• A commander in Ukraine's 14th UAV regiment said combat drone tech can change in a month.
• One example is the evolving need for new hardware to counter jamming techniques, he said.
• Military contracts like a three-year agreement wouldn't be able to fulfill those demands in time, he said.

A Ukrainian commander overseeing a drone battalion said the speed at which his decentralized manufacturers can alter their battlefield tech gives them an edge over traditional defense production lines.

"We say to them: 'Here, after three months, this antenna no longer works, this GPS module no longer works.' We tell them: 'This and this needs to be changed,'" said a battalion commander for the 14th Unmanned Aerial Vehicle regiment to the Ukrainian military channel ARMY TV.

"They say: 'No problem.' And in one month, on the dot, they implement it," added the commander, referring to drone producers in Ukraine. He was identified by his call sign, Kasper, in an interview published on Sunday.

"We can plan all according to the rules and try to aim where we are going to be in 5, 10, 15, 20 years," Kasper said.

But he said the "realities of war" mean his unit must continuously give feedback to manufacturers, who in turn roll out changes quickly.

Kasper compared that to production lines for drones like the Iranian-designed Shahed, which Russia has been manufacturing at scale for the war.

"Let us say you are creating a production line and planning to make one Shahed. There is a three-year contract for it planned in advance, it already has pre-written technical specifications, pre-written set of components," Kasper said.

Installing new components or tweaking designs would, therefore, be difficult, he said.

"They already received the money. 'I gave you the Shahed according to the specifications, so what do you want from me? I don't really care!'" Kasper said.

He cited an example of Ukraine's evolving battlefield needs: GPS-jamming countermeasures for larger drones. These require special hardware like receivers or antennae that allow operators to switch between frequencies.

If those measures don't work, the drones need an inertial navigation system so they can fly blindly out of jamming range, or perhaps a camera that lets the pilot navigate the drone through visuals, he added.

"So if the drone sees that it is being jammed, it transitions to the visual navigation and is moving forward, or transitions to the inertial navigation and is moving forward, or it has a multiband antenna that jumps from channel to channel. And it is impossible to jam it," Kasper said.

That's not to say that Russia is limited to traditional military contracts. Both sides have active volunteer organizations that donate thousands of civilian drones for combat, though Ukrainian units believe they're maintaining a lead in innovation over Russian forces.

One way that Russia has brought new tech to the front lines is through fiber-optic drones, which allow them to bypass electronic jamming. Ukrainian developers, meanwhile, are scrambling to adopt the same technology for first-person loitering munitions.

All of this is happening as militaries worldwide watch the war closely for lessons to glean from what's become a yearslong open conflict between two major modern forces.

Seeing how much of the battlefield now hinges on drones, some countries have begun prioritizing uncrewed aerial vehicles or novel anti-drone defenses.

The US, for example, is awarding hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts to firms such as Teledyne and Anduril to make loitering munitions. In October, Anduril also announced that it secured a $249 million Defense Department contract to produce 500 Roadrunner drones and an electronic warfare system.

• President Trump spoke about his plans for the US military on his first day back in office.
• He promised to reinstate and give back pay to service members dismissed for refusing COVID-19 vaccines.
• He also wants to use the military in mass deportation operations and has referenced culture war issues.

President Donald Trump outlined several key US military policies on his first day back in office.

Many of his pledges, such as reinstating service members who were dismissed for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine and engaging in controversial culture war issues in the Pentagon, tie into the Commander-in-Chief's goal of a major US Armed Forces overhaul.

Trump was officially sworn into office on Monday and began signing a flurry of executive orders, including reversing former president Joe Biden's policies on oil and gas drilling in Alaska, keeping TikTok open while it finds a potential buyer, and declaring emergencies on national energy and immigration at the US-Mexico border.

He also signed an executive order declaring Mexican cartels to be foreign terrorist organizations and suggested he could send US Special Forces to Mexico to take them out. "Could happen," he said. "Stranger things have happened."

During his inauguration speech, Trump presented attendees, including former presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, with his vision of the US military.

"America will soon be greater, stronger, and far more exceptional than ever before," he said. "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," Trump said.

The statement echoes comments the President made on the campaign trail and after the election, as well as those made by his Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth, who vowed to restore the military's "warrior ethos," readiness, and lethality during his confirmation hearing last week.

Here's everything Trump said about the US military during his first day back in office — and what to expect next.

Trump promised to reinstate service members who refused the COVID-19 vaccine — with back pay

The President said he'd reinstate the more than 8,000 troops dismissed from military service for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.

The mandate was originally issued in August 2021 by then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and lasted until January 2023, with limited exceptions for medical or religious reasons. It was repealed when Biden signed a defense spending bill in December 2022.

Congressional Republicans have previously argued the rule hurt the US military's readiness amid a recruitment crisis. Pentagon officials have denied this and said only a small number of dismissed personnel reapplied for military service after the mandate was lifted. Around 99% of the active-duty Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force had been vaccinated, as well as 98% of the Army.

In his inauguration speech, Trump also promised full back pay to the reinstated service members. Hegseth also suggested this last week.

Trump plans to use the military in his crackdown on illegal immigration

On Monday night, Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency at the US-Mexico border, as well as an executive order to send US Northern Command to "seal the borders and maintain the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and security of the United States by repelling forms of invasion including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling and trafficking, and other criminal activities."

Throughout his campaign, Trump heavily focused on illegal immigration and indicated plans to launch a mass deportation campaign. After the election, he suggested he could use the US military to do so.

Legal experts have said using the military to control immigration and deportation is complicated due to different rules governing military forces, state defense forces, and civilian law enforcement, Cassandra Burke Robertson, a professor of law at Case Western Reserve University, and Irina D. Manta, a professor of law at Hofstra University, wrote in The Conversation on Monday.

Deploying National Guard units to the southern border has precedent — Trump did it himself in April 2018, as did Obama and Bush — but the military is generally forbidden from enforcing domestic laws. Trump could use the military in a support role, though.

