Shortly after being sworn in at high noon today, President-elect Trump plans to revoke security clearances of 51 former intelligence officials who signed a letter in 2020 saying emails from Hunter Biden's laptop carried "classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.

• We're told Day 1 will bring about 200 executive actions of various sorts, including executive orders.
• Today's actions are expected to include declaring an emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, Jan. 6 pardons, a TikTok reprieve, and executive orders to increase fossil fuel development and reduce civil service protections for federal workers.

Why it matters: The action on security clearances is a Day 1 sign that Trump plans to use his formidable tools of office in his war with what he calls the "intelligence apparatus," which he blames for the "Russia collusion hoax."

• "The threats have real teeth to them," a transition source told me.

💡The big picture: During the 75-day transition, Trump's team put a huge focus on prepping a Day 1 barrage to tell the story of "promises made, promises kept" — before he's even had a full day in the Oval Office.

• "I will act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country," Trump said yesterday at a Make America Great Again Victory Rally at Capital One Arena in Washington.

🎙️ Charlie Kirk — founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, and one of the most powerful MAGA podcasters — calls this "Liberation Day."

• Steve Bannon, whose "War Room" podcast is powerful with Trump's base, told me it's a "tsunami this time ... flood the zone." Bannon said the fusillade will mean "the media is so overwhelmed with so much activity on so many fronts that it cannot process."

🔎 Behind the scenes: John Ratcliffe — Trump's pick for CIA director, who served as director of national intelligence during Trump's first term — brought up the issue of the 51 former officials at his confirmation hearing last week.

• We hear Ratcliffe pushed the idea of revoking the security clearances, and Trump loved the idea.

🥊 Reality check: A former U.S. official told us that some of the 51 officials are fully retired, and sees the move as largely symbolic — "none of these people are going to lose their day job."

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President-elect Trump's opening flurry of executive orders will declare a "national energy emergency" to juice higher production and lower consumer costs, an incoming administration official tells Axios' Ben Geman and me.

• "We're going to cut the burdensome red tape and bureaucracy that have inhibited our economy for four years now," the incoming energy adviser said.
• Trump's opening wave, on Day 1 and shortly thereafter, is also expected to include an executive order to "unleash Alaska's natural resource potential."

Why it matters: Trump wants to send an instant message of "promises made, promises kept" — and signal a much friendlier climate for businesses across the board.

🔭 The big picture: Trump's energy executive actions will create "conditions that facilitate investment, that facilitate job creation, that facilitate the production of America's natural resources, and the result will be lower prices for the American people," the incoming energy adviser told us.

• "National security is a key issue here," the adviser said. "Energy is fundamental to our foreign policy, and reducing American energy production curtails our ability to exercise our foreign policies."

🦾 Future focus: The power to fuel AI — which requires energy-thirsty data centers — is top of mind for the incoming White House, which is vowing to "unleash" U.S. energy.

• "We're in an AI race with the People's Republic of China and other nations," the incoming energy adviser said. "It's fundamental that we're able to produce the necessary electricity here in the United States so that we can win that race and protect our nation."

🥊 Reality check: Trump's "dominance" agenda will confront market and process barriers — and plenty of litigation.

• U.S. oil output is already at record levels. Tepid global demand growth makes producers in Texas and elsewhere unlikely to flood the market.

🔎 Between the lines: The oil and gas industry will cheer Trump's opening moves. But executives are wary of his plans for tariffs, which could raise project costs — and spur retaliation from buyers of U.S. exports.

The bottom line: The first moments and days of Trump 2.0 will ignite a U-turn from President Biden's expansive climate agenda.

• But often they're a symbolic opening of the long, legally fraught bureaucratic slog of formally unwinding agency rules and policies.

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An aggressive transition, plus actions by President Biden, have given President-elect Trump a head start on some of his biggest campaign promises, Axios' Neal Rothschild, Brittany Gibson and Russell Contreras write.

Why it matters: The most consequential pre-presidency in recent U.S. history has left Trump uniquely positioned to quickly impose his plans to boost executive power, reshape foreign policy, deport millions of undocumented immigrants and juice the economy.

• Trump also has ignited a rightward tilt of corporate America, the removal of social media speech guardrails and significant geopolitical shifts.

In its final hours, Biden's White House hailed a Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal — one that was made possible partly by Trump's imminent arrival.

• Biden's team worked for months to secure peace. But Israel was willing to close the deal only with Trump's backing, Axios' Barak Ravid reports.

Trump has sent ripples through several countries with his pre-inauguration musings on foreign policy.

