AMNA NAWAZ: Good evening.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

On the "News Hour" tonight: DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: So help me God.

JOHN ROBERTS, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: Congratulations, Mr. President.

GEOFF BENNETT: Donald Trump takes the oath of office and begins his second term as president of the United States.

AMNA NAWAZ: Swiftly announcing a host of measures aimed at implementing his energy, economic and immigration agendas.

DONALD TRUMP: And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.

GEOFF BENNETT: And with the world's eyes on the U.S., we speak with the former head of NATO about how President Trump could affect the future of the alliance, and conflicts around the globe.

JENS STOLTENBERG, Former NATO Secretary-General: I recommend to do the same as we did last time President Trump was president.

And that is to engage and to sit down and discuss.

GEOFF BENNETT: Welcome to the "News Hour."

Donald Trump has returned to office as the nation's 47th president.

His inauguration today marked the first time since Grover Cleveland that a U.S. president will serve nonconsecutive terms and the first time in 40 years an inauguration had to be held indoors because of freezing temperatures.

AMNA NAWAZ: President Trump's second term officially kick-starts with an ambitious and controversial agenda that's expected to bring mass deportations, aggressive tariffs on imports from competitors and allies alike, and a promise of retribution against political foes that led to last-minute pardons from outgoing President Joe Biden.

Laura Barron-Lopez reports.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: Preserve, protect and defend... JOHN ROBERTS, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court: The Constitution of the United States.

DONALD TRUMP: ... the Constitution of the United States.

JOHN ROBERTS: So help me God.

DONALD TRUMP: So help me God.

JOHN ROBERTS: Congratulations, Mr. President.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: President Donald Trump's improbable comeback now complete.

DONALD TRUMP: I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do.

In America, the impossible is what we do best.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: From attempting to overturn the legitimate election results four years ago, to embattled criminal defendant and convicted felon, to president of the United States once more, today marked a political turnaround not seen in modern times.

Trump's second inauguration also had an atmosphere not seen in decades.

Outside, the West Front of the Capitol, where inaugural ceremonies are typically held, stood nearly empty.

With the temperature below freezing, the cold weather moved the inaugural ceremonies indoors for the first time in 40 years... JOHN ROBERTS: Repeat after me.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: ... where Trump took the oath of office in the Capitol Rotunda, images that echoed Ronald Reagan's second inauguration.

RONALD REAGAN, Former President of the United States: The office of president of the United States.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Trump had previewed a theme of unity for his address, but his messages quickly changed to one of condemnation, while his predecessor, Joe Biden, sat feet away.

DONALD TRUMP: As we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust.

For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens, while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It was a theme reminiscent of his message eight years ago.

DONALD TRUMP: This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: This time, Trump claimed his mission was divine.

DONALD TRUMP: Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear.

But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason.

I was saved by God to make America great again.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Promising to completely and totally reverse the Biden era, Trump put particular focus on the justice system.

DONALD TRUMP: Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents, something I know something about.

We will not allow that to happen.

It will not happen again under my leadership.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: He pledged quick deployment of troops to the southern border for a crackdown.

DONALD TRUMP: All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: And following his anti-transgender campaign promises, Trump railed against what he's called gender ideology.

DONALD TRUMP: It will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In the audience were former presidents, former speakers and a who's-who of Trump's Cabinet nominees.

Even former Vice President Mike Pence attended in the very Capitol halls where January 6 rioters chanted "Hang Mike Pence."

Attendees also included notable foreign dignitaries, including adversaries, China sent its vice president, and billionaire tech moguls including Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Tim Cook and one of Trump's closest advisers, Elon Musk.

J.D.

VANCE, Vice President of the United States: So help me God.

BRETT KAVANAUGH, U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice: Congratulations, Mr. Vice President.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: It was an historic day for running mate J.D.

Vance as well, sworn in is the first millennial and the third youngest vice president ever to serve.

Thousands of people waited in line throughout the day hoping to catch a glimpse of the president-elect.

But many had to settle to watch the festivities inside local restaurants like Jack's Deli, where the mood was still one of excitement.

NICK JEFFERY, Trump Supporter: It was disappointing that we couldn't see in person, but I think it was still worth it.

BRANDON PALS, Trump Supporter: He's brought a lot of excitement, woke a lot of people up.

So it's not really like voting for a political party.

It's voting for turning the political system upside down on its head that has become so elitist.

ASHLEY NELSON, Trump Supporter: I want to see the economy thrive and I want to see my daughter participate in the direction of politics.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: In spite of Trump's criticisms against him for outgoing President Biden, the day began and ended restoring the traditions of a peaceful transfer of power, hosting the Trumps for tea before arriving at the Capitol together, and standing alongside the first spouses on the Capitol East Front before Biden's honorary departure.

JOE BIDEN, Former President of the United States: We're leaving office.

We're not leaving the fight.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: For his final acts in office, Biden ordered preemptive pardons to a number of Trump's most high-profile targets, Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley, as well as Liz Cheney and other members of the House January 6 Committee.

Biden also pardoned members of his family from Trump's threats of prosecution and revenge.

Meanwhile, in remarks to his supporters, Trump again promised pardons for some of the rioters who violently stormed the Capitol four years ago.

