Politics
Trump immediately flexes presidential powers: 1,500 pardons and a raft of executive orders
President Trump quickly flexed the sweeping powers of the presidency following his second inauguration at the Capitol on Monday, signing a slate of executive orders that would radically alter U.S. policy if allowed to stand.
He also pardoned or commuted the sentences of all of his loyalists — more than 1,500 people — who stormed the same Capitol building in a failed attempt to illegitimately keep him in power four years prior, repeatedly referring to them as “hostages.”
“We hope they come out tonight, frankly,” Trump said during an evening signing ceremony at the Oval Office — a reference to the fact that many of those defendants were in prison for serious offenses such as assaulting police officers.
Trump’s orders reflected an aggressive start to the conservative agenda he promised on the campaign trail, aimed at reining in illegal immigration, strengthening U.S. manufacturing and the broader economy, rolling back LGBTQ+ rights, reinforcing American dominance abroad and bending the sprawling federal bureaucracy to his will.
At an evening rally in Washington, D.C., that was held in lieu of an outdoor parade because of frigid temperatures, Trump sat at a desk and used black markers to sign nine orders.
The first, he said, undid about 80 “destructive, radical actions” made by President Biden — having to do with issues including immigration, the COVID-19 pandemic, voting rights, “diversity, equity and inclusion” initiatives, protections for LGBTQ+ people, the operation of prisons by private entities, tackling climate change and other environmental protections.
The other orders withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement and informed the United Nations of that decision; placed freezes on new federal regulations and most federal hiring while his administration gets into place; mandated federal workers return to in-person work full time; and sent directives to federal agencies to protect free speech, end the “weaponization of government” for political purposes, and find ways to decrease inflation and high costs for average Americans.
Trump said he also would later sign other orders — such as one mandating that agencies preserve all records pertaining to his own prosecution on various federal charges under the Biden administration. And he renewed campaign promises to take other actions, such as ending federal taxes on tipped wages.
Trump concluded the event by tossing the markers he’d used to sign the orders into the crowd, to big cheers from his supporters.
Soon after, Trump was back in the Oval Office signing more orders and the pardons. One order announced the withdrawal of the U.S. from the World Health Organization, while another purported to end the long-established constitutional guarantee of U.S. citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
Trump commuted the sentences of 14 people — including some of the highest-profile Jan. 6 defendants — to time served, and granted full pardons to everyone else convicted of offenses from that day. The Justice Department recently estimated that it had charged more than 1,500 people, including 590 with assaulting, resisting, impeding or obstructing law enforcement.
As of November, nearly 1,000 had pleaded guilty, more than 200 had been found guilty at trial, and more than 600 had been sentenced to time behind bars.
Trump’s pardons followed a last-minute decision by Biden to flex the same power on his way out of the White House by pardoning members of Congress and their staffers who had investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, as well as other former U.S. officials who have drawn Trump’s ire for having challenged his authority in the past.
The orders, which Trump also described in some detail in his inaugural speech Monday morning, reflected just how starkly divided the nation has become politically — and the degree to which Trump feels emboldened to shirk tradition and legal precedent as the first president to win a nonconsecutive second term in the White House in the last 132 years.
While promising the return of a “golden age of America” under his watch, Trump declared two national emergencies — one to do with southern border crossings, and the other to do with energy independence. He promised several measures to address each, including closing the border entirely to asylum seekers — in part by reinstating his “Remain in Mexico” policy and sending military troops to the border — and by clearing away federal energy regulations so that oil and gas producers can “drill, baby, drill.”
In an early sign of the policies being implemented, immigrants with asylum claims at the southern border were told Monday that scheduled interviews they had with U.S. Customs and Border Protection had been canceled.
Trump said he would declare that there are only “two genders” — a swipe at transgender people that echoed attacks by Trump’s campaign — and revoke regulations intended to transition the nation toward electric vehicles. He said he would institute many new tariffs on foreign goods, launch a new “external revenue service” to collect the associated revenue, and launch a new Department of Government Efficiency to reduce waste — the last of which would be led by Elon Musk, the owner of X and Tesla and the world’s richest man.
Trump also said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, and take the Panama Canal from Panama.
“With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” Trump said during his inauguration speech in the Capitol Rotunda. “It’s all about common sense.”
Whether Trump’s directives will survive and how quickly they will be implemented remains unclear. Survival of the most controversial and legally dubious decrees will depend on the courts, experts said. Implementation will depend in part on how quickly Trump can get his Cabinet appointments confirmed by the Senate and stand up his new government, they said.
