--- title: Trump Inauguration: What Donald Trump Did His First Day description: Shortly after he was sworn-in as President of the United States, Donald Trump took his first presidential actions—signing off on paperwork canonical: https://time.com/4641565/donald-trump-president-first-day/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-20T20:50:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T13:10:51.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Everything Donald Trump Did During His First Day as President og:description: His first executive order was aimed at rolling back the Affordable Care Act og:url: https://time.com/4641565/donald-trump-president-first-day/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt403bfbb6d494671c/6988b66d5f570fa911b23cfd/donald-trump10.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: US-POLITICS-INAUGURATION-SWEARING IN-TRUMP og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Everything Donald Trump Did During His First Day as President twitter:description: His first executive order was aimed at rolling back the Affordable Care Act twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt403bfbb6d494671c/6988b66d5f570fa911b23cfd/donald-trump10.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here’s Everything Donald Trump Did During His First Day as President > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Dec 13, 2023 1:10 PM UTCPublished: Jan 20, 2017 8:50 PM UTC  Donald Trump is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 2017 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Donald Trump is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 2017 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC. Mark Ralston—AFP/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Updated: Dec 13, 2023 1:10 PM UTCPublished: Jan 20, 2017 8:50 PM UTC Shortly after he was [sworn in](http://time.com/4641156/donald-trump-inauguration-oath-swear-in-president/) as President of the United States, [Donald Trump](http://time.com/4641313/trump-inauguration-speech-analysis/?xid=homepage) rounded up lawmakers and members of his family in a room near the Senate floor to watch him take his first presidential actions—signing some paperwork. Trump put his signature on a few presidential documents, including a proclamation for a National Day of Patriotism and formal nominations for his Cabinet picks, just after he was officially inaugurated, his spokesman Sean Spicer [said](https://twitter.com/PressSec/status/822504923485048835). Details about the National Day of Patriotism were not immediately clear. Trump also signed a waiver allowing [retired Marine Gen. James Mattis](http://time.com/4641312/trump-inauguration-james-mattis-pentagon-legislation/?xid=homepage) to become the new Defense Secretary, despite a law that would have required him to be out of active military duty for seven years. Mattis was later confirmed and sworn in by Vice President Mike Pence on Friday. At the same post-inauguration ceremony, Trump also [suspended a housing order](http://time.com/4641511/trump-inauguration-mortgage-payments/) that had benefitted people buying new homes. It will increase the amount of money that most non-wealthy mortgage holders must pay to the Federal Housing Authority’s insurance program. He then doled out the signing pens to members of Congress. About the same time, Trump fired off a series of tweets from his personal account, reiterating what he said during his first speech: that Americans have taken back power from the government. He said the day would be “remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again,” as he pledged to “bring back” America to its glory. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/822502450007515137) The Trump administration also [updated](http://fortune.com/2017/01/20/trump-website-climate-change/) the official White House website, writing that Trump is “committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies” of former President Barack Obama, including his Climate Action Plan and other environmental initiatives. In his first executive order—signed in the Oval Office—Trump directed government agencies to scale back Affordable Care Act regulations, allowing agencies to delay or waive provisions of the law, thereby beginning to roll back it back before an official repeal by Congress, the [New York Times reported](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/20/us/politics/trump-executive-order-obamacare.html?%5Fr=0). Trump’s administration also ordered a freeze on all pending government regulations in order to review and approve them—a move that former Obama also took after he was inaugurated. During the afternoon, Trump attended a luncheon hosted by Congress in the Capitol before heading to participate in the presidential procession and inaugural parade on Pennsylvania Avenue. [Later in the evening](http://time.com/4639340/donald-trump-inauguration-events-schedule/), he attended three official inaugural balls. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4641565/donald-trump-president-first-day/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4641565/donald-trump-president-first-day/"},"headline":"Here’s Everything Donald Trump Did During His First Day as President","datePublished":"2017-01-20T20:50:05.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T13:10:51.000Z","description":"His first executive order was aimed at rolling back the Affordable Care Act","url":"https://time.com/4641565/donald-trump-president-first-day/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt403bfbb6d494671c/6988b66d5f570fa911b23cfd/donald-trump10.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt403bfbb6d494671c/6988b66d5f570fa911b23cfd/donald-trump10.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-POLITICS-INAUGURATION-SWEARING IN-TRUMP","caption":"Donald Trump is sworn in as president on Jan. 20, 2017 at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Mark Ralston—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4641565/donald-trump-president-first-day/","name":"Here’s Everything Donald Trump Did During His First Day as President"}}]}] ```