Trump said he'd end "radical political theories" and other culture war issues in the military

During his inauguration speech, Trump said he'd sign an executive order "to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty," referencing his larger ideological fight.

Trump and the Republican Party made so-called "woke" policies, including diversity, equity, and inclusion, top platform issues, arguing they hurt military readiness. Hegseth has made varied statements on this issue, many of which — such as his flip-flopping comments against women serving in the military — were the center point of his confirmation hearing.

It remains unclear which of these issues will become concrete policies and how the President will implement them, although they align with other plans to cut spending in the Pentagon, gut top ranks, and roll back federal DEI efforts.

On Monday, Trump signed an executive order revoking Biden's policy allowing transgender people to serve in the military, clearing the way for a ban on trans service members similar to the ban in his first term.

• President Trump took aim at federal DEI policies in his inaugural address on Monday.
• He pledged to reverse executive orders from Biden, in favor of a "merit-based" society.
• Trump indicated he plans to largely freeze federal hiring and roll back pro-LGBTQ+ initiatives.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday ending diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the federal government.

Federal agencies and departments have 60 days from the signing of the order to end DEI-related practices.

The executive order will be carried out by the US Office of Personnel Management and the Attorney General, who will review all existing federal employment practices, union contracts, and training policies to ensure compliance with the DEI termination order.

"Federal employment practices, including Federal employee performance reviews, shall reward individual initiative, skills, performance, and hard work and shall not under any circumstances consider DEI or DEIA factors, goals, policies, mandates, or requirements," the order read.

Trump also used his inaugural address Monday to target DEI initiatives in the federal government.

"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," he said Monday. "We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based."

He also said it will be official US policy that "there are only two genders: male and female."

The remarks echoed his statements during a rally a day earlier when he pledged to end DEI mandates in government and the private sector.

Like many orders Trump is signing on his first day, the move aims to undo several orders issued by Joe Biden during his presidency.

In one executive action from June 2021, Biden said the federal government is the largest employer in the nation and, thus, "must be a model for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, where all employees are treated with dignity and respect."

In response, the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Talent Sourcing for America initiative was launched in September of 2022.

A 2022 report from the Office of Personnel Management said the government-wide DEIA initiative included a plan to prioritize equity for LGBTQI+ employees by "expanding the usage of gender markers and pronouns that respect transgender, gender non-conforming, and non-binary employees; and working to create a more inclusive workplace."

The report showed minimal changes in the federal workforce's demographics between fiscal years 2017 and 2021, which encompassed most of Trump's first term. This included "minor" changes in the shares of the federal workforce by race and gender.

A 2024 report from OPM found minor increases in federal staffing diversity under the Biden administration after the DEIA objectives were announced, but indicated the office's targets for diversity and equity initiatives were not met.

Though there had been only slight workforce demographic changes under the Biden administration, the Trump administration's first official statement released Monday reiterated his plans to "freeze bureaucrat hiring except in essential areas to end the onslaught of useless and overpaid DEI activists buried into the federal workforce," and "establish male and female as biological reality and protect women from radical gender ideology."

Meanwhile, several companies — including the nation's largest private employer, Walmart — have been reversing course on DEI initiatives in the weeks following Trump's election in November.

• President Donald Trump signed an executive order pausing the TikTok ban for 75 days.
• "TikTok is worthless, worthless, if I don't approve it," Trump said.
• The president added that TikTok could be worth $1 trillion and floated a possible joint venture.

Newly inaugurated President Donald Trump said on Sunday that if he's able to halt the ban on TikTok, the US should own half of it.

"I may not do the deal, or I may do the deal. TikTok is worthless, worthless, if I don't approve it," Trump said while signing an executive order that would pause the ban on TikTok for 75 days.

Trump told reporters at the White House that TikTok could be worth $1 trillion and that the US should be entitled to half of the company.

"So I think, like a joint venture, I think we would have a joint venture with the people from TikTok. We'll see what happens," Trump added, though he did not specify who TikTok could partner with.

Several big-name buyers, such as "Shark Tank" star Kevin O'Leary and Trump's former treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin, have expressed interest in buying TikTok.

According to the divest-or-ban law that the Senate passed in April, TikTok had to stop operating in the US on January 19 unless it divested itself from its Chinese-based owner, ByteDance.

The platform briefly went dark for US users on Saturday night but resumed its services on Sunday after Trump said he would pause the ban with an executive order.

"We thank President Trump for providing the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans and allowing over 7 million small businesses to thrive," TikTok said in a statement to Business Insider.

Trump made similar comments about a potential TikTok ban during his first term. In August 2020, Trump said he would ban the platform unless it was sold to a US buyer. The US Treasury should "get a very large percentage" from TikTok's sale, Trump added at the time.

Microsoft expressed its interest in acquiring TikTok in 2020, but that sale did not go through after Trump left office.

However, it is unclear if Trump's executive order will keep TikTok going and prevent the ban altogether.

Under the divest-or-ban law, an extension can only be granted if the president certifies to Congress that "a path to executing a qualified divestiture has been identified" and produces "evidence of significant progress toward executing such qualified divestiture."

Representatives for Trump and TikTok did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

• 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 — wielding it on presidential documents and fan autographs alike.

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 — 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.

The Trump Organization — but not Trump himself or his children — 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 — in distinctive bold Sharpie — 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.

Trump's notes were clearly visible to cameras — 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.

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 — he once signed his $147-million border wall that replaced the old wall.

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 — though not to completion — 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."

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.

—The White House 45 Archived (@WhiteHouse45) September 4, 2019

 

#SharpieGate wasn't the only time the former president's scrawl prompted iconic internet discourse.

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."

And, of course, the note had its heyday on the internet as people turned it into Eminem jokes, Pearl Jam setlist jokes, and lyrics of a Morrissey song.

On his second Inauguration Day in 2025, Trump showed his love for Sharpies hadn't faded since he left office after his first term.

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 — 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. 

• 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.

Some workers may consider quitting instead of working from the office full time.

