"I Feel Like I'm Losing Brain Cells": "Congratulations America! You Elected An Absolute Moron": The Internet Has A Lot To Say About Trump's Executive Order Withdrawing The US From The World Health Organization
By Morgan Sloss
Since Donald Trump's inauguration , he's already issued a slew of horrifying executive orders.
One of the most alarming ones was the withdrawal of the US from the World Health Organization (WHO). When handed the paperwork in the Oval Office, he said, "Ohhh. That's a big one."
The executive order lists the reasons behind the withdrawal, ironically including "the organization’s mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic" despite Trump's own mismanagement of the pandemic. The decision is also attributed to a lack of reforms, political influence from WHO member states, and "unfairly onerous payments" from the US.
WHO responded with a statement asking the US to reconsider. "For over seven decades, WHO and the USA have saved countless lives and protected Americans and all people from health threats. Together, we ended smallpox, and together we have brought polio to the brink of eradication. American institutions have contributed to and benefited from membership of WHO."
Naturally, the internet had a lot to say about all this. Many people were stunned and upset:
Trump still peppered the conversation with a mixture of falsehoods that Newsweek's Fact Check team has assessed.
By Tom Norton
President Donald Trump held a cozy interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity this week, his first television interview since he became the 47th President of the United States.
Hannity described his and Trump's "friendship" as the president responded to soft questioning with claims about January 6, immigration, and the size of the 2024 presidential election victory.
No evidence of migrant multiple murderers
Trump has repeated recently that among the numbers of migrants with homicide convictions in the United States, a proportion around 50 percent have committed more than one murder.
"We have numbers coming out of 11,000 people that murdered are now free and walking around in our country," Trump said.
"Of them, I think 48 percent they say, killed more than one person and they are walking around."
In his pre-inauguration speech, Trump said it was above 50 percent but lowered the estimation with Hannity. Whatever the number may be, it is not based on evidence.
There is no public evidence showing the proportion of migrants with convictions for multiple homicides. A request to substantiate the claim requested by FactCheck.org in September 2024 was answered with an irrelevant statement by a Trump media representative.
Newsweek has contacted a White House media representative via email for comment.
This claim itself is based on a faulty statistic Trump and others have repeated about the number of murderers "free and walking around in our country."
Claims that thousands of murderers are "walking around" are based on data compiled from more than 40 years of statistics, including data on convicts who are incarcerated or have served time. The notion that they are wandering loose is also false, as recently debunked by Newsweek.
The data on the total number of migrants with murder convictions did not show the proportion that had been convicted for more than one murder, simply the number of migrants with conviction history on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) docket.
No evidence other countries "emptied" prisons and "mental institutions" into US
Despite multiple journalistic investigations that have debunked this claim, Trump has repeated this falsehood for years.
"They've emptied the jails...many of them did. If you look at Venezuela, their crime rate is down now 78% because they took their street gangs and they moved them into the United States" Trump told Hannity.
He later alleged that under the Democrats other countries had "emptied" their "jails and mental institutions" into the U.S.
Immigration data from fiscal years 2021 to 2024 shows that Customs & Border Protection (CBP) agencies encountered 118,074 individuals with criminal convictions or those wanted by law enforcement.
The CBP says criminal noncitizens (referring to people convicted of a crime deemed criminal by the U.S.) encountered at ports of entry are inadmissible "absent extenuating circumstances."
There is no evidence that other nations have been "emptying" prisons and directing their prisoners to the U.S., and information that has been provided to journalists who have asked Trump's team to substantiate these claims has been insubstantial, as reported by PolitiFact in May 2024.
Trump's claim that crime in Venezuela has fallen by 78 percent as a result of "emptying" its jails has not stood up to scrutiny either. Investigations by FactCheck.org and PolitiFact found no basis for a 67 percent fall in crime in recent years, with some vague official estimates showing a 32 percent drop between 2024 and 2023. Experts have attributed the drop to mass migration, caused by worsening economic and living conditions.
Newsweek has previously rated the claim that patients from "insane asylums" have been "emptied into the U.S. as false. There is no evidence to support the claim, either publicly available or made available by Trump media representatives.
Trump was not the first Republican presidential nominee to win all of Oklahoma's counties
Discussing the 2024 results, Trump said: "I love Oklahoma, 77 out of 77 districts, and that has never been done before" adding "Ronald Reagan had the record 56, 56 out of 77, I got 77 out of 77."
Trump is not the first Republican presidential nominee to win all of Oklahoma's 77 districts. Mitt Romney did so in 2012, John McCain did in 2008, as did George W. Bush in 2004.
California reservoirs were not all empty, according to officials and experts
Trump also attacked Californian authorities and water availability during January's wildfires.
"All of this money spent on reservoirs, they are fake reservoirs," Trump said. Hannity added: "The reservoirs were empty."
Data from the California Department of Water Resources shows that the total stored water in state-managed reservoirs was at its highest level in five months in January 2025, with five of 12 reservoirs at 75 percent capacity or more.
However, a suit against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, filed by victims of the Palisades fire, said that the Santa Ynez Reservoir had been empty since February 2024. Officials said it had been closed for repairs, with California Governor Gavin Newsom calling for an independent investigation into the situation, among other inquiries reported by the Los Angeles Times.
No evidence Trump won the youth vote by 36 points
Returning to his recent election victory, Trump said: "I won youth by 36 points. Maybe that's because I went on TikTok, I don't know."
Investigations by CNN, Full Fact, and USA Today failed to find any substantive evidence to support his claim. While exit poll data shows Trump increased his youth vote share compared to previous elections, he was outpolled by Kamala Harris among younger voters.
FEMA, January 6, transgender conspiracy
Trump also made other unfounded allegations including that Democrats used FEMA "not to help" the Hurricane Helene disaster victims in North Carolina, and the baseless claim that American children can "leave home as a boy and come home two days later as a girl."
He also repeated unsubstantiated claims that the January 6 committee destroyed all the evidence it was provided, (despite the committee publicly releasing evidence it used to support its 800-page report scrutinizing Trump's role in the Capitol riot). On the same point he also baselessly claimed that Nancy Pelosi had rejected an offer for 10,000 National Guardsmen on January 6, 2021, adding that evidence of that offer had been deleted.