DONALD TRUMP: I was going to talk about the J6 hostages, but you will be happy, because it's action, not words, account.

And you're going to see a lot of action on the J6 hostages.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: President Trump is moving quickly to the business of governing, expected to issue a flurry of executive orders in his first day, among them, declaring a national emergency at the border, intending to send the armed forces there to enforce it, also declaring a national energy emergency, ending President Biden's strict pollution standards for tailpipe emissions, and ending all diversity and inclusion initiatives across the federal government.

Many of these executive actions are expected to see legal challenges.

AMNA NAWAZ: And Laura joins us now from the White House, along with Lisa Desjardins at the Capitol and Stephanie Sy at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., where Trump supporters gathered for a watch party after the inauguration was moved indoors.

Stephanie, let's begin with you.

Just give us a sense of what it's been like inside that arena, what you have heard from there, Trump supporters there, and how they reacted when they finally saw President Trump.

STEPHANIE SY: Well, Amna, all day, these 20,000 Trump supporters that have been packed into Capital One Arena have kind of been on the sidelines watching the inauguration festivities on a livestreaming screen.

Now the party is here.

President Trump is in the house.

In fact, he is scheduled to speak shortly.

The parade just ended.

It was a joyful, jubilant, optimistic display of Americana, high school marching bands from Trump's hometown of Palm Beach, New York City, J.D.

Vance's hometown.

And I will just mention also just a feeling of optimism and hope.

These are people that have waited for 24 hours in some cases to see the president in person.

Now, when he and J.D.

Vance walked through, they actually walked in between the stands.

So they came out from the crowds.

Vice President Vance was holding his baby girl in his arms.

The crowd is extremely happy to see Barron Trump, for some reason.

So, all in all, even though it's been a tiresome day for a lot of the folks here, they have been relatively patient waiting for the president and certainly a sense of celebration among all the folks here.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Stephanie, there was a now-controversial moment earlier today where Elon Musk gave these back-to-back gestures that people are saying mimicked a Nazi salute.

You see it there.

Elon Musk has not directly addressed this, but he has appeared to edit out that gesture from the video that he posted on X, the platform he, of course, owns.

Help us understand what transpired.

STEPHANIE SY: Yes, and it's interesting that Elon Musk does not appear to be on the podium with the president now, even though he was with him throughout the day.

I don't know if that was scheduled or not.

We did see Mr. Musk during that speech, and we saw the gesture.

I don't know whether the audience here interpreted it the way it was subsequently interpreted on social media.

It certainly appears to be a "Heil Hitler."

But, at the time, what he was saying, we went back to the transcript, and I remember him saying it, is he was saying, my heart goes out to you.

So he was gesturing to his chest, and then, of course, there was the hand straight out, which hearkens back, of course, for a lot of folks to the Nazi salute.

But we didn't see that reaction here.

There wasn't like a gasp or a pause or any even reinforcement of the gesture.

So it's a little hard to tell from where we sat the meaning of it.

GEOFF BENNETT: OK, Stephanie Sy, our thanks to you.

AMNA NAWAZ: Let's turn now to Laura Barron-Lopez at the White House.

Laura, it's already been a busy few hours since President Trump took office.

We have seen a flurry of executive orders.

We expect to see more.

Just break down for us what we have seen and what we will see.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Amna, the new White House announced 10 executive orders focused on the border and immigration, and some of those key orders include the declaration of a national emergency at the border that gives Trump the ability to deploy armed forces in National Guard, additional forces there, some are already there.

Another executive action ends asylum and immediately deports arrivals, also one that would attempt to end birthright citizenship for U.S.-born children of undocumented parents, and, lastly, one that designates cartels as foreign terrorist groups.

Those are some of the main ones.

He also is reinstating that remain-in-Mexico policy from his first term, which requires asylum seekers to wait out their cases in Mexico.

And he also is going to suspend refugee resettlement for at least four months.

GEOFF BENNETT: And, Laura, how legally feasible are these executive orders?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: President Trump has broad ability, Geoff, to declare a national emergency at the border.

And he used those powers, the powers to use military construction for the border wall during his first term.

It was challenged then and it was considered illegal by some of the courts.

Now, when it comes to Trump's executive action to attempt to end birthright citizenship, my producer Shrai Popat and I spoke to many legal scholars and constitutional scholars, who said that that is a violation of the 14th Amendment.

And it will likely, they said, be stopped by a federal judge, at least initially.

But I also spoke to a former ICE official and immigration lawyers who told me that, in the meantime, Trump could direct the State Department and immigration services to stop issuing passports to those children of undocumented parents and also pressure states to stop issuing birth certificates.

So, big picture is that most of these orders are designed to test the limits of the Constitution and federal statutes.

AMNA NAWAZ: Laura, from your reporting, how are we already seeing, if we are, in fact, seeing any impact to some of these actions already so far?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Today, the Trump administration ended the Biden administration's CBP-1 app, canceling existing appointments.

That app was used by migrants to get appointments for legal entry into the United States.

And, already, the ACLU has filed a motion against the Trump administration for ending that use -- the use of the CBP-1 app, saying in that filing that the right to seek asylum at the border no longer exists.

