Search
Search

UNITED STATES

Trump arrives for inauguration vowing sweeping change


Donald Trump arrived at the Capitol on Monday to be sworn in for a historic second term as president, pledging a blitz of executive orders on immigration and U.S. culture wars, capping his extraordinary political comeback.

Trump and outgoing President Joe Biden traveled together by motorcade to the Capitol, where the ceremony was held indoors for the first time in decades due to frigid weather, with a much smaller crowd than usual. Earlier, Trump, Biden, and their spouses met for a traditional tea at the White House.

“Welcome home,” Biden said to Trump as he and first lady Jill Biden greeted their successors at the front door of the presidential residence.

Republican Trump, 78, was a political outsider during his first inauguration in 2017, but as he takes the oath as the 47th U.S. president, he is surrounded by America’s wealthy and powerful.

The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, along with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, all had prime seats in the Capitol alongside Trump’s incoming Cabinet members.

Musk, who contributed $250 million to Trump’s campaign and promotes far-right policies on the social network X, is expected to lead a cost-cutting drive in the new administration.

While Trump refused to attend Biden’s 2021 inauguration after falsely claiming electoral fraud, Biden worked to restore a sense of tradition this time. He joined former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton at the Capitol. Former first ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush were also present, though Michelle Obama did not attend.

‘American decline’

Breaking with inauguration norms that avoid inviting foreign leaders, Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei and Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni attended the event.

The frigid weather forced the inauguration indoors for the first time since Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985, bypassing the customary large crowds along the National Mall.

Behind the pomp, Trump is set to immediately launch a nationalist, right-wing agenda, issuing roughly 100 executive orders to undo Biden’s legacy. According to an incoming administration official, Trump will declare a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, give the military a prominent role in border security, end birthright citizenship, and begin deportations of undocumented migrants.

Trump will also sign an order requiring the federal government to recognize only two biological sexes and plans to dismantle federal diversity programs.

The announcements came a day after Trump promised a “brand-new day” and vowed to end “four years of American decline.”

“I will act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country,” Trump said at an inauguration-eve rally, where he danced alongside the Village People band.

‘Ecstatic’

Despite pledging a new “golden era,” Trump’s campaign often portrayed an apocalyptic view of the country. At sunrise on Monday, the National Mall, where the inauguration was originally planned, was largely empty, aside from the Fairchild family from Michigan.

“Ecstatic,” said Barb Fairchild, a grandmother, when asked about their feelings. She added that moving the ceremony indoors was likely done “to protect our president.”

In his final hours in office, Biden issued preemptive pardons for former COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci and retired Gen. Mark Milley, shielding them from what he called “politically motivated prosecutions” by Trump. Biden also pardoned individuals connected to the U.S. House investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack by Trump’s supporters.

Biden said he had left a traditional letter for his successor but noted its contents were private.

Trump, replacing Biden as the oldest president to be sworn in, makes history as only the second president to return to power after being voted out, following Grover Cleveland in 1893.

Global ripple effects

Trump’s return is expected to bring uncertainty to the global order. He has already floated sweeping tariffs, made territorial threats to Greenland and Panama, and questioned U.S. aid to Ukraine.

Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Trump ahead of the inauguration, saying he was open to talks on the Ukraine conflict and hoped for a resolution that ensured “lasting peace.”

Donald Trump arrived at the Capitol on Monday to be sworn in for a historic second term as president, pledging a blitz of executive orders on immigration and U.S. culture wars, capping his extraordinary political comeback.Trump and outgoing President Joe Biden traveled together by motorcade to the Capitol, where the ceremony was held indoors for the first time in decades due to frigid weather,...