Politics

Donald Trump returns to power, vows to end U.S. decline, ‘totally reverse’ actions by Joe Biden

Published

2 weeks ago

January 20, 2025

Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President on Monday, returning to power with a promise to end America’s decline and to “completely and totally reverse” the actions of the man who drove him from office four years ago.

Trump overcame impeachments, criminal indictments and a pair of assassination attempts to win another term in the White House, and he planned to act swiftly after the ceremony. Dozens of Executive Orders have already been prepared for his signature to clamp down on border crossings, increase fossil fuel development and end diversity and inclusion programs across the federal government.

The orders from the incoming Republican president will begin the process of unraveling the Democratic agenda of Joe Biden, whose term ended at noon, moments before Trump took the oath of office.

Declaring that government faces a “crisis of trust,” Trump said in his inaugural address that under his administration, “our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced.”

Trump claimed “a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal,” promising to “give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom.”

“From this moment on,” he added as Biden watched from the front row, “America’s decline is over.”

The Executive Orders are the first step in what Trump calls “the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense.”

Other goals will prove more difficult, perhaps testing the patience of supporters who were promised quick success. Trump has talked about lowering prices after years of inflation, but his plans for tariffs on imports from foreign countries could have the opposite effect.

Frigid weather rewrote the pageantry of the day. Trump’s swearing-in was moved indoors to the Capitol Rotunda — the first time that has happened in 40 years — and the inaugural parade was replaced by an event at a downtown arena. Throngs of Trump supporters who descended on the city to watch the ceremony outside the Capitol from the National Mall were left to find other places to view the festivities.

At the Capitol, Vice President JD Vance was sworn in first, taking the oath read by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on a Bible given to him by his great-grandmother. Trump followed moments after noon, using both a family Bible and the one used by President Abraham Lincoln at his 1861 inauguration as Chief Justice John Roberts administered his oath.

A cadre of billionaires and tech titans — including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai — were given prominent positions in the Capitol Rotunda, mingling with Trump’s incoming team before the ceremony began. Also there was Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who is expected to lead an effort to slash spending and federal employees.

Trump and his wife, Melania, were greeted at the North Portico of the executive mansion by Biden and First Lady Jill Biden for the customary tea and coffee reception. It was a stark departure from four years ago, when Trump refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory or attend his inauguration.

“Welcome home,” Biden said to Trump after the president-elect stepped out of the car. The two Presidents, who have spent years bitterly criticizing each other, shared a limo on the way to the Capitol. After the ceremony, Trump walked with Biden to the building’s east side, where Biden departed via helicopter to begin his post-presidential life.

Trump followed Biden’s departure with freewheeling remarks to supporters, revisiting a litany of conspiracy theories about voter fraud and grievances against perceived enemies such as former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, whom he called “a crying lunatic.”

He spoke for even longer than in his inaugural address, saying, “I think this is a better speech than the one I gave upstairs.”

Trump’s inauguration realized a political comeback without precedent in American history. Four years ago, he was voted out of the White House during an economic collapse caused by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Trump denied his defeat and tried to cling to power. He directed his supporters to march on the Capitol while lawmakers were certifying the election results, sparking a riot that interrupted the country’s tradition of the peaceful transfer of power.

But Trump never lost his grip on the Republican Party and was undeterred by criminal cases and two assassination attempts as he steamrolled rivals and harnessed voters’ exasperation with inflation and illegal immigration.

Trump used his inaugural address to repeat his claims that he was targeted by political prosecutions, and he promised to begin “fair, equal and impartial justice.” He also acknowledged that he was taking office on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which honors the slain civil rights hero. “We will strive together to make his dream a reality,” he said.

Now Trump is the first person convicted of a felony — for falsifying business records related to hush money payments — to serve as President. He pledged to “preserve, protect and defend” the Constitution from the same spot that was overrun by his supporters on Jan. 6, 2021. He’s said that one of his first acts in office will be to pardon many of those who participated in the riot, and he referred to them as “hostages” on Monday.

“It’s action, not words, that count, and you’re going to see a lot of action,” Trump said.

Eight years after he first entered the White House as a political newcomer, Trump is far more familiar with the operations of federal government and emboldened to bend it to his vision. Trump wants to bring quick change by curtailing immigration, enacting tariffs on imports and rolling back Democrats’ climate and social initiatives.

He has also promised retribution against his political opponents and critics, and placed personal loyalty as a prime qualification for appointments to his administration.

