Donald Trump sworn in as 47th president, declares ‘America’s decline is over’
Donald Trump was sworn in Monday as the 47th president of the United States, returning to the White House after overcoming four criminal indictments and two assassination attempts in one of the most remarkable political comebacks in U.S. history.
Trump recited the oath of office shortly after noon ET at an intimate inauguration ceremony inside the Rotunda of the Capitol, the same building a mob of his supporters stormed four years ago to try to stop the certification of Trump’s 2020 election loss. It was moved indoors because of below-freezing temperatures in the nation’s capital.
The 78-year-old Trump raised his right hand and took the oath of office using a Bible his mother gave him in 1955 that was stacked on a second Bible used by President Abraham Lincoln for his 1861 swearing-in. JD Vance was sworn in as vice president right before Trump.
“The golden age of America begins right now,” Trump said in a roughly 30-minute inaugural address. “From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer during every single day of the Trump administration.”
Trump arrived at the Capitol to applause and chants of “USA! USA! USA!” He replaces Joe Biden, who sat behind Trump as the new president railed on the “radical and corrupt” government he is inheriting.
Calling his inauguration “liberation day,” Trump declared “a tide of change is sweeping the country” as he painted a bleak picture of a nation overwhelmed by crime from an “invasion of our country.” He said the Biden administration “cannot manage even a simple crisis at home” and accused his predecessor of providing “sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals” who have entered the country illegally.
“All of this changes starting today,” Trump said, adding that he has a mandate to reverse the “horrible betrayal” of the Biden administration.
In prime seating behind Trump on stage were Trump’s and Vance’s family members, the president’s Cabinet nominees and billionaire executives including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook and tech entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Opera singer Christopher Macchio sang “Oh, America!” before Trump took the stage. Country star Carrie Underwood sang “America the Beautiful” after Trump’s address.
Trump is just the second former president to return to office after losing an election, joining Grover Cleveland
who arrived back in the White House for his second term in 1893. Trump is the first formerly impeached president to return to office, first convicted felon to serve as president and the oldest president on Inauguration Day.
A ‘revolution of common sense,’ Trump says
Trump’s return to power marks a seismic change across the federal government. He enters claiming an election “mandate” to enact sweeping changes after winning every battleground state and the popular vote. The new Trump era is expected to be even more aggressive than the president’s tumultuous first four years in office, when he was twice impeached but acquitted by the Senate.
“From this moment on, America’s decline is over,” Trump said in his address.
Trump campaigned on big promises in his election victory over Democrat Kamala Harris to bring down consumer prices, root out the so-called “deep state” from the federal government, begin mass deportations of immigrants in the country illegally and undo Biden’s policies on climate, energy, transgender rights, cryptocurrency and on a host of other issues.
Trump and his advisers have said the new president would take more than 100 executive actions ‒ described by allies as “shock and awe” ‒ during his first day in office with a focus on “sealing” the U.S.-Mexico border and levying new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China.
Trump outlined some of the orders in his address, including declaring a national emergency at the southern border, carrying out his “drill, baby, drill” agenda to increase oil production, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and making it the official policy of the federal government to recognize only two genders: male and female.
“With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense,” Trump said. “It’s all about common sense.”
Trump’s next four years are expected to showcase an ever more populist GOP, one that has turned away from free markets toward protectionism and away from international alliances toward an “America First” mentality. Introduced in Trump’s first term with tariffs on China, renegotiated trade pacts and hostility toward NATO, these ideas will be more fully expressed in a second Trump administration.
Trump said the U.S. is “taking back” the Panama Canal, which he said was “foolishly given” to Panama in a deal orchestrated by the late President Jimmy Carter. He also said the U.S. would enter into a new era of space exploration on the planet Mars under his watch.
“We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars” Trump vowed.
‘I was saved by God to make America great again’
Trump’s inauguration ceremony was moved indoors due to brutally cold temperatures in Washington, where the temperature was 24 degrees Monday morning. It’s the first indoor swearing-in ceremony since Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985, which was held in the Capitol Rotunda while it was 7 degrees outside.
Thousands of Trump supporters packed Capitol One Arena, home of the NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals, to watch Trump’s inauguration on a jumbotron.
Biden and former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were among those who packed into the Rotunda to watch, along with Supreme Court justices, senators and other lawmakers. First lady Melania Trump and Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, watched as their husbands were sworn into office.
The closest of Trump’s two assassination scares came in July, when an assassin’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear as he stood on stage in a Pennsylvania field, smearing his face with blood. A second man was accused of attempting to kill Trump while he was playing golf at his West Palm Beach country club.
“I was saved by God to make America great again,” Trump said.
Trump says ‘never again’ will government be ‘weaponized’
Trump was found guilty in New York in a case involving hush money payments to an adult film access to conceal an affair. He was also charged by the Justice Department for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, his possession of classified documents after leaving the office and on conspiracy charges in Georgia over efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden.
Only the Georgia case is is still active, however. And Trump emerged from the contentious campaign with a broader coalition behind him, led by working-class voters, who helped him make gains among Hispanic, Black and younger Americans on his way to defeating Harris.
His second inaugural address alluded to those investigations.
“Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents ‒ something I know something about,” Trump said. “We will not allow that to happen. It will not happen again under my leadership.”
Trump is likely to find fewer obstacles inside his own White House than during his first administration, when he often clashed with his own Cabinet and other aides. His picks for the incoming administration are widely viewed as loyal, trusted, MAGA true believers who are eager to enact an agenda heavy on disruption.
Confirmation hearings that kicked off last week saw Democrats questioning Trump’s picks on whether they would push back on some of the incoming president’s more controversial pledges, including payback against his political enemies.
Democrats fear a retribution focused presidency. Hours before leaving the White House, Biden issued unprecedented pre-pardons to shield from criminal prosecution Trump foes including Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Rep. Liz Cheney and other lawmakers who served on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. Biden also pardoned five members of his family in one of his final actions as president.
Trump has said “success” will be his retribution but has shown in recent comments that he still is stewing about the four prosecutions that followed his departure from office in 2021.
“If we work together, there is nothing we cannot do and no dream we cannot achieve,” Trump said. “Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback. But as you see today, here I am. The American people have spoken.”
Trump concluded his remarks by promising “America will be respected again and admired again.”
“We will not be conquered,” he said. “We will not be intimidated, we will not be broken, and we will not fail. From this day on, the United States of America will be a free, sovereign and independent nation. We will stand bravely, we will live proudly. We will dream boldly, and nothing will stand in our way because we are Americans.”
‘USA TODAY