They filed that inside of an existing lawsuit that they have against the Biden administration's asylum restrictions.

But the actions today have also created fear and some confusion, Amna.

And our colleague Ryan Connelly Holmes spoke to undocumented migrants in Chicago -- one in particular was a woman in Chicago who has been in the U.S. for 26 years -- about the anxiety she's experiencing.

WOMAN: I'm scared.

I'm scared.

It's ugly.

This week, I do not plan on going out.

I don't know when will it happen, but anything to stay indoors in my home.

I will stay in to avoid this type of insecurity of going out to the streets and not knowing what will happen to you.

This is a constant worry.

It's ugly.

It's as if there was a mouse living in your home.

The mouse will only come out when it knows you're not near.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Another undocumented migrant in Chicago told NewsHour that she cannot return to her country of origin, for fear of dying, and said that she's worried that, if she and her husband are deported, that they may be separated from their children.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, Laura Barron-Lopez at the White House for us.

Laura, thanks.

GEOFF BENNETT: And let's head from the White House over to Capitol Hill, where we find our Lisa Desjardins.

So, Lisa, some other big issues for Republicans in this Congress are energy and the economy.

What is President Trump promising to do on both those fronts?

LISA DESJARDINS: That's right.

A White House official today made it clear that first agenda for the economy is energy.

Here are the executive orders we're expecting on that.

As Laura reported, first, the president to declare a national energy emergency.

Secondly, on electric vehicles, Trump will end the Biden emissions standards, some of those to go into effect in more of the out-years.

But those were basically to mandate that cars no longer could have emissions and help electric vehicles.

Third, there will be a separate order on Alaska.

Now, you might be asking, what are the details of all those, Lisa?

We don't have them yet.

And when asked this morning on a call, Trump officials would not give the details yet.

But they did say that they think energy is the way to bring down prices writ large overall.

The other economic issue for members of Congress, of course, is taxes.

President Trump did not mention that in his inauguration speech, but that is something they're working on here, potential tax cuts that Republicans may offer.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa, the Republican-led Congress is also meeting tonight.

So just take us through the business that they hope to be able to tackle in this first week of the Trump administration.

LISA DESJARDINS: Yes.

The joint is jumping here, Amna.

Let's go right to the Senate floor.

The Senate is now voting on what may be the first bill that President Trump could sign.

This is the Laken Riley Act.

It is an immigration law.

We have spoken about it before.

It does need to go back to the House, but I expect that to move pretty quickly after this vote tonight in the House.

But, also, let's talk about nominations.

Cabinet agencies now are all under acting leadership.

So let's talk about The Five nominees that are moving the most quickly.

Look at these.

These are all nominees we expect to get votes today.

Senator Rubio, now secretary of state nominee, has gotten through committee.

So has Pete Hegseth for Defense just an hour or so ago on a partisan vote.

And then, finally, at the end, John Ratcliffe, CIA director, also passed out of committee a short time ago.

The other two in the middle could be imminent.

And we could expect a secretary of state vote on the Senate floor tonight -- Amna, Geoff.

AMNA NAWAZ: Lisa Desjardins on Capitol Hill, Laura Barron-Lopez at the White House, and Stephanie Sy at the Capital One Arena, our thanks to you all.

President Trump is expected to issue a record number of executive orders by the end of his first day in office.

For a closer look at the power of these orders and their limits, we're joined by Andrew Rudalevige.

He's professor of government at Bowdoin College and author of "The New Imperial Presidency."

Welcome to the "News Hour."

So, broadly speaking here, just educate us.

What does an executive action give the president authority to do?

How is it different from a law?

ANDREW RUDALEVIGE, Bowdoin College: Well, an executive order or a different kind of presidential directive, there's a whole category of them, basically gives the president the ability to try to implement the law in a way that's consonant with his preferences.

It's part of the power of faithful execution of the law, which is his duty under the Constitution.

And so the power of an executive order does not extend past what the Constitution or an existing statute already allows the president to do.

Obviously, different presidents interpret those earlier statutes differently, and that's one reason you will see shifts in emphasis.

But the power itself is one to implement the law.

AMNA NAWAZ: And do you see these as potentially just being sort of statements of intent, more messaging tools, or do they always actually inspire some sort of immediate action or change?

ANDREW RUDALEVIGE: It's going to be a lot of all of the above, honestly.

Some of them will have immediate impact.

Certainly, revoking President Biden's orders will happen immediately.

If President Trump is making changes to the executive office of the president organizationally.

Declaring emergencies will happen quite quickly, of course.

That's a power Congress has given the president, as was noted.

But others are going to be plans to make plans, right?

Bringing down the cost of living might be something that he directs, but can't happen without a lot of policy change across the whole administration.

Others are going to be effectively press releases, right?

The president saying, I want to do this.

I'm taking action.

I care.

But nothing might happen.

And still others are probably lawsuit bait, really.

The 14th Amendment's promise of birthright citizenship was mentioned earlier, the president has promised to save TikTok, but it's unclear whether that is congruent with the law that's been passed to close it down.

So, again, I think you're going to see a lot of legal challenges, a lot of P.R., and some real action in some kind of proportion.

