WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on Monday, vowing to usher the country back to its “Golden Age” and issuing a flurry of executive orders and actions on his first day back in office.
Just past noon, Trump was administered the oath of office by Chief Justice John Roberts inside the Capitol Rotunda, after the inaugural ceremony was moved indoors due to low temperatures.
His triumphant return to Capitol Hill came four years after a mob of his supporters stormed through the same halls in an effort to invalidate the 2020 presidential election results. Trump started his second term as the oldest person to be inaugurated president. He also became the second president in history to serve non-consecutive terms.
His reelection marked an incredible turn of fate for Trump after surviving a slew of impeachment, criminal indictments and assassination attempts.
In his inaugural address, he painted a bleak picture of an America that had been in steady decline, until his return.
“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,” he said to the room brimming with politicians, familiar tech moguls and family members.
Trump listed a string of issues he saw plaguing the country, from the weaponization of the Justice Department, backlog of border security, to failing public health and education systems.
He repeated his trademark catchphrases “make America great again” and “crisis of truth.” In between his remarks, Trump hinted at promises for bipartisan support for both aisles to unite behind his agenda.
“From this moment, America’s decline is over,” he said, earning a grimace from former President Joe Biden.
A top issue of his campaign was a massive deportation plan and crackdown at the border. He announced in his address that he intended to declare a national emergency at the southern border, reinstate his “remain in Mexico” policy and designate cartels as “foreign terrorists.”
Trump also vowed to set new tariffs and taxes on foreign nations while working in lockstep with his newly created Department of Government Efficiency and External Revenue Service to offset excess government spending.
He added that he intended to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” and seize back the Panama Canal. While Trump reiterated his hardline goals of bolstering the military budget, he momentarily shifted his attention to peace-dealing.
“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker, and unifier,” he said, claiming credit for his role in helping facilitate the ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestine.
Earlier in the morning, Trump arrived at the White House for coffee and tea, hosted by the Bidens. Biden cordially said, “welcome Home” to Trump as the two first families made their way into the official residence.
Just a few days earlier, Biden in his farewell address to the nation made it clear he dreaded Trump’s return.
“Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that really threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom,” he said on Wednesday.
Following the official inauguration Trump entered the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall to deliver a second address, this one not scripted. He railed against Biden’s recent decision to issue preemptive pardons to Trump’s political opponents and potential targets.
“I was going to talk about the things that Joe did today with pardons of people that were very very guilty of very bad crimes,” Trump said to a jam-packed room of hooting supporters.
Biden issued pardons on Monday to a former top public health official Anthony Fauci, former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, members and staff on the Jan. 6 committee, as well as some of his own family members.
About a mile away, well before dawn, thousands of Trump supporters lined up and filed into Capital One Arena, home to Washington’s NBA basketball and NHL teams. The line to get in snaked for many blocks through Chinatown. Because of the cold weather, that gathering of 20,000 people took the place of the usual inaugural parade.
One Trump fan who spent his morning in line braving the cold was Brooks Warden, an auto technician from Austin, Texas. He said he looked forward to the Trump administration’s promises to crack down on entries in the U.S.-Mexico border.
“We have an invasion on our southern and northern border,” Warden said. “It’s securing our nation, that’s all it needs to be.”
In a sea of Trump supporters, many of whom wore red, Maureen Sollberger, from Ohio, was bundled up in a thick winter coat and a Trump-embroidered beanie.
“As an 84-year-old woman, I want my grandchildren to embrace the United States, we love it, we love Donald Trump,” Sollberger said.
Sarah Serota contributed to this report.