The president claims that overdose deaths are really 300,000, when the government reports 90,000.
Analysis by Glenn Kessler
“They’re killing our people. They’re killing 250,000, 300,000 American people a year, not 100, like has been reported for 15 years. It’s probably 300,000.”
— President Donald Trump, while signing an executive order designating drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, Jan. 20
Trump often exaggerates statistics to hype the scale of a crisis. He did so again when he signed an executive order targeting drug cartels — and reiterated his plan to boost tariffs on Mexico and Canada to force a crackdown on drug organizations. He told reporters that although for “15 years” the number of overdose deaths was estimated at 100,000, it’s really 250,000 to 300,000 — “probably 300,000.”
He repeated the claim a day later, with the caveat “I think.” But, as on Monday, he made more definitive statements during a Turning Point political rally in December — “The United States has lost 300,000 people a year” — and at a November campaign rally — “We lose 300,000 people a year to drugs entering from Mexico.”
But his claim of 300,000 deaths is false. Drug overdose deaths only began to exceed 100,000 four years ago, in part a legacy of the coronavirus pandemic, but they started to decline in 2023. As of the 12 months ending in August, the most recent data available, the number of deaths was about 90,000, the CDC says.
Experts say there is no evidence the statistics, collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, are faulty; in fact, they have improved after a boost in federal funding when the scope of the opioid crisis became clear during the Obama administration.
The Facts
The surge in drug overdoses has gone through three phases: deaths involving prescription opioids, following the introduction of OxyContin onto the market in 1996; heroin-involved overdose deaths after OxyContin was reformulated to make it difficult to crush into powder for snorting; and now deaths related to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids.
Traci Green, director of the Opioid Policy Research Collaborative at Brandeis University, said that early in the crisis, many drug overdose deaths were missed because they were connected to prescription drug abuse, which was not on the radar of government statisticians. But that changed in the mid-2010s after Congress approved federal funding to combat the problem, so the statistics have become more accurate. “They have only gotten better,” she said, especially with machine-learning tools.
“We’re not missing 200,000 people, that’s for sure,” she said. In fact, “there has been a good deal of excitement because the numbers have been declining in the last year. It’s not the kind of epidemic we saw in Trump’s first term.”
Trump’s first term coincided with the third wave of the crisis, as heroin overdose deaths fell but overdose deaths involving fentanyl soared.
Overall overdose deaths reached a high of nearly 115,000 in the 12-month period ending in mid-2023, before declining in 2024. The number of overdose deaths is now estimated to be lower than when Trump left office in January 2021.
Trump is targeting drug cartels because he believes they are responsible for fentanyl crossing into the United States.
The president in his statements points the finger equally at Mexico and Canada, but Canada is a minor player. Just 43 pounds of fentanyl were confiscated at the northern border in the 2024 fiscal year — 0.2 percent of the volume at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to Customs and Border Protection statistics. In the first three months of the 2025 fiscal year, 10 pounds have been seized at the Canadian border, compared with 4,400 pounds on the Mexican border. Canadian authorities announced in November that they had dismantled the nation’s largest drug laboratory, discovered in rural British Columbia.
Moreover, most of the smuggling of fentanyl is done by U.S. citizens. Government statistics assembled by David J. Bier of the Cato Institute show that between 2019 and 2024, U.S. citizens were 80 percent of people caught with fentanyl during border crossings at ports of entry. Moreover, between 2015 and 2024, 92 percent of fentanyl seizures occurred at legal crossing points or interior vehicle checkpoints, not on illegal migration routes, Bier concluded.
The White House press office did not respond to an email requesting the source of Trump’s claim.
The Pinocchio Test
Opioid overdose deaths have started to decline, though they remain high. But Trump has no basis to claim that the statistics — generated by a government agency that he now oversees — are so inaccurate that the death toll is three times higher than reported. He is also wrong to claim that the number of overdose deaths was reported as 100,000 for 15 years. That only happened for 2½ years. He earns Four Pinocchios.
Donald Trump declared the beginning of a "golden age" in the United States after taking the oath of office for an unprecedented second term as president on Monday. In his inaugural address, delivered inside the U.S. Capitol due to freezing weather, Trump painted a bleak picture of a "broken" society that he pledged to restore.
"The golden age of America begins right now," Trump proclaimed. "From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world." His speech struck a characteristically combative tone, accusing a "radical and corrupt establishment" of betraying the American people.
"For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens, while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair," Trump stated. "From this moment on, America's decline is over."
At 78 years old, Trump is now the oldest person to assume the presidency. He began his second term with plans for aggressive executive actions on immigration and social issues. Among the most controversial promises was his declaration of a "national emergency at our southern border" with Mexico, vowing to deport "millions and millions" of undocumented immigrants.
Trump took the oath of office with one hand raised and the other on a Bible given to him by his mother, becoming the 47th president of the United States. He was accompanied to the Capitol by outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden, who maintained tradition by welcoming Trump with tea at the White House. "Welcome home," Biden said as he and First Lady Jill Biden greeted Trump and his wife, Melania.
Unlike his first inauguration in 2017, where Trump was an outsider in Washington, this ceremony underscored his deep ties to America's wealthy elite. High-profile figures such as Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai attended the event. Musk, who reportedly contributed $250 million to Trump's campaign and openly promotes far-right policies on his X social media platform, is expected to spearhead cost-cutting initiatives in the new administration.
This second inauguration also saw an effort to restore tradition. While Trump notoriously refused to attend Biden's 2021 inauguration, citing false claims of electoral fraud, Biden reciprocated by attending Trump's ceremony. The event was attended by former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, along with their families. Former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush were present, though Michelle Obama was notably absent.
The inaugural ceremony marked the start of a presidency promising sweeping changes and a bold, if polarizing, vision for America. Whether Trump's "golden age" will deliver on its ambitious promises remains to be seen.
Newly sworn-in U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he will declare illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border a national emergency, send troops there and ramp up deportations of criminal offenders.
