8 wild and troubling things Donald Trump did on his second day back in office

Donald Trump has now been back in the Oval Office for two days.

And while his first day was eventful – with the pomp of the inauguration and the theatre of signing dozens of executive orders live on stage – the second was equally consequential.

Trump picked fights with the coast guard and god, kind of.

And he gave chilling indications that the far-right bully thug group The Proud Boys could have a “role in politics.”

Here’s six things Trump did that you might have slept through, but should probably know about today.

1. Called a bishop “nasty” and “boring” after she asked for mercy for LGBT people and minorities

The President’s first appointment on Tuesday was attending an interfaith prayer service alongside Vice President JD Vance.

We’re sure how much time Trump has spent in church, but he seemed to be surprised by the sermon – delivered by the Right Rev Mariann Budde, the Episcopal Bishop of Washington DC.

While it’s not uncommon for Christian sermons to involve a certain amount of berating the congregation, the Bishop broke with tradition by specifically aiming it at one member of the congregation.

“In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy on the people in our country who are scared now,” she said, specifying “gay, lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families.”

She went on to tell Trump that most “immigrants are not criminals”, adding: “They pay taxes and are good neighbours.”

As he was being taken over the coals, Trump sat in silence, squirming in his pew, and at one point dramatically rolling his eyes.

Asked later by reporters if he enjoyed the service, he had decidedly grumpy expression, and thundered off without answering.

And late last night, he posted on Truth Social that the cleric was a “radical left hard line Trump-hater” who was “not very good at her job.”

Demanding an apology from a literal servant of the almighty, True said: “She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.

He added: “Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one.”

2. Suggested far right groups should have a role in politics

Before the 2020 election, Trump sent a chilling message to far-right group the Proud Boys: “Stand back and stand by.”

So people were not terribly surprised when senior members of the group were involved in the violent attempted insurrection on January 6th 2021.

Now that Trump has pardoned and released hundreds of violent thugs – including Proud Boys and members of the similarly far-right Oathkeepers, he was asked if those groups will have “a place in politics”

He replied: “We’ll have to see. I gave them a pardon. I thought their sentences were ridiculous and excessive.”

3. Defended pardoning people who beat up cops because at least they’re not murderers

Reporters pointedly asked Trump if he still believed it was unacceptable to assault police officers.

He said he did.

Asked why, then, he pardoned hundreds of people who assaulted police officers on January 6th, he shrugged and essentially argued: “At least they didn’t murder anyone.”

Among the roughly 1,500 people pardoned by Trump were more than 200 who pleaded guilty to assaulting police. At least 140 officers were injured during the riot — many beaten, bloodied and crushed by the crowd — as Trump’s supporters tried to overturn Biden’s election victory.

Pressed about his decision to free people from prison who were shown on camera viciously attacking Capitol police officers, Trump declared, “I am a friend of police, more than any president who’s ever been in this office.”

The president on Tuesday said in many cases “these people have already served a long period of time, and I made a decision to give a pardon”, before adding: “These are people who actually love our country, so we thought a pardon would be appropriate.”

Defending the decision further, he said “you have murderers who aren’t charged all over.”

“Murderers get no time. You take a look at some of these [district attorneys]. They go after political opponents, but they don’t go after people that shoot people in the street.”

He went on to complain that the violent rioters and insurrectionists were held in terrible conditions in American prisons.

4. Suggested Elon Musk could buy TikTok and part-nationalise it

Trump said he was open to Elon Musk adding to his portfolio of formerly popular social media websites by buying TikTok.

Asked if he’d be into the idea, he said: “I would be if he wanted to buy it.”

Then he suggested the video sharing app should be part-nationalised.

“I have met with owners of TikTok, the big owners,” he Trump added. “So, what I am thinking about saying to somebody is ‘buy it and give half to the United States of America.'”

5. Suggested he’ll keep hawking crypto products that net him billions of dollars while in office

Days before taking office Trump raked in potentially several billion dollars personally when he launched his own weird cryptocurrency token. Days later, First Lady Melania Trump launched one, which settled around £777 million.

Asked whether he planned to continue hawking crypto products that benefit him personally while occupying the Oval Office, he dodged the question entirely – saying: “I don’t know if it benefited.”

“I don’t know where it is. I don’t know much about it other than I launched it,” he continued. “I heard it was very successful. I haven’t checked it. Where is it today?”

Told he’d potentially made billions off it, he looked around at the tech CEOs in the room with him and said: “That’s peanuts for these guys.”

Last night he reposted an add for his token on his Truth Social account. The same ad is pinned to the top of his Twitter account.

6. Put all diversity officers on gardening leave

Trump ordered all government diversity, equality and inclusion employees be placed on gardening leave from today, while he draws up plans to fire them.

7. Pardoned the founder of a dark web drug dealing marketplace

In one of the more baffling moves of the day, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, a dark web market place which was used to sell drugs, weapons and more illegal items using digital currency.

Ulbricht has been incarcerated since 2013 and was sentenced to life in prison in 2015. Announcing it on Truth Social, Trump said he’d called Ulbricht’s mother to tell her her son would get a pardon “in honor of her and the Libertarian Movement, which supported me so strongly”.

He wrote: “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me. He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous.” The US Attorney’s Office previously described the Silk Road as a “sprawling black-market bazaar”.

8. Sacked the boss of the Coast Guard.

Trump sacked Admiral Linda L Fagan, the first ever commandant of the coastguard.

He did initially explain why her tenure had been cut short so unexpectedly.

But later he issued a statement which complained she had an “excessive focus” on diversity, and that she had failed to deploy the Coast Guard to stop “fentanyl and other illicit substances” from entering the US.