President Donald Trump signed a sweeping execution order Monday on the death penalty that directs the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure that states have enough lethal injection drugs to carry out executions.
Trump’s order, coming just hours after he returned to the White House, compels the Justice Department to not only seek the death penalty in appropriate federal cases but also to help preserve capital punishment in states that have struggled to maintain adequate supplies of lethal injection drugs.
Trump had been expected to restart federal executions, which have been on hold since a moratorium was imposed by former Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2021. Only three defendants remain on federal death row after Democratic President Joe Biden recently converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison.
Trump directed the attorney general to pursue federal jurisdiction and seek the death penalty “regardless of other factors” when the case involves the killing of a law enforcement officer or capital crimes “committed by an alien illegally present in this country.” He’s also instructing the attorney general to seek to overrule Supreme Court precedents that “limit the authority of limit the authority of State and Federal governments to impose capital punishment.”
“The Government’s most solemn responsibility is to protect its citizens from abhorrent acts, and my Administration will not tolerate efforts to stymie and eviscerate the laws that authorize capital punishment against those who commit horrible acts of violence against American citizens,” Trump’s order said.
Trump’s administration carried out 13 federal executions during his first term, more than under any president in modern history, and the president has spoken frequently of expanding executions. In a speech announcing his 2024 campaign, Trump called for those “caught selling drugs to receive the death penalty for their heinous acts.” He later promised to execute drug and human smugglers and even praised China’s harsher treatment of drug peddlers.
Trump’s order comes days after Garland withdrew the Justice Department’s protocol for federal executions that allowed for single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital after a government review raised concerns about the potential for “unnecessary pain and suffering.” The protocol could be imposed by Trump’s new acting Attorney General James McHenry III, or his pick to lead the Justice Department, Pam Bondi, once she’s confirmed by the Senate.
The pentobarbital protocol was adopted by Bill Barr, attorney general during Trump’s first term, to replace a three-drug mix used in the 2000s, the last time federal executions were carried out before Trump was in office.
Biden’s decision last month left just three inmates on federal death row. They are Dylann Roof, who carried out the 2015 racist slayings of nine Black members of Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina; 2013 Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev; and Robert Bowers, who fatally shot 11 congregants at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S history.
The blossoming relationship between Donald Trump and Elon Musk was on full display throughout Monday’s inauguration ceremonies.
Musk sat near Trump during the ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, and he pumped his fists when the president promoted the goal of putting American astronauts on Mars.
The moment sharply illustrated the unusual partnership the billionaire tech titan, who has lucrative contracts with the federal government, has established with the incoming president.
President Donald Trump said Monday that he expects to put 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting on Feb. 1, while declining to flesh out his plans for taxing Chinese imports.
Trump made the announcement responding to reporters’ questions while signing executive actions in the Oval Office on his first day back in the White House.
During his campaign, Trump threatened tariffs of as much as 60% on China but appeared to temper his plans after a phone call last week with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He said there would be more discussions with his counterpart in the world’s second-largest economy on Monday.
“We’re going to have meetings and calls with President Xi,” Trump said.
Trump is placing a big bet that his executive actions can cut energy prices and tame inflation and that the tariffs will strengthen the economy instead of exposing consumers to higher prices. But it’s unclear whether his orders will be enough to foster the growing economy with lower prices that he promised voters.
Trump specifically blamed the inflation on the $1.9 trillion in pandemic aid provided in 2021 by then-President Joe Biden, while saying that his predecessor’s policies restricted oil drilling despite domestic output being near record levels.
“The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending,” Trump said in his inaugural address.
Orders on Monday included opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling and easing the regulatory burdens on oil and natural gas production. He also declared a national energy emergency in hopes of jumpstarting more electricity production in the competition with China to build out technologies such as artificial intelligence that rely on data centers using massive amounts of energy.
Trump also signed a directive telling federal agencies to conduct a 30-day review of how they can help to lower the costs of housing, health care, food, energy and home appliances as well as finding ways to bring more people into the workforce.
