The big picture: The U.S. is the WHO's top donor, contributing about $130 million per year to help cover its global health preparedness and response, along with efforts to address HIV, tuberculosis, and childhood vaccination, per Devex.
Trump started the process to withdraw from WHO during his first term, claiming the agency failed badly responding to COVID-19 and had not demonstrated its independence from China.
However, then-President Biden reversed it on his first day in office.
Driving the news: Monday's executive order states that the U.S. issued a notice about its withdrawal in 2020 "due to the organization's mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic ... and other global health crises, its failure to adopt urgently needed reforms, and its inability to demonstrate independence from the inappropriate political influence of WHO member states."
Additionally, "the WHO continues to demand unfairly onerous payments from the United States, far out of proportion with other countries' assessed payments," it continues, notingΒ China pays less despite having a larger population.
Thank you. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you very, very much. Vice President Vance. Speaker Johnson. Senator Thune. Chief Justice Roberts. Justices of the United States Supreme Court. President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, President Biden, Vice President Harris, and my fellow citizens, the golden age of America begins right now.
From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first.
Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end. And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous and free. America will soon be greater, stronger and far more exceptional than ever before.
I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country, sunlight is pouring over the entire world, and America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before. But first, we must be honest about the challenges we face. While they are plentiful, they will be annihilated by this great momentum that the world is now witnessing in the United States of America.
As we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust. 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. We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home, while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad. It fails to protect our magnificent law-abiding American citizens, but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals, many from prisons and ββmental institutions that have illegally entered our country from all over the world.
We have a government that has given unlimited funding to the defense of foreign borders but refuses to defend American borders, or, more importantly, its own people. Our country can no longer give basic services in times of emergency, as recently shown by the wonderful people of North Carolina. Been treated so badly. And other states who are still suffering from a hurricane that took place many months ago.
Or more recently, Los Angeles, where we are watching fires still tragically burn. From weeks ago, without even a token of defense, they're raging through the houses and communities, even affecting some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country, some of whom are sitting here right now. They don't have a home any longer. That's interesting.
But we can't let this happen. Everyone is unable to do anything about it. That's going to change. We have a public health system that does not deliver in times of disaster, yet more money is spent on it than any country anywhere in the world. And we have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves in many cases, to hate our country despite the love that we try so desperately to provide to them. All of this will change starting today, and it will change very quickly.
My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all of these many betrayals that have taken place, and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy, and indeed, their freedom. From this moment on, America's decline is over.
Our liberties and our nation's glorious destiny will no longer be denied. And we will immediately restore the integrity, competency and loyalty of America's government.
Over the past eight years I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history. And I have learned a lot along the way. The journey to reclaim our Republic has not been an easy one, that I can tell you. Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom, and indeed, to take my life.
Just a few months ago, in that beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.
Thank you. Thank you very much.
That is why each day, under our administration of American patriots, we will be working to meet every crisis with dignity and power and strength. We will move with purpose and speed to bring back hope, prosperity, safety and peace for citizens of every race, religion, color and creed. For American citizens, Jan. 20, 2025, is Liberation Day.
It is my hope that our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most consequential election in the history of our country. As our victory showed, the entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda, with dramatic increases in support from virtually every element of our society: young and old, men and women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, urban, suburban, rural, and very importantly, we had a powerful win in all seven swing states, and the popular vote we won by millions of people.
To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. We set records and I will not forget it. I've heard your voices in the campaign and I look forward to working with you in the years to come. Today is Martin Luther King Day and his honor, this will be a great honor. But in his honor we will strive together to make his dream a reality. We will make his dream come true.
National unity is now returning to America, and confidence and pride is soaring like never before. In everything we do, my administration will be inspired by a strong pursuit of excellence and unrelenting success. We will not forget our country, we will not forget our constitution, and we will not forget our God. Can't do that.
Today I will sign a series of historic executive orders. With these actions we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. It's all about common sense.
First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. 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. We will reinstate my Remain in Mexico policy. I will end the practice of catch and release. And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.
Under the orders I signed today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gang criminal networks, bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.
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. We will do it at a level that nobody has ever seen before. Next I will direct all members of my cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices. The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices. That is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill.
America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have: the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it. We're going to use it.
We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again, right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.
We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it. With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers.
In other words, you'll be able to buy the car of your choice. We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago. And thank you to the autoworkers of our nation for your inspiring vote of confidence. We did tremendously with their vote.
I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. For this purpose, we are establishing the External Revenue Service, to collect all tariffs, duties and revenues. It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury, coming from foreign sources.
The American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before. To restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government, my administration will establish the brand-new Department of Government Efficiency.
After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.
Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents, something I know something about. We will not allow that to happen. It will not happen again. Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law. And we are going to bring law and order back to our cities.
This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.
This week, I will reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the Covid vaccine mandate, with full back pay. And I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty. It's going to end immediately. Our armed forces will be free to focus on their sole mission: defeating America's enemies.
Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen. We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.
My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That's what I want to be, a peacemaker and a unifier. I'm pleased to say that as of yesterday, one day before I assumed office, the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families. Thank you.
America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on Earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world. A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. And we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs.
President McKinley made our country very rich, through tariffs and through talent. He was a natural businessman and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did, including the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to the country of Panama after the United States. The United States β I mean, think of this β spent more money than ever spent on a project before and lost 38,000 lives in the building of the Panama Canal. We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made. And Panama's promise to us has been broken. The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated.
American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape, or form. And that includes the United States Navy. And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal, and we didn't give it to China, we gave it to Panama. And we're taking it back.
Above all, my message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor and the vitality of history's greatest civilization. So as we liberate our nation, we will lead it to new heights of victory and success. We will not be deterred. Together we will end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy and disease-free.
The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons. And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.
Ambition is the lifeblood of a great nation. And right now, our nation is more ambitious than any other. There's no nation like our nation. Americans are explorers, builders, innovators, entrepreneurs and pioneers. The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts. The call of the next great adventure resounds from within our souls. Our American ancestors turned a small group of colonies on the edge of a vast continent into a mighty republic of the most extraordinary citizens on Earth. No one comes close.
Americans pushed thousands of miles through a rugged land of untamed wilderness. They crossed deserts, scaled mountains, braved untold dangers, won the Wild West, ended slavery, rescued millions from tyranny, lifted billions from poverty, harnessed electricity, split the atom, launched mankind into the heavens and put the universe of human knowledge into the palm of the human hand. If we work together, there is nothing we cannot do and no dream we cannot achieve.
Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback. But as you see today, here I am. The American people have spoken.
I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do. In America, the impossible is what we do best.
From New York to Los Angeles, from Philadelphia to Phoenix, from Chicago to Miami, from Houston to right here in Washington, D.C., our country was forged and built by the generations of patriots who gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom. They were farmers and soldiers, cowboys and factory workers, steel workers and coal miners, police officers and pioneers who pushed onward, marched forward and let no obstacle defeat their spirit or their pride.
Together they laid down the railroads, raised up the skyscrapers, built great highways, won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism, and triumphed over every single challenge that they faced. After all we have been through together, we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. With your help, we will restore American promise and we will rebuild the nation that we love, and we love it so much.
We are one people, one family and one glorious nation under God. So to every parent who dreams for their child, and every child who dreams for their future, I am with you, I will fight for you and I will win for you. We are going to win like never before. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
In recent years our nation has suffered greatly. But we are going to bring it back and make it great again, greater than ever before. We will be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage and exceptionalism. Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent and totally unpredictable.
America will be respected again and admired again, including by people of religion, faith and good will. We will be prosperous, we will be proud, we will be strong and we will win like never before. We will not be conquered, we will not be intimidated, we will not be broken and we will not fail. From this day on, the United States of America will be a free, sovereign and independent nation.
We will stand bravely, we will live proudly, we will dream boldly, and nothing will stand in our way because we are Americans. The future's ours. And our golden age has just begun. Thank you, God bless America, thank you all.
Think of the U.S. government as a once-dominant, lean, high-flying company that grew too big, too bloated, too bureaucratic, too unimaginative.
It's Kodak or Circuit City β a dominant player caught napping amid an obvious technological transformation.
Why it matters: This snooze-and-lose reality is partly driving the governing and economic pace, tone and policies of President Trump's White House, officials tell us.
A theory that binds Trump with leading innovators, especially Elon Musk, is that you can bring tech and business talent and techniques together to take a wrecking ball to broken ideas and/or processes or entire agencies.
This isn't Trump's instinctual motivation, aides say. He wants a strong stock market, slower inflation, low joblessness, the holy trinity of economic indicators.
But Musk, Marc Andreessen and a growing chorus of entrepreneurs and tech CEOs are fusing their "founder mode" mentality with Trump's desire for fast growth.
You have Silicon Valley's best and brightest battling for bigger roles in reshaping government. Almost every CEO wants a slice of the action.
The optimistic scenario for the Trump presidency: It'll jar lawmakers and the public into realizing how a slow, bloated, bureaucratic government handcuffs and hurts America in the vital race for AI, new energy sources, space and overall growth.
Reality check: Some of this is motivated by politics, some by genuine enthusiasm to serve, and some by naked self-interest. Government will help pick the winners and losers in chips, AI, energy, crypto, satellites and space. So, it would be CEO malpractice not to try to shape the outcome. A seat at the table could be worth billions.
Whatever the motivation, the genuine thesis is directionally correct: America's government is so vast, so complex, so indebted that it makes fast, smart growth exponentially more complicated.
Elon Musk arrives at the Capitol Rotunda for today's inauguration. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Whether you're a skeptic or fan, consider not what a policy wonk would do, but rather how a tech CEO would shake things up if their company was deep in debt and slow in execution.
