KUALA LUMPUR – Donald Trump began his second non-consecutive term in office on January 20 by reigniting fierce debates over the direction of American policies. Among his most polarising actions was the pardoning of approximately 1,500 individuals involved in the January 6 Capitol riots.
The riots remain one of the most significant events in modern American history, disrupting the peaceful transfer of power as thousands stormed the Capitol to protest the certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Trump, who has consistently claimed without evidence that the election was “stolen,” initially distanced himself from the violence but later shifted his narrative, referring to the rioters as “patriots” and “hostages.”
According to NBC, the pardons and sentence commutations connected to the riots on January 6, 2021, included notable figures such as Enrique Tarrio, whose attorney confirmed his release from FCI Pollock, a medium-security federal prison in Louisiana. Tarrio is the Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy, who had been serving a 22-year sentence.
“He is being processed out. We do not know what type of clemency he is receiving,” Tarrio’s attorney, Nayib Hassan, said.
Trump’s comments about the rioters have evolved over time. Initially, he condemned the violence but later referred to those involved as “hostages.”
“I was going to talk about the J6 hostages,” Trump said in a speech, using the term to describe the criminal defendants involved in the riots, including many who had admitted their offences or been convicted by courts.
“But you’ll be happy because, you know, it’s action – not words – that count. And you’re going to see a lot of action on the J6 hostages,” Trump added, according to NBC.
Over 1,500 individuals were charged in connection with the riots, and more than 1,100 were convicted. Many of those convicted faced significant prison sentences for violent acts, including assaults on law enforcement officers using weapons such as batons, flagpoles, and even a tomahawk axe.
However, NBC reported that many individuals who had either never received prison sentences or already completed them were impacted only by the restoration of voting and gun rights.
Additionally, Trump signed a barrage of executive orders targeting immigration and reversing key policies from the Biden administration.
Declaring a national emergency at the US-Mexico border, he expanded federal powers to curb illegal crossings and designated cartels as foreign terrorist organisations.
“We will not be sending people who break our laws back to their countries,” Trump said, according to Financial Times. He also took steps to limit birthright citizenship and overhaul the US refugee admission program.
Trump also continued his efforts to dismantle Biden-era policies by removing the US from the Paris Climate Accords, according to the Financial Times.
“This will save us over a trillion dollars,” he said during the signing of the order.
In line with his broader reshaping of immigration policy, Trump also targeted the immigration court system, signalling his intent to insert loyalists into key roles, as he had done during his first term.
According to the New York Times, he fired the acting head of the US immigration court system, Mary Cheng, along with three other top officials – chief immigration judge Sheila McNulty, the agency’s head of policy Lauren Alder Reid, and general counsel in the Executive Office of Immigration Review Jill Anderson.
“A Day 1 blood bath like this indicates that they don’t intend to change course now,” Tom Jawetz, a senior lawyer in the Homeland Security Department under Biden, commented on the firings.
The mass dismissals were part of a broader push to reshape the US immigration system, which has long struggled with a significant backlog of cases.
Trump’s influence has also extended into the tech sector, where he secured a controversial agreement ensuring that TikTok, the popular social media app, remains operational in the US.
Under the new deal, Trump insisted that TikTok be 50% American-owned, a condition he argued was necessary to address national security concerns over data privacy.
This compromise has allowed the app to avoid a full ban, which had loomed during Biden’s tenure and has been celebrated by users and creators as a win for free expression. – January 21, 2025