First day included many executive orders, rescinding some of Biden’s
What’s been regarded as a “historic political comeback” on Capitol Hill became complete and official when President Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second term in office Monday.
Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance was also inaugurated as Trump’s Vice President.
It was an occasion rife with historic moments. It also occurred on the Martin Luther King Day federal holiday, with calls from leaders to seek inclusiveness.
“Jan. 20, 2025 is ‘Liberation Day,’” Trump said in his inauguration speech. “In Martin Luther King’s honor, we strive to make his dream a reality, make the dream come true.”
That’s not all he said.
In a speech long on the subject of “momentum,” he emphatically stated, “The golden age of America begins right now.”
“I will simply put America first. Our sovereignty will be reclaimed, our safety will be restored, the scales of justice will be rebalanced, and create a nation proud prosperous and free, greater, stronger and far more exceptional than ever before.”
In the third straight presidential election to feature a newly-chosen leader, Trump talked of change that would reverse the four years of the Joe Biden administration.
“All of this will change starting today, and it will change quickly. My election is a mandate to reverse a horrible betrayal, and give people back their faith, wealth, democracy and freedom. At this moment, America’s decline is over.”
Trump stood and took his Oath of Office after years of criticism, felony trials and a pair of assassination attempts on his life.
“Over the last eight years I’ve been tested and challenged unlike any other president,” he said. “They tried to take my freedom, and take my life. My life was saved for a reason, saved by God to make America great again.”
He wasted no time making his second term unique, signing a number of executive orders in the hours after taking his Oath.
Among them he:
Ordered the Gulf of Mexico be renamed the Gulf of America in terms of American geography;
Worked to end mandates for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), gave a gender decree that male and female be the only ones;
Established the Department of Government Efficiency to “maximize governmental efficiency and productivity”;
Temporarily paused the U.S. ban on social media platform TikTok;
Withdrew the U.S. from the World Health Organization; Established an External Revenue Service to collect proposed tariffs on foreign goods from places like Mexico and Canada.
“It’s an overhaul of our trade system to protect workers and families, to tariff other countries to enrich our citizens,” he said. “The American dream will be back like never before.”
At the same time he revoked a number of executive orders Biden signed, including ones regarding climate change impact and support, resettling immigrants and revoking CIA clearances for 50 agents.
Trump becomes the 47th President after being the 45th. Only Grover Cleveland (the 22nd and 24th) was the only former president to lose election then win again and return in 1892. While Cleveland could have run again because the 22nd Amendment limited presidents to two terms wasn’t ratified until 1947, Trump will be bound by that.
Also noteworthy, the ceremony was moved inside the Capitol rotunda for the first time since Ronald Reagan’s 1985 re-inauguration, as temperatures in Washington, D.C. were in the low 20s and the wind chill was barely into the double digits.
All living past presidents — Bill Clinton, with Hillary, George W. Bush and Barack Obama attended, along with technology business giants like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg — attended. Former first lady Michelle Obama did not. Former Vice President Mike Pence attended, but former Second Lady Karen Pence did not.
Trump and now former President Biden left the White House together Monday morning to head to the ceremony. It wasn’t Trump’s first return after his first term, per se. Biden invited him to meet in the Oval Office just days after his Nov. 5 election victory. Biden left Washington on a helicopter to go to Joint Andrew Air Force Base for a farewell event with his staff.