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(Reuters) - President Donald Trump faces an arduous task of delivering on his Inauguration Day promise of a "Golden Age of America" in the face of a closely split Congress, inevitable lawsuits, and recalcitrant world leaders.
After taking the oath of office, Trump outlined a series of sweeping executive orders, the first steps in enacting a far-reaching agenda to expand America's territory, curb immigration, boost fossil fuel production, and roll back environmental regulations.
Trump's allies and advisers have been drafting executive orders and agency regulations for months. They argue privately and publicly they are better prepared to enact their vision than they were during Trump's 2017-2021 term when Republican infighting and a lack of foresight led to setbacks in the courts and in Congress.
Trump will benefit this time from a deeply conservative Supreme Court, which handed him some major legal victories on the campaign trail. A third of its nine members are his appointees.
But having already served one term, he will leave office in four years, and many of his proposals are so norm-shattering they are certain to result in extensive litigation that tests the boundaries of constitutional law.
Advocacy groups - from the environmental activist group the Sierra Club to the American Civil Liberties Union - are putting together plans to push back.
Representatives for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.
IMMIGRATION
No policy area will be subject to more aggressive pushback from Democrats and civil rights organizations than immigration.
Trump's team confirmed on Monday it plans to try to end birthright citizenship, a long-held constitutional principle that holds the vast majority of people born in the United States are automatically citizens.
Individuals denied citizenship benefits will sue, legal experts say, leading to a protracted legal dispute. Most scholars believe birthright citizenship is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, and they say the Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate citizenship.
No president before Trump has attempted to redefine citizenship rules through executive action.
Another element of Trump's promised immigration plan - invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 - would also face legal pushback. The seldom-used act generally allows for the deportation of certain foreigners during times of conflict. It has only been used three times.
George Fishman, a former Homeland Security official under Trump, told Reuters last year that the Trump administration would need to prove the immigrants were sent by a foreign government.
"I worry a little about overpromising," Fishman said.
Trump also said in his inaugural address that his administration would deport "millions and millions of criminal aliens" but a deportation effort of that scale could cost tens of billions of dollars and would likely last years.
TIKTOK ON THE CLOCK
One of Trump's most tenuous promises could be keeping TikTok online in the United States.
While Trump did not bring up the social media app during his inaugural address on Monday, he has recently signaled he would keep the app functioning. It was essentially banned starting on Sunday, but apart from a brief interruption for U.S. users, it remained online after Trump said he would try to save it.
All the same, Trump's long-term options may be limited.
Biden could have granted TikTok's owner, Bytedance, an additional 90 days to find a U.S. buyer if certain terms were met, said Colin Costello, an attorney with Freshfields and a former intelligence official. But Biden did not grant that extension and, now that the deadline has expired, the extension option may be off the table.
Halting the ban on a longer-term basis, Costello said, could require Trump to direct the Justice Department to "deprioritize" or not enforce the law, probably for a specified period. That would result in legal uncertainty, however, that tech companies might not be willing to assume.
Trump's legislative options may be limited, too. Some allies in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have publicly bucked Trump, saying TikTok needs to be sold to a U.S. company or cease operating immediately.
UKRAINE, PANAMA, MARS
Trump pledged frequently during the 2024 election campaign to solve the Ukraine war before even taking office. But he missed that deadline, and his advisers now concede it will take months to reach a peace deal.
During his inaugural address, Trump also repeated his aspiration to take back the Panama Canal, though it is the sovereign territory of an ally, and it is unclear how he would do so.
The president said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico the "Gulf of America." While he can direct the U.S. Geological Survey to make such a change, it would be unlikely to be recognized internationally.
He also vowed that the United States would send a man to Mars during his term, which will end in January 2029. He has his work cut out for him. The moon, for reference, is about 239,000 miles from Earth while Mars is, on average, about 140 million miles away.
The U.S. space agency NASA in December announced new delays in sending U.S. astronauts back to the moon.
'DRILL, BABY, DRILL'
Trump said on Monday he would declare a national energy emergency to unleash domestic fossil fuel production. While legal experts say presidents have broad authority to declare national emergencies, Biden has put up some roadblocks to specific measures that Trump may want to take.
For instance, Biden earlier this month used the Outer Continental Shelf Land Act to ban oil and gas drilling in all federal waters off the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico, and portions of the Bering Sea in Alaska. Trump has said he would revoke that ban, but legal experts say it is unclear that presidents have that authority.