Simplify, simplify, simplify. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who recently dined with Trump, loves to tell how his company rediscovered its mojo with a Year of Efficiency (2023) where he declared: "Leaner is better." Meta cut workforce, managerial layers, and decision-making obstacles β then went all-in on AI. The results were magical, he says.
Cut costs. The U.S. debt is too staggering to comprehend. It's $36 trillion β and grows $1 trillion every 100 days. Another way to look at it: America spends more on defense than the next 10 biggest nations β and yet we spend more on debt than defense! So cutting government, now or later, is unavoidable.
Bet big. You can't cut your way out of this crisis. The only palatable solution: explosive growth. Not 2% or 3%. Twice that. Marc Andreessen has argued publicly this rate of growth is possible if you stack government attention and staff correctly. The big bets would be on AI, space, new domestic energy sources, crypto, and U.S. businesses doing this work at home. GDP growth of 1% would amount to about $290 billion.
Break stuff. Musk bluntly warned before the election that big cuts and change in government inevitably cause "temporary pain." Politicians typically hate inflicting any pain on voters β hence, your deficits! But any business leader who shuts down products or lays off people knows it's the price of growth.
Ignore the whiners. What holds back CEOs and political leaders is the same thing: fear, fear of bad headlines or big revolts. But Trump's pain threshold is higher than anyone we've seen in public office. So you could see him enduring it if convinced it will juice his numbers. Musk is a living reminder that a lot of bad press does not equate to failure. Often, it's the opposite.
The other side: Robert Rubin, who was a co-senior partner at Goldman Sachs before becoming Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, wrote Friday in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece that outsiders arriving in Washington need to "recognize how much they don't know about government and how different it can be from business." Rubin writes from experience that "government can't and shouldn't be run like a business."
"The best way to make a successful transition to the public sector is to do so with humility," Rubin concludes. "The alternative, in many cases, is to have humility thrust upon you."
The New York Mets have been trying to keep Pete Alonso in Queens, but that may no longer be a reality. They could lose him to a struggling American League team.
President Trump signed an executive order on Monday granting a "full, complete and unconditional pardon" to the vast majority of Jan. 6 defendants charged with participating in the Capitol riot four years ago.
Why it matters: Trump made pardoning Jan. 6 rioters a key campaign pledge, repeatedly extolling them as "patriots" and "hostages" of the justice system and claiming they'd been treated unfairly.
It's a far cry from former President Biden's denouncement of the "violent insurrectionists" who threatened U.S. democracy in storming the Capitol.
Driving the news: Trump commuted the sentences of 14 defendants and issued pardons for all other "individuals convicted of offenses" connected to Jan. 6, according to the executive order.
"These are the hostages, approximately 1,500 for a pardon, full pardon," Trump said from the Oval Office, as he signed a slew of other executive orders on his first night as president.
By the numbers: At least 1,583 people had been charged to date in connection with the insurrection, per Department of Justice data ahead of the Capitol riot's fourth anniversary.
More than 1,000 defendants have pleaded guilty or been convicted at trial.
The charges faced by the defendants have ranged from misdemeanors, like trespassing, to felony charges, like assaulting law enforcement officers or engaging in seditious conspiracy.
Zoom out: Pardoning insurrectionists convicted of crimes, including violent felonies, defies the GOP's image as the party of law and order. Future perpetrators of political violence could also expect to be met with clemency.
Since 2021, multiple criminal and congressional investigations have sought to sift through the events of the attack and Trump's role in it.
Trump was indicted in 2023 as part of special counsel Jack Smith's investigation into his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election. After Trump won the 2024 election, the case was dismissed.
State of play: During the campaign and transition period, Trump repeatedly promised to quickly pursue pardons for Jan. 6 rioters upon assuming the presidency.
As recently as January, Trump vowed "major pardons" were coming for Jan. 6 defendants.
In 2022, before he announced another run for office, Trump publicly promised pardons and said the defendants were being treated unfairly.
Over the years, he gave limited details about how broad the potential pardons would be.
In an interview with NBC News' "Meet the Press" in December, Trump said there could be "some exceptions" for the pardons in cases where the defendant was "radical, crazy," but did not elaborate.
He also told Time magazine he would determine the pardons on a "case-by-case" basis, but that the "vast majority" of defendants "should not be in jail."
Zoom out: In pardoning Jan. 6 defendants convicted of crimes, Trump is testing the limits of public opinion.
A Washington Post-University of Maryland national poll released in December found that 66% of Americans opposed Trump's plan to issue pardons for the rioters.
Several federal judges have also opposed Trump's plan to issue pardons for the rioters.
U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee who has handled Jan. 6 cases, said in November that "blanket pardons for all January 6 defendants or anything close would be beyond frustrating and disappointing."
