhetoric” and blaming him for inciting violence on Jan. 6. She was “ outraged ” in 2020 after Trump staged an appearance in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church. He held up a Bible after the area had been cleared of peaceful protesters.
Asked by Sen. Chris Van Hollen if she agrees with far-right Israeli officials that Israel has a “biblical right” to the entire West Bank, Stefanik testified that she does. The answer, which Van Hollen said was among the rare occasions he is left surprised by nominees, adheres to Trump’s history of fervent support for Israeli settler groups in the West Bank.
Van Hollen said “it’s going to be very difficult to achieve” Trump’s plan for peace and security with a view like that.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-South Dakota, said Tuesday morning that lawmakers would continue to consider Trump’s nominations throughout the week, with a vote on Ratcliffe likely later in the day.
Ratcliffe was director of national intelligence during Trump’s first term and would be the first person to hold that position and serve as CIA director if confirmed as expected. He’s a former federal prosecutor who emerged as a fierce Trump defender while serving as Republican congressman from Texas during Trump’s first impeachment.
At his confirmation hearing last week, Ratcliffe told lawmakers the CIA must do better when it comes to using technology like artificial intelligence and quantum computing to confront adversaries like Russia and China. He said the country must improve its intelligence capabilities while also ensuring the protection of American civil rights.
The agency made the announcement Tuesday.
Uyeda is expected to be a placeholder until Trump’s nominee to head the securities regulator, Paul Atkins, is confirmed.
Atkins, a former SEC commissioner, has been a strong advocate for cryptocurrencies and has argued against too much market regulation. Crypto investors and companies generally considered the Biden administration and outgoing SEC Chairman Gary Gensler as hostile toward their industry.
After singing the national anthem at the inauguration, opera singer Christopher Macchio sang “Ave Maria” at the post-inauguration prayer service.
It’s a favorite song of President Trump and one Macchio sang at a Trump rally and the Republican National Convention.
Before the service began, Macchio sang hymns like “How Great Thou Art” and another Trump favorite, “Hallelujah,” written by Leonard Cohen.
Speakers at the interfaith service Trump and Vance are attending didn’t name specific politicians but called on them all, from president to local officials, to remember the country is one nation.
The early readings, prayers and songs revolved around a theme of compassion and togetherness, including a reading from Deuteronomy 10:17-21 which speaks of taking care of orphans and widows and all who have need.
The service comes amid concerns that the early steps of the Trump administration could have an adverse effect on immigrants and large swaths of the nation with the fewest resources.
She pointed to China’s growing influence at the U.N., its closer alliance with Russia and their veto-power in the U.N. Security Council which has blocked action on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Stefanik said it was never more critical for the United States to lead with strength, pointing to challenges ranging from China and Russia as well as North Korea and Iran.
Trump’s U.N. nominee backed his decision Monday to withdraw the U.S. from the World Health Organization, a move that many public health experts warn would make America vulnerable in the next pandemic.
“W.H.O. failed on a global stage in the Covid pandemic for all the world to see,” Stefanik said in response to a line of questioning about the intergovernmental agency. She added that instead, W.H.O. “spewed” Chinese Communist Party talking points “that I believe led to not only false information, but dangerous and deadly information across the globe.”
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has an answer for President Donald Trump about his idea of renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”: he can call it whatever he wants on the American part of it.
“He says that he will call it the ‘Gulf of America’ on its continental shelf,” the Mexican leader said Tuesday. “For us it is still the Gulf of Mexico and for the entire world it is still the Gulf of Mexico.”
Trump said in his inaugural address that he’ll change the name, an idea he first brought up earlier this month during a news conference.
“A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America,” he said. Hours later he signed an executive order to do it.
President Trump moved from the second row with other former presidents during former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral to the first chair, reserved for the sitting president.
In addition to the first lady, he’s also joined by Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance. The service has been held since 1933.
Former Proud Boys extremist group leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes have been released from prison after their lengthy sentences for seditious conspiracy convictions in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol were wiped away by a sweeping order by President Donald Trump benefiting more than 1,500 defendants.
Rhodes and Tarrio were two of the highest-profile Jan. 6 defendants and received some of the harshest punishments in what became the largest investigation in Justice Department history.
Their attorneys confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday they had been released hours after Trump pardoned, commuted the sentences of or ordered the dismissal of cases against all the 1,500-plus people who were charged with federal crimes in the riot.
▶ Read more about pardons related to the Capitol riot
She said the U.S. has to leverage its 22% payment to the U.N.’s regular budget to ensure America’s money is making America safer, stronger and more prosperous.