Trump, outlining the crackdown in his inaugural address, said he would invoke a 1798 wartime law known as the Alien Enemies Actto target foreign gang members in the U.S., a legal authority last used to detain non-citizens of Japanese, German, and Italian descent in internment camps during World War Two. Trump also said he would designate criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Shortly after the inauguration, U.S. border authorities said they had shut down outgoing President Joe Biden's CBP One entry program, which had allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the U.S. legally by scheduling an appointment on an app. Existing appointments were canceled, leaving migrants stunned and unsure of what to do.
Trump, a Republican, recaptured the White House after promising to intensify border security and deport record numbers of migrants. While Trump criticized Biden for high levels of illegal immigration during the Democrat's presidency, migrant arrests fell dramatically after Biden toughened his policies in June and as Mexico stepped up enforcement.
Republicans say large-scale deportations are necessary after millions of immigrants crossed illegally during Biden's presidency. There were roughly 11 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally or with a temporary status at the start of 2022, according to a U.S. government estimate, a figure that some analysts now place at 13 million to 14 million.
"As commander-in-chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do," Trump said in his address.
Trump's critics and immigrant advocates say mass deportations could disrupt businesses, split families and cost U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars. The American Civil Liberties Union said in a court filing on Monday that Trump's decision to end the CBP One program removed the only avenue to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The ACLU asked a federal judge in Washington to allow the termination to be considered in an existing lawsuit over Biden-era asylum restrictions that could affect Trump's own legal authority, the opening salvo by the civil rights groupto fight Trump's agenda in court.
California and other Democratic-led states that have policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration enforcement also could clash with Trump.
Americans have grown less welcoming toward immigrants without legal status since Trump's first presidency, but remain wary of harsh measures such as using detention camps, a Reuters/Ipsos poll in December found.
Biden entry program shut down
In several Mexican border cities, migrants saw their appointments on Biden's CBP One app canceled just after Trump took office. Some 280,000 people had been logging into the appdaily to secure an appointment as of Jan. 7.
In Matamoros, Mexico, a group of migrants from the central Mexican state of Zacatecas arrived at a legal border crossing at midday but were turned back by border authorities who said all appointments were now void, they told a Reuters witness.
Denia Mendez, a Honduran sitting in the courtyard of a migrant shelter in Piedras Negras - a Mexican city across from Eagle Pass, Texas - opened her email inbox 30 minutes after Trump became president. She stared at an email for several minutes, reading it over and over, before her eyes welled up.
"They canceled my appointment," she said. Several other migrants, who just minutes ago were laughing as they fed potato chips to pigeons, huddled around her phone, their faces suddenly grave.
Mendez's 15-year-old daughter Sofia kept trying to get into the CBP One app.
"They're not going to let you into the app, baby," her mother told her softly.
Birthright citizenship targeted
Trump intends to challenge U.S. citizenship for children born to parents in the U.S. illegally, an incoming Trump official said earlier in the day. So-called "birthright citizenship" stems from an amendment to the U.S. Constitution and any move to restrict it will almost certainly trigger legal challenges.
Trump also plans to suspend the U.S. refugee resettlement program for at least four months and will order a review of security to see if travelers from certain nations should be subject to a travel ban, the official said.
Trump said in his address that he would reinstate his first-term "remain in Mexico" program, which forced non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for the outcome of the U.S. cases. Biden ended the program in 2021, saying migrants were stuck waiting in squalid conditions.
"All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came," Trump said.
Mexico's presidency, foreign ministry, and economy ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Trump's plans. In a regular press conference on Monday, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called for calm and insisted her government had to see the details of Trump's actions before responding.
Efforts are underway to improve India's poor crowd management record at large-scale religious events, with organizers of the Kumbh Mela leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to prevent stampedes. The Kumbh Mela, recognized as the world's largest human gathering, is expected to draw up to 400 million pilgrims over its six-week duration, which began Monday.
Deadly stampedes have historically marred Indian religious festivals, and the Kumbh Mela has been no exception. In 1954, over 400 people lost their lives in a single day at the festival, making it one of the deadliest crowd disasters globally. More recently, in 2013, a stampede claimed 36 lives during the event in Prayagraj.
To address these risks, authorities have turned to technology to manage the massive crowds. Amit Kumar, a senior police officer heading the festival's tech operations, highlighted the importance of AI in preventing dangerous crowd congestion. “We want everyone to go back home happily after having fulfilled their spiritual duties,” Kumar told AFP. “AI is helping us avoid reaching that critical mass in sensitive places.”
This year’s event features around 300 cameras mounted on poles and drones throughout the festival site and surrounding areas. The footage is fed into a command and control room equipped with AI algorithms to estimate crowd sizes and monitor density. The system triggers alerts when crowd density exceeds safe levels, allowing authorities to intervene before the situation becomes critical. "We are using AI to track people flow, crowd density at various inlets, adding them up and then interpolating from there," Kumar explained.
The Kumbh Mela, rooted in Hindu mythology about a battle between deities and demons over a pitcher of nectar granting immortality, is being held on an unprecedented scale this year. Organizers anticipate attendance to rival the combined populations of the United States and Canada. On the festival's first morning alone, an estimated six million devotees took a ritual dip in the sacred rivers.
With a crowd of this magnitude, some degree of congestion is unavoidable, said Kumar. He noted that the critical threshold for crowd density in India is higher than in Western countries due to cultural differences. While Western standards allow for three people per square foot, the Kumbh Mela can safely accommodate a much higher density.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath described the event as a unique blend of tradition and modernity. “The fact that there are cameras and drones makes us feel safe,” said Harshit Joshi, a 28-year-old automotive engineer and one of millions of pilgrims at the festival.
The integration of AI and surveillance technology underscores the evolving approach to managing large-scale gatherings in India, aiming to ensure the safety of millions while preserving the spiritual essence of the event.
President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday plans to remove over 1,000 appointees from the administration of former President Joe Biden, signaling a sweeping overhaul of personnel in key government roles. He made the announcement on Truth Social shortly after midnight, emphasizing his intent to align the administration with his "Make America Great Again" vision.
Trump revealed that four individuals had already been dismissed, including celebrity chef José Andrés and former top general Mark Milley. Andrés, a prominent humanitarian and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom under Biden, was removed from the President's Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was dismissed from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council. Milley’s removal follows Trump's prior criticism of him for back-channel communications with China during his first term.