Elon Musk, who will lead Trump's cost-cutting advisory group, the Department of Government Efficiency, said he'd welcome this.

"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 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.

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 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.

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.

"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.

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.

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.

• 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 — 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 — despite her very limited vision in only one eye and the fact that she didn't have her glasses on — 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 — 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.

And my kids can't wait to go back.

• President Donald Trump on Inauguration Day issued pardons for January 6 defendants.
• He'd pledged to grant clemency to at least some of his supporters who stormed the Capitol in 2021.
• About two-thirds of those charged with federal crimes had pleaded guilty as of January.

President Donald Trump on Monday pardoned roughly 1,500 people related to January 6-related offenses, fulfilling a campaign promise to wipe clean the records of most people connected with the Capitol riot.

"We hope they come out tonight, frankly," Trump said after signing the pardons. "They're expecting it."

Trump said he included six commutations in the pardon package so that their cases could be studied further. Among those whose sentences were commuted were the leaders of the far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys, who had been charged with seditious conspiracy. Stewart Rhodes, the Oath Keepers' founder, was in the middle of serving an 18-year prison sentence.

Outside the commutations, Trump's pardon is sweeping in scope. It applies to "all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021."

Earlier during the day, Trump told supporters that he was asked not to include mentions of January 6 "hostages" in his official inaugural address.

"I was going to talk about the J6 hostages, but you'll be happy because, you know, it is action, not words that count," Trump said during a speech to supporters in an overflow room at the US Capitol. "And you're going to be happy, because you're going to see a lot of action on the J6 hostages."

During the presidential campaign, Trump described imprisoned January 6 defendants as "political prisoners," asserting they were "ushered in" to federal buildings by police.

Despite opposition from some prominent Republicans, including former Vice President Mike Pence, whom the rioters targeted, Trump had said that he would pardon many of the defendants.

He made an exception for those who are "evil and bad," as he told Time in April.

After Trump won the presidential election in November, January 6 defendants started filing motions to delay their hearings in the hopes Trump would pardon them once in office.

Several Proud Boys leaders asked Trump for pardons in November, two months before he was set to take office.

In an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" last month, he said he would "mostly likely" pardon convicted defendants "very quickly" upon taking office. He said then, too, that there may be exceptions.

• Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second non-consecutive presidential term on January 20, 2025.
• Ivanka Trump attended her father's inaugurations but will not serve in his second administration.
• Barron Trump, the president's youngest child, now towers over both of his parents.

Donald Trump's second presidential inauguration was held on Monday, exactly eight years after the president's first inauguration on January 20, 2017.

After losing his bid for reelection in 2020, Trump ran again in 2024 and won, becoming the second US president, after Grover Cleveland, to serve two non-consecutive terms.

The Trump family has seen big changes since 2017.

Ivanka Trump will not serve a major role within her father's administration this time around, after previously serving as an advisor to the president.

Barron Trump, the president's youngest son, was just 10 years old when his father first took office. Now 18, Barron is a freshman at New York University and has taken a more active role in his father's campaign.

Here's what the Trump family looked like at the 2017 Inauguration compared to 2025, and how their roles have changed.

Donald Trump became the oldest president to assume the presidency during his first inauguration ceremony in 2017.

When he was inaugurated on January 20, 2017, at 70 years old, Trump was the oldest person to assume the presidency.

"We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people," Trump said in an inaugural address in 2017. "Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for years to come."

Trump is once again the oldest president to assume office.

Biden became the oldest president at 78 years and 61 days when he was inaugurated on January 20, 2021.

However, Trump surpassed him on January 20, 2025, at 78 years and 220 days years old.

"The golden age of America begins right now," Trump said in an inaugural speech. The president also announced a series of impending executive orders that include immigration reform and the establishment of an External Revenue Service.

The core members of Trump's immediate family attended his first inauguration.

At his first swearing-in ceremony, Trump was flanked by his wife Melania Trump and his children Barron, Ivanka, Eric, Donald Jr., and Tiffany.

Trump's children and their partners also attended the 2025 inauguration, which was held inside the Capitol.

Tiffany Trump and her husband Michael Boulos, Lara Trump and Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump Jr. all attended the 2025 inauguration.

Melania Trump and Barron Trump stood directly alongside the president during his swearing-in ceremony, with his other children, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris also present.

Barron was just 10 years old when he attended his father's first inauguration.

Though he was only 10, the youngest Trump son was nearly taller than both his parents at his father's first inauguration.

Barron moved into the White House five months after his father was sworn in and became the first boy to live in the historic home since John F. Kennedy Jr. lived there in 1961.

Now an adult, Barron towers over his parents.

Barron, 18, will not live in the White House this time around. He is a freshman at New York University and lives in off-campus housing, People reported.

Melania Trump was by her husband's side when Barack and Michelle Obama welcomed him to the White House in 2017.

Melania lived in the White House during her four years as First Lady and was welcomed into the home by the Obamas on her husband's first day in office.

She wore a powder-blue suit by Ralph Lauren.

She appeared alongside her husband as Joe and Jill Biden welcomed the couple back to the White House, though she won't live there full-time.

For the 2025 inauguration, the First Lady opted for a navy blue coat and skirt by American designer Adam Lippes. She paired the look with a wide-brimmed hat by Eric Javits, another American designer.

The extent of Melania's role in her husband's second administration remains unclear.

People reported that the First Lady will live it the White House at least part-time, dividing her time between Washington, New York (where Barron is in school), and Mar-a-Lago.

"I will be in the White House. And when I need to be in New York, I will be in New York. When I need to be in Palm Beach, I will be in Palm Beach," she said in an interview with Fox & Friends on January 13. "My first priority is to be a mom, to be a first lady, to be a wife."

Melania Trump stood on the podium alongside her husband as he was sworn in for a second time on January 20, 2025.

Ivanka Trump became an advisor after her father was sworn in in 2017.

According to her official White House bio, Ivanka Trump served as a senior White House advisor during Donald Trump's first term.