While sentencing a member of the Oath Keepers militia last month, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said that the prospect of the group's founder Stewart Rhodes receiving a pardon "is frightening and ought to be frightening to anyone who cares about democracy in this country."
A pen with U.S. President Donald Trump's signature printed on the side sits on the Resolute Desk following a briefing about Hurricane Dorian in the Oval Office at the White House September 04, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Donald Trump is known for having a penchant for the bold strokes of a Sharpie marker.
His handwritten notes are the subject of iconic images, as well as internet jokes and ridicule.
From executive orders to hurricane forecast maps, here are seven times Trump wielded his signature pen.
Former President Donald Trump has been known to use a Sharpie as his writing utensil of choice β wielding it on presidential documents and fan autographs alike.
President Donald Trump displays his signature after signing the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul plan in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, U.S., December 22, 2017.
Jonathan Ernst/File Photo/Reuters
The former president displayed a penchant for using the distinctive black marker on documents throughout his first presidency. The bold strokes can be seen on anything from executive orders to speech drafts to allegedly altered hurricane maps.
Trump loved to use a Sharpie so much that he even reached out to the stationary company to design a custom pen for him to sign documents, emblazoned with his mountain-peak-like signature.
In a four-part HBO series done in partnership with Axios in 2018, he made no secret of his love for a Sharpie pen β and how much he hated using government-ordered writing utensils traditionally used by presidents.
"I was signing documents with a very expensive pen and it didn't write well," Trump said, referring to the government pen. "It was a horrible pen, and it was extremely expensive."
He added: "And then I started using just a Sharpie, and I said to myself, 'Well wait a minute, this writes much better and this cost almost nothing.'"
Trump's distinctive bold Sharpie signature made an appearance long before he even entered the White House.
A fan holds out a MAGA cap and Sharpie as President Donald J. Trump departs after speaking at a MAGA rally at the Williamsport Regional Airport, in Montoursville, PA on May 20, 2019.
Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Trump Organization β but not Trump himself or his children β in 2022 faced charges of criminal tax fraud, falsifying business records, and filing false tax returns in a scheme to defraud the state.
After the trial kicked off, documents from the Trump Organization were presented to jurors by the trial's first witness, Jeffrey McConney, the company's longtime controller.
McConney identified the signatures β in distinctive bold Sharpie β on some half-dozen documents, which included important letters and payroll documents, as that of the former president.
In a May 1, 2005 letter detailing an overhead projection, Trump personally authorized a $6,500-a-month lease for a Manhattan apartment to be lived in exclusively by his longtime chief financial officer.
"In other words, Donald J. Trump authorized Donald J. Trump to sign the lease" for the apartment, Joshua Steinglass, one of the two lead prosecutors, said during the trial.
The president wasn't only reaching for a Sharpie to sign off on important documents, but also for campaign speech notes.
Donald Trump holds up handwritten notes as he speaks during a campaign event in Radford, Virginia February 29, 2016.
Chris Keane/Reuters
Trump's notes were clearly visible to cameras β aided by his tendency to hold them up to the crowd for emphasis.
At a campaign rally in Virginia in 2016, Trump touted national polling numbers and talked about Jeff Sessions, who was an early supporter of Trump's presidential campaign in 2016.
Trump also mentioned Ashley Guindon, a Virginia police officer who was killed on her first day on the job, and he vowed to "restore law and order [and] respect [for] the men and women who protect," per his notes.
It wouldn't be a Trump press conference if his bold Sharpie notes weren't visible from afar.
Handwritten notes are seen on US President Donald Trump's statement as he speaks during a news conference amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak on March 22, 2020.
Yuri Gripas/Reuters
In a press conference ahead of declaring a state of emergency amid the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020, Trump briefed the nation on the distribution of ventilators and respirators ahead of the rapidly spreading respiratory disease that was then shrouded in mystery.
In his notes, the president jotted down to mention how "good govs are getting it done, bad ones are not."
"We're really backing up the governors. The governors have to go out and do their things and you have a lot of governors, they've done a fantastic job," Trump said during the press conference on March 22, 2020. "You have some that haven't. Usually, it's the ones that complain that have the problems."
He added: "But we've had a great relationship as an example with Governor Cuomo, with Governor Newsom," noting them specifically due to the "hotbeds" of infection that were transpiring in their states respectively.
But Trump's felt-tip marker wasn't exclusively reserved for paper β he once signed his $147-million border wall that replaced the old wall.
President Donald J. Trump signed a section of border fencing during his visit to the border area of Otay Mesa, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2019, a neighborhood along the Mexican border in San Diego, Calif.
Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead
One of the platforms that Trump infamously campaigned on for his first presidential campaign was building a wall at the border, which eventually came to fruition β though not to completion β during his first administration.
In September 2019, he paid a visit to a border wall construction in Otay Mesa, a neighborhood in San Diego County, California. With a hefty price tag of $147 million, the 14-mile section of steel beams, concrete, and rebar replaced the construction of a decades-old wall that was previously installed in the 1990s.
