Donald Trump vowed to usher in a new era of American greatness, minutes after he was sworn in as president for the second time to complete an extraordinary political comeback following two assassination attempts, a felony conviction, and an indictment for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss.
“The golden age of America begins right now,” he said.
Trump took the oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend” the U.S. Constitution at 12:01 p.m. ET (1701 GMT) inside the U.S. Capitol, administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. His vice president, JD Vance, was sworn in just before him.
Trump intends to sign a raft of executive actions in his first hours as president, incoming White House officials said on Monday, 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, officials told reporters.
He will also seek to end so-called birthright citizenship for U.S.-born children whose parents lack legal status, a move some legal scholars have said would be unconstitutional.
Against Odds
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.
The ceremony was moved inside the Capitol due to the extreme cold, four years after a mob of Trump supporters breached the building, a symbol of American democracy, in an unsuccessful effort to forestall Trump’s loss to Joe Biden.
Biden and outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in November, were on hand inside the Capitol’s Rotunda, along with former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, arrived with her husband Bill, but Obama’s wife, Michelle, chose not to attend.
Numerous tech executives who have sought to curry favor with the incoming administration – including the three richest men in the world, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg – had prominent seats on stage, next to cabinet nominees and members of Trump’s family.
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. He skipped Biden’s inauguration and has continued to claim falsely that the 2020 election he lost to Biden was rigged.
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. Representative
Liz Cheney, and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley.
Trump’s Plans
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.
They said he will also sign an order ending diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the federal government on Monday, which is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
But Trump will not immediately impose new tariffs on Monday, instead directing federal agencies to evaluate trade relationships with Canada, China, and Mexico, a Trump official confirmed, an unexpected development that unleashed a broad slide in the U.S. dollar and a rally in global stock markets on a day when U.S. financial markets are closed.
Some of the executive orders are likely to face legal challenges.
Even as he prepared to retake office, Trump continued to expand his business ventures, raising billions in market value by launching a “meme coin” crypto token over the weekend that prompted ethical and regulatory questions.
Shortly before 10 a.m. ET (1500 GMT), Trump and incoming First Lady Melania Trump arrived at the White House, where Biden and outgoing First Lady Jill Biden greeted them with handshakes.
“Welcome home,” Biden said.
(with inputs from Reuters)