• 🇨🇦 Justin Trudeau's resignation was triggered in part by divisions within Canada's government over how to respond to Trump's 25% tariff threat.
• 🇮🇷 Iran put a retaliation plan against Israel on the back burner, signaling it wants to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Trump.

🥊 The Trump effect is cascading through corporate America.

• Several of the country's biggest companies have unwound DEI efforts, with many others talking about the topic less.
• Top executives sense a new permission structure to speak their minds, unshackled.

🖼️ The big picture: Trump has cast Biden as weak. But on some policy fronts — namely immigration and the economy — Biden is leaving Trump a stronger hand than the Republican admits.

• As Biden departs, border crossings are down, deportations are up and the economy is humming along, with inflation trending down.

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TikTok restored service in the U.S. yesterday — less than 24 hours after going dark, and hours after President-elect Trump said he'll sign an executive order today to delay enforcing a U.S. ban of the platform, Axios' Avery Lotz reports.

• TikTok said it was resuming services because Trump's Truth Social post provided "the necessary clarity and assurance to our service providers that they will face no penalties providing TikTok to over 170 million Americans."

👀 Between the lines: When the app went back online, a message shown to every U.S. user said explicitly that "thanks to President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back," Axios' Felix Salmon notes.

• A statement by TikTok on Friday blamed the impending shutdown on the Biden administration's failure to provide "a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement."

The bottom line: By briefly shutting down and blaming Biden, then starting up again and crediting Trump, TikTok has solidified its Trump friendliness.

🏀 Sign of the times: The crowd gets hyped when "TikTok IS BACK" is projected on the Jumbotron during the final minute of a Northwestern vs. Michigan game yesterday at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich.

Hollywood was already drifting out of Hollywood. The destructive wildfires that have ravaged LA dealt another blow to the city's attempt at winning back film and TV productions.

• Why it matters: The city's biggest economic driver is still recovering from a rough decade that has included a pandemic and twin labor strikes, Axios' Tim Baysinger writes.

State of play: LA-based film and TV production had its second-worst year in terms of shooting days, according to FilmLA, a nonprofit group that issues filming permits in the city.

• Last year featured 23,480 shooting days, only ahead of 2020.

🖼️ The big picture: Over the past decade-plus, Hollywood has increasingly moved production outside of Southern California to Georgia, New York, New Jersey and New Mexico, due in large part to generous tax breaks.

• Many big-budget films are also choosing to shoot outside of the U.S. "The Batman," out in 2022, was filmed almost entirely in England and Scotland, and used Warner Bros.' Leavesden studio in England.
• Many TV shows film in Toronto or Vancouver to save costs.

The latest: California Gov. Gavin Newsom has proposed doubling the state's film and TV tax credit from $330 million to $750 million annually. That would take it past New York.

• The California Production Coalition — made up of over 30 different local organizations, including studio operators and payroll firms — was formed last month to lobby the state on how it can stop productions from leaving.

President-elect Trump said Thursday that he'd appoint three actors — Mel Gibson, Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight — as "special ambassadors" to help bring "Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK."

👓 What we're watching: Given that Hollywood is likely to play a starring role in LA recovery efforts, there'll be a huge incentive to bring filmmaking back home.

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Seven in 10 people globally believe government officials, business leaders and journalists deliberately mislead them by saying things they know are false or gross exaggerations, Axios' Eleanor Hawkins writes from the 25th anniversary edition of the Edelman Trust Barometer.

• People's fear of being lied to by politicians, CEOs and reporters has jumped by more than 10 points in the past 4 years, according to Edelman's survey of 32,000 adults across 28 countries.

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Optimism for the year ahead has dropped significantly among people of color, LGBTQ+ Americans and many women, Axios' Russell Contreras and Margaret Talev write from a new Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll.

• 63% of Americans said 2025 will be better than 2024. That mirrors December 2023, when 66% said they were more optimistic about 2024 than 2023.

Optimism dipped significantly across several minority groups. The steepest drop was among Black Americans, whose optimism fell from 80% last year to 61% this year.

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President-elect Trump's first inaugural address was the shortest in modern history. President Biden's inaugural address was the longest since Ronald Reagan's second term in 1985, Axios' April Rubin writes.

🔭 Zoom out: William Henry Harrison delivered the longest speech ever — 8,445 words, in 1841. He died a month later of pneumonia, which some said was brought on by exposure to the elements during his ceremony.

• Washington's second inaugural address was the shortest, at 135 words
• Franklin D. Roosevelt's fourth, in 1945, was the next shortest, at 559 words, according to the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.

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