WASHINGTON — President Trump withdrew the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership on Monday, using his first full work day in the White House to honor a campaign promise and, in the process, share common ground with such liberals as Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Trump also issued an executive order barring federal funds from being used for groups performing abortions overseas and another order freezing the creation of new federal positions, with an exception for military and national security jobs.
The packed executive calendar also included meetings with chief executives, union leaders, and congressional leaders.
The busy day seemed to put the Trump presidency on more solid footing after the wobbly performance over the weekend.
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The slow start had involved the newly inaugurated president offering a rambling speech at CIA headquarters followed by a statement rife with inaccuracies from press secretary Sean Spicer at the White House press podium.
On Monday, Spicer mopped up the damage with a pledge to tell the truth when briefing reporters. For an incoming White House spokesman, it was remarkable that he felt compelled to make such a statement.
“I believe that we have to be honest with the American people,” Spicer said to briefing room so packed that cellphone signals became unreliable. “Our intention is never to lie to you.”
Trump started the day by signing the trio of executive orders from his desk in the Oval Office Monday morning. He was quickly asked about a lawsuit that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed accusing him of violating the Constitution because his company receives profits from overseas deals.
Presidents are constitutionally barred from taking foreign gifts or payments without having congressional approval, the group said in its lawsuit.
Trump told reporters that the legal action is “without merit.”
With his comments, the new president showed a willingness to engage with the press in far more spontaneous manner than his predecessor. Later in the day, as a group of reporters prepared to walk out of the Oval Office, the president asked them to stay.
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“Hey press, get back in here,” Trump said, and then commanded Doug McCarron of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters to repeat praise he had given Trump about his inaugural address.
“It hit home for the people who have been hurting,” McCarron said to the assembled media.
Sore feelings over coverage of Trump’s inauguration set the administration on an unusual path over the weekend. Trump digressed from his message to the country’s top intelligence gatherers to deliver comments in which he vastly inflated the number of attendees on the National Mall during his first address as president.
In his briefing Monday, Spicer tried to shed some insight about Trump’s seeming obsession with crowd size.
“I will tell you that it’s not — it’s not just about a crowd size,” Spicer said. “He’s gone out there and defied the odds over and over and over again.”
Spicer accused the media of participating in a “constant attempt to undermine his [Trump’s] credibility and the movement that he represents.”
“The narrative — and the default narrative — is always negative and it’s demoralizing,” said Spicer. “And I think that when you sit here and you realize the sacrifice the guy made, leaving a very, very successful business because he really cares about this country and he wants — despite your partisan differences — he cares about making this country better for everybody.”
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The new press secretary also offered a brief and magnanimous reaction to the more than a million people worldwide who took to the streets on Saturday to protest the incoming president, saying that Trump’s actions would win over some of those who doubt him.
“I think the president’s going to show through action and through success that he’s fighting for them and fighting for every American,” Spicer said.
On Monday, it appeared that the Trump administration made some progress on that front with his executive order pulling out of the trade pact, an action that drew praise from the left wing of the Democratic Party.
“I’m glad we are abandoning this deal,” Warren said in a statement to the Globe. “But we still have a lot left to do to protect working families.”
She added her familiar criticism that the trade accord was “drafted in secret and stuffed with industry giveaways, once again tilting the playing field in favor of those at the top.”
The treaty’s major plus was the promise of lower prices on consumer goods. But the pact, negotiated by the Obama administration, had not yet gone into effect, so Trump’s rejection of it will have little practical impact.
In place of the treaty Trump — who blames trade pacts for the loss of manufacturing jobs — intends to negotiate country by country.
‘‘We’re going to have trade, but we’re going to have one on one. If someone misbehaves, we’ll send them a letter of termination, 30 days, and they’ll either straighten it out or we’re gone,’’ Trump said.
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Senator Bernie Sanders added his support: “I am glad the Trans-Pacific Partnership is dead and gone,” Sanders said to The Washington Post. “Now is the time to develop a new trade policy that helps working families, not just multinational corporations. If President Trump is serious about a new policy to help American workers, then I would be delighted to work with him.”
Spicer also sought to mend wounds elsewhere, by expressing appreciation for the intelligence community. Trump was angered during the transition by leaks of classified material and accused the country’s top spies of seeking to discredit him.
That’s all behind them, Spicer said, explaining that the president made the CIA his first stop in order to “make sure that they understand, they heard firsthand, how much he respects them.”
The new press secretary also made some effort at humor, acknowledging that his initial interaction with the White House press corps had gone badly.
“I know that Josh Earnest was voted the most popular press secretary by the press corps,” Spicer said, referring to Obama’s widely respected spokesman.
“So after reading — checking my Twitter feed, I shot Josh an e-mail last night letting him know that he can rest easy, that his title is secure for at least the next few days.”
Annie Linskey can be reached at annie.linskey@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @annielinskey.
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