What did President Trump do in his first 24 hours in office?

On Monday, Donald Trump stood before a packed Rotunda room in the US Capitol building and announced the beginning of a new “golden age” for Americans standing on “the verge of the four greatest years” in the nation’s history.

Speaking after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, Trump outlined his plans for a new era where the United States would “reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on earth”.

The US will expand its territory and carry its flag “into new and beautiful horizons,” he said in his inauguration speech, adding that the nation would “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars”.

The US president then issued a flurry of executive orders, ranging from a pardon for the people who stormed the Capitol on January 6th 2021 to the declaration of a national emergency on the nation’s southern border where he said “all illegal entry” would be immediately halted.

What else will these executive orders change about the way people live their lives in the US and around the world?

Irish Times Washington correspondent Keith Duggan discusses the first 24 hours of the new Trump administration.

Presented by Sorcha Pollak. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.

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