President Trump's formal inaugural address laid out his vision for America, promising ambitious policies and a series of executive actions.
Shortly after being sworn in as the 47th president, he gave a speech inside the rotunda of the Capitol that focused primarily on his campaign's key issue of reducing immigration and the failures of the Biden administration during his four years in the White House. He also invoked God when discussing an assassination attempt on him in July.
Here are five highlights of President Trump's speech.
entry order
President Trump received a standing ovation during his first remarks after saying he was declaring a national emergency on the southern border. He previewed 10 executive orders he plans to sign later Monday aimed at quickly cracking down on immigration and drug cartels.
President Trump also reimposed the “Remain in Mexico” policy, officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols during the first Trump administration, and declared drug cartels and smuggling cartels to be designated as terrorist organizations, earning a standing ovation. I received it.
If President Trump declares a national emergency, the military will be mobilized to the border. It also will take steps to fast-track construction of the border wall, eliminate birthright citizenship and suspend refugee resettlement programs, incoming White House officials previewed early Monday. .
The president made curbing the flow of migrants at the U.S. southern border a key promise of his 2024 election campaign, and his team said his November victory gave the president a “mission” to carry out that pledge. He said it was given.
Aiming for a “golden age”
President Trump took a much more emotional tone than his 2017 speech when he was sworn in as the 45th president. In these remarks, Mr. Trump had a dark vision of America, spoke of “American carnage” and claimed that some men and women have been forgotten and are struggling.
President Trump opened his remarks Monday by declaring, “America's Golden Age begins now.” Later, speaking to supporters in the overflow room of the Capitol, he said he wanted his speech to be “beautiful.”
The president said that during his four years as president, the country would prosper and be respected around the world.
“Every day of the Trump administration, I will, very simply, put America first,” he said, renewing the isolationist theme from his 2017 speech.
“We are on the precipice of the greatest four years in American history,” President Trump said.
At the end of his speech, he told the audience: “We will not be conquered, we will not be intimidated, we will not be crushed and we will not fail.”
“Our golden age has just begun,” President Trump said.
'Saved by God' from assassination
After surviving a mass shooting at a campaign rally last year, President Trump declared he was “saved by God” to “make America great again.”
The president said, “Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than anyone else in our country's 250-year history.''
Trump survived two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign, including one in July when he was shot during an outdoor rally in Pennsylvania. As the shots were fired, President Trump clutched his ears and raised his fist in the air as the Secret Service surrounded him, blood streaming down his face and ears.
The president reflected on that moment in his speech.
“Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet shot through my ear. But I knew then, and even more now, that my life had been saved for a reason. That's what I thought. God saved me to make America great again,” he said.
critical of Biden's work
The president was criticizing former President Biden, who was sitting next to him at the podium.
“Right now, our government is unable to manage even a simple crisis at home, while at the same time experiencing a series of catastrophic events abroad. “But it does not provide sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals who come from prisons and psychiatric hospitals from all over the world illegally,” Trump said.
He slammed the federal government's response to natural disasters, the affordability and lack of access to health care, and what he called the “shame” heaped on students in schools across the country.
“Starting today, everything changes,” President Trump said.
He criticized the federal government's response to North Carolina's hurricanes, saying the state's residents were being treated “too badly.” He noted that “fires are still tragically burning” in Los Angeles, affecting some of the “wealthiest and most powerful people.”
President Trump also said that another executive order he plans to sign on Monday would recognize only two genders, male and female, and would seek to “socially incorporate race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.” It was advertised as part of an effort to end the government's policy of ” he said.
“As of today, it will be the official policy of the U.S. government that there are only two genders: male and female,” Trump said.
Panama Canal and the “Gulf of America” Covenant
President Trump renewed his pledge to take back the Panama Canal, calling the sale of the canal for $1 a “gift that should never have been given.”
He said the United States had been treated “very badly” and that “the spirit of the treaty was being violated” while falsely claiming that China operated the canal.
He also said that as part of his first-day executive order, he would change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.” He hinted at renaming the bay at a press conference earlier this month.
Former first lady Hillary Clinton, whom Trump won in the 2016 election, laughed when Trump talked about his Gulf of Mexico plans and shook her head at his promise of a Panama Canal.
Brett Samuels and Michael Schnell contributed.
