Donald Trump inauguration live updates: President pardons roughly 1500 January 6 rioters for ‘reconciliation’

Donald and Melania Trump have appeared at the first of three balls to celebrate Mr Trump’s inauguration.

The First Couple scrubbed up pretty well, with Mr Trump wearing a tailored tuxedo and Mrs Trump looking stunning in a pale silver dress with black stripes.

Mr Trump addressed the crowd, but not before he shared a dance with his wife.

The Trumps were joined onstage for a dance with Vice President J.D. Vance and his wife Usha.

Check out the pics below.

Newly sworn-in President Donald Trump was busy signing the huge number of executive orders when he had a remarkable exchange with a journalist who asked if Joe Biden had left him a letter.

“He may have,” he responded.

“Wait — don’t they leave it in the desk?”

Mr Trump searched the desk drawer and discovered the letter addressed to him.

Here’s what happened next.

Among the jaw dropping executive orders signed in Donald Trump’s first-day-in-office blitz is one to rename two natural landmarks to “honour American greatness”.

The President signed an order to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and revert Alaska’s Mount Denali, America’s highest peak, to be named Mount McKinley - as it was before Barack Obama changed it in 2015.

The order directs Trump’s pick for secretary of the interior, Doug Burgum, to change the landmarks’ names in federal communications and on official maps within 30 days.

Mount Denali was officially named in honour of assassinated president William McKinley in 1917, 16 years after his death. It was unofficially named McKinley in 1896 by a gold prospector.

In 2015, president Barack Obama changed the name to Denali, the name given by Koyukon speakers of the Koyukon Athabaskans in western interior Alaska. Trump’s order called the change an “affront” to the late President McKinley’s life, achievements and sacrifice.

Reversing the name of Mount Denali is said to be particularly significant to Trump, who sees a unique kindship with the “heroic” president.

“President McKinley championed tariffs to protect USmanufacturing, boost domestic production, and drive US industrialisation and global reach to new heights,” the order reads.

After his election win, Trump praised Mr McKinley as a “very good president” and “at a minimum... a very good businessman”.

Trump wastes little time unravelling Biden’s legacy in star-spangled White House return.

Read the special early edition of The Nightly now

The United States will exit the World Health Organisation, with Donald Trump claiming the authority had “ripped off” the country.

Signing the executive order to rescind the US’ membership, President Trump said the WHO had mishandled the Covid-19 pandemic and other health crises.

He also said the WHO was charging America too much money to be a member, compared to the likes of China, despite the huge population difference.

“China with 1.4 billion people ... let’s say we have 325 million, they had 1.4 billion, they were paying $39 million (to the WHO), we were paying $500 million. Seemed a little unfair to me,” he said

He claimed that in his first term he had negotiated the WHO down to $39 million, but when Joe Biden was elected the offer returned to $500 million.

Trump conceded he saw the WHO was important to coordinating global health responses, but “not when you’re being ripped off”.

“World Health ripped us off. Everybody rips off the United States, and that’s it, it’s not going to happen anymore.”

The US operations of TikTok will be safe for another 75 days, per an executive order. But Trump almost didn’t sign it.

The president cast doubt over whether he would sign the order - only moments before it landed on his desk - saying that if he did, the US should be entitled to go-50/50 with China in the social media platform.

The executive order (which Trump put pen to) would give America the right to sell or shut down the app if the government wishes.

Trump told reporters the US should be allowed to establish a joint venture to keep the app open. He said if China did not approve the venture, ”it would be somewhat of a hostile act”.

“If China didn’t approve it, we could put tariffs on China,” he said. “Maybe. I’m not saying I would but you certainly could do that.”

He said he could “put tariffs of 25, 30, 40, 50 per cent, even 100 per cent” if China did not agree to the joint venture.

“And if we did that, I think they’d approve it.”

Donald Trump has officially pardoned roughly 1500 of his supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

The executive order grants a “full complete and unconditional pardon” to all individuals, bar 14, convicted for “offences related to events that occurred at or near” the Capitol.

“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation,” the order says.

Fourteen people have had their sentences over the deadly riot commuted to time served, meaning they’ll be eligible for immediate release if they are in prison.

Children of undocumented immigrants, who were born in the US, will no longer be considered US citizens after Donald Trump signed an executive order to redefine birthright citizenship.

“This is a good one, birth right, a big one,” the President said as the order to reinterpret the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, which grants citizenship to all people born on US soil, was handed to him.

“It is ridiculous, we’re the only country in the world that does this with birthright, as you know. It is just absolutely ridiculous.”

The US is one of 33 countries (and two territories) - all in the Americas - in the world with unrestricted birthright citizenship and another 32 nations have some form of restricted birthright citizenship.

Birthright citizenship is a government policy underwhich any child born within a country’s borders or territory is automatically granted citizenship in that country, whether their parents are citizens or not.

Ending birthright citizenship is one of 10 immigration-related executive orders expected to be signed today.

“The people have wanted to do this for decades,” Trump said of the order, which scholars have argued would be illegal and quickly challenged in the courts.

The changes would apply to future births, a Trump insider told the Washington Post.

Donald Trump has signed an executive order designating Mexican cartels and “other organisations” to be “terrorist organisations”.

After signing the order in the Oval Office, Trump told reporters gathered in the room the order had been a long time coming.

“Is a big one,” he said. “People have wanted to do this for years. They are now designated as terrorist organisations.”

He said “Mexico probably does not want that but we have to do what is right.”

“They are killing our people, they’re killing 250,000 people a year, not 100, as has been reported for 15 years, probably 300,000.”

Trump did not rule out whether he would send special forces to the southern border and “into Mexico to take them (cartels) out”.

To the notion, he replied, grinning: “Could happen. Stranger things have happened.”

The US Senate has confirmed Florida senator Marco Rubio to serve as Secretary of State.

Senator Rubio was unanimously confirmed by a vote of 99-0 as his former Republican colleagues touted his qualifications to be the US’ top diplomat.

Exiting the Senate floor, Mr Rubio told reporters his confirmation is a “great honour”.

It is a historic appointment, as Mr Rubio is the first Latino to occupy the job. He is also the first Trump cabinet official to be approved for a role in this new administration.

He replaces Antony J. Blinken in the job, and is set to confront a laungry list of foreign policy tests - including the war in Ukraine, the tentative ceasefire in Gaza, and, in what Mr Rubio has called the century’s defining challenge, China’s global ambitions.

Read about the key members of Trump’s inner circle set to shape his next administration.