In addition to Milley and Andrés, Trump announced the dismissal of former diplomat Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars and ex-Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President's Export Council. “Let this serve as Official Notice of Dismissal for these 4 individuals, with many more coming soon,” Trump wrote in the post, adding his signature phrase, "YOU'RE FIRED!"
The move has sparked concerns about Trump's intent to replace appointees from the previous administration with individuals loyal to his agenda. Critics argue that such actions could undermine the nonpartisan integrity of government institutions.
On Monday, Trump also ordered federal workers to return to the office five days a week, reversing flexible work policies implemented during the Biden administration. He further weakened job protections for civil servants by reinstating "Schedule F," a controversial measure that strips certain government employees of protections, making it easier to dismiss them.
Supporters of Trump's policies argue that these actions are necessary to reform what they view as a bloated and resistant federal bureaucracy. However, opponents warn that these measures could erode institutional expertise and politicize the civil service, as Trump allies aim to replace long-serving officials with individuals aligned with his administration’s goals.
This overhaul marks the latest chapter in Trump's efforts to reshape the federal government, reigniting debates over the balance between political loyalty and institutional independence.
China has reaffirmed its commitment to international cooperation on global health and climate change after U.S. President Donald Trump, in his first day back in office, ordered withdrawals from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Paris Climate Accord. The executive orders marked Trump’s second time taking these actions, underscoring his defiant stance against key multinational agreements.
Speaking on Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun expressed concern over Trump’s decisions, emphasizing the importance of these global frameworks. Guo stated that China would continue to support the WHO in fulfilling its responsibilities and work toward a "shared community of health for humanity." He also called for the WHO's role to be strengthened, not weakened.
Addressing the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, Guo highlighted the collective nature of the climate crisis. “Climate change is a common challenge faced by all of humanity. No country can remain unaffected or solve the problem on its own,” he said. China reiterated its willingness to collaborate with other nations to tackle climate change actively.
In addition to global health and climate issues, the broader U.S.-China relationship remains a focal point. Tensions between the two economic powerhouses have persisted over trade policies and geopolitical challenges. Trump’s first term saw the imposition of tariffs on Chinese imports, which he justified by accusing Beijing of unfair trade practices. Although his successor, Joe Biden, maintained a firm stance by restricting Chinese access to high-tech chips, Trump has threatened to impose even higher tariffs during his second term.
China’s economy, still heavily reliant on exports, has shown an openness to dialogue with the U.S. despite these challenges. Guo expressed hope for improved bilateral relations, emphasizing the need to "properly manage differences and expand mutually beneficial cooperation." He also acknowledged existing "differences and frictions" but stressed the significant common interests and potential for collaboration between the two nations.
Beijing’s stance indicates a desire to stabilize relations with Washington while continuing to play an active role in addressing global challenges. As Trump begins his second term, how these two nations navigate their complex relationship will be critical to the global economic and political landscape.
Donald Trump has made a bold return to office, vowing to take immediate and aggressive actions as he assumes the presidency. Speaking at a packed "Make America Great Again Victory Rally" in Washington, he pledged to impose severe limits on immigration on his very first day in office. He described the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border as an "invasion" and promised to halt it "by the time the sun sets tomorrow." His plans include launching what he called the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, although such an operation would likely be costly and take years to implement.
Trump also announced sweeping policy changes, including the repeal of over 200 executive orders from the Biden administration. Border security was highlighted as a priority, with measures such as reinstating the "Remain in Mexico" policy and classifying drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Additionally, he vowed to construct a missile defense shield over the United States, though details of how this would be achieved remain unclear.
In his rally speech, Trump promised to "get radical woke ideologies the hell out of our military" and hinted at plans to declassify documents related to the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. These announcements, delivered in Trump’s signature campaign style, were met with loud cheers from his enthusiastic supporters.
The inauguration ceremony has been moved indoors to the Capitol Rotunda due to cold weather. Approximately 25,000 law enforcement personnel will provide security for the event. Some festivities will also take place at the Capital One Arena, where Trump held his rally. The venue was packed with supporters braving freezing temperatures and long waits to show their loyalty to the returning president.
Trump’s rally had a celebratory yet controversial tone, echoing his earlier campaigns with a mix of bold promises and divisive rhetoric. The former president took credit for delaying a U.S. ban on TikTok and hinted at a potential joint venture to save the app. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and other tech executives, including Elon Musk, are expected to attend the inauguration.
Supporters at the rally expressed deep excitement and dedication to Trump. Many, dressed in red MAGA hats and jackets, chanted slogans like "USA! USA!" as they waited for the event. One supporter, Val Tordjman, traveled from Denver and planned to spend the night on the streets despite the freezing weather, calling the inauguration a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden spent his final day in office in South Carolina, attending services for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Speaking at Royal Missionary Baptist Church, Biden urged Democrats not to lose hope despite the political shift. This marked a reflective end to his presidency as he prepared to hand over power.
Trump’s return signals a dramatic shift in the U.S. political landscape. With his aggressive stance on immigration, sweeping executive orders, and promises of immediate action, the early days of his presidency are likely to be highly contentious and closely watched both domestically and internationally.
On the evening of January 22, a man carried out a stabbing attack outside JR Nagano Station in central Japan, leaving one person dead and injuring two others before fleeing the scene, according to local media reports. The incident occurred at approximately 8 p.m. as the victims waited at a bus stop.
Kyodo News, citing an investigative source, reported that the attack appeared to be random. The deceased was identified as a 49-year-old man, while a man in his 30s sustained serious injuries. The third victim, a woman in her 30s, was also injured in the attack.
Authorities are actively searching for the assailant as investigations continue. Nagano, the capital of Nagano Prefecture, is located roughly 225 kilometers west of Tokyo and is renowned for its winter sports attractions.
A recent survey by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in China highlights growing concerns among U.S. businesses about the future of U.S.-China relations. For the first time in five years, over half of respondents (51%) expressed worries about further deterioration in the bilateral relationship between the world's two largest economies. This concern arises amid escalating geopolitical tensions, policy uncertainties, and trade disputes.