"You can fry an egg on that wall," Trump told the reporters and officials gathered during his visit, referring to the wall's design to absorb heat.
And without fail, the president brought out a Sharpie to sign one of the slats of his beloved border wall, which he said was at the request of the border patrol agents at the site.
"I autographed one of the bollards," he said. "There are a lot of bollards. That's a lot of bollards."
Perhaps one of the notorious moments the president put Sharpie-to-paper was when he allegedly altered a forecast map of Hurricane Dorian, in a superficial scandal later dubbed "SharpieGate."
President Donald Trump references a map while talking to reporters following a briefing from officials about Hurricane Dorian in 2019.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In September 2019, ahead of the devastation brought in by Hurricane Dorian, the president said the storm was headed to Alabama.
"In addition to Florida - South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated," Trump tweeted at the time. "Looking like one of the largest hurricanes ever. Already category 5. BE CAREFUL! GOD BLESS EVERYONE!"
In a bid to quell public panic regarding the former president's errant forecast, the Birmingham branch of the National Weather Service set the record straight, blatantly correcting his prediction.
"Alabama will NOT see any impacts from Dorian," the agency said in a tweet the same day. "We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east."
But Trump doubled down once again on his claims and refused to accept the NWS' forecast, instead presenting a map of Hurricane Dorian's path with a black Sharpie stroke extending the storm's path over Alabama. The incident later became known as "SharpieGate," prompting its fair share of internet mockery and memes in its wake.
#SharpieGate wasn't the only time the former president's scrawl prompted iconic internet discourse.
President Donald Trump holds what appears to be a prepared statement and handwritten notes after watching testimony by US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland as he speaks to reporters prior to departing for travel to Austin, Texas from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, U.S., November 20, 2019.
Erin Scott/Reuters
During Trump's first impeachment inquiry, Gordon Sondland, former US Ambassador to the European Union, delivered damning testimony publicly confirming the quid pro quo request from Trump to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
The articles of impeachment were related, in part, to Trump's reported efforts to strong-arm Zelensky into launching politically motivated investigations against the Bidens ahead of the 2020 election and withholding vital military aid while doing so.
But like Trump's persistent spoken words in denying the accusations of quid pro quo, his written ones echoed the same denial, as written in bold Sharpie on Air Force One stationary in 2019.
"I want nothing. I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo," he wrote. "Tell Zelensky to do the right thing. This is the final word from the pres of the US."
On his second Inauguration Day in 2025, Trump showed his love for Sharpies hadn't faded since he left office after his first term.
Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders βΒ in Sharpie β as he began his second term.
Jim WATSON / AFP
On the first day of his second administration, Trump showed the world his love for Sharpie pens persists.
He signed a flurry of executive orders to usher in his second non-consecutive term in the White House, including a freeze on federal hiring, a return-to-office mandate for federal workers, and an order to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord β each bearing his name in thick Sharpie strokes.
The president's supporters appear to share his penchant for the black permanent marker, with one fan in the inaugural audience calling for Trump to toss him a pen after signing an order with it. Trump did, throwing each Sharpie he used to sign the orders into the crowd.Β
President Donald Trump promised stark changes for federal workers before he took office.
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Donald Trump signed a return-to-office order for federal workers during his first hours in office.
Many federal civilian workers were eligible for telework but not working remotely all the time.
Elon Musk indicated in November that he supports government workers being fully in the office.
President Donald Trump on Monday signed an executive order mandating that federal workers return to their offices full-time, a core element of his focus on overhauling the government workforce.
For years, Republicans have sought to weaken protections that federal workers have long enjoyed, with many conservatives zeroing in on reclassifying scores of career civil servants.
"Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary," the order read.
Trump has been especially insistent on a return-to-office push, with his position threatening the remote and hybrid arrangements that many federal workers have enjoyed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home," Musk said in a November op-ed in The Wall Street Journal. The op-ed was co-written with Vivek Ramaswamy, who is leaving DOGE and is expected to run for governor of Ohio.
While many federal employees can telework, an August 2024 report from the Office of Management and Budget said around 10% of the roughly 2.3 million civilian workers in two dozen major agencies, including the Department of Defense and the Social Security Administration, "were in remote positions where there was no expectation that they worked in-person on any regular or recurring basis."
That includes over 60,000 people in the Department of Defense, around 37,000 in the Department of Veterans Affairs, and nearly 27,000 in the Department of Health and Human Services.
The Office of Management and Budget found, based on average data representing pay periods ending May 4 and May 18, around 1.1 million civilian workers employed in the two dozen agencies were eligible for telework.
The Department of Defense has a large workforce compared to the other agencies, but only about 8% were remote employees.
"Among the subset of federal workers that are telework-eligible, excluding remote workers, 61.2% of regular, working hours were spent in-person," the OMB report said.That figure for the Department of Agriculture was 81%, and around 80% for the Department of State.
