On Monday, January 20, Donald Trump slowly descended the steps of Capital One Arena, black folders in hand, before his ecstatic crowd of supporters gathered in the sports arena. He had been the 47^th president of the US for just a few hours. On the stage, a desk had been set up with the presidential seal. There, to applause, he signed a series of executive orders, the contents of which were quickly summarized by an adviser. The staging was unprecedented, somewhere between a sports show and politics, that of a new and unusual power. After showing the crowd his first signatures, Trump left the stage throwing pens, like a tennis champion on the court, hitting victory balls toward the stands.

Shockwaves, saturation of the airwaves: That was what the first day of the second Trump presidency looked like. For weeks, his advisers had been preparing public opinion for a clean break, with a flurry of executive orders. It happened. On the arena stage, Trump began by revoking 78 executive orders issued by his predecessor, Joe Biden, concerning everything from lower drug prices and anti-discrimination programs to sanctions against certain violent Jewish settlers in the West Bank. Then he announced, as in 2017, the US's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accords. The US will also leave the World Health Organization.

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