AMNA NAWAZ: The declaration of a national emergency specifically, as we heard Laura Barron-Lopez reporting earlier, help us understand how that changes the authority that the president has and can enact change on issues like immigration and energy.

ANDREW RUDALEVIGE: Right.

Well, viewers may be surprised to know, but you are living under dozens of national emergencies at the moment.

The National Emergencies Act in the 1970s closed down those that were existing to that point, but allowed the president to declare many others.

And there are laws that govern the way those can be issued, but it's pretty much within the president's purview.

It's worth keeping in mind there doesn't have to be a national emergency for the president to declare one.

So, once one is declared though, different sort of standby powers that are in existing statutes are activated.

So it's a way of unlocking authority that exists already.

If you remember the southern border emergency in President Trump's first term, that allowed him to access some funds for military construction that he could then repurpose to the border wall.

AMNA NAWAZ: And as many presidents have done previously, there's the act of revoking executive orders put into place by previous presidents.

What happens there?

Is the impact of that immediate?

ANDREW RUDALEVIGE: Yes, I mean, again, agencies probably aren't acting too rapidly on 2021 executive orders at this point.

But, yes, I mean, it's -- there's a Housekeeping exercise here where presidents tend to get rid of a lot of their predecessors' orders.

Biden certainly did that.

When he was accused of issuing too many orders, in fact, in 2021, he said, well, actually, I'm just getting rid of old bad ones.

I suspect President Trump will say something similar when he revokes a number of Biden's orders.

AMNA NAWAZ: Andrew Rudalevige, professor of government at Bowdoin College, thank you so much for joining us.

We appreciate your time.

ANDREW RUDALEVIGE: Thank you.

GEOFF BENNETT: Donald Trump, now the first convicted felon sworn in as commander in chief, says he plans to issue a sweeping series of pardons for defendants charged in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

That's as Joe Biden and one of his final acts as president this morning issued preemptive pardons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol to prevent potential revenge by the new Trump administration.

For more, let's bring in Mary McCord.

She's a former acting assistant attorney general for national security and now teaches at Georgetown Law School.

Thanks for being back with us.

We appreciate it.

So, when Donald Trump says he plans to issue a sweeping set of pardons for the January 6 rioters and he's reportedly planning to commute the prison sentences of hundreds of his supporters who have been convicted of violent attacks against law enforcement on January 6, what are the implications of that?

MARY MCCORD, Former Justice Department Official: Well, I think it really does damage to our criminal legal system.

I mean, pardons are certainly given by presidents of both parties.

The typical -- and we have seen some unusual uses of pardons recently, which I know we're going to talk about.

But when we're talking about people like the January 6 attackers, over 1,200 of which have been convicted, 1,000 of those have pled guilty, another 250 or more have been found guilty after a trial, then we're talking normally, in those type of situations, a pardon is an act of mercy when somebody, the person convicted has changed their life for the better, served a substantial amount of time.

There's been mitigating circumstances that make a president feel like it would be unfair to continue to incarcerate that person.

Sometimes, it's because sentencing laws have changed and people sentenced under old regimes are serving what now seem to be draconian sentences.

But this is very different.

This is part -- at least if you listen to what President Trump says, it's not about an act of mercy and forgiveness for what people have done that it violates the law.

It's part of his entire false narrative that there was no crime, that this was a peaceful protest and that those who've been charged and convicted are hostages.

So I think it does real damage to our criminal justice system.

Each one of these defendants has had due process of law.

They have had attorneys to counsel them.

They have had jury trials if they wanted to go to trial.

Their constitutional rights have been respected.

And it's part of our adherence to the rule of law that those are not just the kind of people that you just said you're going to give blanket pardons to, or even in the cases you were mentioning commutations.

GEOFF BENNETT: Well, let's talk separately about the pardons that President Biden -- former President Biden issued this morning as one of his final acts to the high-profile Trump targets, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley, members of the committee that investigated the January 6 attack, and also to include his siblings and siblings-in-law, given that some on the right said that they should be prosecuted.

Novel use of the presidential pardon power.

What questions does it raise?

MARY MCCORD: So this is also extraordinary.

And as President Biden said, this was really because of the exceptional circumstances we're in, where Donald Trump and those around him have repeatedly over the course of the campaign and really the course of the last four years talked about retribution, right, talked about going after those who have come after him, and actually named many of these people by name, named Mark Milley, named Anthony Fauci, named Liz Cheney, and other members of the select committee.

So I think what President Biden felt was a sort of a moral obligation to try to protect them from unfounded, baseless investigations and prosecutions, because even though I think he, like I, have faith that people who did not commit any crime, ultimately, there are other guardrails in the system that would prevent them from being convicted, but it can be expensive and emotionally and psychologically incredibly draining for the person who's targeted in their families if you are put through an investigation that's utterly baseless.

So it was extraordinary.

And similarly, with his family members, it's again, it's this concern about retribution.

And that concern is well-founded, because it's something that Donald Trump and others close to him, including his nominee for the FBI director, have threatened.

GEOFF BENNETT: Understanding the concern, what's the precedent that's set by handing out pardons to people who have yet to be convicted, not even investigated for a crime?