When asked about potential relocation out of DC and return to office before the inauguration, Trump's transition team pointed to Trump's comments at a December 16 press conference that if people don't return to the office, "they're going to be dismissed."
On Monday, Trump also issued an executive order that put a freeze on federal hiring.
"As part of this freeze, no Federal civilian position that is vacant at noon on January 20, 2025, may be filled, and no new position may be created except as otherwise provided for in this memorandum or other applicable law," the order read.
That executive order does not apply to military personnel, immigration enforcement positions, or positions involving national security or public safety.
Kai Trump is President Donald Trump's granddaughter. She spoke at the Republican National Convention and called him "just a normal grandpa."
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Kai Madison Trump, 17, is the eldest grandchild of President Donald Trump.
She is the daughter of Donald Trump Jr. and his ex-wife Vanessa Trump.
She spoke about her grandfather onstage at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee in July.
Kai Madison Trump, 17, is Donald Trump's eldest grandchild. She attended the presidential inauguration and was mentioned by Trump during his address at Capital One Arena.
In her first public appearance at the Republican National Convention in July, Trump spoke about her relationship with her grandfather.
"To me, he's just a normal grandpa," she said. "He gives us candy and soda when our parents aren't looking. He always wants to know how we're doing in school."
"A lot of people have put my grandpa through hell and he's still standing," she continued. "Grandpa, you are such an inspiration and I love you. The media makes my grandpa seem like a different person, but I know him for who he is."
Here's what you need to know about Kai Trump, the president's eldest grandchild.
Kai Madison Trump is the 17-year-old daughter of Donald Trump Jr. and Vanessa Trump.
Vanessa Trump, Kai Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. at the Republican National Convention on July 17, 2024.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Trump was born on May 12, 2007, and is the eldest granddaughter of President Donald Trump.
Her parents are Donald Trump Jr. and his ex-wife, Vanessa Trump.
At 17, she's just one year younger than Barron Trump, the youngest son of her grandparents, Donald Trump and Melania Trump.
Her parents were married from 2005 to 2018.
Vanessa Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Donald Trump, and Melania Trump.
Andrew H. Walker/Getty Images
Vanessa Trump and Donald Trump Jr. share five children together: Kai Madison Trump, 17; Donald John III, 15; Tristan Milos, 13; Spencer Frederick, 12; and Chloe Sophia, 10.
She was born and raised in New York and now lives with her mother in Jupiter, Florida.
Donald Trump Jr. onstage with his daughter Kai Madison Trump during the third day of the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Brendan SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
USA Today reported that she attends The Benjamin School, a private school in North Palm Beach, Florida. The outlet reported that she moved to Florida when she was 13 and lives a short distance from President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
She said in a recent YouTube vlog that she hopes to spend more time in Washington, DC, after Trump takes office.
Kai spoke onstage at the Republican National Convention in 2024.
Kai Trump spoke onstage on the third day of the Republican National Convention.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
"I'm speaking today to share the side of my grandpa that people don't often see. To me, he's just a normal grandpa," Trump said in her first official address.
"Even when he is going through all these court cases, he always asks me how I'm doing," she continued. "He always encourages me to push myself to be the most successful person I can be."
Trump also addressed the assassination attempt on her grandfather, saying that after she heard about it she "just wanted to know if he was OK."
"It was heartbreaking that someone would do that to another person. A lot of people have put my grandpa through hell and he's still standing. Grandpa, you are such an inspiration and I love you," she said.
She's an avid golfer and often utilizes her grandfather's golf courses for training.
Donald Trump with his niece Kai Trump and her mom, Vanessa Trump, during the ProAm ahead of the LIV Golf Team Championship on October 27, 2022.
Michele Eve Sandberg/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images
Trump is an avid golfer and has said she wants to play at the collegiate level at the University of Miami after graduating from high school in 2026.
In an Instagram post announcing her plans to play collegiate golf, she thanked Donald Trump, writing, "I would like to thank my Grandpa for giving me access to great courses and tremendous support."
Her grandfather owns 16 golf courses around the world.
In her speech at the Republican National Convention, she spoke about playing golf with her grandfather.
"When we play golf together, if I'm not on his team, he'll try to get inside of my head," she said. "And he is always surprised that I don't let him get to me, but I have to remind him I'm a Trump, too."
She has her own YouTube channel.
Kai Trump onstage on the third day of the Republican National Convention.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Trump posted a vlog on Inauguration Day that showed behind-the-scenes footage of her prepping to attend pre-inauguration events, such as a formal dinner at the Building Museum where she wore a navy-blue Sherri Hill gown with cutouts.
She also promised fans to film inside the White House during Monday's inauguration events.
Kai Trump has 723,000 YouTube subscribers, about 1 million Instagram followers, and 1.7 million followers on TikTok.
