Joe Biden gets to work on the first day as President, reverses 'Muslim ban', stops border wall with Mexico

“Democracy is precious, democracy is fragile and at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed,” Biden said before a National Mall that was virtually empty due to the ultra-tight security and a raging Covid-19 pandemic that he vowed to confront immediately.

“We must end this uncivil war that pits red against blue, rural versus urban, conservative versus liberal. We can do this if we open our souls instead of hardening our hearts, if we show a little tolerance and humility and we’re willing to stand in the other person’s shoes,” he said.

“Together we shall write an American story of hope, not fear, of unity, not division, of light, not darkness. A story of decency and dignity, love and healing and goodness.”

But Trump, who falsely said that he was cheated out of a second term and egged on his supporters before their rampage at the Capitol, broke 152 years of tradition by refusing to attend his successor’s inauguration.

Biden pushed through a flurry of orders the moment he entered the White House, starting with rejoining the 2015 Paris climate accord, from which the United States was the sole outlier after a withdrawal by Trump, an ally of the fossil fuel industry.

“We are going to combat climate change in a way we have not done so far,” the new US leader said in the Oval Office as he signed papers to rejoin the Paris deal, which was negotiated by Barack Obama when Biden was his vice president.

Biden also halted the US exit from the World Health Organization, rescinded a ban on visitors from several Muslim-majority nations and halted construction of Trump’s cherished wall on the Mexican border.

15 executive actions

The new president signed the orders just hours after taking the oath of office at the Capitol, pivoting quickly from his pared-down inauguration ceremony to enacting his agenda. With the stroke of a pen, Biden ordered a halt to the construction of Trump's U.S.-Mexico border wall, ended the ban on travel from some Muslim-majority countries, declared his intent to rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization and revoked the approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, aides said.

The 15 executive actions, and two directives, amount to an attempt to rewind the last four years of federal policies with striking speed. Only two recent presidents signed executive actions on their first day in office _ and each signed just one. But Biden, facing the debilitating coronavirus pandemic, a damaged economy and a riven electorate, is intent on demonstrating a sense of urgency and competence that he argues has been missing under his Republican predecessor.

"There's no time to start like today," Biden said in his first comments to reporters as president.

Fighting COVID-19

Among the executive actions signed Wednesday was one requiring masks and physical distancing on federal property and by federal employees. Biden's order also extended the federal eviction freeze to aid those struggling from the pandemic economic fallout, created a new federal office to coordinate a national response to the virus and restored the White House's National Security Council directorate for global health security and defense, an office his predecessor had closed.

The actions reflected the new president's top policy priority - getting a handle on a debilitating pandemic. In his inaugural address, Biden paused for what he called his first act as president - a moment of a silent prayer for the victims of the nation's worst public health crisis in more than a century.

He declared that he would “press forward with speed and urgency'' in coming weeks. ``For we have much to do in this winter of peril and significant possibilities _ much to repair, much to restore, much to heal, much to build and much to gain,'' he said in the speech.

More than the pandemic

But Biden's blitz of executive actions went beyond the pandemic. He targeted Trump's environmental record, calling for a review of all regulations and executive actions that are deemed damaging to the environment or public health, aides said Tuesday as they previewed the moves.

Another order instructs federal agencies to prioritize racial equity and review policies that reinforce systemic racism. Biden revoked two Trump orders related to the 2020 census. The first attempted to discern the citizenship status of every U.S. resident, and the second sought to exclude people in the U.S. illegally from the numbers used for apportioning congressional seats among the states.''

Ethics pledge

He also ordered federal employees to take an ethics pledge that commits them to upholding the independence of the Justice Department.

The president also revoked the just-issued report of Trump's “1776 Commission'' that promotes “patriotic education.''

Those moves and others will be followed by dozens more in the next 10 days, the president's aides said, as Biden looks to redirect the country without having to go through a Senate that Democrats control by the narrowest margin and will soon turn to the impeachment trial of Trump, who is charged by the House with inciting the insurrection at the Capitol.

