In Washington, DC, Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term as president at noon local time.
Trump had moved the event indoors, beneath the Capitol rotunda, instead of on the marble steps outside, as he usually did, due to the freezing conditions.
Trump reiterated his complaints against his political rivals in his inaugural address, claiming he would “liberate” the nation from a “radical and corrupt establishment”.
A state of emergency along the southern border with Mexico was one of the administrative acts he intended to take in the days ahead, which were also hinted at in his speech.
Although he has threatened to imprison political rivals, Trump, the only US president to be found guilty of a crime, also condemned the “weaponization” of the legal system.
“The golden age of America begins right now,” Trump said. “From this day forward, our country will flourish”.
He said the country will be the “envy of the world,” and that it would “not be taken advantage of”.
During the campaign, Trump pledged to increase drilling, press for taxes on foreign goods, and deport foreigners who did not have legal status in the US. He promised to sign a “series of executive orders” addressing immigration and the economy in his inauguration address.
Declaring a “national emergency at our southern border,” Trump promised to stop immigration and deport “criminal immigrants”.
“We will do it at a level nobody has ever seen before”, Trump promised.
Trump also said he would declare a “national energy emergency,” would rescind the Green New Deal and the electric vehicle mandate and create an “External Revenue Service” to level tariffs against other countrie’s goods.
Trump argues those measures would help build American “prosperity”, though he said post-election that it would be “hard” to lower prices. Prices and inflation were consistently shown to be many Americans’ top concerns.
Trump said he would make it U.S. policy that there are only two genders “male and female”. LGBTQ+ rights were a flashpoint in the 2024 presidential campaign.
Trump has also promised political retribution, though it’s unclear how far or if he will follow through on that.
“The scales of justice will be rebalanced,” Trump vowed in his address and said the “weaponization” will end.
He also promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America, Mt. Denali in Alaska back to Mt. McKinley and that the country would wrest control of the Panama Canal.
“My legacy will be as a peacemaker and unifier”
