President Trump swept into the White House with a whirlwind of a first week, quickly making good on a number of campaign promises while embracing the trappings of the presidency.
Trump’s first full week of his second term saw him sign dozens of executive orders, speak daily with members of the press and use some of the same language about his critics that sparked fears that he would use the presidency for retribution.
Here are five takeaways from Trump’s week back in the White House.
Quick action on immigration
Trump wasted no time this week following through on his pledge to drastically reshape the country’s approach to immigration.
The president on his first day in office took a number of actions to severely restrict immigration while driving a greater military presence at the border. He paused refugee admissions, declared a national emergency at the southern border, designated cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, shut down an app used by asylum-seekers to make appointments at the border and attempted to end birthright citizenship.
While the birthright citizenship order was swiftly blocked by a federal judge, Trump and his aides have been quick to tout other ways in which his immigration crackdown has come to fruition.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security also authorized agents to carry out arrests at sensitive locations including schools, churches and businesses, reversing a Biden administration rule to not make arrests in what was deemed as “sensitive areas.”
Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt touted that the administration had started using military aircraft to deport immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally.
“President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences,” Leavitt said.
Trump still loves the press
The president spoke to the press every day this week, starting on Monday right after his inauguration when he took questions for over an hour while signing executive orders in the Oval Office.
He talked to the press again on Tuesday from the White House while announcing a new artificial intelligence investment and he was interviewed by Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Trump took several more questions from the Oval Office while signing additional executive orders.
And, Trump answered an array of questions throughout Friday, starting with when he left the White House for a trip to North Carolina and again during briefings in the Tar Heel state while surveying damage by Hurricane Helene.
Trump is not expected to be back at the White House until Monday evening.
It was enough to cause whiplash for the White House press corps, which had become accustomed to a sleepier schedule during the Biden years.
“Does Biden ever do news conferences like this?” Trump asked reporters on his first day in the Oval Office. “None…And it would be zero for the next infinity.”
Opponents still top of mind
Trump on the campaign trail repeatedly shrugged off questions about whether he would seek revenge on his critics and rivals by saying he would unite the country through success.
But after one week, it’s clear Trump’s opponents are still top of mind, and some are paying the price of their federal government protection.
The president moved to pull Secret Service protection the Biden administration had granted to former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Trump official Brian Hook. All three were granted additional protection because of threats against them from Iran.
He also moved to end the security detail for Anthony Fauci, who helped coordinate the COVID-19 response as director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health during Trump’s first term. Fauci retired from public service during Biden’s term.
Bolton in particular has become an outspoken critic of Trump, while Fauci got severely under Trump’s skin during the initial pandemic response, becoming a nemesis to the GOP. Pompeo briefly considered a 2024 presidential campaign and has at times been vaguely critical of his former boss, though he endorsed Trump in 2024 and has been sharply critical of Democrats.
Trump also raised alarms when he suggested to Fox’s Hannity that former President Biden made a mistake by not preemptively pardoning himself. Trump went on to suggest his political rivals should face the same legal battles he did.
“I went through four years of hell. I spent millions of dollars in legal fees and I won, but I did it the hard way,” Trump told Hannity. “It’s really hard to say that they shouldn’t have to go through it also. It is very hard to say that.”
Focus on culture wars
Trump spent much of the first week in office targeting issues that are considered liberal or “woke,” taking aim at the idea of more than two genders and at diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
He signed an executive order on his first day in office that recognized only two sexes, male and female, and directed federal agencies to cease promotion of the concept of gender transition. He said his actions were part of a broader campaign promise to rid the nation of what he has called “transgender insanity.”
The president also signed an executive order to end DEI programs within the federal government and put employees that are working on DEI programs on administrative leave.
Memos were sent to federal employees across the government pushing them to report any efforts to “disguise” diversity programs and threatening “adverse consequences” for those who do not comply.
He encouraged private companies to also roll back DEI programs and many have followed suit, like Target, McDonald’s and Walmart.
Trump told the World Economic Forum in a virtual speech on Thursday that his administration “has taken action to abolish all discriminatory diversity, equity and inclusion nonsense — and these are policies that were absolute nonsense.”
No action on tariffs, economy — yet
Trump threatened on the campaign trail to impose a 25 percent tariff on all goods from Mexico and Canada and a 10 percent tariff on goods from China on his first day in office.
Instead of imposing those tariffs, he has only indicated that he would impose 25 percent tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada beginning Feb. 1.
He then invited companies to operate in the U.S., warning that they will face tariffs if they don’t in his remarks to the World Economic Forum.
“My message to every business in the world is very simple, come make your product in America and we will give you among the lowest taxes of any nation of earth… but if you don’t make your product in America then very simply, you will have to pay a tariff,” he said.
The president added, “Under the Trump administration, there will be no better place on earth to create jobs, build factories, or grow a company than right here in the good old USA.”
Trump’s lack of direct action on the economy in his first week has given an opening to Democrats, who have accused the president of failing to deliver on his sweeping promises to quickly lower costs. Trump repeatedly bashed Biden and Vice President Harris throughout the campaign for inflation and the high cost of goods like gas and groceries.
Some Democrats seized on an executive order Trump signed this week that rescinded a Biden administration order aimed at lowering prescription drug costs.
“It’s striking to me that President Trump hasn’t produced a single executive order yet that would make it easier to buy a home or afford groceries,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) posted on X. “I’d love to come to the table on bipartisan solutions to actually lower costs for Americans.
