President Donald Trump returned to power on Monday with a triumphal message that echoed the one he delivered when he first assumed office eight years ago: America’s government is failing, its elites have betrayed the people, and with him returned to the helm, things will go in a sharply different direction.
“My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal, and all of these many betrayals that have taken place, and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed, their freedom,” President Trump declared in his second inaugural address on Monday afternoon. “From this moment on, America’s decline is over.”
That language was similar to his 2017 inaugural address, when he declared, “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.”
Why We Wrote This
In his return to the White House, Mr. Trump’s political grievances have taken on a personal note. He has made clear he sees himself as a persecuted figure who has been victorious over his tormentors.
But in his return to the national stage, his political grievances have also taken on a personal note. Mr. Trump has made clear he sees himself as a persecuted figure – and painted his return to office as a victory over his tormentors.
“Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history, and I’ve learned a lot along the way. The journey to reclaim our republic has not been an easy one, that I can tell you. Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom, and indeed, to take my life,” Mr. Trump said. After discussing the attempt on his life in July, he declared: “I was saved by God to make America great again.”
He pledged to depoliticize the Justice Department, which in his view was turned against him under the Biden administration.
“The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end,” he said.
Not everyone has confidence in Mr. Trump’s pledge to depoliticize the department. Just before leaving office on Monday, President Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons for numerous elected and appointed government officials viewed as enemies by Mr. Trump – and against whom the newly returned president had hinted about seeking vengeance. He also offered preemptive pardons to a number of his own family members.
Because of chilly temperatures, Mr. Trump’s second inauguration took place in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol – the first time in 40 years a swearing-in had been moved inside. Washington hit a high of 27 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday; for President Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2008, which was held outside, the high temperature was 28 degrees. The last time an inauguration was moved indoors due to weather was for Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration, when highs reached just 7 degrees.
In his speech, Mr. Trump blasted “a radical and corrupt establishment” that he said “has extracted power and wealth from our citizens while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair.”
Mr. Trump said he will act on behalf of everyone from consumers and auto workers (pledging to remove electric vehicle incentives and let people buy the cars they want) to people who want what he called a “color-blind” society, rather than one where elites are “trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”
Even as Mr. Trump conveyed a populist message, many of the world’s wealthiest people made a point to attend his inauguration this time around, with most of them cutting massive checks to the Trump inaugural committee, after staying far away eight years ago.
Tech billionaires, including Tesla head and Trump campaign mega-donor Elon Musk, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon founder (and Washington Post owner) Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai were seated near the dais – just behind Mr. Trump’s family, and in front of Mr. Trump’s Cabinet picks.
Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP
Mr. Trump enters office for the second time having been handed a relatively strong economy. The national unemployment rate is currently much lower than historic averages, and the stock market is booming. But inflation continues to be a challenge, even as the rate of inflation has eased over the past year – a major reason why he won a second term in office.
Mr. Trump’s second inaugural address took place in the very room which Mr. Trump’s supporters overran after warring with U.S. Capitol Police four years ago. Mr. Trump didn’t attend President Joe Biden’s inauguration a few weeks later, and he never stopped insisting, despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, that the 2020 election had been stolen from him. He faced a bevy of legal threats in the years following. But while he was convicted of felonies relating to covering up an alleged affair with a porn star before the 2016 election, the two criminal cases against him for his actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot never made it to trial, nor did a fourth case involving his allegedly willful mishandling of classified documents. His return to office marks a stunning political comeback, and makes him the first convicted felon to assume the presidency.
Mr. Trump stuck to his prepared remarks for the speech, but he didn’t stay in teleprompter mode for long. The newly sworn-in president immediately headed downstairs to the Capitol Visitor Center to address other supporters and lawmakers who hadn’t been able to squeeze into the rotunda, delivering 30 minutes of off-the-cuff remarks that shed more light on his thinking.
He grumbled about Mr. Biden’s last-minute pardons. He returned to one of his favorite subjects from the campaign trail, complaining that 2020 was a “rigged election,” and alleging “they tried” to rig it again in 2024. He said he was persuaded not to talk in his inaugural address about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, but suggested quick action on pardoning Jan. 6 defendants. “It’s action not words that count. And you know you’ll see a lot of action on the J6 hostages,” Mr. Trump declared.
“I think this is a better speech than the one I made upstairs,” Mr. Trump commented as he concluded.
