Donald Trump, who returned to power on a wave of voters’ dissatisfaction with the status quo, promised a new “golden age” for America in his inaugural address.
The speech was a mixture of promises – and contradictions – that highlighted some of the opportunities and challenges the new president will face in his second term in office.
He started talking shortly after noon Monday, and at times it seemed as if he hadn’t stopped talking — in later vulgar remarks at the Capitol, at his indoor show rally in a downtown sports arena and at the White House executive residence. Signing the application – until late evening.
And through it all, Trump has demonstrated the kind of flair for the dramatic and penchant for controversy and confrontation that has galvanized his supporters and enraged his critics.
During his inaugural address, Trump paid particular attention to immigration and the economy – issues that polls indicate American voters have cared about most in the past year. He also promised to end diversity programs promoted by the government, and indicated that the official policy of the United States would only recognize two genders, male and female.
That last line sparked an enthusiastic response at the Capitol and wild cheers from a crowd of supporters gathered in a nearby sports arena. It’s a sign that cultural issues — where he drew the most notable contrasts with Democrats in last year’s election — will remain one of the strongest ways Trump connects with his base.
But before outlining what this new era would entail, Trump painted a bleak picture of the current American political climate.
While his predecessor Joe Biden and other Democrats sat to one side, Trump said the government was facing a “crisis of confidence.” He condemned the “evil, violent, and unfair weaponization” practiced by the US Department of Justice, which investigated and attempted to prosecute him on charges of contesting the results of the 2020 elections.
He called for a mandate to reverse “horrible betrayals” and criticized the “extremist and corrupt establishment” that he said had taken power and wealth away from American citizens.
It was the kind of populist, anti-elite rhetoric that has been a staple of Trump’s rhetoric for a decade. Unlike when Trump first began his rise to the top of American political power in 2015, Trump represents the current emerging establishment as much as any one man. Sitting behind him on the podium were some of the world’s richest and most influential corporate leaders.
On his inauguration day, Trump is getting the attention – and the initiative. His aides have promised hundreds of executive actions — on a range of topics, including immigration, energy, trade, education and hot-button cultural issues.
In his opening speech, he detailed a handful of them. He pledged to declare a national emergency regarding energy and immigration, allowing him to station the US military at the border, dramatically limit the rights of asylum seekers, and reopen large swaths of federal land to energy extraction. He reiterated his pledge to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to “America’s Gulf” and to restore the Panama Canal.
He made an unsubstantiated claim that China was running the key waterway, and said that American ships, including naval vessels, were paying too much in transit fees – perhaps a reference to the real target in future negotiations with the Panamanian government.
“The United States will once again consider itself a growing country,” he said, pledging to increase American wealth and expand “our territory.”
That last part may catch the attention of US allies, who are already wary of Trump’s interest in acquiring Greenland and are scoffing at making Canada the 51st US state.
During the campaign, and in this speech, Trump made a series of big promises. Now that he is president, he will be challenged to deliver – and demonstrate the true meaning of the golden age he heralds.
After Trump concluded his speech and saw Biden leave via Marine helicopter, he made informal remarks to a gathering of supporters elsewhere in the Capitol. And there Trump re-emerged – a person who frequently makes headlines and turns American politics on its head.
He said the 2020 elections were “rigged.” Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was criminally responsible for the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. He bragged about the size of his victory in the 2024 elections, and said that he reluctantly agreed to talk about “unity” in his inauguration speech.
It was just a glimpse of what was in store for the rest of the day – and for the next four years.
At the signing ceremony that evening, Trump took a standard presidential procedure — rescinding orders from a previous administration of a different party — and turned it into a spectacle.
After delivering another winding speech — his third of the day — Trump moved to a small office on the stage in the downtown sports arena, where his indoor inaugural parade had just concluded. He then went to work to freeze new federal regulations and hiring, reverse Biden administration directives, put federal employees in full-time office work and withdraw from the Paris climate accords.
“Can you imagine Joe Biden doing this?” he asked after signing the freeze on regulation – but that applies at the moment as much as it applies to the content of the orders.
He also signed more symbolic orders to end the “weaponization of government” and direct his administration to address rising costs of living.
After the arena ceremony, Trump threw the pens he used into the crowd — another Trump brilliance.
Then he returned to the White House, and the executive orders continued — pardoning nearly all of the 1,600-plus supporters arrested in the January 6 Capitol riot, temporarily suspending the TikTok ban, and withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization. He also reinterpreted a key constitutional amendment and instructed his administration to stop granting citizenship to children of illegal immigrants born in the United States. At the same time, he has been making constant comments — including proposing a 25% tariff on Mexico and Canada starting February 1, accusing Democrats of cheating in the 2020 election, and expressing doubt about a ceasefire in the Gaza war.
Trump returns to power with a team that has a detailed governing strategy and a powerful agenda to follow. However, Trump himself could still remain as unpredictable and unfocused as ever — making remarks that could represent new policy or just a temporary distraction.
The second Trump era has already begun.
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