She focused on issues such as the "education and economic empowerment of women and their families" and boosting jobs and economic growth through skills training and entrepreneurship, according to the bio.

Ivanka attended her father's second inauguration, but will not be part of the new administration.

When Trump launched his third presidential campaign in 2024, Ivanka announced that she was stepping away from politics and would not play an official part in his next administration.

"I love my father very much," she said in a statement shared on social media. "This time around, I am choosing to prioritize my children and the private life we are creating as a family. I do not plan to be involved in politics. While I will always love and support my father, going forward, I will do so outside the political arena."

Jared Kushner attended the 2017 inauguration with his and Ivanka's children.

Kushner served alongside his wife as a senior advisor in his father-in-law's first administration.

He played a key role in brokering the Abraham Accords, a set of agreements that established diplomatic relations between Israel, Bahrain, Morocco, Sudan, and the United Arab Emirates.

Jared Kushner also attended Trump's second inauguration.

CNN and the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported that Jared Kushner is expected to serve as an informal advisor to President Trump focusing on matters related to the Middle East.

Donald Trump Jr. arrived at the 2017 inauguration with his sister Ivanka.

Donald Trump Jr. did not serve in an official capacity within the White House during his father's presidency.

During Trump's first presidential term, he and his brother, Eric Trump, continued overseeing the Trump Organization, which manages the Trump family's real-estate holdings and is currently appealing its civil-fraud case verdict.

Tiffany Trump and her brother, Eric Trump, arrived together for their father's first inauguration.

Though not overly political, Tiffany spoke at the Republican National Conventions in 2016 and 2020.

Eric has also appeared alongside his family at multiple campaign events throughout Trump's political career.

All five of Donald Trump's children — Donald Jr., Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany, and Barron — attended the 2025 inauguration.

It wasn't widely announced prior to Inauguration Day which members of the Trump family would attend. However, all five of the president's children arrived together for the ceremony.

Trump Jr.'s rumored ex-girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, who he started dating in 2018, was not spotted at the inauguration, though she did attend a few pre-inauguration events. Page Six reported their breakup in December, and Trump Jr. has since been linked to Florida socialite Bettina Anderson.

Tiffany did not speak at the 2024 Republican National Convention and has only made a few political appearances in recent years, including the inauguration. She and her husband, Michael Boulos, are expecting their first child.

Eric Trump is expected to continue leading the Trump Organization as executive vice president.

• Vivek Ramaswamy will no longer be a co-leader of DOGE.
• He's expected to instead run for governor of Ohio in 2026.
• That leaves Elon Musk as the group's sole leader.

Vivek Ramaswamy is leaving President Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency.

Instead of leading the group with Elon Musk, he's expected to run for governor of Ohio, according to various media reports.

"It was my honor to help support the creation of DOGE," Ramaswamy wrote on X on Monday evening. "I'm confident that Elon & team will succeed in streamlining government."

"Vivek Ramaswamy played a critical role in helping us create DOGE. He intends to run for elected office soon, which requires him to remain outside of DOGE based on the structure that we announced today," Trump spokesperson Anna Kelly said, according to the New York Times and Associated Press. "We thank him immensely for his contributions over the last 2 months and expect him to play a vital role in making America great again!"

A source familiar with the matter previously told BI that Trump was encouraging Ramaswamy to seek Vice President JD Vance's vacated Senate seat. However, on Friday, Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Lt. Governor Jon Husted to the position.

On Monday, Ramaswamy wrote on X that he would "have more to say very soon about my future plans in Ohio."

Prior to the intrigue about Ramaswamy's potential appointment to the US Senate, the tech entrepreneur and one-time 2024 presidential candidate was expected to co-lead DOGE with Musk.

Musk will now be the sole leader of the government-efficiency initiative, which Trump said he would officially establish via executive order on Monday.

In recent days, Ramaswamy has been publicly toying with the idea of a gubernatorial bid in the Buckeye State. On Friday, he publicly thanked Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennesse, a big booster of DOGE in the Senate, on X after she said she would support him if he chooses to run for governor.

• President Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second term on Monday.
• Former presidents, Trump family members, and tech billionaires attended the inauguration.
• Lee Greenwood and Carrie Underwood sang during the ceremony.

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were inaugurated on Monday, marking the end of former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris' time in the White House.

The inauguration was held inside the Capitol Rotunda due to winter weather. Former presidents, Trump family members, tech billionaires, and members of Congress attended the packed ceremony.

Photos show the biggest moments from the event.

Ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, the Bidens greeted the Trumps on the North Portico of the White House.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris and former second gentleman Doug Emhoff also greeted Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance.

Attendees took their seats in the Capitol Rotunda, where the inauguration was held due to freezing temperatures.

Tech billionaires, including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, and Elon Musk, were seated on the inaugural platform.

Former Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama took their seats in the Rotunda.

Vice President JD Vance was the first to be sworn in.

President Donald Trump took the oath of office at noon as per tradition.

Melania Trump's hat intercepted a kiss from her husband.

"The golden age of America begins right now," Trump said in his inaugural address, which included numerous policy proposals.

After Trump's address, Carrie Underwood sang "America the Beautiful."

The Bidens departed the Capitol on Marine One, completing the peaceful transfer of power.

Elon Musk addressed a crowd of Trump supporters during an inauguration event at Capital One Arena.

Trump signed a series of executive orders on Monday evening in his signature Sharpie marker.

While answering questions and signing executive orders in the Oval Office, Trump held up a letter left for him by Biden.

At the Commander in Chief Ball on Monday evening, Trump and Vance cut a large cake with sabers.

Trump and his family danced on stage at the Liberty Ball.

The family also danced at the Starlight Ball, the final event of Monday's inauguration.

• President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were inaugurated on Monday.
• Trump and Vance were both sworn in on family Bibles. Trump also used Abraham Lincoln's Bible.
• Melania Trump wore an outfit by Adam Lippes and a hat by Eric Javits, both American designers.

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were sworn in on Monday in a ceremony full of meaningful symbols and hidden details.