Another measure he signed will keep the social media platform TikTok open for 75 days so it can find a U.S. buyer, instead of shutting it down.
Trump also signed a measure telling federal agencies to study trade policies and have the Treasury and Commerce departments advise on how to create an “External Revenue Service” for collecting customs and duties tied to trade. The measure set a series of April deadlines.
Still, Trump wanted to make clear on Monday in his speeches that he was eager to impose taxes on imports.
Trump pledged in his inaugural address that tariffs would be coming and said foreign countries would be paying the trade penalties, even though those taxes are currently paid by domestic importers and often passed along to consumers. Trump later on Monday said tariffs would “make us rich as hell.”
A top official with the Canadian government said it would be prepared for almost all possibilities regarding the status of trade with the United States.
“Perhaps he’s made decisions to sort of suspend the threat of tariffs over a whole slate of countries. We will wait and see,” Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said. “Mr. Trump has been in a previous mandate unpredictable, so our job is to make sure we are ready for any scenario.”
Overall, the Republican faces an array of challenges in fulfilling his ambitions to lower prices. Biden managed to see the inflation rate drop over two years yet he was leaving office with price growth still outpacing wages over the past four years.
A big driver of inflation is a persistent housing shortage, and U.S. oil production is already at record levels, with producers facing uncertainty about global demand this year. The Federal Reserve is technically the government body tasked with keeping inflation at a roughly 2% annual target. Its usual levers are setting short-term rates for banks lending to each other, in addition to bond purchases and public communications.
Trump has said natural resource production is key to lowering costs for American consumers, both at the pump and in their utility bills.
Energy prices permeate every part of the economy, so increasing U.S. production of oil, natural gas and other fossil fuels is critical to national security. Trump, who has pledged to restore U.S. “energy dominance,” has complained that the Biden administration limited Alaska’s oil and gas production.
Trump showed his relative indifference to the fossil fuels accelerating climate change, even as he lamented natural disasters such as the Los Angeles wildfires. He said he would again withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris Climate Agreement, dealing a blow to efforts to combat global warming and once again distancing the U.S. from its closest allies.
Energy can impact prices, but it’s not the largest chunk of families’ spending. According to the weightings for the consumer price index, energy spending represents on average just 6% of expenditures, much less than food (13%) or shelter (37%).
Inflation, dormant for decades, resurfaced in early 2021 as the economy recovered with unexpected strength from COVID-19 lockdowns. A surge in customer orders overwhelmed America’s supply chains, causing delays, shortages, and higher prices. Factories for computer chips, furniture, and other products worldwide struggled to rebound.
Republican lawmakers were quick to blame the Biden administration’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief, though inflation was a global phenomenon that points to factors beyond U.S. policy. Inflation further worsened after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, pushing up energy and food prices.
In response, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate 11 times in 2022 and 2023. Inflation has come down from a four-decade high of 9.1% in mid-2022. But inflation has picked up since September to an annual rate of 2.9% in December.
Voters were unimpressed with the progress against inflation, frustrated that prices remained more than 20% higher than they were four years ago while average weekly earnings had not kept up. Higher grocery prices – up 27% from February 2021 -- were especially painful.
After the inaugural address, Trump played down the importance of inflation in the 2024 election, suggesting in remarks at the Capitol that his voters cared more about immigration because there were only so many ways to talk about prices.
“How many times can you say that an apple has doubled in cost?” Trump said.
President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned or commuted the prison sentences of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, including people convicted of seditious conspiracy and assaulting police officers, using his clemency powers on his first day back in office to undo the massive prosecution of the unprecedented assault on the seat of American democracy.
Trump’s action, just hours after his return to the White House, paves the way for the release from prison of dozens of people found guilty of violent attacks on police, as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of plotting to stop the peaceful transfer of power after Trump lost the 2020 election to former President Joe Biden.
