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Donald Trump is America’s new President

Jan 21, 2025 12:22 AM IST

Justice Brett Kavanaugh administered the oath of office to America’s new Vice President JD Vance. His Indian-origin wife Usha, and three kids, stood alongside

Donald J Trump took over on Monday as the 47th President of the United States, promising a return to a “golden age” and a “revolution of common sense”, pledging that “America First” would be his guiding philosophy, declaring the end of the country’s decline, claiming that God saved his life to let him “make America great again”, and proclaiming that his greatest legacy will be that of a “peacemaker and unifier”.

US President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance at the inauguration ceremony in Washington DC on January 20, 2025. (AFP)
US President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance at the inauguration ceremony in Washington DC on January 20, 2025. (AFP)

Trump also gave a sense of the executive orders he intended to sign later in the day, vowing to declare a national emergency on the southern border, a national energy emergency with the intention to “drill baby, drill”, sweeping directions on gender and race, and the creation of an external revenue service to collect trade tariffs from other countries.

“We will be respected again. We will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of. We will put America First. Our sovereignty will be reclaimed, our safety will be restored, scales of justice will be rebalanced..America will be greater stronger and far more exceptional than ever before,” thundered a triumphant Trump.

US Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to Trump in a ceremony that restored the bipartisan nature of the peaceful transfer of power, held inside the US Capitol rotunda to avoid Washington’s freezing weather. The theme of the inaugural ceremony was “enduring democracy”, and saw the participation of all of America’s living former presidents. This was different from January 20, 2021, when Trump, who refused to accept the 2020 election results, did not attend Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh administered the oath of office to America’s new Vice President JD Vance. His Indian-origin wife Usha, and his three children, stood alongside.

In his inaugural address, minutes after being sworn in right after noon on Monday eastern time, Trump depicted both a dark image of where America is and a promise of a different future. He said that the US confronted a crisis of trust “because of radical and corrupt establishment”, the pillars of its society were broken, the government couldn’t manage a crisis at home but stumbled into “catastrophic” crises abroad, and that US provided unlimited funding for defence of foreign borders but didn’t defend its own borders. He claimed that the American health system was broken as was its education system which taught students to “hate” America.

“The election mandate is to completely and totally reverse betrayals and give people back their faith, wealth, democracy and freedom. America’s decline is over,” declared Trump. He said that he had been tested and challenged like no other president in America’s history; his liberty and life was under attack. “My life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again,” he declared.

Offering a glimpse of his first set of executive orders, Trump said, “We will begin the complete restoration of America and revolution of common sense. First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will be immediately halted and we will begin the process of returning criminal aliens to back to where they came. We will reinstate my remain in Mexico policy. I will end the practice of catch and release. And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country. We will designate cartels as foreign terrorist organisations. By invoking the Alien Enemy Act of 1798, I will direct government and law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks.”

Incoming administration officials told American media outlets earlier that the executive order may also include the end of provisions for asylum and birthright citizenship (a prospective move applicable to children of non-citizens, which is sure to invite legal challenge).

Trump then said he will instruct all government departments to bring down costs and that he would declare a national energy emergency.

“We will drill baby drill. America will be a manufacturing nation once again. And we have something that no other manufacturing nation has. We have the largest amount of gas and oil and we will use it. We will export American energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again. We will end the green new deal, end electric vehicle mandates, keeping my sacred pledge to great American auto workers,” he said.

The President is expected to permit easier construction of energy pipelines and plants, roll back regulations for domestic energy production, permit drilling in Alaska, and eliminate environmental justice schemes.

Trump also said that he would begin an overhaul of the trade system and said he would “tariff and tax” foreign countries to enrich Americans.

“We are establishing external revenue service to collect tariffs and revenues coming from foreign sources.” Incoming administration officials told reporters that Trump’s executive order will mandate studies of the impact of unfair trade practices of other countries and focus on China’s compliance with a past trade pact; if this is the case, it may mean that there may not be any immediate imposition of tariffs. On TikTok, Trump has already said that he will issue an order to allow American companies to host, maintain, distribute the Chinese-owned app.

Trump then formally declared that the government will set up the department of government efficiency, that he would sign an order to end all government censorship and bring back free speech, and that he would stop weaponisation of the justice department.

“I still end government policy to insert race and gender into every policy. We will forge a society that is colour blind and merit based. It will be the official policy of the US government that there are only two genders, male and female,” Trump then said, catering to what had become a key campaign issue that Republicans took up against who they termed “cultural Marxists”. Trump said he would also reinstate those serving military personnel who were asked to leave because they didn’t fulfil vaccine mandates, and end any pedagogy around critical theories in the armed services so that they focused on their sole mission — “defeating America’s enemies”.

Trump said that he wanted to be a “peacemaker and unifier” and cited the ceasefire deal in Middle East and return of hostages as evidence. “We will measure our success by the wars we end, and more importantly, the wars we will never get into. My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker.” But then he doubled down on key foreign policy issues he has flagged in recent days. He declared that the Gulf of Mexico would now be called Gulf of America. He regretted handing over Panama Canal to Panama, alleged that China was operating it, and declared that the US was taking it back. “My message to Americas is it is time for us to act with courage and vitality as history’s greatest civilisation.”

He said that American astronauts will plant the flag on Planet Mars, a key ambition of Elon Musk. “Americans are explorers, builders, innovators and entrepreneurs…no one comes close..in America, the impossible is what we do best,” the President said, offering his own political comeback as a story.

Trump, along with First Lady Melania Trump, began the day with a prayer at St John’s Church right across the White House. He then went to the White House where Joe Biden greeted him and reportedly said, “Welcome home”. Biden and Jill Biden then hosted the incoming first couple for tea, and then travelled down the Pennsylvania Avenue to the US Congress on Capitol Hill.

On the Hill, besides Trump’s cabinet members and top donors, tech CEOs adorned the inauguration stage. Tesla’s Elon Musk, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg could be seen chatting with each other and Trump’s closest aides. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, whose app remains alive thanks to Trump’s executive order in defiance of a US law, was reportedly present too.

Former presidents Bill Clinton (with Hillary), George W Bush (with Laura Bush), and Barack Obama (without Michelle Obama, who chose not to attend) were at the Inauguration. Vice President and Trump’s election rival, Kamala Harris, walked on to the stage along with Biden. The Congressional leadership from both parties attended the ceremony. And Trump’s children — Ivanka, Don Jr, Eric, Tiffany and Barron — were all present and are expected to yield influence in ways seen and unseen.

The ceremony began with Senator Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic chair of the inaugural committee, reaffirming the importance of the American constitution, rule of law, democracy and freedoms. Deb Fischer, the Republican ranking member of the committee, celebrated the election verdict of November.

The inauguration marked one of the most remarkable comebacks in American political history. Trump faced accusations of inciting a mob to attack the US Capitol to block the certification of the 2020 election results, lost the support of his party leadership, was impeached by the House, confronted four criminal indictments, got convicted as a felon, and survived two assassination attempts.

And yet, Trump swept the Republican primaries, exposed Biden’s age-related deficits in the first presidential debate, confronted Kamala Harris with 100 days to go for the elections, constructed a campaign that focused on inflation, immigration and America’s foreign entanglements and weakness abroad, created a wider multiracial coalition, won over the support of major tech and Wall Street donors, and became the first president to win non-successive terms in over a century. The result: He won all the seven swing states, the popular vote, and the Republicans got a majority in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Monday marks the beginning of this new presidential chapter in American history, with Trump set to preside over the country in the 250th year anniversary of the American Revolution and Declaration of Independence next year.

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