The New York Mets still need to fill a hole at first base. If they won't do it by signing Pete Alonso, could veteran Anthony Rizzo be a realistic pivot?
Why it matters: On Day 1, Trump is following through on his promise to overhaul the federal government, which employs hundreds of thousands of people in the Washington region.
The big picture: Some of Trump's campaign rhetoric centered on reducing the federal government's footprint by firing "rogue bureaucrats and career politicians" and cutting government spending via the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk.
"Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome," Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who is stepping aside as DOGE co-lead, wrote last year in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.
State of play: The hiring freeze applies to all positions in the executive branch except for the military and other categories like national security, public safety and immigration enforcement, per the order.
No positions that were empty as of noon on Jan. 20 can be filled, and no new positions can be created.
Trump also directed department and agency heads to take steps to end remote work arrangements "as soon as practicable."
The fine print: The hiring freeze will not "adversely impact the provision of Social Security, Medicare, or Veterans' benefits," the order states.
That memorandum is set to expire in 90 days after DOGE and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) submit a plan to reduce the government's workforce.
An exception: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It'll remain in effect for the IRS until the Treasury Secretary, along with others, determines that "it is in the national interest to lift the freeze."
Through Biden's orders, the administration had prioritized recruiting folks from underserved communities, evaluating hiring practices through a diversity lens and addressing pay inequities.
A Trump official reportedly said more actions on DEI are coming soon that would impact private business.
What we're watching: Whether Trump will reissue the Schedule F executive order, stripping employment protections from some federal workers.
The author (not pictured) was worried about her kids meeting her sister with disabilities.
Beyhes Evren/Getty Images
My sister was born with a rare genetic condition.
She's nonverbal, has intellectual disabilities, and requires care around the clock.
Spending time with her and my kids made me realize so much about our relationship.
Six years after my parents' back-to-back deaths, I finally brought my husband and two children to my hometown to visit my sister. Born with a rare genetic syndrome, she is nonverbal, has intellectual disabilities, and requires around-the-clock care.
I never intended to stay away for so long. Sure, life got in the way: I became pregnant with my second child, and then the pandemic sidelined any travel for nearly two years, as I didn't want to risk exposing my sister.
But the truth is that I kept putting it off, even after life returned to normal. I didn't know how to go home to my only sibling.
I handled everything for my sister
My mom and dad weren't perfect, but they loved each other madly and did everything possible to build a home filled with love and boundless acceptance for their kids. I can't remember a day when they weren't holding hands or sneaking in kisses, but the love also worked against them: after my father died, my mom's cancer came back, and she joined him a year later. They simply could not live without each other.
With our parents gone, I diligently handled my sister's expenses and the logistics of her care from my home two states away.
I checked in regularly with her aides, attended care team meetings, sent fruitcakes (her favorite) at the holidays and kiddie pools for the backyard each summer, and had boxes of sweets delivered from a local bakery. But, even as my oldest son started asking when we would see his only aunt, I worried that I wouldn't be able to nurture a sense of love between her and my kids β so I kept stalling.
Her disabilities are visible
Because here's the thing: while some disabilities aren't as visible, my sister's genetic differences are front and center. Born with Charge syndrome, she has the hallmark features of this rare diagnosis. Her pupils are oblong, her face asymmetrical, and her brows are heavy; her nose is flattened and crooked, her arms strikingly long, and her eye is almost gray due to retinal damage.
She has a slow, awkward gait and has literally never run. She combines grunts, a few ASL signs, and body language to communicate. Although she would never hurt anyone, she has occasional outbursts when upset, shouting and smacking her arms against her sides in frustration. My oldest son doesn't remember being afraid of her as a preschooler, but it tormented my mother.
Without my parents to guide me, what if I wasn't enough?
I planned a family trip to visit her
Finally, I decided to rip the Band-Aid off. By this point, I'd visited her once with my youngest child, who found his aunt's sweet tooth hilarious and still marveled about the time she'd eaten four chocolate cookies. "You can't do that!" he'd giggle, retelling the story months after our short trip to test the waters.
I made reservations for all four of us to fly to my hometown for a long weekend in the fall of 2024. We got an AirBnB in my childhood neighborhood, close enough to my old haunts to feel familiar. We dropped our bags, headed to her favorite drive-thru burger shop, and then went straight to her house.
I held my breath as we walked inside, but her face lit up immediately.
"Airplane," she signed, smiling, just as she used to when I would visit during college. "Hug."
I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed as the kids watched awkwardly. Within seconds, she pushed me away and began to laugh as she walked to my husband. It had been years by this point, yet somehow β despite her very limited vision in only one eye and the fact that she didn't have her glasses on β she recognized him immediately. She was thrilled, giving little jumps into the air with a huge smile, and threw her arms around him.
And then she saw my oldest son. He was only 6 the last time he visited, yet somehow, she still knew his trademark curls.
"Baby," she signed. I remembered the time she fed him a bottle when he was 6 months old, marveling at how intuitively she knew what to do.
