Donald Trump Signs TikTok Executive Order, Pardons About 1,500 January 6th Defendants; New POTUS Holds Impromptu Live Oval Office Press Conference
UPDATED: Donald Trump returned to the Oval Office to sign a series of pardons and executive orders, including his promise to delay implementation of a law restricting TikTok.
The order delays implementation of a law for 75 days, Trump said, as he said that he was determined to find a buyer and work out an arrangement in which the U.S. owns 50% of the platform.
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Trump said that the order “gives him the right to sell it or close it,” although he said that he may need to get an approval from China. He insisted that “TikTok is worthless if I don’t approve it.”
The parent company of TikTok, ByteDance, has given no indication that it was willing to sell the social media platform since Congress passed the divest-or-be-banned law in an overwhelming bipartisan vote last week.
Trump is following through on what has been described as a “shock and awe” series of actions to start his presidency.
Trump also said he signed a pardon of about 1,500 January 6th defendants and commuting six sentences. Among those getting clemency: Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, who had been sentenced to 22 years after being convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Some of those pardoned were convicted of assaulting law enforcement officers. He has called the defendants serving prison time “hostages,” and suggested to reporters that those involved in the attacks, who include those who committed violent acts, had already served enough time.
“They’ve been in jail for a long time already,” Trump said.
Trump also signed orders declaring a national emergency at the southern border and clarifying the definition of birthright citizenship. The latter is likely to be challenged in court on constitutional grounds.
Other executive orders were signed to withdraw from the World Health Organization, another declaring a national energy emergency and another at the federal workforce.
“We are getting rid of all the cancer caused by the Biden administration,” Trump said.
Earlier, Trump signed executive orders withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord and insituting a non-military federal hiring freeze.
Trump signed the orders before a pool of White House reporters, and he seemed to relish answering questions in between adding his signature to the orders.
Among other things, reporters asked Trump a wide range of questions, including on one of his signature priorities, tariffs. Trump said that he is planning 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, set to go into effect on Feb. 1.
Trump also made a number of statements that quickly drew a fact-check from CNN’s Daniel Dale. “There were a lot of big lies there,” Dale said, before pointing out that the president falsely claimed that China controlled the Panama Canal, among other things.
At one point, Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked whether he had read a letter left by Joe Biden. Trump said he didn’t know about it, then opened the top drawer of the Resolute Desk and found it, an envelope labeled “47.” He declined to open it and read it in front of the press.
At one point, Trump seemed to relish that his accessibility was a contrast to that of his predecessor, who took a minimal amount of questions from the pooled press in Oval Office moments.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, meanwhile, returned to California and stopped at World Central Kitchen to speak to volunteers helping families displaced by the Los Angeles fires.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the time length of an extension given to TikTok to comply with a new U.S. law.
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