She said the United States must embark on a long-term strategy to tackle China’s growing importance and leadership in U.N, agencies and bodies by working with U.S. allies to run candidates.
Stefanik also said the U.S. needs to ensure that Taiwan has “maximum participation” in international organizations.
A wide range of religions are represented in the interfaith inaugural prayer service, including leaders from Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu traditions.
Notably absent from the invited clergy with speaking roles are conservative evangelicals, who are among President Trump’s strongest supporters.
Some of those evangelical supporters are still in the pews. In attendance are Robert Jeffress, a longtime Trump supporter and pastor of Dallas’ First Baptist Church; Paula White-Cain, a televangelist and key spiritual advisor during Trump’s first term; and Lorenzo Sewell, the pastor of Detroit’s 180 Church who gave a spirited benediction at Monday’s inauguration.
But the ranking Democrat insisted “its work is irreplaceable.”
Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, said the United States should examine if further U.S. contributions and participation in the 193-member world body “is even beneficial to the American people.”
But Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the ranking committee member from New Hampshire, countered that the U.S. benefits from U.N. peacekeeping missions “that would otherwise fall to the American military.”
Stefanik opened her confirmation hearing saying it was “the honor of my lifetime” to be nominated by Trump for the top U.N. job.
“If confirmed, I stand ready to implement President Trump’s mandate from the American people to deliver America First peace through strength national security leadership on the world stage,” the 40-year-old told lawmakers.
Trump signed an executive order requiring that flags at federal facilities always fly at full staff on Inauguration Day.
Then-President Joe Biden had ordered flags lowered for 30 days after the Dec. 29 death of former President Jimmy Carter.
Trump’s order said flags would be lowered again after his inauguration and continue flying at half-staff through Jan. 28, or the end of the mourning period for Carter.
Elise Stefanik, Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., was flanked by Republican Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Tom Cotton, who introduced her before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.
“It is clear the need to re-establish U.S. leadership at this broken institution,” Capito said in her in remarks. “I cannot think of anyone more qualified or ready to fill that role.”
In an executive order he signed Monday night, President Donald Trump repealed an order from his predecessor that resulted in longer enrollment periods and invested more taxpayer money into signing people up to get health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act.
Under President Joe Biden, a record 24 million people signed up for the marketplace coverage.
Trump has long been a critic of “Obamacare,” unsuccessfully seeking a repeal of the national health care law during his first term. He also shortened enrollment windows and cut funding for the program, which led to sinking enrollment.
The Washington National Cathedral has hosted 10 official inaugural prayer services for presidents of both parties.
Tuesday’s interfaith service at 11 a.m. ET will have a different emphasis than previous ones. Its focus will be on national unity instead of the new administration — a plan made before Election Day.
“We are in a unique moment in our country’s history, and it is time to approach this differently,” said the Very Rev. Randy Hollerith, dean of the Episcopal cathedral, in an October statement.
“This will be a service for all Americans, for the well-being of our nation, for our democracy.”
Among them are the international flavor of the audience and the religious and ethnic diversity of the speakers on the program.
Some in President Trump’s inner circle of advisers, including Vivek Ramaswamy have also arrived. The program and atmosphere with the organ music echoing throughout the cathedral also are different from Monday’s pre-Inauguration service.
Most notably, Mariann Edgar Budde, the bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C. will deliver the message. One of her most public connections to Trump occurred in 2020 during the first administration when she criticized him for staging a visit to the historic St. John’s Church across from the White House, where he held up a Bible after authorities had cleared the area of peaceful protesters.
“I will say that it’s pretty hard to top being sworn in as vice president and then the Buckeyes win the national championship the very same day, but this is a hell of a start to a run,” Vance, a former U.S. senator from Ohio, said before he administered the oath to now-Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Ohio State University won the national football title Monday night.
Vice President JD Vance has sworn in Rubio as Secretary of State, the first of Trump’s Cabinet nominees to take the job.
Rubio said Trump’s primary priority will be furthering the United States’ interests and that anything the government and State Department do must make the country stronger, safer or more prosperous.
“If it doesn’t do one of those three things, we will not do it,” Rubio said.
Vance, who served as a senator alongside Rubio, called him a “bipartisan solutions seeker.”
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday that he has the Foreign Ministry preparing Polish diplomatic missions in the United States for possible deportations as a precaution.
“The new administration has not yet informed anyone about the details of this operation, therefore we have not received information on whether this operation may be harmful to Polish citizens,” Tusk said. “But either way, we have to be prepared.”
Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski followed up by saying his ministry was encouraging Polish citizens living abroad whose passports have expired to obtain new documents.
