Donald Trump was sworn in as U.S. president on Monday, ushering in another turbulent four-year term with promises to push the limits of executive power, deport millions of immigrants, secure retribution against his political enemies and transform the role of the U.S. on the world stage.
“A tide of change is sweeping the country,” Trump planned to say in his inaugural speech, according to early excerpts. “With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense.”
Even before Trump was to take office at noon, aides detailed a raft of executive actions that he will sign immediately, including 10 focused on border security and immigration, his top priority.
The president will declare a national emergency at the southern border, send armed troops there and resume a policy forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their U.S. court dates, an incoming White House official told reporters.
The inauguration completes a triumphant comeback for a political disruptor who survived two impeachment trials, a felony conviction, two assassination attempts and an indictment for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss.
Shortly before 10 a.m., Trump and incoming first lady Melania Trump arrived at the White House, where Biden and first lady Jill Biden greeted them with handshakes.
“Welcome home,” Biden said.
The ceremony took place inside the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, four years after a mob of Trump supporters breached the symbol of American democracy in an unsuccessful effort to forestall Trump’s defeat by Biden. The swearing-in was moved indoors for the first time in 40 years due to the extreme cold.
Trump, the first U.S. president since the 19th century to win a second term after losing the White House, has said he will pardon “on Day One” many of the more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.
Biden, in one of his last official acts, pardoned several people whom Trump has targeted for retaliation, including former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci, former Republican U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.
Trump will restore the federal death penalty, which Biden had suspended, and require that official U.S. documents such as passports reflect citizens’ gender as assigned at birth, incoming administration officials told reporters.
He will also sign an order ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the federal government on his first day, which is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the officials said.
But Trump will not impose new tariffs on Monday, instead directing federal agencies to evaluate trade relationships with China, Canada and Mexico, a Trump official confirmed.
The Trumps began the day at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, where several tech executives — including the three richest men in the world, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg — joined them.
As he did in 2017, Trump enters office as a chaotic and disruptive force, vowing to remake the federal government and expressing deep skepticism about the U.S.-led alliances that have shaped post-World War II global politics.
The former president returns to Washington emboldened after winning the national popular vote over Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 2 million votes thanks to a groundswell of voter frustration over persistent inflation, though he still fell just short of a 50% majority.
In 2016, Trump won the Electoral College — and the presidency — despite receiving nearly 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton.
Jeremi Suri, a presidential historian at the University of Texas, Austin, compared the present era to the late 19th century, when Grover Cleveland became the only other president to win nonconsecutive terms. Like now, he said, that was a time of upheaval, as industrial advances transformed the economy, wealth inequality exploded and the proportion of immigrant Americans reached a historical peak.
“What we’re really talking about is a fundamentally different economy, a fundamentally different country in terms of its racial and gender and social makeup, and we are as a country struggling to figure out what that means,” he said. “It’s an existential moment.”
U.S. President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden greet President-elect Donald Trump and his wife, Melania Trump, as they arrive at the White House in Washington on Monday before departing for the U.S. Capitol where Trump was to be sworn in as the 47th U.S. President.
| AFP-JIJI
Trump, who surpassed Biden as the oldest president ever to be sworn into office, will enjoy Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress that have been almost entirely purged of any intra-party dissenters. His advisers have outlined plans to replace nonpartisan bureaucrats with hand-picked loyalists.
Even before taking office, Trump established a rival power center in the weeks after his election victory, meeting world leaders and causing consternation by musing aloud about seizing the Panama Canal, taking control of NATO ally Denmark’s territory of Greenland and imposing tariffs on the biggest U.S. trading partners.
His influence has already been felt in the Israel-Hamas announcement last week of a ceasefire deal. Trump, whose envoy joined the negotiations in Qatar, had warned of “hell to pay” if Hamas did not release its hostages before the inauguration.
Unlike in 2017, when he filled many top jobs with institutionalists, Trump has prioritized fealty over experience in nominating a bevy of controversial Cabinet picks, some of whom are outspoken critics of the agencies they have been tapped to lead.
The inauguration proceeded amid heavy security after a campaign highlighted by an increase in political violence that included two assassination attempts against Trump, including one in which a bullet grazed his ear.
Eight years ago, Trump delivered a bleak inaugural address vowing to end the “American carnage” of what he said were crime-ridden cities and soft borders, a departure from the tone of optimism most newly elected presidents have adopted.
Foreign governments had been scrutinizing the tenor of Trump’s speech on Monday after he waged a campaign laced with inflammatory rhetoric.
The traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue past the White House will now take place indoors at the Capital One Arena, where Trump held his victory rally on Sunday. Trump was also to attend three inaugural balls in the evening.
Guests including Mark Zuckerberg (left to right), Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk, arrive before inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Monday.
| Pool / via REUTERS
Amid the pageantry of the day, Trump was to begin signing his first executive orders, many of which are likely to face legal challenges.
Trump will be the first felon to occupy the White House after a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star.
Winning the election also rid Trump of two federal indictments — for plotting to overturn the 2020 election and for retaining classified documents — thanks to a Justice Department policy that presidents cannot be prosecuted while in office.
In a report last week, Special Counsel Jack Smith said he had enough evidence to convict Trump in the election case if Trump had reached trial.
