Trump’s blizzard of first-day actions leaves opponents scrambling to respond | Donald Trump

The US awoke to a transformed political and cultural landscape on Tuesday after Donald Trump punctuated his political comeback with a blizzard of first-day executive orders making good on his central campaign promises while promising that there was more to come.

Official Washington appeared shellshocked after the returning president vowed that “nothing will stand in our way” in his self-proclaimed crusade to end American “decline”. The declaration – in an inaugural address whose combative tone seemed to bear out his previous pledge to be a “dictator on day one” – was followed up by the sweeping scale of his executive orders that left opponents scrambling to respond.

Most shocking of all – if not unexpected – was the issuing of 1,600 pardons for rioters involved in the violent 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol by supporters intent on overturning the 2020 presidential result and keeping him in power.

They covered leading members of two far-right militias, the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, who had been jailed for sedition.

Coming hours after the billionaire entrepreneur, Elon Musk, Trump’s wealthiest supporter and patron, made a gesture strongly resembling a fascist salute, it seemed ominously symbolic of a new national mood.

Equally significant were a barrage of new policies, including executive orders withdrawing from the World Health Organization and the Paris climate agreement, and orders declaring a national emergency to enable the deployment of troops to the southern border and cutting off America’s constitutional birthright citizenship right to the children of non-citizens.

In another move that indicated intent to remake Washington’s government bureaucracy – frequently derided by Trump as part of a “deep state” ranged against him – he signed an order decreeing a federal hiring freeze and that all federal workers must cease home working and return to their offices.

Yet another order rescinded Biden-era diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies for racially underserved communities and for combatting discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation. It came after an anti-transgender declaration in his inauguration speech, when he said: “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”

The order followed a speech that had been billed in advance as more upbeat than his notorious “American carnage” 2017 address but was conspicuously lacking in the exhortations to fight for freedom and democracy that have featured in previous inaugural addresses delivered by other presidents.

Several commentators said Trump’s message more closely resembled a State of the Union speech rather than an inaugural address, which often feature soaring rhetoric while being light on policy and political content.

By contrast, Trump promised a new “golden age of American greatness” that would include taking back the Panama Canal and giving the Gulf of Mexico the new name of the Gulf of America.

Watching, Hillary Clinton, Trump’s vanquished opponent in this 2016 election victory, was seen to affect uproarious laughter.

But with more orders to come – Trump on Monday signalled that he is preparing to impose 25% tariffs on imported goods from Canada and Mexico, America’s closest two trading partners, from 1 February – such levity seemed forced.

Across Washington, at the Pentagon, staff more accurately reflected the new mood by removing a recently installed portrait of Gen Mark Milley, the former chairman of the armed forces joint chiefs of staff – a fierce Trump critic who has called him “fascist to the core” – just hours after Joe Biden, in his last act as president, had included him in a group of the new president’s foes to receive a pardon.