Here's what you may have missed during the event.

First Lady Melania Trump wore a navy coat and skirt by American designer Adam Lippes.

"The tradition of the presidential inauguration embodies the beauty of American democracy and today we had the honor to dress our first lady, Mrs. Melania Trump," Lippes said in a statement to Vogue. "Mrs. Trump's outfit was created by some of America's finest craftsmen and I take great pride in showing such work to the world."

Melania Trump also wore a wide-brimmed hat by Eric Javits.

Jill Biden wore purple, a color that symbolizes bipartisan unity.

Jill Biden's purple ensemble was designed by Ralph Lauren.

Tech billionaires — including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, and Elon Musk — were given priority seating over members of Trump's cabinet.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were seated in the Capitol Rotunda in front of incoming members of Trump's cabinet. Other politicians, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, watched the inauguration from an overflow room.

President Donald Trump took the oath of office on two Bibles, one that his mother gave him in 1955 and one that belonged to President Abraham Lincoln.

He used the same two Bibles during his first inauguration in 2017.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, whom Usha Vance clerked for, administered Vice President JD Vance's oath of office.

JD Vance and Usha Vance met at Yale Law School.

Usha Vance clerked for Kavanaugh in the US Court of Appeals; she also clerked for Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts. She worked as a litigator at Munger, Tolles & Olson and quit her job when JD Vance was chosen as Trump's running mate.

Vance was sworn in on a Bible that belonged to his maternal great-grandmother.

Vance received the Bible as a gift from his Mamaw, Bonnie Blanton Vance, when he left for his service in the Marine Corps.

Carrie Underwood sang "America the Beautiful" a cappella when the music didn't play due to technical difficulties.

In a previous statement to Business Insider, the "American Idol" alum said she was "honored" and "humbled" to sing at the event.

In his inaugural speech, Trump promised to crack down on illegal immigration, increase fracking and oil drilling, and plant the American flag on Mars.

• Donald Trump did not immediately impose tariffs on Inauguration Day, despite his campaign promises.
• He vowed tariffs are coming February 1 and will lead to "massive amounts of money" entering the US Treasury.
• Trade experts have said broad tariffs could increase prices for consumers and spark inflation.

President Donald Trump is back in the White House, and one of his top priorities is tariffs and trade.

While no tariffs were imposed on January 20, Trump said on Inauguration Day they'd be coming on February 1.

The president said during his inauguration speech that he plans to create the External Revenue Service, which would collect tariffs, duties, and revenues. He said this agency would lead to "massive amounts of money" coming into the US Treasury. Trump first announced his plans for the creation of the External Revenue Service on January 14.

The details of the plan are unclear, and creating a new agency requires approval from Congress.

"Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens," Trump said during his inauguration speech.

In a second speech on Inauguration Day, Trump reiterated his plan to implement new tariffs before signing a flurry of executive orders, 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.

"Tariffs are going to make us rich as hell," Trump said. "It's going to bring our country's businesses back."

Trump said on Monday that he'd impose a 25% tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada on February 1, citing illegal immigration and drugs entering the US from those countries. He's previously warned of an additional 10% tariff on all goods imported from China on top of the tariffs he had already proposed.

Answering questions from reporters while signing additional executive orders at the White House on Monday, Trump said he believes tariffs will bolster manufacturing stateside.

"We're going to have a lot of companies coming in to avoid tariffs. You know, if you don't want tariffs all you have to do is build your plant in the US. So we're going to have a lot of workers coming in, but we have to have legal immigration," he said.

Asked if he was still considering a universal tariff on all countries, Trump responded, "I may, yeah, but we're not ready for that yet."

Trump's past comments on tariffs

On the campaign trail, broad tariffs were a cornerstone of Trump's platform. He proposed a 60% tariff on all goods imported from China, along with a 10% to 20% tariff on all imports from other countries.

Trump also threatened the BRICS group — which consists of emerging countries including Brazil, Russia, India, and China — with a 100% tariff on imports from those countries unless they committed to not creating another currency that competes with the US dollar.

On Monday, he reiterated his interest in slapping a 100% tariff on BRICS nations while also appearing to include Spain as part of the group. Spain is not part of BRICS.

Trade industry experts previously told Business Insider that Trump's tariff proposals could cause the prices of impacted goods to increase, leading consumers to pay more for products like electronics or apparel, creating a form of consumption tax.

A number of companies have already announced that they are preparing to raise prices in anticipation of the tariffs. Some economists have also predicted that broad tariffs could increase inflation, likely causing the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.

Trump has denied that his tariff proposals would hurt the economy and consumers, saying during a speech in August that his plans have "nothing to do with taxes to us. That is a tax on another country."

Many economists have argued that the costs of tariffs could largely fall on US consumers; the left-leaning Center for American Progress estimated that the president's trade plans could cost the typical American household an extra $1,500 a year.

Brian Hughes, a Trump-Vance transition spokesperson, told BI that Trump "has promised tariff policies that protect the American manufacturers and working men and women from the unfair practices of foreign companies and foreign markets."

"As he did in his first term, he will implement economic and trade policies to make life affordable and more prosperous for our nation," Hughes said.

How tariffs will impact consumers and the economy

Trump implemented tariffs during his first term, which did not significantly impact inflation. Some economists, however, predict his proposals this time around could have a larger impact on the economy given their broader scope. For example, the nonpartisan Peterson Institute estimated that Trump's 60% tariff on goods imported from China would boost inflation by 0.4 percentage points in 2025.

During his inauguration speech, Trump touched on inflation concerns, which he blamed on government overspending and high energy prices. He vowed to direct members of his Cabinet to fight inflation and bring prices down by focusing on expanding domestic energy supply, specifically for oil and gas, and ramping up domestic manufacturing.

"Today, I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill," Trump said.

It's unclear how quickly consumers could see the tariffs translated into higher prices on goods or whether a drop in energy prices could counteract the effect.