MARY MCCORD: So there is some precedent for something like this, including President Carter's blanket pardons for draft dodgers after Vietnam, I mean, including people who hadn't been identified by the government or investigated.

But, as you indicated with your previous question that I now realize I didn't fully answer, there certainly are questions that could be raised.

One of those questions is, does the person have to accept the pardon for it to be effective?

And if it's accepted, would that preclude or would that mean that person does not have any Fifth Amendment rights to invoke if ever called to testify in a different type of proceeding, let's say, a congressional proceeding?

And the Supreme Court has held that a person can reject a pardon.

And, in fact, the case rejecting it was a case -- a case where they held that was a case where the beneficiary of a pardon rejected it.

So there are some questions to be raised, but, right now, we will just have to wait and see whether there are any investigations launched.

GEOFF BENNETT: Mary McCord, our thanks to you, as always.

We appreciate you being with us this evening.

AMNA NAWAZ: For more inauguration analysis, we turn now to our Politics Monday duo.

That is Amy Walter of The Cook Political Report With Amy Walter and Tamara Keith of NPR.

Great to see you both.

Amy, we were speaking earlier about how the idea that certainly American politics is different now, the party is different, the Republican Party.

Perceptions of Mr. Trump himself have changed over time.

Tell us about that.

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political Report: Well, it is quite remarkable looking at what has now been almost a 10-year political career of Donald Trump, where he started when he came down that escalator to where he is today, but where he was at this point four years ago, sitting at about 36 percent favorable rating, one of the lowest for a one-term president in modern history.

Certainly, most folks would have thought, well, that was the end of Donald Trump's political career.

Today, he comes into office with, for the first time really in the history of his time as president, with a higher favorable than unfavorable rating, slightly, somewhere around 47, 48 percent.

So it's not that he's now jumped up into, say, the stratosphere in terms of opinions about him.

I think what people -- how people view him now is with really clear-eyed -- they're clear-eyed about who he is.

Even though they may not like him personally, they do expect him to deliver on the promises that he put forward, especially on immigration and on the economy.

But, as I said, it's not a deep well of goodwill, but it's a bigger well of goodwill than he had either in 2017, certainly than at this point in 2021.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, Tam, to that point, the entire Trump team is coming in better prepared than they did back in 2017.

He's surrounding himself with none of the sort of establishment members that he had before.

So tell us about the folks around him now.

Who's helping to call the shots?

TAMARA KEITH, National Public Radio: Right.

So.

He has surrounded himself with people who are loyal to him and loyal to the MAGA way.

Susie Wiles is the chief of staff, and she is coming in, running things in -- she also helped run his campaign.

And the idea, at least, and we will see if it holds, is that she is running it in a more structured fashion.

There aren't the feuding factions within the White House, the feuding power centers that there were before.

There isn't a Steve Bannon walking around.

However, there are people like Stephen Miller, who will be a deputy chief of staff, but also leading national security and really immigration-focused.

He spent four years out of office focused on coming up with ways to enact his agenda and Trump's agenda on immigration and came in ready with all of these executive actions that we're expecting from President Trump.

Now, many of them could face legal challenges too, but they came in ready with a focus on that.

Also, Russ Vought at the Office of Management and Budget, he was there before.

He has done it before.

And he has spent four years thinking about how to enact policy through this very powerful office that nobody actually thinks about very often, the Office of Management and Budget.

AMNA NAWAZ: And, Tam, we have already seen on day one, one team member leave.

That is Vivek Ramaswamy.

He was originally paired with Elon Musk to help run this Department of Government Efficiency, commission.

They just announced literally hours after President Trump was sworn in he's no longer going to have that role.

What should we know about that change?

TAMARA KEITH: He is apparently planning to run for office in Ohio.

He -- it depends on how you count.

Is it a Scaramucci or like 1/11th of a Scaramucci?

He didn't last a whole day.

However, the Department of Government Efficiency was announced a couple of months ago.

And there are really big questions about it.

It is not actually a department of the government.

It is an outside advisory group that has -- within moments of Trump being sworn in, faces a lawsuit from a number of groups, labor unions and others, arguing that it is operating outside of the rules for government advisory groups.

It's -- certainly, having one less leader at the top does increase the efficiency of the Department of Government Efficiency, even though it's not a department.

AMY WALTER: Yes.

I mean, the one thing I would also add is, Washington has changed a lot since 2017 in terms of the -- as Tam pointed out, the kinds of people that he has around him.

The Congress, 68 percent of members of the House have been elected since 2016.

When we talk about norm-busting for so many of these folks... AMNA NAWAZ: Right.

AMY WALTER: ... this is their normal.

There is nothing odd about the way that Donald Trump's behaving.

So, so much about Washington and the way that people consume information has changed.

The way that people are getting their information from social media or from other news sources that aren't traditional media is even more profound than it was back then.

What hasn't changed is Donald Trump.

I think he is still the same person.

We should expect the same kind of behavior, the disruption, the chaos, the speaking off the cuff, the not staying really focused on the things that his staff may want him to be focused on.

And what -- the real question is going to be whether or not Americans and those around him decide that those same behaviors are something that they can live with or whether they want something different.