Advocates for immigrants, LGBTQ+ people and other targeted groups joined liberal leaders — including in California — in promising to fight back against Trump’s agenda, including in court if necessary.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said last week that his office would be watching what Trump does Monday and responding in kind — including with the help of pre-written legal briefs anticipating certain actions that the state will argue in court are illegal.
San Francisco City Atty. David Chiu said Monday that Trump had delivered a “dark, dangerous and authoritarian vision for our country,” and that his office would be analyzing Trump’s executive orders in coming days and weeks and “will do everything in our power to protect San Francisco and our residents from illegal federal action.”
The Jan. 6 pardons could result in swifter action, and less resistance — given that a president’s pardon powers are generally unquestioned.
Attorneys for some of the imprisoned defendants said before the inauguration that they were watching Trump’s actions closely and would be poised to respond with legal motions seeking their clients’ immediate release.
In addition to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack, Biden also pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who helped lead the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mark A. Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who has called out Trump’s handling of the insurrection.
All had been threatened with potential criminal charges and investigation by Trump and his supporters. Biden called them public servants who “have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.”
Trump called Biden’s pardons “unfortunate” and “disgraceful.”
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the former chair of the Jan. 6 committee, issued a statement on behalf of the committee’s former members, in which he said they were grateful to Biden.
“We have been pardoned today not for breaking the law,” Thompson said, “but for upholding it.”
One of the committee members, Sen. Adam B. Schiff of California, said he was proud of the committee’s work and believed Biden’s grant of pardons to its members was “unnecessary, and because of the precedent it establishes, unwise.”
However, Schiff — one of Trump’s favorite targets for derision — said he also understood why Biden had issued the pardons “in light of the persistent and baseless threats issued by Donald Trump and individuals who are now some of his law enforcement nominees.”
The exercise of presidential powers on a new president’s first day in office — or his last, in Biden’s case — is not new.
Presidents have often issued pardons on their way out of office, and they have always fought to meet campaign promises and show policy results quickly.
The notion that a president should be judged by their accomplishments within their first “100 days” in office has been a “touchstone” of American politics since at least the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Congressional Research Service analyst Ben Wilhelm wrote in a formal analysis of executive orders and presidential transitions last year.
However, in recent decades, the number of executive orders issued early on in new administrations has increased, under both Democratic and Republican presidents, Wilhelm noted. That is in part as incoming presidents have issued orders undoing the orders of their predecessors.
Biden did it to undo orders by Trump. On Monday, Trump did it to undo orders by Biden.
Trump on Monday suggested his “Day 1” actions were especially warranted. He said he had been saved by God from assassination attempts during the campaign so that he could “make America great again,” and repeatedly cited a “mandate” from voters to carry out his agenda — suggesting his victory over Biden in November was monumental.
Trump did amass a sizable victory in the electoral college, and swept to victories across the nation’s swing states. However, his popular vote margins — both as a percentage of overall votes and by raw votes — were historically small.
Out of more than 152 million votes cast, Trump won by just over 2 million. And he won fewer than 50% of the total vote — at 49.9%, compared to 48.4% won by Vice President Kamala Harris, according to the Associated Press. That means that while Trump does enjoy massive support for his agenda, there are also nearly as many Americans who voted against him and that agenda.
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By Shawn Paik
April 22, 2026
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Sparks flew on Capitol Hill as Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., accused Federal Reserve nominee Kevin Warsh of being a potential “sock puppet” for President Donald Trump.
Warsh, tapped by Trump in January to lead the Federal Reserve, faced a two-and-a-half-hour confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee.
If confirmed, he would take the helm of the world’s most powerful central bank, shaping interest rates, borrowing costs and the financial outlook for millions of American households for the next four years.
WHO IS KEVIN WARSH, TRUMP’S PICK TO SUCCEED JEROME POWELL AS FED CHAIR?
Kevin Warsh, nominee for chairman of the Federal Reserve, listens to ranking member Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., make an opening statement during his Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In her opening remarks, Warren sharply criticized Warsh’s record and questioned his independence, arguing he is “uniquely ill-suited for the job as Fed chair” and warning he could give Trump influence over the central bank.
She accused Warsh of enabling Wall Street during the 2008 financial crisis, which fell during his tenure as a Federal Reserve governor when he served from 2006 to 2011.
“In our meeting last week, we discussed the 2008 financial crash, where 8 million people lost their jobs, 10 million people lost their homes and millions more lost their life savings,” Warren said. “Giant banks, however, got hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts… and he said to me that he has no regrets about anything he did.”
