Republican Donald Trump was inaugurated again Monday as the 47th U.S. president, calling for a “revolution of common sense” and vowing to quickly order sweeping policy changes, including the deportation of millions of undocumented migrants living in the United States back to their home countries.
“The golden age of America begins right now,” Trump declared in his half-hour inaugural address. “From this moment on, America’s decline is over. We will lead it to new heights of victory and success. There is no dream we cannot achieve. We will not be broken. We will not fail.
“I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country,” Trump told a crowd of about 600 people in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol and millions watching on TV throughout the country.
“My message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization,” he said.
Trump, 78, was the country’s 45th president, and only the second after Grover Cleveland in the 1890s to serve a second nonconsecutive term. With Trump’s inauguration, President Joe Biden leaves office after a single four-year term in the White House.
In his address, Trump vowed to quickly carry out a litany of 2024 campaign promises, citing the fact that he swept all seven political battleground states in defeating his Democratic challenger, former Vice President Kamala Harris.
Trump said he will "declare a national emergency,” close the southwestern U.S. border with Mexico to stem the flow of thousands of migrants seeking to enter the U.S., with many of them looking to escape poverty, crime and unemployment in Central American countries and elsewhere.
Trump said he would enforce a “stay in Mexico” policy for migrants looking for asylum in the U.S. and end the policy of catching other migrants at the U.S. border and then releasing to them to live in the United States while they await adjudication of their asylum requests, a process that can take months, even years.
He said he would declare Mexican drug cartels as “foreign terrorists,” although said nothing about how he would deal with them.
In photos: Trump inauguration
On the domestic front, he said he would declare a “national energy emergency,” even though production is already at a record high.
“We will drill, baby, drill,” he declared emphatically.
Trump said he would end Biden policies to promote the production and sale of electric vehicles, while also overhauling U.S. trade policies, imposing new tariffs on key trade partners, levies expected to include those imposed on Canada, Mexico and China.
“The American dream will soon be thriving as never before,” he contended. “We will forge a society that is fair and merit based.”
Much like at a campaign rally last year when Biden was still running for reelection before dropping out in favor of Harris, Trump assailed his predecessor’s performance in office as Biden sat immediately behind him.
“We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home,” Trump said, “while at the same time, stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad. It fails to protect our magnificent law-abiding American citizens but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals, many from prisons and mental institutions that have illegally entered our country from all over the world.”
Trump, accompanied by his wife Melania, new Vice President JD Vance and their families, began his second inaugural day eight years after his first by attending a traditional service for incoming presidents at St. John’s Episcopal Church across a park from the White House.
Afterward, the Trumps headed to the White House for a preinaugural tea with Biden and first lady Jill Biden, before heading to the Capitol for the swearing-in ceremony.
Trump is the oldest person ever inaugurated as U.S. president, eclipsing Biden who was five months younger when he took the oath four years ago. Vance, 40, and most recently a U.S. senator from the Midwestern state of Ohio, was sworn in as the 50th vice president and is the third youngest in history.
Trump is also the first felon to serve as U.S. president, after his conviction last year on 34 criminal charges linked to falsifying business records to hide a $130,000 hush money payment to porn film star Stormy Daniels, although a judge declined to penalize him in any way.
Charges that Trump tried to illegally overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden were dropped because of a long-standing Justice Department policy against prosecuting sitting presidents.
In photos: Trump protesters, supporters rally on Inauguration Day
U.S. presidential inaugurations, a symbol of the democratic country’s norms of a peaceful transition of presidential power, are traditionally held on the steps of the Capitol overlooking the vast sweep of the National Mall.
But with freezing temperatures hitting Washington, Trump days ago moved the ceremony into the Capitol Rotunda, where 2,000 of his supporters rioted in 2021 to keep Congress from certifying Biden’s 2020 victory.
Several U.S. billionaires — Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla chief executive and X owner Elon Musk — were among those who watched the inauguration, as was TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew.
Foreign dignitaries were there as well, including Chinese Vice President Han Zheng, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Argentina President Javier Milei and Ecuador President Daniel Noboa.
Former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama attended the ceremony, unlike Trump, who skipped Biden’s swearing-in four years ago and continues to falsely claim that he was cheated out of reelection in the 2020 election by voting irregularities.
The traditional inaugural parade along Pennsylvania Avenue from the Capitol to the White House was also moved indoors due to the weather, with bands and marching units parading past Trump inside the 20,000-seat Capitol One Arena in Washington. The night closed with a series of lavish black-tie balls.
Some information for this report was provided by Reuters