The dismissals of Jan. 6-related cases are underway as incarcerated Jan. 6 rioters are set to be released from jail and prison following Trump’s pardons and commutations.
At least 17 dismissal motions have been filed so far and they are signed by Edward Martin, the Jan. 6 defendant advocate who is now acting U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C.
Some people were released last night and releases are going to continue.
At 10 a.m., the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will hold a confirmation hearing for Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination to be Trump’s U.N. ambassador.
Stefanik has been an ardent ally of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, and a strong ally of Trump’s after first being elected as a moderate Republican in 2015.
Aides expect this hearing to run around three hours.
Barring a major stumble in her confirmation hearing, Stefanik is expected to be eventually confirmed by the Senate, and Republicans had hoped to schedule her confirmation hearing last week but background check paperwork was delayed (like it is for many others).
LONDON — In a freewheeling Inauguration Day of speeches, casual remarks and formal balls, Trump wasted no time trying to shape the world in his unmistakable image.
Unlike four years ago, when his term began in a flurry of unpreparedness, this time Trump let fly with a series of actions and statements that seek to scrub out many of former President Joe Biden’s decisions and replace them with his own stark imprimatur.
From tariffs, TikTok and the Middle East to the climate crisis and world health, here are the headlines of Trump’s foreign policy moves during the first 24 hours of a term set to last 1,461 days — and how the world reacted.
Early this morning, Trump said on his Truth Social account that he’s firing José Andrés from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, and former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council.
He also dismissed former U.S. special representative to Iran, Brian Hook, from the Wilson Center for Scholars and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President’s Export Council.
“You’re fired!” he wrote in all caps.
Biden yesterday issued a pre-emptive pardon for Milley, a retired general, after Trump had made threatening remarks about him.
Andrés responded on X by saying that he had already submitted his resignation last week and that his two-year term was already up.
Newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio refused to comment this morning on Trump’s pardons of 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters despite saying after the 2021 attack on the Capitol that it was “one of the saddest days in American history.”
In an interview on NBC’s “TODAY” show, he was asked what message the pardons send to the rest of the world, but deflected the question as outside his foreign policy purview.
“We’re going to focus on what makes America stronger and more prosperous and safer,” Rubio said. “I’m not going to engage in domestic political debates. I can’t in the role of State Department. My job is to focus on the president’s foreign policy.”
Pressed again to react to the pardons, he said, “My days at least in the time I’m at Department of State, my engaging in domestic politics will be put aside as I focus on the affairs of the United States has around the world.”
Rubio said he’s going to be working on foreign policy issues and criticized host Craig Melvin for asking questions about domestic politics.
After the Jan. 6 riot, Rubio put the attack in foreign policy terms. “Today, America looks like the countries that they came here to get away from. Vladimir Putin loved everything that happened today, because what happened is better than anything he could have ever come up with to make us look like we’re falling apart,” he said.”
Trump’s plan to roll back the constitutionally protected right to birthright citizenship is just one of several contentious executive actions that are likely to face pushback from judges and could be struck down by the Supreme Court.
Other policies that could be legally vulnerable include a plan to invoke an 18th century law called the Alien Enemies Act to round up and deport certain immigrants, legal experts said. Efforts to reallocate congressional funding to build a border wall and refusing to spend money appropriated by Congress for environmental policies would also most likely be challenged.
Civil rights groups and Democratic attorneys general are likely to sue over a number of Trump policies. In fact, lawsuits were filed challenging Trump’s proposed Department of Government Efficiency within minutes of his taking the oath of office.
But not all lawsuits are created equal, and many will fail.
Today, the Senate will be holding confirmation hearings for Elise Stefanik to serve as ambassador to the United Nations and Doug Collins as secretary of veterans affairs.
Both hearings take place before the Senate Foreign Relations and Veterans’ Affairs Committees at 10 a.m. ET.
The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to hold a markup at 10:15 a.m. of Scott Bessent’s nomination for treasury secretary. His confirmation hearing took place last week.
Trump is expected to hold a news conference at the White House later today to make an infrastructure-related announcement, his press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.”
“I won’t get ahead of President Trump, but I can ensure you, assure you, that it’s going to be a massive announcement, and it’s going to prove that the world knows that America is back,” she said.
Republican House and Senate leaders are expected to meet with Trump today, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters yesterday.
The meeting will be at the White House in the afternoon, a congressional leadership source familiar with the meeting told NBC News.