The pardons are a culmination of Trump’s yearslong campaign to rewrite the history of the Jan. 6 attack that left more than 100 police officers injured as rioters — some armed with poles, bats, and bear spray — overwhelmed law enforcement, shattered windows, and sent lawmakers and aides running into hiding. While pardons were expected, the speed and the scope of the clemency amounted to a stunning dismantling of the Justice Department’s effort to hold participants accountable over what has been described as one of the darkest days in the county’s history.
In addition to the pardons, Trump ordered the attorney general to seek the dismissal of roughly 450 cases that are still pending before judges stemming from the largest investigation in Justice Department history.
Casting the rioters as “patriots” and “hostages,” Trump has claimed they were unfairly treated by the Justice Department that also charged him with federal crimes in two cases he contends were politically motivated. Trump said the pardons would end “a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begin a process of national reconciliation.”
Trump’s order was met with celebration by supporters and lawyers of the Jan. 6 defendants, some of whom were sentenced to more than a decade behind bars.
“We are deeply thankful for President Trump for his actions today,” said James Lee Bright, an attorney who represented Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was serving an 18-year prison sentence after being convicted of seditious conspiracy and other crimes.
It’s unclear how quickly those who are serving prison sentences may be released. An attorney for Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys national chairman who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, said he expected his client to be released from prison Monday night.
“This marks a pivotal moment in our client’s life, and it symbolizes a turning point for our nation,” attorney Nayib Hassan said in a statement. “We are optimistic for the future, as we now turn the page on this chapter, embracing new possibilities and opportunities.”
Democrats slammed the move to extend the pardons to violent rioters, many of whose crimes were captured on camera and broadcast on live TV. Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it “an outrageous insult to our justice system and the heroes who suffered physical scars and emotional trauma as they protected the Capitol, the Congress, and the Constitution.”
“Donald Trump is ushering in a Golden Age for people that break the law and attempt to overthrow the government,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said in an emailed statement.
Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack after a rioter shocked him with a stun gun, appeared stunned to learn from an Associated Press reporter that those who assaulted police officers are among the pardon recipients.
“This is what the American people voted for,” he said. “How do you react to something like that?”
Fanone said he has spent the past four years worried about his safety and the well-being of his family. Pardoning his assailants only compounds his fears, he said.
“I think they’re cowards,” he said. “Their strength was in their numbers and the mob mentality. And as individuals, they are who they are.”
Trump had suggested in the weeks leading up to his return to the White House that instead of blanket pardons, he would look at the Jan. 6 defendants on a case-by-case basis. Vice President JD Vance had said just days ago that people responsible for the violence during the Capitol riot “obviously” should not be pardoned.
The pardons come weeks after the Justice Department abandoned its two federal criminal cases against Trump, citing its policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. Had Trump lost the 2024 election, he may have ultimately stood trial on charges in his 2020 election interference case in the same federal courthouse in Washington where more than 1,200 of his supporters were convicted of Jan. 6 crimes over the last four years.
Hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants who didn’t engage in any of the violence and destruction were charged with misdemeanor trespassing offenses, and many of those served little to no time behind bars.
But the violence that day has been documented extensively through videos, testimony, and other evidence seen by judges and jurors in the courthouse within view of the Capitol.
Police were dragged into the crowd and beaten. Rioters used makeshift weapons to attack police, including flagpoles, a crutch, and a hockey stick. Investigators documented several firearms in the crowd, along with knives, a pitchfork, a tomahawk ax, brass knuckle glove,s and other weapons. Officers have described in testimony fearing for their lives as members of the mob hurled insults and obscenities at them.
Of the more than 1,500 people charged, about 250 people were convicted of crimes by a judge or a jury after a trial, while more than 1,000 others had pleaded guilty to offenses. Only two people were acquitted of all charges by judges after bench trials. No jury has fully acquitted a Capitol riot defendant.
More than 1,000 rioters have already been sentenced, with over 700 receiving at least some time behind bars. The rest were given some combination of probation, community service, home detention, or fines.