With minutes to go before leaving office, Biden issued preemptive pardons to his siblings and their spouses to shield them from the possibility of prosecution. He said in a statement that his family “has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats” and that he has “no reason to believe these attacks will end.”

Earlier in the day, Biden took a similar step with current and former government officials who have been the target of Trump’s anger. Biden said “these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.”

Trump has pledged to go further and move faster in enacting his agenda than during his first term, and already the country’s political, business and technology leaders have realigned themselves to accommodate him.

Democrats who once formed a “resistance” are now divided over whether to work with Trump or defy him. Billionaires have lined up to meet with Trump as they acknowledge his unrivaled power in Washington and his ability to wield the levers of government to help or hurt their interests.

Long skeptical of American alliances, Trump’s “America First” foreign policy is being watched warily at home and abroad as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will soon enter its third year, and a fragile ceasefire appears to be holding in Gaza after more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas.

Trump said he would lead a government that “expands our territory,” a reference to his goals of acquiring Greenland from Denmark and restoring U.S. control of the Panama Canal.

He also said he would “pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.” Musk, the owner of a space rocket company with billions of dollars in federal contracts, cheered and pumped his arms above his head as Trump spoke.

Trump is planning to crack down on the U.S. southern border with a playbook that’s similar to his first term — declaring a national emergency, limiting the number of refugees entering the U.S. and deploying the military. An app called CBP One, which has allowed nearly 1 million people to legally enter the U.S. with eligibility to work, has already stopped working.

He’s expected to take additional actions — including constitutionally questionable ones — such as attempting to end birthright citizenship automatically bestowed on people born in the U.S.

Trump will also sign an executive order aimed at ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.

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Politics

Torey Alston named new President of Broward College by Governor-packed Board of Trustees

Published

7 minutes ago

January 31, 2025

May Greene

Broward College has a new President: Torey Alston, a former appointed member of the Broward County School Board, who beat out one finalist for the job.

The college’s Board of Trustees unanimously selected Alston — whom voters ousted from the School Board last August, two years after his installation there by Gov. Ron DeSantis — to lead the public institution.

Of note, all five members of the Broward College Board of Trustees are DeSantis appointees, too.

“God is so good,” Alston, a Republican, said in a statement.

“As the son of two parents who attended community college including my father who completed the police academy forty years ago from then-Broward Community College, I know the value of the state college system first-hand.”

Alston’s selection is the latest in a series of leadership changes at the top level of the college. He takes over for Donald Astrap, a 10-year administrator of the school who was named Interim President in May 2024 after then-Acting President Barbara Bryan confirmed she would not extend her six-month contract. Bryan, in turn, succeeded ex-President Gregory Haile, who resigned in September 2023 after five and a half years as President.

Broward College officially launched its search for a new permanent President in April 2024. Trustees soon set their eyes on Henry Mack III, a chancellor in the Department of Education, but Mack declined the job just hours after being offered it.

The panel ultimately whittled down its list of candidates to two. On Friday, they picked Alston over co-finalist Jose Llontop, an investor and building materials executive who lives in Washington, D.C.

Alston’s nearly two decades of government work included stints at the Governor’s Office, an Executive Director post at the state Office of Supplier Diversity, and Chief of Staff positions in Broward County and at the Florida Department of Transportation.

DeSantis appointed Alston to the Broward County Commission in November 2021. Alston left for the School Board less than a year later. He also serves as Executive Director and CEO of the Greater Miami Expressway Authority, which oversees Miami-Dade County’s five toll roads.

Before working in education in Broward, Alston worked for three years at Miami-Dade County Public Schools as the district’s Executive Director of Economic Opportunity and as an economic equity and diversity compliance officer. He also served on the Board of Trustees for Florida A&M University.

Public servants from both sides of the aisle celebrated Alston’s appointment Friday. Tallahassee Democratic state Rep. Frank Gallop, the Ranking Member of the House Higher Education Budget Subcommittee, recalled working alongside Alston on the FAMA Board.

“(He) still carries that same passion for education today,” Gallop said in a statement. “He would be a great college President.”

House Speaker Daniel Perez, a Miami Republican, said Alston has “a bold vision for Broward College and its students, and he will be a phenomenal college President.”

Similar plaudits came from Miami-Dade School Superintendent Jose Dotres; Dotres’ predecessor in the job, Alberto Carvalho; Broward School Board member Brenda Fam; Broward County Commissioner Robert McKinzie; and Adrian Lukis, DeSantis’ former Chief of Staff.

Alexis Yarbrough, Chair of the Broward College Board of Trustees, said Alston and Llontop were both “very strong candidates,” but “Alston’s legislative experience, coupled with his relationships in the community made him the obvious choice.”

