Washington
Donald Trump’s call for sweeping change puts Washington on notice
President Donald J. Trump began his second term with a dramatic pledge to sweep away the liberal gains made by Democrats under Joe Biden, saying in his inaugural address Monday that he planned to sign a historic number of executive orders right away to begin reshaping American society in his image while ushering in a new “golden age” for the nation.
Trump, who is expected to sign as many as 100 executive orders on his first day in office, said he’d focus immediately on his main campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration and deport millions of undocumented people.
The president said he would declare a national emergency at the southern U.S. border, and a separate “national energy emergency” to increase domestic oil and gas production, part of an effort to roll back policies enacted by his predecessor to fight climate change.
Kevin Lamarque – Pool/Getty Images
With his second inaugural speech and the deluge of promised executive orders, Trump put Washington on notice that he plans to move swiftly on several major policy fronts at once, while also taking steps to put conservative values around diversity and inclusion at the center of government and public life.
Trump enters office riding a wave of political momentum with a Republican Party that’s largely united behind his policy proposals — unlike the start of his first term, when the GOP controlled Congress but was divided over his status as a political outsider and neophyte.
Now, Republicans also control the House and Senate, but the party’s leadership and rank-and-file is filled with MAGA loyalists.
Trump also now enjoys the support of powerful tech executives who are expected to have an influential voice in his administration. The list of business leaders on hand to watch Trump get sworn in included the billionaire Tesla CEO turned close Trump ally Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The tech titans were part of a paired-down group of dignitaries who packed into the Rotunda at the U.S. Capitol to attend the inaugural ceremony after it was moved indoors due to extreme cold — the first time that has happened since Ronald Reagan’s second inaugural in 1985.
The formal transfer of power Monday completed one of the most remarkable political comebacks in the country’s nearly 250-year history. Trump is just the second American president to serve two nonconsecutive terms. The other is Grover Cleveland, who accomplished the feat back in the late 19th century.
Trump made history in other ways as well. He is now the first occupant of the Oval Office with a felony conviction. Trump, who turns 79 in June, also became the oldest president at the time of his swearing-in ceremony, beating by approximately six months the record Biden set when he took office in 2021.
Trump’s return to power comes after an embattled four-year hiatus out of office following his failed effort to overturn the results of his 2020 election loss to Biden.
The setting of the swearing-in ceremony offered a stark reminder of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, when an angry mob of Trump supporters took over the building — including the Rotunda, where Trump was sworn-in for his second term — in an unsuccessful attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s election victory.
The violent insurrection overshadowed the final days of Trump’s first term and seemed at the time almost certain to rule out any future bid for the presidency.
But now, instead of ending his political career on a losing note — as a twice-impeached, one-term president — Trump will have four more years to put his stamp on the nation and a chance to further cement his legacy as the most consequential Republican president since Reagan.
Trump’s relatively brief remarks felt at times more like a wishlist-laden State of the Union speech to Congress than an inaugural address.
In addition to the plans to declare states of emergency around immigration and energy, Trump also said he would designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations; bring back “law and order” to American cities; end what he called the “chronic disease epidemic,” and send U.S. astronauts to Mars.
Trump said his administration would “end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public life,” adding, “we will forge a society that is color blind and merit-based.” He also declared it would be official U.S. government policy that there are “only two genders, male and female.”
The vision Trump laid out amounted to a stark repudiation of Democrats and represented a reversal of a yearslong effort by the party to address systemic racism, sexism and other societal issues in the economy, education and other areas.
Trump also warned the rest of the world to prepare for a return to the “America First” approach to foreign affairs that defined his first term as president. He said he would strengthen the U.S. military and claimed that “our power will stop all wars,” while saying he hoped he would be remembered as a “peacemaker and a unifier.”
Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool
That point was driven home by a ceasefire and hostage deal in the process of being carried out thousands of miles away in Gaza, which was said to be heavily influenced by Trump’s return to power and the behind-the-scenes machinations of his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, who worked closely with the Biden administration in its final days to secure the deal.