TAMARA KEITH: Yes, during the first Trump term, there was a fair bit of self-sabotage that happened... AMY WALTER: Yes.

TAMARA KEITH: ... that wasn't just staff work.

And so there's only so much that an experienced chief of staff can manage when the principal is the one who sometimes goes -- veers very far off message, changes policy, announces policy before it's ready to go.

AMNA NAWAZ: If day one is any indication, we will see.

Tamara Keith, Amy Walter, always great to see you both.

Thank you.

TAMARA KEITH: You're welcome.

GEOFF BENNETT: President Trump has promised to remake American foreign policy and today vowed that the U.S. State Department will have, in his words, an America first foreign policy.

Nick Schifrin looks at how the world is watching the inauguration of the 47th president.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Much of the world has responded with congratulations today, from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed victory over Iran with Trump's help.

But after Trump said in his inaugural address that Panama had -- quote -- "violated the spirit" of the treaty that governs the canal, Panamanian President Jose Mulino said: "Dialogue is always the way to clarify the points mentioned without undermining our right, total sovereignty and ownership of our canal."

In Europe there were also regards the new president, but leaders also took the opportunity to pledge change and debate the future of the war in Ukraine.

And to discuss that, we turn to Jens Stoltenberg, the most recent secretary-general of NATO, who will become the chairman of the Munich Security Conference next month.

Jens Stoltenberg, thanks very much.

Welcome back to the "News Hour."

Let's start in Ukraine.

Today, President Zelenskyy made a statement that said -- quote -- "Trump's peace through strength provides an opportunity to strengthen American leadership and achieve a long-term and just peace."

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he welcomed Trump's statement to restore direct contact and prevent World War III.

Do you believe this is the right time to talk peace in Ukraine?

And do you believe that the Trump administration will help Ukraine achieve a just peace?

JENS STOLTENBERG, Former NATO Secretary-General: Well, I think it's a bit too early to tell.

But what is obvious is that we all want this war to end.

At the same time, we know that the quickest way of ending the war is to lose the war.

But that will not bring peace.

That will bring occupation.

So, the challenge is to ensure that Ukraine is able to end the war in a way that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign independent nation.

And the only way to do that is to convince President Putin that he will not win on the battlefield.

And that means that we need to provide military support to Ukraine and also to arm and strengthen the Ukrainians, so they can deter future aggression.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Down at Mar-a-Lago, before he became president, President Trump said that he understood why Russia did not want Ukraine -- quote -- "on its doorstep" and then NATO, suggesting he would reverse decades of U.S. open-door policy of European countries to join NATO.

Was that a mistake?

JENS STOLTENBERG: I'm from Norway.

And Norway is a small country bordering Russia.

We were the only European country bordering the Soviet Union when NATO was established in '49.

Russia and Moscow didn't like that.

They said it was a provocation, a threat.

But I'm glad that the other allies said, well, if Norway wants to join, Norway's welcome, in the same way are welcome, for instance, that now Sweden and Finland has decided and are now full members of the alliance.

It is the right of every free, independent nation to choose its own path.

And that includes what kind of security arrangements it wants to be part of.

And, therefore, NATO's door should remain -- or should, yes, remain open, and we should continue to pursue the open-door policy.

NICK SCHIFRIN: I have talked to multiple senior European leaders over the last few months.

And they all say that they want to work with the Trump administration ON Ukraine, on NATO, even on places like Lebanon, where the Trump administration will need European help.

But they warn that, if the Trump administration imposes tariffs on Europe, that cooperation would be more difficult.

Do you agree?

JENS STOLTENBERG: Yes, I think that's a factual thing.

I understand that the United States and also other allies are concerned about trade, overdependence on raw materials, products from authoritarian countries, like we have seen, for instance, overdependence on Russian gas or rare earth minerals from China.

But it's a total different thing to be concerned about free trade among free nations.

And I strongly believe that, among friends and allies, and especially among NATO allies, we are 50 percent of the world global economy, that we should have free trade.

That will increase growth.

It will make us all richer.

And, therefore, I think we should not impose tariffs against allies, but keep our economies open to each other.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Brussels does plan economic countermeasures if the Trump administration chooses tariffs.

Would that trade war imperil transatlantic cooperation?

JENS STOLTENBERG: It will weaken the transatlantic bond, because the transatlantic bond is about security, defense.

And European allies are stepping up, investing more.

But the transatlantic bond is also about trade.

And, again, I believe that we are getting richer, more wealthy, all of us, when we trade.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Finally, Jens Stoltenberg, we went back to the archive and found this moment from a breakfast you held with the former president in 2018.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: But Germany, as far as I'm concerned, is captive to Russia because it's getting so much of its energy from Russia.

So we're supposed to protect Germany, but they're getting their energy from Russia.

Explain that.

And it can't be explained.

You know that.

NICK SCHIFRIN: You have worked with Trump for years.

What do you recommend to fellow European leaders who are about to work with him as president for the next four years?

JENS STOLTENBERG: I recommend to do the same as we did last time President Trump was president.

I'm not saying that everything will be easy, but I'm saying that friends and allies should sit down, discuss, engage, and then find common ground also on the issues where there are disagreements.

