8 truly alarming things Donald Trump did on his third day back in the Oval Office

Donald Trump has been back in the Oval Office for three whole days now, and he’s getting back into the swing of things.

Issuing a threat to a foreign leader in an erratic, occasionally ALL CAPS post on social media? Check.

Doing a soft-ball sit down interview in the Oval Office with a toady Fox News personality and occasional conspiracy theorist? Check

Doing a few things that might give people who have studied history’s despots a raised eyebrow? You’d better believe it.

Here’s some of the wild and terrible things Donald Trump did while you were sleeping.

1. Hinted he might prosecute Joe Biden

Joe Biden spent his last 20 minutes in office giving members of his family – and members of the January 6th Committee – pre-emptive pardons to protect them from vindictive prosecutions after Trump took over.

Some thought Biden had exaggerated the risk. Turns out he may have dramatically underestimated it.

In a sit-down interview with Fox News blowhard Sean Hannity last night, Trump gave some pretty hefty hints he’s at least thinking about ordering that his predecessor face prosecutions.

“This guy went around giving everybody pardons,” he said. “The funny thing, maybe the sad thing, is he didn’t give himself a pardon.

“And if you look at it, it all had to do with him.”

He went on to suggest the Attorney General should investigate Biden, saying: “I went through four years in hell by this scum we had to deal with…it’s really hard to say they shouldn’t have to go through it also.”

2. Said pursuing Joe Biden was more important than the economy

As Trump kept ranting at Hannity about Biden’s “terrible advisors” who told him not to pardon himself, the Fox host tried to move the conversation along.

“Let me get on to the economy,” Hannity said. “I’m running out of time.”

Trump replied: “I don’t care. This is more important because the economy’s going to do great.”

Polling shows the economy was the number one issue of importance to the American public.

Suspect that clip might come back to bite him.

3. Halted all civil rights court cases

In a move that is definitely not something a dictator would do, Trump’s Justice Department ordered a “freeze” on all new civil rights cases or investigations.

A second memo sent round by the same department ordered a freeze on agreements reached with local police forces to address “flawed police practices or bias based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and disabilities.”

The order came from Justice Department chief of staff Chad Mizelle, an ally of hardline anti-immigration Trump aide Stephen Miller, according to the New York Times.

4. Claimed (again) that he won the youth vote by 36 points

Trump claimed in the sit-down with Hannity that he won “youth” by 36 points.

While it’s true that young voters – particularly young men – did shift towards Trump in 2024 compared to 2020, Kamala Harris beat Trump 54% to 43% among voters aged 18-24, 53% to 45% among voters ages 25-29, and 51% to 45% among voters ages 30-39.

5. Mulled inviting January 6th Rioters to the White House

This is inevitable, really. He wasn’t going to pardon 1,500 people without a photo op.

The suggestion (reported from people in the administration, not directly from Trump), came alongside the formation of a shiny new January 6th subcommittee to investigate “false narratives” around the violent attempted coup.

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson, who has set up the committee, is now referring to January 6th as “a day of peaceful protest”

6. Said the violent crimes against police officers on January 6th were “very minor incidents”

“You know how many people we’re talking about?” He said. “1500 people. Almost all of them, this should not have happened.

“Some of these with the police? True. But they were very minor incidents. They get built by a couple of fake guys on CNN all the time. They were very minor incidents, and it was time.”

It’s worth noting that January 6th is still a raw issue for the American people – and pardoning those behind it is deeply unpopular.

Just 2 in 10 Americans supported pardoning the rioters, according to an AP-NORC poll conducted in early January.

Some 6 in 10 were opposed, with half of those strongly opposed.

And for context, here’s some descriptions of the “very minor incidents”.

David Dempsey was convicted of repeatedly assaulting police officers with pepper spray, a metal crutch and wooden and metal poles. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Daniel Rodriguez was convicted of using a stun gun and “plunging it” multiple times into a police officer’s neck. Rodriguez was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison, until Monday when he was pardoned.

Ryan Nichols pleaded guilty to assaulting officers with pepper spray. On the day he yelled “If you have a weapon, you need to get your weapon!” He also Tweeted a video in which he said: “If [Vice President Mike] Pence caved, we’re gonna drag motherf*****s through the streets.”

And also released was this guy, Keith Packer, who stormed the capital wearing a “CAMP AUSCHWITZ” hoodie.

Underneath his hoodie was another Nazi-themed tee shirt.

He was jailed 75 days for non-violent offences.

7. Pardoned sentences for two cops jailed over the death of a young black man

Trump pardoned DC police officer Terence Sutton, jailed for second-degree murder and obstruction of justice over an unauthorised pursuit which killed 20 year old Karon Hilton-Brown in 2020.

The death sparked violent protests in the capital.

Also pardoned was Lt Andrew Zabavsky who agreed with Sutton to cover up the killing, and was jailed for doing so.

“They were arrested, put in jail for five years because they went after an illegal,” Trump said on Tuesday.

Mr Hilton-Brown was not an “illegal” anything, he was a US citizen.

Trump went on: “And I guess something happened where something went wrong, and they arrested the two officers and put them in jail for going after a criminal.”

The pardons almost certainly had nothing to do with the Fraternal Order of Police and International Association of Chiefs of Police, a police union which backed Trump, saying his blanket pardons of J6 rioters “sends a dangerous message”.

8. Threatened to cut off funding for sanctuary states

Sanctuary states – which include New York and California – are states in which it is in their constitution that law enforcement and government agencies don’t ask about a person’s immigration status unless they have committed a crime.

Trump, and other Republicans hate this, because it makes it harder for him to pursue his policy of deporting millions of non-citizens – the vast majority of whom are not criminals, many of whom have been in the country for decades and have family members who were born in the US.

Asked if he would cut off funding for such states, Trump said: “I might have to do that. Sometimes that’s the only thing you can do.”