Trump’s speech differed from his first inaugural address in 2017 in other ways as well. When he took office eight years ago as a political outsider, Trump painted a dark picture of a failing nation crippled by poverty and crime. “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” Trump famously said at the time.
The president echoed that message to some degree in his second inaugural address, but in other moments he sought to strike a more optimistic tone. “We stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history,” Trump said, then added, “We’re going to win like never before.”
The smaller indoor ceremony meant that thousands of people who traveled to the capital for the inauguration missed out on seeing Trump take the oath of office in person from the National Mall. But Trump supporters still blanketed the city at parties and events in his honor that will continue through the night Monday, signaling the changing of the guard.
After Trump was sworn in, Biden departed the Capitol to deliver the traditional farewell address before leaving Washington to start his post-presidency. After speaking to supporters downstairs from the Rotunda, Trump was set to attend a Congressional luncheon before signing the first of his many expected executive orders from the Capital One Arena across town, where thousands of his supporters had gathered in anticipation.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), “on behalf of the Department of Education (ED),” on Monday released a Notice Inviting Grant Applications for the Child Care Access Means Parents in School (CCAMPIS) program. Applications are due by May 29.
Last November, ED announced that it had entered into an interagency agreement with HHS to administer the CCAMPIS program. This is the first CCAMPIS competition conducted under this arrangement.
Approximately $73.5 million will go to institutions of higher education that awarded at least $250,000 in Pell grants to enrolled students in FY 2025. HHS will award about 148 grants, ranging from $150,000 to $1 million.
The terms of the grant competition are not significantly different than prior competitions. As before, there are two absolute grant priorities that every application must address – leveraging non-federal resources and utilizing a sliding-fee scale for low-income parents.
This year’s competition includes only one invitational priority that reflects the Trump administration’s general educational policy. The new priority, entitled “Expanding Education Choice in Early Learning Settings,” encourages applications that “expand access to education choice … including by empowering parents in choosing the early learning setting that best meets their family’s needs.” Flexible childcare programs that include drop-in care and care during nontraditional hours are also encouraged.
One other notable difference from prior competitions is an expanded “Terms and Conditions” section that not only requires compliance with applicable civil rights laws, but also refers to Trump administration Executive Orders and guidance on racial discrimination that clarify “the application of federal antidiscrimination laws to programs or initiatives that may involve discriminatory practices, including those labeled as Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) programs.” This includes any “discriminatory equity ideology [as defined in Executive Order 14190] in violation of a federal antidiscrimination law.”
The exact scope of these terms is unclear because courts have not found many of the practices described in these Executive Orders and guidance documents to be violations of federal law.
The Newsfeed
This week, the team brings you stories about how communities including Filipino immigrants, Sephardic Jews and Somalis arrived in the Pacific Northwest
Each week on The Newsfeed, host Paris Jackson and a team of veteran journalists dive deep into one topic and provide impactful reporting, interviews and community insights from sources you can trust. Each day this week, this post will be updated with a new story from the team.
Group hopes to boost recognition for Seattle’s Filipinotown
By Venice Buhain
The group Filipinotown Seattle hopes to make sure that the legacy of Filipino Americans in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District isn’t forgotten.
One of the group’s current projects is pushing for a Filipinotown placemarking sign in the CID.
“Filipino Americans have had a presence here for over 100 years in Seattle,” said Filipinotown Seattle Executive Director Devin Israel Cabanilla.
He said that the signage is important to remind people that “the International District is not just Chinatown. Japantown. Filipinotown is here as well.”
The group held a poll on what signage might look like and where it might be located. It would be similar to the Chinatown sign on South Jackson Street and Fifth Avenue South, or the Wing Luke Museum
In the early 20th century, the area now known as the CID was a hub full of businesses, entertainment, social groups and housing that served Seattle’s growing immigrant population from Asia and elsewhere. The communities all intermingled throughout the CID.
“This area was a central place for Asian Pacific immigrants simply because of segregation,” Cabanilla said.
Because the Philippines was a U.S. territory from 1898 to 1946, Filipino immigrants were unaffected by laws in the 1920s that restricted immigration from Japan or China. Many Filipinos came to study at the University of Washington or to work in burgeoning industries, like lumber, farming, canneries and factories.