NICK SCHIFRIN: Jens Stoltenberg, thank you very much.

JENS STOLTENBERG: Thanks so much for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: And we start today's other headlines in the Middle East.

Israeli hostages have been reuniting with their loved ones, as a two-day-old cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appears to be holding.

Israeli authorities released video today of the three hostages freed in yesterday's swap meeting with their mothers.

Among them is 28-year-old Emily Damari, who said today that she feels like she's returned to life.

Hospital officials say all three women are in stable condition.

Meantime, in Gaza, displaced Palestinians began returning to their homes.

Many of them arrived to find their houses and neighborhoods in ruin.

MOHAMMAD ABU AL-KHEIR, Rafah Resident: We were staying in tents in Khan Yunis.

We came to our house, but found destruction.

Everything was destroyed.

There's no place to live.

There's no furniture or anything.

GEOFF BENNETT: Humanitarian aid trucks are flowing into Gaza as part of the cease-fire agreement.

Video from Rafah showed people grabbing supplies from delivery vehicles as they were still moving.

U.N. officials say that more than 900 aid trucks crossed into Gaza today.

That's on top of the 630 that went in a day earlier.

A British teen pleaded guilty today to murdering three girls and wounding 10 other people at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in England last summer.

Axel Rudakubana entered the surprise plea as jury selection was set to begin for his trial in Liverpool.

The 18-year-old faces life imprisonment when he's sentenced on Thursday.

The attack set off a week of rioting across parts of England and Northern Ireland after the suspect was falsely identified as an asylum seeker.

He was actually born in Wales.

Here at home, the bitter cold that forced the presidential inauguration indoors today is stretching far beyond Washington, D.C. More than 230 million Americans have been under some form of winter weather alert as a so-called arctic blast brings low temperatures as far west as the Rockies through the Northern Plains and the tip of Maine.

Snow blanketed many parts of the country over the weekend, including in Southeastern Pennsylvania.

In Michigan, wintry conditions contributed to a pileup of more than a dozen vehicles on a major highway.

Even the South won't be spared.

Rare winter storm warnings are in place tonight along a large part of the Gulf Coast.

In Southern California, fierce Santa Ana winds were back on the forecast today, which could complicate efforts to douse the wildfires that started nearly two weeks ago.

Officials say today's gusts could exceed 80 miles per hour in some areas.

The National Weather Service is warning of an especially dangerous situation through tomorrow morning.

Firefighters are hoping the conditions won't undo much of the progress they have made.

At last check, the Palisades Fire was 59 percent contained and the Eaton Fire was 87 percent contained.

Financial markets and most government offices were closed today to honor the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday.

Many MLK events took place over the weekend, though there were still a few today, including a rally at the South Carolina Statehouse hosted by the NAACP.

The chair of the National Democratic Committee, Jaime Harrison, delivered the keynote speech.

MLK Day has now coincided with Inauguration Day three times since it became law roughly four decades ago.

It happened today, of course, but also when Bill Clinton and Barack Obama were sworn in for their second terms.

And women's rights activist and former president of Planned Parenthood Cecile Richards has died.

Her family announced the news, saying -- quote -- "Our hearts are broken today, but no words can do justice to the joy she brought to our lives."

Richards led Planned Parenthood for more than a decade, often defending it from political attacks.

She later stepped down to lead a group to mobilize female voters.

Richards was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer in 2023.

Then-President Biden honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Today, he called her a leader of utmost character.

Cecile Richards was 67 years old.

GEOFF BENNETT: In 1987, journalist Juan Williams helped illuminate the civil rights movement with "Eyes on the Prize," a groundbreaking book that brought history to life and became an essential chronicle of the fight for racial equality.

That book was paired with a groundbreaking PBS documentary of the same name.

Now, nearly four decades later, Williams returns with "New Prize For These Eyes," a powerful and timely update on this MLK day that looks at the new 21st century civil rights movement.

I recently spoke with him about it.

Juan Williams, welcome to the "News Hour."

JUAN WILLIAMS, Author, "New Prize For These Eyes: The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement": My pleasure, Geoff.

Thanks for having me.

GEOFF BENNETT: What about this current moment inspired you to write a follow-up to your 1987 book, "Eyes on the Prize"?

JUAN WILLIAMS: You know, boy, 1987, that's a way back.

GEOFF BENNETT: Almost 40 years ago.

JUAN WILLIAMS: Yes, exactly.

So, 40 years ago, I wrote "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years."

And it was accompanying a PBS special of the same name.

It was a great success.

So now, 40 years later, here I am, and I'm saying to you, I think we're in the midst of a second civil rights movement.

And I have written a book called "New Prize For These Eyes: The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement."

And the key here is that, if you think about "Eyes on the Prize" and the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century, in some ways, it could be summed up three words: We shall overcome.

And then the focus there is on attaining basic rights through legislation, people marching in the streets.

OK, fast-forward to 2025, and here we are with Black Lives Matter.

And what do we see?

Black Lives Matter, in terms of marches, well, goodness gracious, thousands of marches with millions of people, as opposed to, say, even the great March on Washington with Dr. King, which had 250,000 people.

So we're seeing right now a movement that's much larger, and it's 24/7.

It's on the Internet.