On Monday, the day President Donald Trump was inaugurated, the Foreign Ministry in Warsaw issued a statement urging all Poles abroad to return to Poland, without mentioning the U.S.
“Good New Year’s Resolution – Return to Poland!” read the title of the statement.
U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York will be grilled about her lack of foreign policy experience at 10 a.m. ET and strong support for Israel as she vies to become U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Trump’s pick to lead the Veterans Affairs Department, former Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, is also up at 10 a.m. ET. He’s a chaplain in the U.S. Air Force Reserve Command who helped defend Trump during his first impeachment process.
A Senate committee will vote on money manager Scott Bessent, Trump’s choice for Treasury Secretary, at 10:15 ET. He’s an advocate of cutting spending while extending the tax cuts.
Speaking to Fox News, press secretary Karoline Leavitt declined to detail the announcement before Trump spoke at 4 p.m. Tuesday but said it would also send a signal to the world.
“You won’t want to miss it,” she said. Trump is also scheduled to attend a national prayer service Tuesday morning at Washington National Cathedral.
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune are heading to the White House to meet with Trump on Tuesday.
It’s the first formal sit down for the GOP leadership teams including Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Senate GOP Whip John Barrasso and the new president as they chart priorities with the sweep of Republican power in Washington.
Despite an ambitious 100-days agenda, the Republican-led Congress isn’t on the same page on some of the basics of their ideas and strategies as they rush to deliver tax cuts for the wealthy, mass deportations and other priorities for Trump.
He pledged to remove more than 1,000 presidential appointees “who are not aligned with our vision.”
In a post on his TruthSocial platform, Trump dismissed chef and humanitarian Jose Andres from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, Ret. Gen. Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, former State Dept. official Brian Hook from the board of the Wilson Center, and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President’s Export Council.
“YOUR’E FIRED!” he wrote in a post just after midnight Tuesday.
Milley, the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff under Trump, received a pardon from former President Joe Biden on Monday over concerns he could be criminally targeted by the new administration. His portrait in the Pentagon was also removed. Hook, who was Trump’s Iran envoy during his first term, had been involved in the Trump administration transition. No reasoning was given for his firing.
Former President Joe Biden also removed many Trump appointees in his first days in office, including former press secretary Sean Spicer from the board overseeing the U.S. Naval Acadamy.
Rep. Elise Stefanik is likely to face questions at her confirmation hearing Tuesday to become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations about her lack of foreign policy experience, her strong support for Israel and her views on funding the U.N. and its many agencies.
Harvard-educated and the fourth-ranking member of the U.S. House, she was elected to Congress in 2015 as a moderate Republican and is leaving a decade later as one of President Trump’s most ardent allies.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “looks forward to working again with President Trump on his second term,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Monday.
When she appears before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Stefanik is likely to be grilled about her views on the wars in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere as well as the North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs — all issues on the U.N. agenda.
▶ Read more about Elise Stefanik’s confirmation hearing
Scholz said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday that “not every press conference in Washington, not every tweet should send us straight into excited, existential debates. That’s also the case after the change of government that took place in Washington yesterday.”
Scholz said the U.S. is Germany’s closest ally outside Europe and he’ll do everything to keep in that way.
He acknowledged that Trump and his administration “will keep the world on tenterhooks in the coming years” in energy, climate, trade and security policy. But he said “we can and will deal with all this, without unnecessary agitation and outrage, but also without false ingratiation or telling people what they want to hear.”
Scholz said of Trump’s “America First” approach that there’s nothing wrong with looking to the interests of one’s own country – “we all do that. But it is also the case that cooperation and agreement with others are mostly also in one’s interest.”
Speaking in the Oval Office Monday, Trump rejected Biden’s warning that the U.S. is becoming an “ oligarchy ” for tech billionaires, saying the executives supported Democrats until they realized Biden “didn’t know what the hell he was talking about.”
“They did desert him,” Trump added. “They were all with him, every one of them, and now they are all with me.”
Despite taking millions from the executives and their companies for his inaugural committee — and receiving more than $200 million in assistance from Musk in his presidential campaign — Trump claimed he didn’t need their money and they wouldn’t be receiving anything in return.
“They’re not going to get anything from me,” Trump said. “I don’t need money, but I do want the nation to do well, and they’re smart people and they create a lot of jobs.”
President Donald Trump signs an executive order to create the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington, as White House staff secretary Will Scharf watches. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks as first lady Melania Trump listens at the Commander in Chief Ball, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump signs an executive order on TikTok in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)