While the physical Filipino presence in terms of buildings and storefronts in the CID dwindled in the later 20th century with redevelopment, Seattle Filipinos and Filipino Americans continued to make impacts locally, regionally and nationally.
“It may not have been in terms of storefronts, but our presence has always existed in terms of politics, culture as well,” Cabanilla said.
The Seattle Department of Transportation said it is aware that the group is working on its signage request, but the Department of Neighborhoods has not yet received a formal request. They are also working to develop a clearer process for this and other similar neighborhood signage proposals.
Filipinotown Seattle said it hopes that the sign helps remind Seattle of the CID’s unique designation as a neighborhood shaped by many immigrants and migrants to Seattle.
“Is it Chinatown? Is it Japantown? Is it Little Saigon? It’s all those things. And I think re cultivating that this is a multicultural district, Filipinotown is helping establish: Yes, it’s more than one thing,” Cabanilla said.
Venice Buhain is a multimedia journalist at Cascade PBS. She previously was the Cascade PBS’s associate news editor and education reporter. Venice has also worked for KING 5, The Seattle Globalist and TVW News.
Venice Buhain is a multimedia journalist at Cascade PBS. She previously was the Cascade PBS’s associate news editor and education reporter. Venice has also worked for KING 5, The Seattle Globalist and TVW News.
The state of Washington is getting a seventh temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
The Marysville Washington Temple was announced Sunday night during a devotional in the Marysville Washington Stake by Elder Hugo E. Martinez, a General Authority Seventy in the church’s United States West Area Presidency.
“We are pleased to announce the construction of a temple in Marysville, Washington,” the First Presidency said in a statement. “The specific location and timing of the construction will be announced later. This is a reason for all of us to rejoice and express gratitude for such a significant blessing — one that will allow more frequent access to the ordinances, covenants and power that can only be found in the house of the Lord.”
The other temples in Washington are the Columbia River, Moses Lake, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma and Vancouver temples.
The church has 214 temples in operation. Plans for another 170 temples have been announced; many of those temples are in various stages of planning and construction.
Sunday’s temple announcement follows the new practice of the church’s First Presidency, which determines where temples will be built — and when and how they will be announced.
The First Presidency directed a General Authority Seventy to announce the first temple in Maine at a fireside there in December.
In January, church President Dallin H. Oaks said the Maine announcement set the pattern for future temple announcements.
“The best place to announce a temple is in that temple district,” he told the Deseret News.
The First Presidency will continue to decide where future temples will be built. It then will “assign someone else to make the announcement in the place where the temple will be built,” he said.
This pattern came to him as a strong impression after he assumed leadership of the church in October, following the death of his friend, President Russell M. Nelson.
This came as a strong impression to him shortly after he assumed the leadership of the church, President Oaks said.
The church remains in the midst of an aggressive temple-building era. President Nelson announced 200 new temples from 2018 to 2025. All but one were announced at general conference.
Five dozen temples are now under construction.
President Oaks now has overseen the announcement of two temples, neither at a general conference.
At the October conference he said that “with the large number of temples now in the very earliest phases of planning and construction, it is appropriate that we slow down the announcement of new temples.”
Ten new temples are scheduled to be dedicated in the next six months.
- May 3: Davao Philippines Temple.
- May 3: Lindon Utah Temple.
- May 31: Bacolod Philippines Temple.
- June 7: Yorba Linda California Temple.
- June 7: Willamette Valley Oregon Temple.
- Aug. 16: Belo Horizonte Brazil Temple.
- Aug. 16: Cleveland Ohio Temple.
- Aug. 30: Phnom Penh Cambodia Temple.
- Oct. 11: Miraflores Guatemala City Guatemala Temple.
- Oct. 18: Managua Nicaragua Temple.
Two-thirds of the 170 temples still to be built are outside the United States.
Temples are distinct from the meetinghouses where Latter-day Saints worship Jesus Christ each Sunday. Temples are closed on Sundays, but they open during the week as sanctuaries where church members go to find peace, make covenants with God and perform proxy ordinances for deceased relatives.
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