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title: What President Trump Has Done So Far
description: Morning Must Reads: January 24
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article:published_time: 2017-01-24T19:00:33.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-10-07T07:14:37.127Z
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og:description: Morning Must Reads: January 24
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![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb24c27fcf0ec0da8/6986837dcd6848a30809364f/morning-must-reads1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)


# What President Trump Has Done So Far

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<!-- video src="https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gJmmEYQH.m3u8" -->
## Video: Donald Trump’s First Press Briefing Was a Big Change

[Watch (HLS stream): Donald Trump’s First Press Briefing Was a Big Change](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/gJmmEYQH.m3u8) (1:40)

![Donald Trump’s First Press Briefing Was a Big Change](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/gJmmEYQH/poster.jpg?width=720)

_Published 2017-01-23. Sean Spicer arrived at his first full press briefing as the Trump Administration’s top spokesman_


by 

[Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/)


## Zeke Miller


Jan 24, 2017 7:00 PM UTC

Sean Spicer arrived at his first full press briefing as the Trump Administration’s top spokesman 

by 

[Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/)


## Zeke Miller


Jan 24, 2017 7:00 PM UTC

President Donald Trump first week is off to a frenetic start, with business leader, staff, and congressional meetings, along with a flurry of executive actions occupying his time. He’s fulfilled some core campaign promises, including killing the Trans-Pacific Partnership and working to green-light two controversial pipelines. But he’s already signaled he may be backing off on some of them, as the White House put the brakes on a moving the U.S. embassy to Israel to Jerusalem. In any event, the Trump White House failed to accomplish its “Day One” goals on day three.

Trump is already setting about reshaping American foreign policy, signaling Monday that he would be open to working with Russia on air strikes against the Islamic State group.

Trump repeats a lie to lawmakers. He’ll keep Comey around. And a launch and a reboot.

_Here are your must reads:_

**Must Reads**

[Donald Trump Breaks Almost All of His ‘Day One’ Promises ](http://time.com/4644646/donald-trumps-day-one-promises/)Here’s a wrap of what Trump promised to do on his first day in office, compared with what he actually did \[Associated Press\]

[Trump Repeats Lie About Popular Vote in Meeting With Lawmakers ](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/23/us/politics/donald-trump-congress-democrats.html?emc=edit%5Fna%5F20170123&nl=breaking-news&nlid=55003713&ref=headline)Says falsely there were millions of ineligible votes cast \[New York Times\]

[President Trump Hasn’t Decided on Israeli Embassy Move, Despite Campaign Pledge ](http://time.com/4644067/donald-trump-jerusalem-embassy-decision/)Following two of his last three predecessors \[TIME\]

[President Trump Open to Joint Russia-U.S. Strikes In Syria ](http://time.com/4644036/donald-trump-russia-syria-joint-strikes/)First major shift from Obama administration on ISIS campaign \[TIME\]

[Donald Trump’s First Press Briefing Was a Big Change ](http://time.com/4643724/donald-trump-first-press-briefing/)A softer tone from his press secretary, TIME’s Philip Elliott writes


[Trump Takes First Steps on “America First” Foreign Policy ](http://time.com/4643380/donald-trump-tpp-mexico-city-trade-business/)Pulls U.S. out of TPP trade pact \[TIME\]

[The First Days Inside Trump’s White House: Fury, Tumult and a Reboot ](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-first-days-inside-trumps-white-house-fury-tumult-and-a-reboot/2017/01/23/7ceef1b0-e191-11e6-ba11-63c4b4fb5a63%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fcampaign=newsletter%5Faxiosam&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fterm=.1167eb838d7b)The mercurial president’s first days \[Washington Post\]

**Sound Off**

“We’ll have these meetings every — whenever you need them. I would say every quarter, perhaps. You could say monthly but then all of a sudden monthly becomes repetitive.” — President Donald Trump during a meeting with business leaders Monday

“If it was already a decision, we wouldn’t be going through a process.” — Press Secretary Sean Spicer Monday on the process to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

**Bits and Bites**

[Trump admin orders media blackout at EPA](https://www.apnews.com/55d484c19c28463e95c3b7c674d20bab?utm%5Fcampaign=SocialFlow&utm%5Fsource=Twitter&utm%5Fmedium=AP) \[Associated Press\]

[What to Know About the Ethics Lawsuit Facing President Trump](http://time.com/4643112/donald-trump-ethics-lawsuit-emoluments/) \[TIME\]

[Messaging App Has Bipartisan Support Amid Hacking Concerns](http://www.wsj.com/articles/messaging-app-has-bipartisan-support-amid-hacking-concerns-1485215028) \[Wall Street Journal\]

[Donald Trump Names Net Neutrality Critic Ajit Pai to Lead FCC](http://time.com/4644369/donald-trump-ajit-pai-fcc-chief/) \[Associated Press\]


[See Just How Big Over 200 Women’s Marches Were All Across the Country](http://time.com/4643692/womens-march-size-country/) \[TIME\]

[US sent $221 million to Palestinians in Obama’s last hours](https://www.apnews.com/b8446cbf5b504b1abaf49eb0d646367b) \[Associated Press\]

[Trump Is Said to Keep James Comey as F.B.I. Director](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/us/politics/trump-comey-fbi-director-.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur) \[New York Times\]


## Transcript

[00:00] I know that Josh Earnest voted the most popular Press
[00:03] Secretary by the press corps. So, after checking my
[00:06] Twitter feed, I shot Josh an email last night letting him
[00:09] know that he can rest easy that his title is secure for at
[00:12] least the next few days. I think that if there's a way that
[00:14] we can combat ISIS with any country whether it's Russia
[00:17] or anyone else And we had shared national interest in
[00:20] that, sure we'll take it. I believe that we have to be
[00:21] honest with the American people. I think sometimes we
[00:23] can disagree with the facts. There are certain things
[00:28] that we may not fully understand when we come out.
[00:30] But our intention is never to lie to you. There are times
[00:32] when we believe something to be true, or we get
[00:34] something from an agency. Are we acting in haste
[00:37] because the information available wasn't complete, but
[00:40] our desire to communicate with the American people
[00:42] and make sure that you have the most complete story
[00:44] at the time. And so we do it. I think that it's, as I
[00:47] mentioned the other day, it is a two way street. There
[00:50] are many mistakes that the media makes all the time.
[00:53] They misreport something, they don't report
[00:54] something, they get a fact wrong. I don't think that's
[00:57] always [ INAUDIBLE ], you know? To turn around and
[00:59] say, okay. You were intentionally lying. I think we all go
[01:02] try to do our best job. And do it with a degree of
[01:05] integrity in our respective industries. And do you stand
[01:08] by your statement that that was the most watched
[01:10] inaugural address in [ UNKNOWN ]? Sure, it was the
[01:13] most watched inaugural. When you look at. Look. You
[01:16] look at just the one network alone at 16. 9 million
[01:20] people online. Another couple of the networks there
[01:22] was tens of millions of people that watched that online.
[01:25] Nevermind the audience that was here. 31 million
[01:28] people watched it on television. Combine that with the
[01:30] tens of millions of people that watched it online on a
[01:33] device. It's unquestionable. And I don't
[01:38] see any numbers that dispute that.

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