Trump stays TikTok ban on first day of presidency

The second swearing-in of Donald J Trump as the President of the United States was a masterclass in political optics. While the ceremony is usually held outdoors, inclement weather in Washington DC forced it inside. As the peaceful transfer of power took place, the cameras panned over a crowd of onlookers, showcasing in the present both the past and the future.

Behind outgoing President Joseph R Biden, apart from his family, sat the old guard, the establishment, including former Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton, their spouses, as well as senators and long-term government officials. Behind Trump and his extended family sat the new czars and cheerleaders of his government, from plutocrats like Elon Musk, and his DOGE (Department of Governmental Efficiency) co-chair Vivek Ramaswamy, to big tech leaders, not least of whom was Sundar Pichai of Alphabet, the world's most consequential tech company, seated right next to the world's richest man.

And Trump's day was just beginning. From the swearing-in ceremony, the 45th and now 47th President went straight to the Oval Office to start a flurry of signing executive orders, among the first of which was a 75-day stay on the US Supreme Court's banning of TikTok, a move that had previously received bipartisan support (including that of Trump), before TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew went to Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, in the days leading up to the inauguration, to kiss the ring. Chew was also present at the inauguration, seated prominently among the audience.

Among other orders, Trump withdrew the US from the World Health Organization, promised to impose 25% tariffs on imported goods from neighbouring Mexico and Canada from February 1, pardoned all Jan 6 rioters (close to 1500 of them), ended the 150-year-old birthright citizenship under certain conditions, fired career administrators from the Justice and Immigration departments of the government, renamed geographical landmarks including changing the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and opened new broad investigations into the Biden presidency.

Among many other issues, technology and media will be among Trump 2.0's top priorities, not least because of the President's embittered relationships with the press as well as his closest advisors' deep ties with big tech, social media, and AI. Both supporters and critics are anticipating further executive orders based around the use of technology, content censorship, media reportage and other related issues.