What were Donald Trump's first actions as president?

Donald Trump holds up an executive order after signing it

After being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, President Trump wasted no time in signing off a series of documents to get his plans into action.

Sat at a desk, he was brought document after document to sign in front of a crowd at the Capitol One Arena in Washington and at the White House.

These documents were mostly executive orders.

An executive order is a written law introduced by the president that doesn't need to be approved by other US politicians.

It is a very powerful tool, but it does still need to be legal and should not go against the US constitution.

Here are some of the executive orders Trump signed within hours of becoming president.

TikTok

As he promised before his inauguration, President Trump signed an order delaying the ban on TikTok.

A 75-day extension was given to the owners of the social media platform ByteDance to obey a law that requires the app to be banned or sold to an American company.

Donald Trump had said his order would give TikTok more time to find a US partner.

Asked what the action does after he signed it, he said it gives him the right to "sell it or close it".

Immigration

During his first presidency, Trump ordered a wall to be built on the border of the USA and Mexico

One of Trump's major policies is securing the US-Mexico border to stop illegal immigration and he signed a lot of executive orders on this.

These included declaring illegal immigration at the border a national emergency and ordering the military to "seal off" the border.

He also signed an order ending the right of 'birthright citizenship' for children born in the US to immigrants who entered the country illegally.

Birthright citizenship is when someone who is born in the USA becomes a US citizen - but this is likely to face political and legal challenges.

Climate

President Trump wants the US to drill for more oil and gas

Donald Trump used an executive order to withdraw again from the Paris climate agreement, a big international deal to take action on climate change.

He first withdrew from the agreement in 2017 and one of Joe Biden's first acts as president in 2021 was to rejoin.

He put a stop to measures by former president Biden to boost green jobs and limit pollution.

Instead he declared a US national energy emergency, promising to boost US oil and gas production.

Capitol riot

President Trump issued pardons for around 1,500 people who were involved in attacks on the Capitol on 6 January 2021.

The riot came after Donald Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.

Many of the rioters were arrested and sent to prison but President Trump's order will see them freed.