But some disagreed the choice is cause for celebration. Andrea Apa, a senior professor at Broward College and the school’s President of the United Faculty of Florida said the process lacked transparency and did not appropriately consider a complaint against Alston.

She noted in an op-ed published by the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that Alston still faces a complaint over alleged self-dealing while on the School Board. The complaint, filed with the State Ethics Commission in July by School Board member Allen Zeman, accuses Alston of advocating for more than $100 million in funding for charter schools before disclosing that his wife did business with some of them.

“Faculty and employees have left Broward College at a higher rate in the past two years than ever in the history of the institution … creating the highest student-faculty ratio among nine comparable state colleges, (and) faculty compensation at Broward College has increased only 0.03% over the past nine years while neighboring institutions like Palm Beach State College and Valencia College have gone up 14.7% and 16.9%, respectively,” she wrote.

“The allegations against Alston raise legitimate questions about his ability to lead ethically and address these challenges.”

Broward College serves roughly 56,000 students annually, according to its website. It was established in 1959 as the Junior College of Broward County, renamed Broward Junior College in 1968 and Broward Community College in 1970. It was rechristened Broward College in 2008.

Today, the school operates across three main campuses and several additional centers across the county, with an approximate annual budget of $221 million.

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Gov. DeSantis teases budget proposals, including tax cuts and Highway Patrol pay hike

Published

38 minutes ago

January 31, 2025

May Greene

‘They’ve done a lot of missions in addition to just the normal stuff. So they deserve that.’

While formal budget and spending proposals aren’t available yet, Gov. Ron DeSantis says they’re coming by the “end of the weekend” as required.

And though he was true to his word when he told a Destin audience that he was “not going to necessarily go into a lot of it” on Friday, DeSantis mentioned some ways he wanted to help people keep more of their money.

On at least one of them, Floridians will be able to make that decision if DeSantis gets his way.

He said that “any taxes we can eliminate” are up for grabs, including a move to “crack down on property taxes in the state” through a constitutional amendment on next year’s ballot.

“Homestead deduction needs to dramatically increase for people,” DeSantis said, given the increasingly high cost of housing driven by “demand” and other factors, including insurance rates.

The administration will “be working over the next year, year and a half to see what we can present for voters to be able to vote in the next election for some major, major property tax limitations and relief,” along with “some other tax stuff.”

Spending will increase in one way, meanwhile, with proposed pay increases for highway patrol troopers pending in light of deployments to the Mexican border.

“They’ve done a lot of missions in addition to just the normal stuff. So they deserve that, and we’re going to make sure that we get that done,” DeSantis said.

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Tom Fabricio measure would keep some complaints against law enforcement, correction officers confidential

Published

1 hour ago

January 31, 2025

May Greene

Law enforcement officers and correctional officers could have certain complaints lodged against them kept off their records if a new bill filed Thursday passes.

Miami Lakes Republican Rep. Tom Fabricio’s measure (HB 317) would exempt records of any investigations made into complaints against a law enforcement officer or a correctional officer from their personnel file under certain conditions.

Complaints filed against officers would be required to be given under oath and submitted in writing, and if an officer is subject to an interrogation that could lead to disciplinary action, then all information related to the investigation would have to be given to the officer or their representative before any interrogation into the allegations could begin, according to the bill.

That would include the names of the person or persons who filed the complaint, all witness statements, and any supporting evidence such as incident reports, GPS locator information, and video and audio recordings.

Florida statute currently states, “all information obtained pursuant to the investigation by the agency of the complaint is confidential,” and is exempt from public record until the investigation “ceases to be active” or until the agency decides whether to file charges against the officer.

The measure would amend that statute, adding that the officer be “provided a copy of the complaint signed by the complainant under oath before the effective date of the action.”

Current law already allows officers facing disciplinary action the right to address the findings with their respective agency heads before any disciplinary action can be imposed.

However, the new measure would allow such records to be left out of an officer’s personnel file if the investigation into their conduct did not end in disciplinary action. Furthermore, the existence of the investigation would not affect an officer’s ability to be promoted, get a pay raise, or receive a commendation.

Under the bill, the contents of both the complaint and the investigation would remain confidential until a final determination is made by investigators. The bill does not guarantee continued employment for officers under investigation.

The bill would further protect law enforcement and correctional officers protections by establishing penalties against those who make false complaints. Under the bill, someone found guilty of filing a false complaint could be charged with a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

If passed, the bill would become law on July 1.

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