She added that Warsh “worked tirelessly to arrange multibillion-dollar bailouts” for Wall Street CEOs, with nothing for American families.
The hearing grew more tense as Warren pivoted to ethics concerns, pressing Warsh over his undisclosed financial holdings and questioning him over links to business dealings connected to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The two spoke over each other and raised their voices in a heated exchange on Capitol Hill.
WARSH’S $226 MILLION FORTUNE UNDER SCRUTINY AS FED NOMINEE FACES SENATE CONFIRMATION
Sen. Elizabeth Warren: The Fed has been plagued by deeply disturbing ethics scandals in recent years. It’s critical that the next chair have no financial conflicts — none. You have more than $100 million in investments that you have refused to disclose. So let me ask: do the Juggernaut Fund or THSDFS LLC invest in companies affiliated with President Trump or his family, companies tied to money laundering, Chinese-controlled firms, or financing vehicles linked to Jeffrey Epstein?
Kevin Warsh: Senator, I’ve worked closely with the Office of Government Ethics and agreed to divest all of my financial assets.
Warren: Could you answer my question, please? You have more than $100 million in undisclosed assets. Are any of those investments tied to the entities I just mentioned? It’s a yes-or-no question.
Warsh: I have worked tirelessly with ethics officials and agreed to sell all of my assets before taking the oath of office.
Warren: Are you refusing to tell us if you have investments in vehicles linked to Jeffrey Epstein? You just won’t say?
Warsh: What I’m telling you is those assets will be sold if I’m confirmed.
Warren: Will you disclose how you plan to divest these assets? The public might question your motives if, for example, someone who profits from predicting Fed policy cuts you a $100 million check as you take office.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren questions Kevin Warsh during his Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Warsh: I’ve reached a full agreement with the Office of Government Ethics and will divest those assets before taking the oath.
Warren: I’m asking a very straightforward question. Will you disclose how you divest those assets?
Warsh: As I’ve said, I’ve worked with ethics officials.
Warren: I’ll take that as a no.
In a separate exchange, Warren invoked Trump’s past statements about the Fed and challenged Warsh to prove his independence in real time.
She insisted that Warsh answer whether he believes Trump won the 2020 presidential election and if he would name policies of the president with which he disagrees. The hopeful future Fed chair dodged the question and said he would remain apolitical, if confirmed.
THE ONE LINE IN WARSH’S TESTIMONY SIGNALING A BREAK FROM THE FED’S STATUS QUO
Warren: Donald Trump has made clear he does not want an independent Fed. He has said, “Anybody that disagrees with me will never be Fed chairman.” He’s also said interest rates will drop “when Kevin gets in.” Let’s check out your independence and your courage. We’ll start easy. Mr. Warsh, did Donald Trump lose the 2020 election?
Warsh: Senator, we should keep politics out of the Federal Reserve.
Warren: I’m asking a factual question.
Warsh: This body certified the election.
Warren: That’s not what I asked. Did Donald Trump lose in 2020?
Warsh: The Fed should stay out of politics.
Warren: In our meeting, you said you’re a “tough guy” who can stand up to President Trump. So name one aspect of his economic agenda you disagree with.
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Kevin Warsh listens to a question during a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee confirmation hearing on Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Warsh: That’s not something I’m prepared to do. The Fed should stay in its lane.
Warren: Just one place where you disagree.
Warsh: I do have one disagreement — he said I looked like I was out of central casting. I think I’d look older and grayer.
Warren: That’s adorable. But we need a Fed chair who is independent. If you can’t answer these questions, you don’t have the courage or the independence.
On March 28, a sunny Saturday in southwestern Utah, Jack Hoopes and his wife, Lorna, brought their homemade signs to the local “No Kings” rally.
The couple joined a crowd of 1,500 or so marching through the main picnic area of a park in downtown St. George. Their signs — cut-out words on a black background — chided lawmakers for failing to stand up to President Trump and urged America to “make lying wrong again.”
After about an hour, the two were ready to go home. They got in their silver Volvo SUV, but before pulling away, Jack Hoopes decided to swing past the demonstration, which was still going strong. He tooted his horn, twice, in a show of solidarity.
That’s when things took a curious turn.
A police officer parked in the middle of the street warned Hoopes not to honk; at least that’s what he thinks the officer said as Hoopes drove past the chanting crowd. When he spotted two familiar faces, Hoopes hit the horn a third time — a friendly, howdy sort of honk. “It wasn’t like I was being obnoxious,” he said, “or laying on the horn.”