She leaned close to him, now nearly as tall as she was. An inch from his face, she studied it all β his green eyes, braces, that long hair. He laughed nervously.
"I'm not sure what to do, Mom."
"It's OK," I assured him. "Remember, she can barely see, so she needs to get close. But she remembers you, honey."
Then they hugged, my sister's peals of laughter filling the room. My 4-year-old, never one to sit out of the spotlight, began pulling her arm and demanding her attention. She looked down, giggled, and patted his head.
Kids don't hold biases
My tears spilled over before I even felt them coming on, and I stepped away silently into the bathroom.
I'd been so scared the trip would be a bust that I'd return to find not only a broken relationship with my only sibling but with discomfort or even fear from my kids.
In that instant, I remembered that, unlike adults, children do not hold the same baggage or biases unless we pass them on. Their innate curiosity fuels a desire to understand what is new and familiar, not shun it. Of course, they knew instantly that my sister was unlike anyone they had ever encountered, but this presented an opening for something new. They wanted to learn more, spend time with her to understand that difference on a deeper level, and uncover their similarities in the process.
In my years away, I had forgotten these core truths. In my grief and isolation, I had forgotten that family bonds don't have to be the ones we see on TV to be real, strong, and sustaining. And I'd forgotten how, despite extremely limited communication, my sister speaks volumes in her laughter, silly faces, and hugs.
When I look back on that first family trip home, we didn't "do" much. We spent the weekend sharing her favorite foods, watching her beloved 1980s "Sesame Street" DVDs, snuggling, and sitting quietly. Before long, my oldest was engrossed by his iPad while my youngest raided his aunt's room for toys and puzzles. It looked like nothing, but it was pure magic.
President Trump signed an executive order Monday dismantling diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives within the federal government.
Why it matters: The U.S. government is the largest employer in the country, with 3 million workers β nearly twice as many as private sector job leader Walmart, which also recently rolled back its DEI policies.
Federal policies set the tone at the top for workplaces around the country.
The big picture: The president and his allies, particularly White House adviser Stephen Miller, have been outspoken critics of DEI βΒ helping drive the wider backlash in the private sector.
Though the executive order is limited to the federal government, a Trump official reportedly said more actions on DEI are coming soon that would impact private business.
Zoom in: The Trump order rolls back Biden orders that put many diversity initiatives in place.
Those 2021 Biden orders in turn reversed Trump's order on diversity from his first term, and implemented new initiatives.
Through Biden's orders, the administration had prioritized collecting workforce demographic data, recruiting folks from underserved communities, evaluating hiring practices through a diversity lens and addressing pay inequities.
What they're saying: "The injection of 'diversity, equity, and inclusion' (DEI) into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy," Trump's executive order reads.
The order, signed in front of an arena full of supporters, follows a promise he made during his inaugural address earlier Monday.
"I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life," Trump said. "We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based."
Reality check: The DEI policy attack appears to be much ado about something Americans aren't very passionate about.
Meanwhile, nearly three-quarters of 3,200 global CEOs and business leaders said initiatives tied to social issues β such as diversity and inclusion β have had a positive impact on their company's economic performance, per the AlixPartners Disruption Index.
Data: Speech transcripts and Axios analysis; Note: Common words were removed and words were edited to remove plurals and verb tenses; Chart: Erin Davis and Thomas Oide/Axios
President Trump in his inaugural address on Monday portrayed the classic communications adage that it's not what you say but how you say it.
Why it matters: The speech gives insight into what to expect from Trump 2.0, and while his tone was warmer than in 2017, many of the underlying policy priorities remain the same.
The intrigue: We ran the transcripts of both speeches through ChatGPT and asked how the tone differed for each.
According to the AI-powered analysis, Trump's optimistic tone shifted from "bold and assertive" to "hopeful but tempered." Meanwhile, his criticisms of opponents went from "direct" to "more restrained and framed as systemic issues."
Trump's rhetorical style also shifted from "grandiose and dramatic" in 2017 to "inspirational and patriotic."
By the numbers: The words "I," "our" and "you" remained the most used words in the speech and were used at rate 2x higher than in 2017.
Frequently used words that didn't receive significant mention in his previous address include: "thank," "govern," "unite," "panama," "justice," "change" and "together."
Of note: Trump's 2025 address was roughly double the length of his 2017 address, which was the shortest in modern history.
Yes, but: According to an analysis by AI-powered speech coaching platform, Yoodli, Trump struggled with conciseness in this year's address, saying 36% more than was needed to get his point across.
Zoom in: Yoodli also pointed out the speech's disjointed structure and lack of follow-through.
"For instance, [Trump] mentioned "America first" several times, yet did not always tie it back to specific actions consistently," the AI speech coach said.
What's next: Trump is expected to show just how committed he is to these ideals by taking executive action on a flurry of issues ranging from immigration to the future of TikTok.