During Trump's first term, he tried to undo a federal ban on drilling near Alaska via an executive order, but a federal judge determined his order was unlawful.
Federal law gives Trump the ability to declare an energy emergency, which may allow him to temporarily suspend emissions rules for power plants and skirt environmental reviews for energy projects.
U.S. President Donald Trump's supporters on Monday praised his swift executive actions upon his return to the White House, while critics derided his planned mass deportations and a rollback in diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
Others said they tuned out the inauguration altogether.
More than a dozen interviews with Americans nationwide indicated that the country remains polarized even as Trump in his inaugural address sought to portray himself as a peacemaker and unifier. Still, his speech was often sharply partisan as he promised a crackdown on illegal immigration and plans to usher in a sweeping agenda to reshape the federal government.
Trump, a Republican, lost to former President Joe Biden in 2020 and then beat Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November 2024 on promises to strengthen the economy, tighten immigration laws, and curb regulations on business while slashing the "deep state" federal bureaucracy.
The election was close, Republicans hold slim majorities in Congress and many experts say Trump will have to struggle to push through an agenda that could have an indelible impact on millions of Americans.
In San Marcos, California, there were only two men seeking work on Monday in a Home Depot parking lot where many immigrant day laborers typically congregate. They expressed concern that Trump's policies would disrupt the construction and agriculture industries that depend on immigrant labor.
"Many of the guys who come here looking for work didn't show because supposedly there was going to be a raid," said Baudelio Victorio, 51, a legal U.S. resident, who has been in the country for 12 years.
In Los Angeles, the second largest U.S. city where 24 people have died in unprecedented wildfires, residents worried about how Trump would respond to the blazes that have displaced thousands and destroyed more than 10,000 structures.
"I would hope he would have sympathy for us dealing with this situation," said Denise Jones, 61, a claims adjuster who lost her house in Altadena. "Will he send resources? Do I believe that he is going to? No."
Trump has criticized California's response to the wildfires in Los Angeles and will visit the state on Friday to tour the damage. He and Republican allies have spoken about possibly withholding disaster aid and have accused Democratic state officials of mismanaging water resources and forests.
Elementary school teacher Sandy Burch, who evacuated her California home for 11 days due to the fire, said she voted for Trump and was looking forward to his visit.
"He's a very clever man," Burch said. "I'm sure he will think of something to help."
Trump settles into the Oval Office at a time of declining interest rates and positive job growth. But many voters were unhappy with the economy under Biden and business owners and conservative voters expressed optimism about putting Trump back at the helm of the world's largest economy.
Jamal Johnson, 59, a cryptocurrency enthusiast, said he voted for Trump because the Republican has championed digital currency. He said the economy has been a sore spot for communities like Englewood, a predominately Black and impoverished neighborhood on Chicago's Southside.
"Because of the economy and the state of things, people are in fear," Johnson said.
In Texas, Jac Jones who lives outside of Houston and installs museum exhibits, said she is “extremely nervous” about women's rights. Jones, 39, said she worries that Trump "has surrounded himself with soulless advisors and billionaires who will try to crush us just to get richer."
Women's rights have been a concern for Trump critics since the U.S. Supreme Court, with three justices appointed by Trump, overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending the federal guarantee to a woman's right to an abortion. On Saturday, thousands gathered in Washington to protest Trump's inauguration and policies. Still, the protest was far smaller than those during Trump's first term in 2017. The U.S. women's rights movement now seems more splintered.
Karla Miller is one of a handful of people Reuters spoke to who did not tune into the inauguration. The pastor of First Congregational Church in Hendersonville, North Carolina, instead spent the day with her congregation to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. on the national holiday in his honor.
“I preached on Grounding – how to move forward even though we are feeling a sense of impending doom and chaos,” said Miller, who voted for Harris.
With Trump's inauguration coinciding with the King holiday, civil rights leaders called it ironic that Trump spoke in his inaugural speech of being a "peacemaker" and "unifier".
"We know he's going to do exactly the opposite, in particular making sure that he serves his conservative base," said Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color of Change PAC.
Paul Hambleton, a Democratic state party chair in St. Croix County, Wisconsin, noted America is "still a democracy."
Hambleton called the King holiday “a much needed reminder that our democracy has changed and adapted to new times in the past, that we will again, and that human and civil rights remain central to our nation."