The survey, conducted among 368 member companies between October and November last year, came after Donald Trump secured a second term as U.S. president. During his first term, U.S.-China relations were marked by a trade war and heightened diplomatic tensions, a trend that did not significantly improve under President Joe Biden. Trump's recent remarks about potentially imposing a 10% tariff on Chinese imports related to fentanyl supply chain issues have further fueled uncertainty.
Despite these challenges, nearly half of the respondents still consider China a top-three global investment destination, consistent with previous years. However, the number of businesses no longer viewing China as a preferred investment destination has more than doubled to 21% compared to pre-pandemic levels. This represents a three-percentage-point increase from the previous year.
Additionally, around a third of U.S. firms continue to report unfair treatment in China, particularly regarding market access and public procurement. These issues highlight the ongoing challenges foreign businesses face in navigating China's regulatory environment.
AmCham China Chair Alvin Liu underscored the importance of a "stable and constructive relationship" between the two nations, emphasizing that such ties are essential not only for their mutual prosperity but also for global economic stability. However, with trade tensions persisting and geopolitical risks on the rise, the outlook remains uncertain for U.S. businesses operating in China.
Around three dozen countries and the U.S. offer automatic citizenship to children born within their borders, regardless of their parents immigration status.
Countries that offer birthright citizenship are almost exclusively in the Western Hemisphere. No country in Europe or East Asia, for example, has a similar policy.
By Samantha Putterman
On his first day back in office, President Donald Trump tried to make good on a prominent campaign promise: end the United States’ 150-plus-year practice of universal birthright citizenship.
Hours after taking the oath, Trump sat in the Oval Office to sign a bevy of executive orders. As he fielded questions from the press, he noted one reason behind his desire to end the nation’s long-standing citizenship policy.
"Birthright, that’s a big one," Trump said, taking the binder. "It’s ridiculous. We are the only country in the world that does this with the birthright, as you know, and it’s just absolutely ridiculous."
Birthright citizenship refers to the right of people born in the U.S. to become citizens, regardless of their parents' immigration status. Trump’s order, which seeks to end the practice for children whose parents are in the country illegally or temporarily, is expected to prompt a long court fight — it will not undo birthright citizenship on its own.
But is Trump right that the U.S. is the "only" country in the world to offer automatic citizenship to anyone born on their soil?
No. PolitiFact contacted Trump’s team for comment but did not hear back by publication.
There are about three dozen countries that have unrestricted birthright citizenship, also known as "jus soli," or "right of the soil." The U.S. is joined by neighbors Canada and Mexico, along with nearly every country in Central and South America.
But the countries’ makeup and locations are notable.
The U.S. and Canada are considered the only two "developed" countries, as defined by the International Monetary Fund. And a closer look at the list shows countries that offer birthright citizenship are almost exclusively in the Western Hemisphere. No country in Europe or East Asia, for example, has a similar policy.
Some experts say colonialism offers one explanation. As European countries colonized the Americas, they were eager to populate their settlements and many created lenient naturalization laws and policies to do so.
The U.S. has maintained its birthright laws despite experiencing high levels of immigration.
Some European nations, meanwhile, have chosen to modify their citizenship requirements over the years. Ireland ditched its birthright citizenship law in 2005, and France jettisoned its own in 1993.
But other nations maintain a version of birthright citizenship. In Germany and the United Kingdom, for example, citizenship is automatically granted to people born within the nations’ borders, provided at least one parent is a citizen or permanent resident.
Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order
Trump’s Jan. 20 order says that the privilege of U.S. citizenship "does not automatically extend" to children born in the U.S. when the mother was "unlawfully present in the United States and the father was not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth" or when the "mother’s presence in the United States at the time of said person’s birth was lawful but temporary." It lists temporary statuses such as visiting the country on the visa waiver program or visiting on a student, work or tourist visa.
The order will apply to people born on or after Feb. 19 to children born under those circumstances and directs agencies against issuing documents recognizing citizenship and bars them from accepting any governmental documents purporting to recognize citizenship for births in those cases.
But the 14th Amendment says that "all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside." A 1952 statute echoes the amendment’s language, reading in part: "The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth: (a) a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof."
Universal birthright citizenship’s opponents see wiggle room in the qualifier "subject to the jurisdiction thereof," which appears in both places.
Legal scholars have traditionally interpreted the phrase to exclude only the U.S.-born children of foreign diplomats or of enemy forces engaged in hostilities on U.S. soil. But people skeptical of birthright citizenship’s legal basis have argued that the U.S. Supreme Court has never specifically ruled on whether the children of people in the country illegally would qualify for birthright citizenship.
Legal experts have told us that attempts to end birthright citizenship would prompt a court battle over the long-standing interpretation of the 14th Amendment’s wording and could require a constitutional amendment.
Within a day of Trump’s issuing the order, that process is already playing out. Eighteen U.S. states and the American Civil Liberties Union have sued the Trump administration to block the order.
Trump said that the U.S. is the only country in the world to have unrestricted birthright citizenship.
This is incorrect. Around three dozen other countries offer automatic citizenship to children born within their borders, regardless of their parents’ immigration status.
Within minutes of Trump taking the oath of office, at least three lawsuits were filed in federal court in Washington, seeking to shut down Elon Musk’s department.
By Josh Gerstein and Kyle Cheney
The legal resistance to President Donald Trump has already begun.
Within minutes of Trump taking the oath of office, at least three lawsuits were filed in federal court in Washington, seeking to shut down Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” until it complies with transparency rules related to governmental advisory entities.
The lawsuits allege that the project Trump announced to target government waste violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act by giving private individuals roles in the government decision-making process without the public access the law requires.
Days after his election in November, Trump pledged to set up DOGE, headed by Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Trump mentioned the so-called department during his inaugural address and aides said he plans to issue an executive order later Monday formalizing the efficiency-seeking enterprise.
Ramaswamy recently stepped back from the project to run for governor in Ohio, but he and Musk previously floated such ideas as “large scale firing of government employees” culled at random from lists of such staffers.
The president does not have the authority to create official government departments without Congress passing a law to do so, but Trump seems intent on calling the anti-bureaucracy project a department regardless.