It's tweets, it's memes, it's viral messages, viral images, and all about living while Black.

If you think back to the George Floyd case, what really got that going was the video image of the nine minutes of the policeman with his knee on George Floyd's neck.

So, in this moment, I thought there's a lot going on here that people don't think of as a civil rights movement.

And this movement is distinct from the first movement.

It's all about not passing legislation, but about people gaining voice and saying, this is what it's like to be Black, to be Latino, to be a woman in this age.

And it's changing the way we think about America because these people are having their own voice.

It's a new conversation.

It's a new movement.

GEOFF BENNETT: Distinct and new, but what historical patterns and parallels stand out to you?

JUAN WILLIAMS: Well, obviously, I mentioned marching.

Obviously, the marches of back then were meant to have an impact, and you see marches today.

So there would be some parallel there, although, as I pointed out to you, this -- marches today much larger and have in some ways, I think, much more impact.

The conversation we're having now, as compared to then, is not about, can we pass a Civil Rights Act?

Can we pass a Voting Rights Act?

Can we get enough votes to do it?

Now the conversation is, and this is pushing forward, what is the norm for America?

Where are we going forward on this conversation of race?

Is it OK to have a conversation about diversity, equity, and inclusion in terms of hiring?

How about in terms of cultural representation?

Do we need to have that conversation?

What about curriculum and what goes on in the schools?

Should we be teaching people about oftentimes disturbing, even unpleasant, and cruel history, or is that something that's going to make children upset, and we don't need to do it?

Do we have in the politics a real conversation?

The Republican Party right now is overwhelmingly a white people's party.

It's 80-plus percent white.

Look at the vote for Donald Trump, overwhelmingly white.

Look at the vote for Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, strongly Black.

We saw some decrease in terms of Black men and Latino men, but, still, it's like 80 percent of Black and Latinos, Blacks anyway, voted for the Democrats.

So, yes, these conversations have parallels, but you see the emerging difference from that first movement.

GEOFF BENNETT: One of the takeaways from the last election is that many of the efforts to advance social justice struck many Americans as too confrontational, too judgmental, that many of the activists and advocates misread and miscalibrated where the American public stands on a lot of these social issues.

You did a lot of the writing and reporting of this book well before the election, but what have you picked up in your conversations, and what are your takeaways on that front?

JUAN WILLIAMS: You know, Geoff, that's such a fascinating question, because I'm a journalist, basically.

I'm not an historian.

Oftentimes people, I think, not just a journalist, but just a casual observer of the news, you lose focus, because things come so quickly, especially these days from so many different sources.

But I think that right now, if you focus and say, oh, I see the dots connecting, I see how things are impacting us, you would have to say that we are moving towards a moment where that,if there is a second movement, there has to be a third movement, because right now, people seeing Donald Trump's election and seeing all the arguments that, well, too much of this identity politics and too much of this DEI, diversity, inclusion, that you would say, well, how do they reinvent that circle or that machine?

I can't necessarily tell you that story, but I can tell you this, that, based on what I have seen, the politics have to change.

Oftentimes, activists in the past have been sort of discontented with politics and politicians, even a great one like Barack Obama.

But now they're going to have to understand what compromise means.

Now they're going to have to start to work to build alliances.

Now they're going to have to work to see where it is that you can reach out to the majority of Trump voters and say there's common interest in understanding why the races, the ethnicities come together to form one America.

GEOFF BENNETT: What do you envision as the ultimate prize for this new movement and what does achieving it look like?

JUAN WILLIAMS: So one of the interesting things -- and this goes back to what we were talking about early in the conversation about media and so many voices emerging -- is the living-while-Black or Latino quality of it, that people, young people, my kids, your kids, would have a sense, you know what, I have an equal opportunity in this country.

I don't feel put upon or stigmatized by the color of my skin or my name being foreign sounding or anything like that.

I think that that is the prize is that you would say, in America, it doesn't matter who you are, where you came from.

If you have the heart and the drive and the mind, you -- and the spirit, you can do it.

The common humanity, I think that remains the prize.

GEOFF BENNETT: The book is "New Prize For These Eyes: The Rise of America's Second Civil Rights Movement."

Juan Williams, it's great to have you here.

Thanks for coming in.

JUAN WILLIAMS: Geoff, thanks for having me here.

As you know, "Eyes on the Prize" was a PBS product.

GEOFF BENNETT: That's correct.

JUAN WILLIAMS: So I am so pleased to be here.

GEOFF BENNETT: A full circle moment.

JUAN WILLIAMS: I tell you.

AMNA NAWAZ: A quick news update.

Tonight, the Senate voted to confirm the first of President Trump's Cabinet members.

Former Senator Marco Rubio received a unanimous vote from his former colleagues to become secretary of state.

GEOFF BENNETT: Meantime, there's a lot more online from the first day of President Donald Trump's second presidency, including the inauguration ceremonies and the president's speech tonight from Capital One Arena.

It's all at PBS.org/NewsHour.

AMNA NAWAZ: And that is the "News Hour" for tonight.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

GEOFF BENNETT: And I'm Geoff Bennett.

For all of us here at the "PBS News Hour," thanks for spending part of your evening with us.