US President Donald Trump has announced plans to fire some 1,000 opponents from the US government in a shock-and-awe start to his administration but faced an unusual, public dressing down from a bishop.
On his first full day in office, Trump was meeting at the White House with leaders of the narrow Republican majority in Congress as he tries to get his agenda, including tax cuts, approved at rapid pace.
Looking to impose himself immediately, he had signed a deluge of orders after his swearing-in on Monday.
And in a post shortly after midnight on his Truth Social app, Trump indicated his drive to weed out critics was under way.
He said his team was "in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again."
Four people had already been "FIRED!" he wrote, including retired general Mark Milley, who had been serving an infrastructure advisory body.
Milley was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff during Trump's first presidency but became one of the Republican's most prominent critics after he tried to overturn the 2020 election.
The acting head of the Department of Homeland Security separately announced the firing of Coast Guard chief Linda Fagan, who was appointed under Democrat Joe Biden and was the first woman to head one of the six branches of the US military.
But Trump came face-to-face with a powerful critic on Tuesday when a Washington bishop told him from the pulpit that he was sowing fear among America's immigrants.
"I ask you to have mercy, Mr President," the Washington National Cathedral's Mariann Edgar Budde told Trump, seated in the front pew for the customary inaugural service.
"The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals. They pay taxes and are good neighbours...may I ask you to have mercy Mr. President on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away."
Trump — at 78, the oldest person ever to be sworn in as US president — issued measures Monday to suspend the arrival of asylum seekers and expel migrants in the country illegally.
Other executive orders included pulling the United States from the Paris climate accord and the World Health Organisation.
He also pardoned hundreds of supporters convicted of crimes while attacking the Capitol four years ago.
Media relations
Newly installed White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump would also make a "big infrastructure announcement" later, although she did not say what this would be.
One thing not happening on Tuesday was a traditional daily White House press briefing by the top spokeswoman, who indicated that — as during his first term — Trump himself would do the messaging.
"I can confirm the American people won't be hearing from me today, they'll be hearing from the leader of the free world once again. President Trump will be speaking to the press later at the White House," she told Trump-friendly broadcaster Fox News.
Trump likes to berate the "fake news media".
'Golden age'
Trump's inaugural address — held indoors in the Capitol's Rotunda rather than on the Mall because of bad weather — mixed dark imagery about a failing America with promises of a "golden age."
He has declared a national emergency at the Mexican border and said he would deploy US troops to tackle illegal immigration — a key campaign issue in his November election victory over Kamala Harris.
The returning president pledged to impose trade tariffs on Mexico and Canada, rename the Gulf of Mexico to the "Gulf of America," and take "back" the Panama Canal, which has been controlled by the Central American country since 1999.
He also confirmed he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.