In a recent report, the National Retail Federation predicted that Trump's tariff plans would raise prices on apparel and shoes, furniture, and appliances. An October report from the Consumer Technology Association estimated that the proposed tariffs would increase laptop and tablet costs by 45%.

"It's tough to say right now at what point consumers would feel the impact," Jonathan Gold, the vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, previously told BI.

"It could also depend upon the individual companies and what their tariff mitigation plans are and how much they can try and lessen the impact on the consumers," Gold added.

Trump's tariffs could also face legal challenges due to their potential violations of the US-Mexico-Canada agreement, a free-trade agreement negotiated by Trump in his first term that went into effect in July 2020.

• President Donald Trump took the oath of office as the 47th president of the United States on Monday.
• Both Jill Biden and Melania Trump wore outfits by American designers.
• Second Lady Usha Vance wore a pink coat, while Ivanka Trump wore a green skirt suit.

President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance took the oath of office on Inauguration Day on Monday.

Political spouses, Trump family members, and other VIPs attended the festivities, which include the official swearing-in ceremony and black-tie events.

Here are the most notable inauguration outfits.

At the vice-presidential dinner on Saturday, Second Lady Usha Vance wore a custom black velvet Oscar de la Renta gown.

Ivanka Trump wore a custom Oscar de la Renta dress embroidered with crystals and pearls to an inaugural dinner on Sunday.

On Inauguration Day, First Lady Melania Trump wore a navy coat and skirt by American designer Adam Lippes with a wide-brimmed hat by Eric Javits.

Former First Lady Jill Biden wore a purple coat and dress designed by Ralph Lauren, a color often worn to symbolize bipartisan unity.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris wore a black pantsuit with zipper detailing.

Usha Vance wore a pink coat and scarf with tan Manolo Blahnik boots.

Many of Trump's children and their families wore dark blues.

Ivanka Trump wore an asymmetrical forest green Dior skirt suit to the inauguration, complete with a matching beret and black stilettos.

Tiffany Trump accessorized her blue velvet dress with Christian Louboutin boots.

Trump's granddaughter, Kai Trump, wore a gray turtleneck sweater dress and a necklace with a gold heart pendant.

Former President George W. Bush wore a navy suit and blue tie. Former First Lady Laura Bush wore a rust-colored dress with a pearl necklace and pearl earrings.

Former President Bill Clinton and former First Lady Hillary Clinton coordinated in deep blue outfits. Hillary Clinton wore a Stella McCartney pantsuit and accessorized with a Peace on Earth brooch from jewelry designer Ann Hand.

Former President Barack Obama wore a black suit and a striped blue tie. Former First Lady Michelle Obama did not attend the inauguration.

Former Vice President Mike Pence wore a black suit and blue speckled tie.

Lauren Sánchez, Jeff Bezos' fiancée, wore a white Alexander McQueen suit and a white lace bra.

First Lady Melania Trump ditched the wide-brimmed black hat, let her hair down, and donned a black and white dress to the Commander-in-Chief Ball.

Usha Vance switched to a glittery sequined blue dress as she appeared with her husband, Vice President JD Vance, at the Commander-in-Chief ball.

Trump's granddaughter, Kai Trump, wore a sparkly Sherri Hill dress to the Liberty Ball.

Inaugural ball dance ready✨ pic.twitter.com/lUzV0P1NaS

— Kai Trump (@kaitrump) January 21, 2025

• Trump said Monday that the US is in an energy emergency, pushing his agenda of higher output.
• He signed executive orders that would make it easier to produce oil and gas in the United States.
• The US is already producing and exporting record amounts of oil and gas.

President Donald Trump on Monday started to fulfill his promise to "drill, baby, drill" to boost US oil and gas production.

On his first day in office, Trump signed a declaration of a national energy emergency, an executive order that will allow the returning president to accelerate permitting for energy projects including pipelines and power plants. One of the Trump administration's priorities is to "use all necessary resources" to build energy infrastructure.

Another part of Trump's energy plan is to open up Alaska — which is rich in natural resources — for energy exploration and extraction. On Monday night, the president signed an executive order reversing Biden's restrictions on oil and gas exploration in the state.

"We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it," he said in his inaugural address.

The US, Trump said Monday, is home to "the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it," promising to lower prices and "export American energy all over the world."

Trump said on the campaign trail that "unleashing American energy" — specifically oil and gas — and reversing the Biden administration's climate rules would lower prices at the pump and be an economic boon. For many Americans concerned about inflation, the message resonated.

On Monday, flanked by CEOs of the country's largest tech companies, Trump said he would end the Green New Deal and cancel the electric vehicles mandate.

In a statement, the White House said Trump would end leases to wind farms and withdraw once again from the Paris Climate Accord.

Still, delivering on those promises may prove difficult. Economists and energy analysts told Business Insider that oil and gas prices are largely dictated by global factors outside a president's control. Proponents of President Joe Biden's signature climate law also warned that unraveling it would undercut a manufacturing boom, predominantly in Republican states, where new factories are churning out solar panels, electric vehicles, and batteries that can reduce planet-warming emissions from fossil fuels.

In addition to fossil fuel production, administration officials said in a statement the orders will aim to boost supplies of non-fuel minerals and that the actions will increase consumer choice for a range of manufactured products.

In the US, about 24% of oil and 11% of natural gas are produced on federal lands and waters, per industry estimates. The vast majority comes from private land owned by individuals and companies. The Biden administration has limited drilling in federal areas like the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska and paused new permits for terminals to export gas overseas.

Groups representing the fossil fuel industry, including the American Petroleum Institute, said those moves cost jobs at home and threaten global energy security. The industry also argues the US needs more oil and gas to meet AI's skyrocketing demand for around-the-clock power.

US oil and gas production are already at record levels

ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods suggested in November press interviews that the Trump administration would have little effect on production. The industry is already producing plenty of oil and gas, and there isn't an opportunity to unleash a lot of production in the near term, he said.

"Certainly we wouldn't see a change based on a political change but more on an economic environment," Woods told CNBC.

