Trump inauguration LIVE updates: Donald Trump signs flurry of executive orders after being sworn in as 47th US president in Washington DC

Marco Rubio, a veteran Republican senator who once ran against Donald Trump for the party’s presidential nomination, was confirmed as his secretary of state, the first of the president’s second-term nominees to be approved by the Senate.

Rubio, who served 14 years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is one of Trump’s more conventional cabinet choices and was cleared by a vote of 99 to 0 on Monday.

His speedy confirmation was less a reflection of Trump’s priorities and more a sign of the broad support he had from his former colleagues.

Rubio, 53, has taken an aggressive stance on China’s emergence as an economic power and will be the first US secretary of state to have been sanctioned by Beijing. The son of Cuban immigrants, he has been fierce critic of leftist dictatorships in Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua and of Iran’s Islamic clerical regime.

More challenging confirmations await. Some senators have privately expressed reservations about Trump’s pick for director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and no date has been set for her confirmation hearing.

Pete Hegseth, the nominee for defence secretary, appears likely to be confirmed despite near-unanimous Democratic opposition and concerns about past allegations of sexual assault, financial mismanagement and alcohol abuse.

Some of Rubio’s stances could put him at odds with his new boss. He’s a strong supporter of the NATO alliance, which Trump has often criticised, and backed the bill to ban the Chinese-owned video sharing app TikTok. Trump had initially supported a ban but warmed to the app and has promised to give it a reprieve for now.

Bloomberg

The second Trump administration has already had its first casualty: Vivek Ramaswamy, who was to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) alongside billionaire Space X entrepreneur Elon Musk.

Ramaswamy is stepping away from the DOGE to run for governor of Ohio, multiple US media outlets reported just hours after Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday (Tuesday AEDT).

A biotech entrepreneur, Ramaswamy initially contested the Republican nomination for president but dropped out early in the piece, then became one of Trump’s prominent supporters. But his relationships with some in Trump-world have soured, including reportedly with Musk, and he caused a stir with a social media post about skilled worker visas that accused the US of rewarding mediocrity over excellence.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry but AP quoted a spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, confirming Ramaswamy’s exit and thanking him for his work setting up the DOGE.

The DOGE is not an actual government department but a unit Trump says will be dedicated to cutting bureaucratic red tape and spending.

Billionaire Elon Musk has already secured a White House email address as President Donald Trump was sworn into office for a second term on Monday.

Musk, who is set to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, has an email available as part of the Executive Office of the President, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Musk was spotted by CNN entering the office building adjacent to the White House on Monday afternoon as Trump attended inaugural events. He is expected to receive a West Wing office to give him closer access to the president, according to The New York Times, instead of space in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building as had been thought.

Musk, the world’s richest person, is one of Trump’s most prominent supporters and has been chosen by the president to head the effort — known as DOGE — intended to reduce government spending.

Bloomberg.

Donald Trump has signed a number of executive orders live on stage at his inaugural parade at an arena in Washington, including a series of orders which he said rescinded 78 actions and memoranda produced by former President Biden.

One withdraws the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change, along with a letter to the United Nations explaining the US decision to withdraw.

Others pertained to ordering federal employees go back to the office full-time, and a federal hiring freeze.

Supporters in the arena cheered as he held up the signed orders.

Some yelled out things like “I love you President Trump” or “give me a pen”.

He theatrically displayed his large signature on each of the documents to his audience, and then threw five of the pens he had used into the front rows of the inauguration crowd, where his supporters scrambled to receive them.

At one point, Trump grabbed the microphone and said: “Could you imagine Biden doing this? I don’t think so.”

Trump has made some more promises – and threats.

“I will implement an immediate regulation freeze … most of those bureaucrats are being fired, they’re gone,” he said.

He pledged to impose a federal hiring freeze, and will order all federal employees back to the office.

He also confirmed he is “immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris Climate Accord rip-off”.

It follows a rant about wind power in which he claims without evidence that windmills are killing whales in Massachusetts and complains people won’t be able to watch him on television when the wind isn’t blowing.

“We’re not going to do the wind thing. Big ugly windmills they ruin your neighbourhood. If you have a house that’s near a windmill, guess what? Your house is worth less than F.”

He also took aim at the cost of living that continued to rise under Biden, claiming “you can’t buy bacon”, among other things.

Washington: Hillary Clinton held it together while Donald Trump claimed to be a peacemaker and a unifier, plugged his promised Department of Government Efficiency and pledged to “drill, baby, drill” for oil and gas.

But when he repeated his undertaking to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America”, it proved too much for the former first lady, who burst into laughter in the second row.

And you had to laugh, really, as Trump flagged his plan to “take back” the Panama Canal, claimed the Chinese military was running it, and said it was America’s manifest destiny to plant the Stars and Stripes on Mars.

Trump’s second inauguration ran the spectrum from amusing to awkward and downright unhinged – and you wouldn’t have expected anything less.

Read more here.

Donald Trump has opened his speech at the indoor presidential parade by promising to sign pardons for “a lot of people” involved in the January 6 riots as soon as he returns to the White House tonight.

He also paid tribute to the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza as the families of hostages lined the stage behind him.

“We won but now the work begins, we have to bring them home [the remaining hostages in Gaza],” Trump said.

“Tonight I’m going to be signing on the J6 [January 6 rioters] hostages’ pardons to get them out. And as soon as I leave I’m going to the Oval Office and I’m going to be signing pardons for a lot of people”.

Trump has repeatedly referred to those imprisoned over their involvement in the insurrection as “hostages”.

The schedule for Donald Trump’s second inauguration as US President really is something.

You have to hand it to the 78-year-old for maintaining his energy levels, what with all the handshakes and the speeches and the swearing in and the rallies and the (indoor) parade and the executive orders…

But you can’t blame some for not keeping up. Spare a thought for Vivek Vance, the new vice president’s son.

If you’ve been following the blog since the wee hours, you know what we’re talking about.