It has been a busy week, centering on the inauguration of President Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States. There is a lot to unpack from the first day.

It would have been hard to imagine a week ago former President Joe Biden could leave the White House on any lower a note than he already was, but he managed to do so. He issued, at literally the 11th hour, a slew of preemptive pardons and clemencies which served only to tarnish whatever sliver of shine may have remained on his presidency. The pardons issued to his family members for… well, anything they may or may not have done… came on the heels of the pardon issued to his son Hunter for things he most definitely did do. The ones proffered for Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, and the Jan. 6 commission were not only a stark departure from the democratic norms Biden promised to restore, but unnecessary: all of those people are already immune from prosecution for any actions taken in the course of their official duties.

Those pardons were merely the last political act of a president who cares no more for tradition and institution than his predecessor/successor does. But at least one of the bestowed clemencies stands out for its callousness. Leonard Peltier, a domestic terrorist convicted of the brutal execution-style murders of two FBI agents, was one of the recipients of Biden’s ideological benevolence Monday. Peltier, who became a cause celebre of the far-left for putting bullets in the faces of the two federal law enforcement officers still in their 20s, should have been executed years ago, but at the very least deserved to die in prison. Instead, the miserable wretch will spend his final days at home, something he coldly denied Agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams.

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Trump didn’t do a whole lot better later that day, issuing a blanket pardon for the Jan. 6, 2021 insurgents — including those who assaulted police officers. Pardons for some of the defendants, those charged with simple misdemeanors who were likely just caught up in something they didn’t fully understand probably makes sense — the grandmother in Colorado Springs, for instance. She needs to pay a penalty but doesn’t deserve to be in prison. The leaders of the “Proud Boys” and “Oath Keepers” and others who used violence against police officers, do. It is a disgrace no one is in prison for participating in the riots in Denver in 2020, which left scores of police officers injured, caused millions of dollars in property damage, and desecrated the state Capitol. It is no less a disgrace if nobody who did the exact same thing on Jan. 6, 2021 is either.

The bulk of President Trump’s first day back in office was dedicated to signing a truckload of executive orders. It is somewhat regrettable we seem to be reduced to government by dueling executive orders every four to eight years, but here we are. Many simply rescinded Biden’s own plethora of EOs. It will take some time to fully assess them all, there being so bloody many, but most seem to be generally beneficial, and appropriate: the declaration of an emergency at the southern border; a freeze on federal non-military hiring; dismantling of obnoxious DEI programs; withdrawing from the Paris climate accord; reversing EV mandates and so forth. Some are silly but harmless — the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, comes to mind. And a few are unconstitutional — his attempt to strip birthright citizenship, for instance — or merely stupid and puerile — e.g., stripping John Bolton of his security clearance and Secret Service protection, making it far easier for the Iranians to consummate their desire to see Bolton dead.

But for the most part, the onerous outliers aside, much of President Trump’s day-one agenda was simply a re-alignment toward the center. We are accustomed to Trump’s explosions of hyperbole, but on many of the big issues he is simply correcting course, bringing the federal government in alignment with where most of its citizens are on major questions of culture, gender ideology, crime, border security, government micromanagement of the economy and other issues. The Biden administration veered hard left, a detour which the majority of Americans rejected. Many of Trump’s actions on the first day were simply an affirmation of the national sentiment.

Finally, the other big news involved TikTok, which was lamentably granted a 90-day reprieve by the incoming POTUS. Congress passed a law, on valid national security grounds — the Chinese Communist Party exercises effective control of the social media platform and its algorithm, which it considers a state secret (can one imagine why?) — and the Supreme Court affirmed that law. It is the duty of the chief executive to enforce the law. A new Trump presidency offers some promise, but if he wishes to be the president of law-and-order, he is off to a decidedly mixed start.

Kelly Sloan is a political and public affairs consultant and a recovering journalist based in Denver.