Hoopes turned a corner and the cop, lights flashing, pulled him over. He asked Hoopes for his license and registration. He returned a few moments later. A passing car sounded its horn. “Are you going to stop him, too?” Hoopes asked.
That did not sit well. The officer said he’d planned to let Hoopes off with a warning. Instead, he charged the 71-year-old retired potato farmer with violating Utah’s law on horns and warning devices. He issued a citation, with a fine punishable up to $50.
Hoopes — a law school graduate and prosecutor in the days before he took up potato farming — is fighting back, even though he estimates the legal skirmishing could cost him considerably more than the maximum fine. The ticket might have resulted from pique on the officer’s part. But Hoopes doesn’t think so. He sees politics at play.
“I’ve beeped my horn for [the pro-law enforcement] Back the Blue. I’ve beeped my horn for Black Lives Matter,” Hoopes said. “I’ve seen a lot of people honk for Trump and for MAGA.”
He’s also seen plenty of times when people honked their horns to celebrate high school championships and the like.
But Hoopes has never heard of anyone being pulled over, much less ticketed, for excessive or unlawful honking. “I think it’s freedom of expression,” he said.
Or should be.
Jack and Lorna Hoopes made their own protest signs to bring to the “No Kings” rally in St. George, Utah.
(Mikayla Whitmore / For The Times)
St. George is a fast-growing community of about 100,000 residents set amid the jagged red-rock peaks of the Mojave Desert. It’s a jumping-off point for Zion National Park, about 40 miles east, and a mecca for golf, hiking and mountain-bike riding.
It’s also Trump Country.
Washington County, where St. George is located, gave Trump 75% of its vote in 2024, with Kamala Harris winning a scant 23%. That emphatic showing compares with Trump’s 59% performance statewide.
St. George is where Hoopes and his wife live most of the time. When summer and its 100-degree temperatures hit, they retreat to southeast Idaho. The couple get along well with their neighbors in both places, Hoopes said, even though they’re Democrats living in ruby-red country. It’s not as though they just tolerate folks, or hold their noses to get by.
“Most of my friends are conservative,” Hoopes said. “Some of the Trump people are very good people. We just have a difference of opinion where our country is going.”
He was speaking from a hotel parking lot in Arizona near Lake Havasu while embarked on an annual motorcycle ride through the Southwest: four days, a dozen riders, 1,200 miles. Most of his companions are Trump supporters, Hoopes said, and, just like back home, everyone gets on fine.
“Right?” he called out.
“No!” a voice hollered back.
Actually, Hoopes joked, his charitable road mates let him ride along because they consider him handicapped — his disability being his political ideology.
Hoopes is not exactly a hellion. In 2014, he and his wife traveled to Africa to participate in humanitarian work and promote sustainable agriculture in Kenya and Uganda. In 2020, they worked as Red Cross volunteers helping wildfire victims in Northern California.
Virtually his entire life has been spent on the right side of the law, though Hoopes allowed as how he has racked up a few speeding tickets over the years. (His career as a prosecutor lasted four years and involved three murder cases in the first 12 months before he left the legal profession behind and took up farming.)
He’s never had any problems with the police in St. George. “They seem to be decent,” Hoopes said.
A department spokesperson, Tiffany Mitchell, said illicit honking is not a widespread problem in the placid, retiree-heavy community, but there are some who have been cited for violations. She denied any political motivation in Hoopes’ case.
“He must’ve felt justified,” Mitchell said of the officer who issued the citation. “I can’t imagine that politics had anything to do with it.”
And yes, she said, honking a horn can be a political statement protected by the 1st Amendment. “But, just like anything else, it can turn criminal,” Mitchell said, and apparently that’s how the officer felt on March 28 “and that’s the direction he took it.”
The matter now rests before a judge, residing in a legal system that has lately been tested and twisted in remarkable ways.
Jack Hoopes’ case is now before a judge in St. George, Utah.
(Mikayla Whitmore / For The Times)
As he left an initial hearing earlier this month, Hoopes said his phone pinged with a fresh headline out of Washington. Trump’s Justice Department, it was reported, was asking a federal appeals court to throw out the convictions of 12 people found guilty of seditious conspiracy for their roles in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
“We have a president that pardons people that broke into the Capitol and defecated” in the hallways and congressional offices, Hoopes said. “Police officers died because of it, and yet I get picked up for honking my horn?”
Hoopes’ next court appearance, a pretrial conference, is set for July 15.
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