The first of the filed lawsuits, lodged by Public Citizen, the State Democracy Defenders Fund and the American Federation of Government Employees, contends DOGE has breached FACA, which the lawsuit says is intended to prevent such efforts from “turning into vehicles for advancing private interests in the federal decision-making process.”
“The battle to defend democracy will be not only fought in the court of law but also in the court of public opinion,” said Norm Eisen, a co-founder of State Democracy Defenders Action. “We and our colleagues at Public Citizen and AFGE wanted to make the point that not only do we have a powerful lawsuit … based on their partisan exclusion of members but also that we were unafraid to take action against the autocratic moves of the incoming president.”
The other cases were brought by National Security Counselors and Democracy Forward and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
A fourth lawsuit filed Monday by the Center for Biological Diversity seeks all records from the Office of Management and Budget relating to DOGE.
There are signs that the incoming Trump administration was expecting legal challenges to the money-saving effort. In December, Trump announced that Washington election lawyer William McGinley would serve as general counsel for the project.
Trump had previously tapped McGinley to serve as White House counsel, but later decided to hand that position to David Warrington, a lawyer who has represented him in civil suits stemming from the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
After 15 months of war that began with a attack on Israel by Hamas and ended with much of the Gaza Strip levelled by Israel, a ceasefire has come into effect with the first three hostages released from Gaza and 90 Palestinians due to be freed from Israeli jails in return.
In what should have been the first hours of peace at least 19 Palestinians were killed by airs strikes and 36 more were wounded, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said. The Israel Defense Forces said they had attached "a number of terror targets".
The hostage release was the first of several due to take place over six weeks – if the ceasefire holds – until a total of 33 hostages have been returned and about 1,900 Palestinians have been freed. 97 hostages are still in captivity according to Israel, though dozens of those are presumed dead.
In Gaza, the health ministry says more than 46,900 people have been killed and most of the strip's pre-war population of 2.3 million has been displaced, it is expected to be a week before the first displaced people in the south can move back to where they lived in the north.
The UN's satellite agency estimates that 60% of structures across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli strikes and demolitions, meaning many displaced will have to remain for now in shelters or continue sleeping rough, prolonging a massive humanitarian crisis.
Anna Foster presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Jeremy Bowen, Jon Donnison, Fergal Keane and Lucy Manning.
First hostages to be freed Sunday afternoon; Smotrich said to agree to stay in coalition; relatives of hostages not set for release in 1st phase urge public support for next stage.
The security cabinet meets in Jerusalem on January 17, 2025 to discuss the ceasefire-hostage release deal. (Kobi Gideon/GPO)
The high-level security cabinet voted Friday afternoon to approve the hostage release-ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza, and recommended that the government adopt it, the Prime Minister’s Office said. The full cabinet then convened for a discussion and vote, with the meeting extending long into Shabbat.
The full cabinet was expected to vote by a large majority to approve the deal, which was signed overnight in Qatar and is set to take effect on Sunday.
The recommendation by the forum of top ministers was made "after examining all diplomatic, security and humanitarian aspects of the agreement, with the understanding that the deal "supports the achievement of the war’s goals", the PMO said.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir voted against the deal at the security cabinet, but were in the minority. According to Channel 12 news, Likud’s David Amsalem also voted against the agreement.
Before the security cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took part in a security assessment to discuss the deal’s implementation with the negotiating team, which returned overnight from Doha after signing the final version of the accord with Hamas.
A meeting of the full cabinet had been slated to begin at 3:30 p.m., but actually started more than two hours later. It had earlier been expected to take place only on Saturday evening, but was moved up after numerous ministers, including Haredi members of the cabinet, said Shabbat considerations should not put off a life-saving matter.
The deal, announced by mediators on Wednesday, is currently scheduled to take effect on Sunday at 12:15 p.m. Unconfirmed reports in Hebrew media said the release of the first three female hostages was expected at 4 p.m. that day. Israel was expected to get the identities of the first returnees from Hamas by 4 PM on Saturday.
Thursday evening saw reports that holding the full cabinet meeting only on Saturday evening would cause a delay in the deal’s implementation from Sunday to Monday. However, Netanyahu’s office later said the agreement would come into effect on Sunday as planned regardless.
Following the government’s approval, the High Court of Justice is slated to hear any petitions against elements of the deal but is widely expected not to intervene.
The government’s hostages and missing persons coordination unit on Friday notified the families of the 33 Israeli hostages expected to be set free in the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal. Those on the list, to be returned over 42 days, are so-called humanitarian cases: women, children, elderly individuals, and the infirm.
Israel has not been told how many of the 33 are alive, though it expects the majority are. Israel will receive a full status report on all those on the list seven days into the ceasefire. The order of release is not yet known. The identities of those set to return are expected to be provided 24 hours before each release.
The 33 hostages are set to be returned in phase one of the Gaza ceasefire deal. Row 1 (L-R): Romi Gonen, Emily Damari, Arbel Yehud, Doron Steinbrecher, Ariel Bibas, Kfir Bibas, Shiri Bibas; Row 2: Liri Albag, Karina Ariev, Agam Berger, Danielle Gilboa, Naama Levy, Ohad Ben-Ami, Gadi Moshe Moses; Row 3: Keith Siegel, Ofer Calderon, Eli Sharabi, Itzik Elgarat, Shlomo Mansour, Ohad Yahalomi, Oded Lifshitz; Row 4: Tsahi Idan, Hisham al-Sayed, Yarden Bibas, Sagui Dekel-Chen, Yair Horn, Omer Wenkert, Sasha Trufanov; Row 5: Eliya Cohen, Or Levy, Avera Mengistu, Tal Shoham, Omer Shem-Tov (all photos courtesy)
Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, who returned from Qatar along with Mossad chief David Barnea following the signing of the deal there overnight, reportedly urged ministers to approve the deal as soon as possible, warning that any delay risked endangering hostages’ lives.
In the course of the security cabinet meeting, according to unconfirmed Hebrew media reports, Netanyahu told ministers that Israel has "received definitive guarantees from both President Joe Biden and President-elect Donald Trump, that if the negotiations on phase two of the deal fail, and Hamas does not accept our security demands, we will resume intensive fighting with the backing of the United States".