‘President for all Americans’

In his inaugural address, Biden appealed to supporters of Trump, who shattered political norms by ruthlessly belittling rivals, denouncing entire ethnic groups and trying to cast doubt on basic facts.

“I will be a president for all Americans,” the veteran Democrat said.

But Biden confronted head-on the rise of domestic extremism, as evidenced during Trump’s presidency by the Capitol mob, deadly attacks on synagogues and immigrants, and a violent march by neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The United States faces “a rise of political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront, and we will defeat,” Biden said.

“Our history has been a constant struggle between the American ideal that we are all created equal and the harsh ugly reality that racism, nativism, fear and demonization have long torn us apart.”

At 78, Biden is the oldest-ever US president, a job he first sought in 1987. He is only the second Roman Catholic president after John F Kennedy and swore his oath on a bulging old family Bible.

Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, became the highest-ranking woman in US history, and the first Black person and first person of Asian heritage as the nation’s number two.

She and her husband Doug Emhoff - America’s first-ever “second gentleman” - were escorted to the inauguration by Eugene Goodman, a Black police officer at the Capitol who was seen luring the mostly white mob away from the Senate chambers in a video that went viral.

Empty Washington

Central Washington took on the dystopian look of an armed camp, protected by some 25,000 National Guard troops tasked with preventing any repeat of the January 6 violence.

With the public essentially barred from attending due to the pandemic, Biden’s audience at the National Mall instead was 200,000 flags planted to represent the absent crowds.

Biden, who has vowed a major escalation in the nation’s Covid vaccination drive, warned that the “toughest and deadliest period” was still ahead.

So far, more than 400,000 people have died of Covid in the United States, more than in any other country.

“We must set aside politics and finally face this pandemic as one nation,” he said, striking a new tone after Trump’s mockery of mask-wearing and business closings meant to halt the virus.

While the public crowds were gone, Biden brought in celebrity power - absent four years ago with Trump.

Lady Gaga, in a dress with a black bodice and a billowing red skirt, sang the national anthem and Tom Hanks prepared to host a televised evening appearance with the new president.

Jennifer Lopez sang a pop rendition of “This Land is Your Land,” often considered the unofficial US national anthem, ending it by exclaiming the final words of the pledge of allegiance - “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all” - in Spanish.

The new first lady, Jill Biden, invited a 22-year-old poet, Amanda Gorman, who became a star of the day with verse on how democracy “can never be permanently defeated.”

Biden and Harris started their administration by jointly paying respects to fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery followed by an inaugural parade - devoid of the usual crowds - that featured both an Army fife and drum corps in the red coats of George Washington’s time, and a drumline and dancers from Howard University, the historically Black institution that counts the new vice president as a graduate.

Trump vows to be back

Trump left Washington hours before the inauguration, walking on a red carpet on the White House lawn with his wife Melania into the Marine One presidential helicopter, which flew near the inauguration-ready Capitol before heading to Andrews Air Force Base.

“This has been an incredible four years,” Trump told several hundred cheering supporters at a campaign-style event with cannons before leaving for his Florida resort in his last trip on Air Force One.

“We will be back in some form,” vowed Trump, who retains a hold on much of the Republican Party despite being the first president to be impeached twice.

In a first hint of graciousness, Trump wished the next administration “great luck and great success” - without saying Biden’s name.

Biden said that Trump left him a traditional letter that was “very generous” but declined to reveal the contents.

Mike Pence, the outgoing vice president who clashed with Trump in his final days by acknowledging he could not overturn the election, attended the inauguration and was spotted laughing with Harris.

Also taking part were former presidents Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and their wives - including Hillary Clinton, for whom Biden’s victory was especially sweet four years after her narrow, surprise defeat to Trump.

In the middle of his last night at the White House, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of 73 people including his former campaign chief Steve Bannon, who was charged with defrauding donors who thought they were building Trump’s wall.

Trump in a final act lifted a ban on his administration’s officials working as lobbyists - an order he had issued at the start of his presidency as he vowed to “drain the swamp” of Washington.