Written by Jeff Mason, Tim Reed, Andy Sullivan and David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump pardoned about 1,500 of his supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol four years ago as he moved quickly to impose his will on the U.S. government just hours after reclaiming the presidency on Monday.

A day after the celebration, Trump signed a series of executive actions to limit immigration and roll back environmental regulations and racial and gender diversity initiatives. He did not take immediate action to increase tariffs, a key campaign promise, but said he may impose 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico on February 1.

His decision to pardon supporters who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, is sure to anger police, lawmakers and others whose lives were at risk during an unprecedented episode in modern US history.

Nearly 140 police officers were assaulted during the attack, some sprayed with chemical irritants, and others beaten with pipes, poles and other weapons. Four people died during the chaos, including a Trump supporter who was shot and killed by police.

Trump ordered 14 leaders of far-right groups such as the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, who were serving long prison sentences, to be released from prison early, but left their convictions intact.

Earlier in the day, Trump, 78, was sworn in in the Capitol Rotunda, where a crowd of his supporters revolted on Jan. 6 in a failed attempt to reverse his 2020 loss to Joe Biden.

At the ceremony, Trump portrayed himself as the savior chosen by God to save a faltering nation. His inauguration marks a triumphant return for a political leader who survived two assassination attempts and won the election despite a criminal conviction and trial stemming from his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.

“God saved me to make America great again,” he said.

Trump is the first president in more than a century to win a second term after losing the White House and the first criminal to occupy the White House. He is the oldest president ever to be sworn in, and enjoys the support of the Republican majority in both houses of Congress.

Trump has moved quickly to crack down on illegal immigration, a signature issue since he first entered politics in 2015.

Shortly after he was sworn in, US border authorities shut down a program that allowed hundreds of thousands of immigrants to enter the United States legally by making an appointment via smartphone. Current appointments have been cancelled.

Nearly 1,660 Afghans allowed to be resettled in the United States by the U.S. government, including family members of active-duty U.S. military personnel, had their flights canceled under Trump’s order suspending U.S. refugee programs, a U.S. official and a leader in refugee resettlement said The Advocate Monday.

A state of emergency was declared at the border, and the climate agreement was cancelled

At the White House, Trump signed an order declaring a national emergency on the US-Mexico border, which would unlock funding and allow him to send troops there. He signed an order that would end a policy granting citizenship to those born in the United States, which is sure to lead to a long court battle. Another executive order designated Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.

Trump once again withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, removing the world’s largest historical emitter from global efforts to combat climate change for the second time in a decade.

“We are getting rid of every cancer…caused by the Biden administration,” Trump said as he signed a set of executive orders in the Oval Office.

Other orders rescinded Biden administration policies governing artificial intelligence and electric vehicles. He also imposed a federal hiring freeze and ordered government employees to return to their offices, instead of working from home. He also signed the paperwork to create the Government Efficiency Administration, an outside advisory board chaired by billionaire Elon Musk that aims to cut large swaths of government spending.

At the State Department, more than a dozen senior nonpartisan diplomats have been asked to resign as part of a broader plan to replace nonpartisan civil servants with loyalists.

He also said he would issue orders to eliminate federal diversity programs and ask the government to recognize only the genders assigned at birth.

While Trump sought to portray himself as a peacemaker and unifier during his half-hour speech, his tone was often sharply partisan. He repeated false claims from his campaign that other countries were emptying their prisons in America, and expressed familiar grievances about his criminal trials.

With Biden sitting nearby, Trump issued a scathing indictment of his predecessor’s policies from immigration to foreign affairs.

“We have a government that has provided unlimited funding to defend foreign borders, but it refuses to defend America’s borders, or more importantly, its people,” Trump said.

Several tech executives have sought to curry favor with the incoming administration — including the world’s three richest men, Tesla (NASDAQ:) and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Amazon (NASDAQ:) founder Jeff Bezos, and Meta CEO ( NASDAQ:) Mark Zuckerberg – had prominent seats on the stage, alongside Cabinet nominees and Trump family members.

Trump said he would send astronauts to Mars, prompting Musk – who has long talked about colonizing the planet – to raise his fists.

Trump pledged to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to America’s Gulf and reiterated his intention to regain control of the Panama Canal, one of several foreign policy statements that sparked consternation among US allies.

Back to power

Trump took the oath to “preserve, protect and defend” the US Constitution at 12:01 pm ET (1701 GMT), with Chief Justice John Roberts presiding. Vice President J.D. Vance was sworn in directly before him.

Outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in November, was sitting next to Biden in a section with former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, sat with her husband, Bill. Obama’s wife, Michelle, chose not to attend.

The ceremony was moved indoors due to the extreme cold sweeping most parts of the country.

Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration and continues to falsely claim that the 2020 election, which he lost to Biden, was rigged.

Biden, in one of his final official acts, pardoned several people whom Trump had threatened with retaliation, including Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff whom Trump had proposed executed for holding back-channel talks with China. Milley’s photo was removed from the Pentagon shortly after Trump’s inauguration.

He also pardoned five family members minutes before leaving office, citing concerns that Trump would target them.