In a statement on Thursday night, following far-right Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir’s threat to bolt the coalition over the deal, Netanyahu’s Likud party made the same assertion and others regarding the deal.
"Contrary to Ben Gvir’s comments, the existing deal allows Israel to return to fighting under American guarantees, receive the weapons and means of warfare it needs, maximize the number of living hostages that will be released, maintain full control of the Philadelphi Route [on the Egyptian border] and the security buffer that surrounds the entire Gaza Strip, and achieve dramatic security achievements that will ensure Israel’s security for generations", Likud said.
These claims appear to contradict a leaked copy of the deal.
"Can’t ruin this opportunity"
As the cabinet convened to vote on the hostage deal, four hostage family members held a press conference at Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square. Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, who is not set for release in phase one, said she was the closest she’d been in 468 days to hugging her son.
"We can’t let any political considerations ruin this opportunity", she said.
Zangauker, who has repeatedly blamed the government for the hostage situation, protesting daily at Tel Aviv rallies, called on Israelis to join the protests and demand the complete fulfillment of all stages of the deal.
"Violating the agreement will be a death sentence for the hostages", she said.
"This deal will shake us all, it will be hard", said Zangauker. "Join us, my Matan and all the hostages need you with us".
Anat Angrest, mother of Matan Angrest, a combat soldier who was wounded and taken hostage from his tank on October 7, noted that her son’s name was also not on the list of 33 hostages that will be released home in the first stage of the hostage deal.
"You who should have been on the top of the list aren’t even on it", said Angrest. "We didn’t convince the government over the last 15 months that your blood is worth the same as the others".
Nguyen Phuong Linh, living in Hanoi, has taken extreme measures to protect her family from the worsening air quality, which has recently been classified as "very unhealthy." To cope, she vacuums her home twice a day, uses a clothes dryer to filter dust, and regularly cleans household items like mattresses and pillows. Despite these efforts, her family suffers from persistent nasal and throat inflammation, even with the use of two layers of masks when outdoors. Linh’s family relocated from the city center to the suburbs in an attempt to escape the pollution, and one of her friends moved to Lang Son due to health issues, feeling relief from the cleaner, fresh air.
In Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), residents like Phan Han and her family are similarly struggling with air pollution, which fluctuates between "poor" and "moderate." Han's family keeps their windows shut, runs air purifiers, and minimizes outdoor exposure to avoid dust from nearby construction sites. Her daughter has suffered repeated bouts of nasal and throat infections, while Han and her husband also deal with recurring symptoms such as coughing and headaches, leading to frequent hospital visits and mounting medical costs.
The air quality in both Hanoi and HCMC has been deteriorating over the past decade, with traffic and industrial activities being major contributors. Despite the government's efforts to improve air quality, such as phasing out coal stoves and reducing straw burning, pollution levels remain high, especially in rural areas. In response to the ongoing crisis, Dr. Bach Thi Chinh from the VNVC Vaccination Center advises people to wear masks, clean their living environments regularly, and avoid opening windows during high pollution periods. Vulnerable groups are urged to seek medical attention if they experience acute symptoms, and vaccinations for respiratory illnesses are recommended to reduce health risks.
While these measures can help alleviate the effects of air pollution, residents like Linh and Han emphasize that the real solution lies in improving air quality, a challenge that may take years to resolve.
Israel has accused Hamas of backtracking on parts of a fragile ceasefire and hostage release deal, which was announced by mediators Qatar and the United States on Wednesday. The deal would take effect on Sunday, involving the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, after which further terms for a permanent end to the war would be finalized. However, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office claimed that Hamas had "reneged on parts of the agreement" in an effort to extort last-minute concessions. Hamas denied the accusations.
Since the announcement of the deal, Israeli airstrikes have continued in Gaza, killing at least 73 people and injuring hundreds. The war, sparked by the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel, has resulted in significant casualties, with tens of thousands of lives lost on both sides.
The ceasefire and hostage exchange deal followed months of negotiations and involved intensive efforts from mediators. U.S. President Joe Biden expressed satisfaction over the deal, highlighting its potential to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza and reunite hostages with their families. However, the agreement's implementation faces challenges, with disagreements within Israel's ruling coalition and political opposition to the deal from far-right ministers.
It has been more than a week since two massive fires forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes in the Los Angeles area, and officials said Thursday that residents won’t be able to return anytime soon. As the search continues for human remains in the leveled neighborhoods, properties also face new dangers with burned slopes at risk of landslides, and the charred debris laden with asbestos and other toxins.
More than 80,000 people are still under evacuation orders, and many do not know what, if anything, remains of their houses, apartments, and possessions. Scores of people have gathered at checkpoints to plead with police and soldiers to restrict access to their neighborhoods. Officials said they understood their frustration but asked residents for patience as hazardous materials teams and cadaver dogs comb through the sites block by block. They said it will be a week or more before people can return.
"The properties have been damaged beyond belief," Los Angeles County Public Works Director Mark Pestrella said at a briefing. "They are full of sediment, debris, silt, and hazardous materials."
Hillsides have become unstable behind some damaged homes, and a small landslide in Pacific Palisades this week sent debris into the streets. As firefighters continued to battle the two largest fires, which have killed 27 people and destroyed more than 12,000 structures, heartbroken families and burned-out business owners began to confront another monumental task: rebuilding what was lost. The scale of the effort will be vast – the area scorched by the major fires is equal to three times the size of Manhattan. It is one of the most devastating natural disasters in Southern California history.
Recognizing the health risks, the county on Thursday prohibited any cleanup or removal of fire debris until a hazardous materials inspection is completed by government officials. The city is also working on ensuring the region’s storm drainage system does not get clogged when rain begins to return in the coming weeks. Rain also poses the risk of mudslides.
The fires struck at a challenging time, with the city in the midst of a post-pandemic transition that has reordered work life and left many downtown buildings with high vacancy rates. Additionally, planning is underway to host the 2028 Olympics, and the region faces perhaps the nation’s worst homelessness crisis, which had been Mayor Karen Bass’ priority before the fires broke out last week.
The government has not yet released damage estimates, but private firms expect losses to climb into the tens of billions of dollars. The blazes could become the costliest fire disaster in U.S. history.