Trump's nominees to two key Cabinet positions said they would restore America's "energy dominance" during Senate confirmation hearings last week."

Chris Wright, Trump's nominee to lead the Energy Department, said he would back all forms of energy, including fossil fuels, nuclear power, and renewables. He said he believed climate change is a "global challenge" that needed to be solved — a shift from some of his past comments denying there was a crisis and criticizing renewables as "unreliable and costly." Doug Burgum, Trump's pick to lead the Interior Department, promised to expand oil and gas drilling on federal lands and waters.

Energy analysts told BI that oil majors have been more focused on returning money to shareholders than investing in new projects to boost production, in part because China is experiencing an economic downturn. For decades, China has driven global oil demand as it built new factories and real estate and the country's wealthier population bought cars. However, the housing market is now in disarray due to millions of unsold apartments and consumers are driving more EVs, crimping demand for oil.

Biden's climate law is creating jobs

China has managed to rapidly become a leader in renewable energy technology and controls the vast majority of the critical minerals needed for it. The Biden administration sought to catch up, in part by enacting the Inflation Reduction Act. University of Pennsylvania researchers estimated that the law would invest about $1 trillion over the next decade in developing and manufacturing technology like solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars, batteries, and nuclear power.

Since the IRA was enacted in 2022, more than 1,000 manufacturing facilities and 350,000 jobs have been announced. Millions of Americans have also claimed more than $8 billion in tax breaks for solar panels, EVs, and heat pumps, which could lower their energy costs over the long term.

Trump has called the law the "green new scam" and promised to terminate it.

• President Trump signed an executive order declaring a national emergency at the southern border.
• The president also signed an executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship.
• Economists and researchers said Trump's deportation plans could have negative economic impacts.

President Donald Trump upon arriving at the White House on Monday signed executive orders declaring a national emergency at the US-Mexico border and designating cartel organizations as "foreign terrorist organizations," ramping up his focus on immigration in his second term.

"I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country," he said during his inaugural speech earlier in the day at the Capitol.

Later, at the White House, Trump signed an order instructing the Secretary of Defense to send him a plan within 10 days to task US Northern Command with securing the border. Trump's advisors have said they were not concerned about laws limiting US troops' involvement in domestic law enforcement.

"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," he continued. "We will do it at a level nobody has ever seen before.

Trump also signed an executive order attempting to end birthright citizenship, a highly controversial move but one championed by many conservatives. Legal scholars have been clear that no president can unilaterally overrule the Constitution, meaning historic legal fights are almost guaranteed to follow.

The president also said he'd reinstate his Remain in Mexico policy and "end the practice of catch and release."

The Remain in Mexico policy — which was launched in 2019 during Trump's first term — mandates that migrants seeking asylum to remain in Mexico pending their immigration court date in the US.

Throughout his campaign, Trump argued that deportations could benefit the US economy. He has said that removing large numbers of people in the country illegally could open job opportunities for US-born workers and legal immigrants and could bring housing prices down.

Business Insider has spoken to over a dozen immigration researchers and policy analysts across the political spectrum. While some conservative-leaning researchers said reducing the number of people coming into the US and living in the country illegally, along with large-scale mass deportations, is necessary to protect American safety and could have long-term economic benefits, left- and center-leaning researchers said there may be economic shocks.

The US had an estimated 11.7 million immigrants living in the US illegally as of July 2023, per the most recent numbers from the Center for Migration Studies. As many as 8.3 million people in this demographic work, per CMS estimates.

Mass deportations could have significant economic consequences, some researchers told BI. The American Immigration Council estimated that a "one-time mass deportation operation" would directly cost the federal government $315 billion, accounting for detainments, arrests, legal processing, and removals.

Trump's promises for large-scale deportations

In interviews and speeches, Trump has stressed his belief that the US has had no choice but to carry out large-scale deportations. He also confirmed plans to use the military for deportation efforts in November, along with using a 1798 law allowing for the deportation of suspected gang and cartel members.

Before Inauguration Day, Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, told ABC News that the administration was reviewing plans for immigration raids in Chicago. Trump has threatened to crack down on illegal immigration in communities in Colorado and Ohio, whose high concentrations of immigrants have drawn national attention.

When asked about potential raids, Trump told reporters he did not want to discuss the specific timing of such operations.

Homan previously stressed that deportations would not involve sweeps of immigrant-heavy neighborhoods and would instead target immigrants with criminal records.

In private meetings, Homan told Republican lawmakers to tone down expectations for initial deportations due to limited resources. Homan told CNN he would need at least 100,000 beds to carry out detainment plans.

CNN also reported that Homan and lawmakers discussed a plan to target the 1.4 million people with final immigration orders of removal as part of a tiered approach to deportation. Concerns have risen about ICE's lack of space for a heightened number of detainees, as well as various legal challenges to its plans for deportations.

Other plans include working with local and state law enforcement agencies and reassigning law enforcement officials to ICE officers, The New York Times reported. The Trump team may also expand expedited removal, the process of removing noncitizens without a hearing and drafting limitations on birthright citizenship, such as ceasing to issue passports to children born in the US to immigrant parents who live in the US illegally.

Trump named Stephen Miller, the chief architect of Trump's first-term travel ban, as Homeland Security advisor and White House deputy chief of staff.

The border has calmed down recently. US Border Patrol calculated 47,330 migrant encounters along the southwest border in December, among the lowest since mid-2020 — and an over 80% reduction since December 2023.

During Trump's first term in office, the US deported about 1.5 million people. Between January 2021 and August 2024, when Biden held office, more than 1.4 million deportations were carried out.

Mass deportations could hurt American jobs

One of Trump's arguments about immigrants is that they steal jobs from native-born workers. Recent research shows that US-born employment increases with immigration, and deportations hurt native job numbers.

"US-born workers do not simply take all the jobs left behind by immigrants after they are deported," Chloe East, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies immigration policy, told BI. "This is because these jobs are lower-paid, more dangerous, and otherwise less desirable than the jobs more often taken by US-born workers."