Alex Rosewood and nearly her entire family in Altadena, northeast of Los Angeles, lost their homes – her father, whom she and her husband were living with, and her aunt, uncle, and cousin next door. Lost were the keepsakes of a lifetime: Rosewood's grandmother’s playing cards and unfinished quilt, her wedding photos, heirlooms from her grandfather, who served in the Navy. None of them could be saved as smoke turned the sky gray, and her cousin’s house began to burn.
But Altadena remains home. "We all plan to rebuild, for sure," she said.
There will also be inevitable questions about whether it’s sensible to keep rebuilding in known high-risk areas, especially in an age of climate change. What will the new neighborhoods look like? Will fire-resistant materials and designs be used? Are more and wider roads needed to allow swifter evacuations and easier access for fire engines during future infernos?
"It’s going to be a while before we can get in there and build anything," said Michael Hricak, an adjunct professor of architecture at the University of Southern California, referring to the dangerous chemicals and rubble left behind. As for new construction, "it’s not being tougher than Mother Nature. It's being somewhat respectful of Mother Nature and knowing what the challenges are."
"Are we just inviting another problem down the road?" Hricak said.
The Northern California community of Paradise, where the state's deadliest wildfire killed 85 people in 2018, offers a glimpse into how painstaking and difficult recovery and rebuilding can be. That fire destroyed about 11,000 homes – some 90% of the community's structures. About 3,200 homes and apartments have been rebuilt. The town, which previously had a population of 26,000, has struggled under high construction costs, expensive insurance premiums, and the uncertainty over money to be paid to people who lost homes by Pacific Gas & Electric, which was found liable for sparking the devastating blaze.
In Los Angeles, a city notorious for dense layers of bureaucracy and government red tape, Bass issued an executive order this week intended to clear the way for residents to rebuild quickly. The federal government has already approved spending $100 million to remove paint, cleaners, asbestos, batteries, and other household waste from the rubble before crews can begin clearing debris. Robert Fenton Jr., a regional administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, called the plan a first step to getting people back in homes. Elsewhere, the agency is handing out assistance to help people with short-term lodging.
Michele Baron and her daughter were among those who came to a recovery center in West Los Angeles to figure out how to get new birth certificates and Social Security cards. Baron lost nearly everything when her Pacific Palisades apartment of 21 years burned to the ground. Her daughter made her way back to the property and salvaged a ring and pottery she made as a child. Despite the trauma, the plan is to stay put. "Now that I can go anywhere, I kind of don’t want to," Baron said.
Every four years, America's president is sworn in on Inauguration Day, whether newly elected or returning to office, in a long-established ceremony and pageantry shaped by the incoming leader's personal flourishes. What does that mean for the inauguration of Donald Trump? Queue the Village People and social media titans.
Here is a preview of the pomp and circumstance that will unfold on Monday when Trump is sworn in as the 47th president.
The Oath
The U.S. Constitution mandates that each new president's term begin at noon on January 20 (or the day after if it falls on a Sunday), and that the president take the oath of office. In recent years, presidents have been sworn in from an enormous temporary platform located on the Capitol's scenic West Lawn, overlooking the National Mall.
The oath is most often administered by the Supreme Court chief justice, and Monday would mark John Roberts's second time officiating for Trump. The new president also delivers an inaugural address, laying out his plans for the next four years. The Republican rang in his first term in 2017 with a particularly dark speech evoking "American carnage." Incoming vice president JD Vance will also be sworn in.
The Guests
In one of the inauguration's most Trumpian twists, the Republican has invited a number of tech titans to the platform as VIPs. They will sit alongside other prominent – albeit more standard – guests such as his cabinet nominees. Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg will attend, as will Shou Chew, the head of Chinese social media giant TikTok, according to U.S. media.
Not only has Trump courted closer ties with the tech moguls, but his campaign benefitted from disinformation spread on social media platforms such as TikTok, Musk's X, and Zuckerberg's Facebook and Instagram.
Outgoing president Joe Biden will attend the ceremony, despite Trump's refusal to appear at Biden's swearing in when he beat Trump in 2020. All living former presidents – Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama – will attend, as will their wives, except for Michelle Obama. That means Hillary Clinton, whom Trump beat in the 2016 presidential election, in addition to Vice President Kamala Harris, whom he beat in November, will be there.
Heads of state are not traditionally welcome, but Trump bucked that trend by inviting, for example, the far-right prime ministers of Italy and Hungary, Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orban, as well as Argentine President Javier Milei and Chinese President Xi Jinping. They are not necessarily attending, however.
The Crowd
Crowd size is a preoccupation of Trump's. More than 220,000 tickets are being distributed to the public via lawmakers' offices. Those unable to snag an official ticket can still watch the ceremony alongside tens of thousands of other spectators live from the National Mall, on large video screens.
Following the ceremony, members of the public might catch a glimpse of the president as he travels in a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House.
The Orders
Trump has indicated he is preparing to sign multiple executive orders as early as his first day in office, aimed at undoing many of the Biden administration's policies. Among multiple promises for day one, Trump has pledged to launch a mass deportation program and increase oil drilling. He has also said he might immediately begin pardoning January 6 rioters, his followers who ransacked the Capitol in 2021.
The Music
Trump's first inauguration in 2017 was marked by a lack of celebrity power, as the controversial reality star-turned-politician struggled to find A-list musicians willing to be associated with him. Trump’s second inauguration, however, is in slightly better shape.
Famed country singer Carrie Underwood will sing "America the Beautiful" during the swearing-in ceremony. Also performing will be country singer Lee Greenwood, whose patriotic anthem "God Bless the USA" was a well-established Trump rally anthem. A pre-inauguration rally on Sunday will include a performance by The Village People, whose 1970s-era "Y.M.C.A." was another Trump rally staple, in addition to Kid Rock and Billy Ray Cyrus. Country musicians including Jason Aldean, Rascal Flatts, and Gavin DeGraw, plus the Village People, will perform across Trump's three official inaugural balls.
The Galas
Trump is expected to attend all three of his official inaugural galas on Monday night. More than a dozen other events are also planned. Apart from the balls, Trump will host a "Make America Great Again Victory Rally" at Washington's downtown Capital One Arena the night before the inauguration.
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