The US has already seen examples of this in its recent history. Around 400,000 people were deported between 2008 and 2014 through a program called Secure Communities. Research published in October showed industries experienced heightened worker shortages as a result.

This also included the construction workforce, which employs among the highest numbers of workers living in the US illegally.

"The labor market is already tense and tight, and construction is one of those industries that doesn't have enough workers," Jennie Murray, president and CEO of the immigrant advocacy nonprofit group National Immigration Forum, told BI. She added that deportations could worsen housing shortages in the US.

Consumers may feel the effects of deportations at the grocery store, as a reduced agricultural workforce could mean less locally sourced food and higher prices. A Center for American Progress analysis from 2021 found that nearly 300,000 workers living in the US illegally were in agriculture and farming — around 13% of the 2.3 million workers in the agriculture sector that year.

The broader economy could be impacted

Immigrants living in the US illegally also contribute significantly to taxes and government programs. In 2022, they paid $96.7 billion in federal, state, and local taxes, per the most recent data from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. They paid $25.7 billion in Social Security taxes and $6.4 billion in Medicare taxes while being ineligible to receive benefits from those social insurance programs.

However, Republicans have argued that welfare programs and taxpayer-subsidized health insurance for immigrants have cost US residents billions, potentially partly offsetting these gains.

Some think tanks said the broader economy could suffer if millions of people are deported. The Peterson Institute for International Economics wrote in September that if 1.3 million people are deported, GDP could fall 1.2% below baseline by 2028.

• Three lawsuits are challenging Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency on transparency grounds.
• The suits claim DOGE violates the 1972 law requiring public meetings and balanced perspectives.
• One suit also claims tech executives dominate DOGE's membership, violating balance requirements.

Three lawsuits from progressive organizations filed in federal court today, just minutes after President Trump was sworn into office, allege that Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency violates the transparency requirements of a 1972 law.

All three lawsuits argue that DOGE should be considered a federal advisory committee. Under the 1972 FACA law at the center of the suits, such a committee must represent balanced perspectives, hold all meetings publicly, and keep minutes, among other requirements.

One lawsuit brought by Democracy Forward, a left-leaning legal advocacy organization, calls DOGE a "shadow operation led by unelected billionaires" that risks making recommendations affecting millions of Americans without proper transparency or oversight.

The second lawsuit, filed by the public interest firm National Security Counselors, focuses on the legal technicalities of DOGE's formation and operation, emphasizing the lack of proper advisory committee procedures.

That suit, filed by Jerald Lentini, Joshua Erlich, and National Security Counselors, names, among others, Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Donald Trump as defendants, and claims the experiences of two applicants to the DOGE committee show a lack of balance in its membership.

Lentini and Erlich, both lawyers with histories of representing federal employees and advocating for government accountability, applied to join DOGE but were never contacted.

The third suit was brought by a trio of plaintiffs: the progressive think tank Public Citizen, the nonprofit State Democracy Defenders Fund, and the American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing around 800,000 federal and D.C. employees. Their suit alleges that DOGE's members "do not represent the interests of everyday Americans." The three plaintiffs sent a letter to Trump's transition co-chairs asking for representation on DOGE and claiming that the commission violates FACA, according to a press release.

In November, Musk said in a post on X that all of DOGE's actions "will be posted online for maximum transparency."

However, the lawsuits each claim that much of DOGE's communication happens on Signal, an encrypted messaging app, citing both news reports and a public blog post from a former DOGE member.

"This is not about sour grapes. This is not people suing because they were not picked," said Kel McClanahan, an attorney at National Security Counselors, in a comment to Business Insider. "This is people suing because nobody like them was picked, and as a result nobody will be in the room to make sure DOGE understands the critical perspectives they would provide."

McClanahan said that while everyone agrees government spending is wasteful, DOGE risks making shortsighted cuts without understanding federal workers' essential roles. "Government work is not corporate work, and any recommendations made without that perspective are doomed to fail," he said.

Representatives for Musk, Trump, Vought, and DOGE's counsel William McGinley did not respond to a request for comment from BI.

• Melania Trump wore a designer hat to Donald Trump's presidential inauguration ceremony.
• The incoming first lady's boater-style navy and ivory hat was designed by Eric Javits.
• The hat got people talking online.

Melania Trump turned heads at Donald Trump's inauguration Monday with a navy and ivory hat from a little-known American designer whose creations often cost $225 to $1,250.

The incoming first lady accompanied her husband to several events in Washington as part of his inauguration as the 47th president, including a service at St. John's Church and tea at the White House with President Joe Biden.

She wore a navy blue coat and matching hat by the American designers Adam Lippes and Eric Javits.

The boater-style hat had a flat top and a wide brim that covered much of her face as she walked side-by-side with her husband.

Vogue's fashion news editor, José Criales-Unzueta, described her style as "sombre" when compared with the powder blue outfit she wore to her husband's inauguration in 2017.

"The look, in fact, was Melania Trump through and through — severe and demure," Criales-Unzueta said.

Criales-Unzueta added that the former model's choice of a smaller designer could be meant to communicate that she "intends to employ fashion differently" during her second time as first lady. During the previous administration she wore big-name labels such as Ralph Lauren.

It's unclear how much the hat cost, but those listed on Javits' website come in at $225 to $1,250.

Javits told Women's Wear Daily ahead of the ceremony that figuring out the design became "a bit of a cliffhanger" because his initial design was ruined in transit.

"I guess the hat arrived all crushed. It looked like it had been sitting in snow drifts for about a week. Obviously, I had to scramble to redo it. It couldn't really be repaired, because of the construction of it," he said.

Javits added he didn't know whether Melania Trump was going to wear the hat.

"Of course, until the hat goes on her head, there's no proof that she's going to wear it," he said. "I know she likes what I made, but you never know."

The striking design sparked plenty of discussion online.

Some likened it to hats worn in the movies "Oppenheimer" and "V For Vendetta."

Others complimented Melania Trump, noting that it made an impression.