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With temperatures reaching a high of 24 degrees in Washington, D.C., Trump’s political comeback was cemented inside the Capitol Rotunda, with a reduced audience.
By Kevin Dolak
Donald Trump took the oath of office on Monday afternoon in Washington, D.C., promising to protect the United States as he stepped back into the presidency from inside the Capitol Rotunda, then gave two speeches that outlined the campaign promises he will keep while harshly condemning the Biden administration and its policies.
“The golden age of America begins right now. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world,” Trump said as he began his inaugural address, later adding, “My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all these many betrayals that have taken place and give people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom. From this moment on, America’s decline is over.”
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On Monday, among the traditional inauguration attendees — the president-elect and vice president-elect’s families, former presidents and first ladies, dignitaries, cabinet members and nominees, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and others — were familiar faces from the world of Big Tech. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who cozied up to Trump during his campaign and landed a cabinet position, was at the Rotunda. Others out of the Valley included Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai and OpenAI’s Sam Altman. Notably, the tech crowd was seated together in the second row, just behind Trump’s family and in front of Trump’s cabinet members, state governors and public servants; before the event was moved inside, the group of CEOs was to be seated at the inaugural platform. Many of the invited CEOs had donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund.
Also attending the event but seated away from the gaggle of tech billionaires was TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, who had previously thanked Trump for pledging to stand behind the popular social media platform and said he was confident he would resolve the uncertain future of his company after a law was upheld by the Supreme Court last week that makes video-sharing app illegal in the U.S.
During his address, Trump brought up the ongoing state of emergency in Los Angeles and promised to create change to prevent and combat such emergencies like the ongoing wildfires from taking place. He had previously said that he would “probably” visit L.A. soon to survey the damage caused by the massive fires over the past two weeks.
“Our country can no longer deliver basic services in times of emergency … recently [in] Los Angeles, where we are watching fires still tragically burning from weeks ago without even a token of defense, raging through the houses and communities, even affecting some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country, some of whom are sitting here right now,” Trump said. “They don’t have a home any longer. That’s interesting. We can’t let this happen. Everyone is unable to do anything about it. That’s going to change.”
Mention was made of several of his campaign promises during his address, including the immediate implementation of a hardline immigration policy, halting efforts to ”socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life” in favor of a “colorblind and merit-based United States,” and changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to Gulf of America (Hillary Clinton was seen laughing out loud from the audience at this moment).
Trump also promised to sign an executive order to “immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.” Throughout his first presidency and the four years between terms, Trump has consistently griped about social media — particularly after being banned from both Facebook and Twitter in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by his supporters. He also has a long, combative history with the media that escalated over the past four years as he has continuously falsely claimed that the 2020 election was rigged. Speculation has been high around how the Fourth Estate will handle Trump’s second term, particularly after the chilling effect that came after ABC News settled a defamation lawsuit he filed against the network.
Outside the Rotunda, a looser and more verbose President Trump then spoke to the gathered crowd that included members of Congress who didn’t make it inside for the ceremony. Trump, in his second speech of the day, bristled about pardons that Biden issued on his way out of office and then briefly discussed the pardoning of Jan 6. rioters, saying, “It’s action, not words, that count.” He also boosted House Speaker Mike Johnson, as the congressman leads the GOP with the slightest Congressional majority in over 100 years; Trump just made that margin thinner when he tapped New York GOP Rep. Elise Stefanik as his pick for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
“We gave him a majority of almost nothing, and then to make it tougher on him, I said, let me take two or three of your people,” Trump said.
The inauguration came on a frigid day in Washington, D.C., with a high of 24 degrees and wind gusts of 31 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service. Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985 was the only previous swearing-in to be moved from the West Front of the Rotunda, a fact noted by Trump in his Friday announcement about the move.
The move of the event inside the Capitol has significantly cut down the number of inauguration attendees — by more than half, according to NPR, which reports that the 1600-capacity West Front platform has now been reduced to the roughly 750-capacity Rotunda. Around 250,000 people who ticketed for the outdoor inauguration were not able to witness Trump’s second swearing.
Trump was sworn in by sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance was sworn in before Trump by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to do the honors; incidentally, Vance’s wife, Usha Vance, clerked for Kavanaugh at the U.S. Court of Appeals’ D.C. Circuit.
On Monday morning, New York Mayor Eric Adams received a last-minute invitation to the inauguration and his office said he plans to attend. Adams, who in September pleaded not guilty after he was indicted on bribery and campaign finance-related charges, lunched with Trump on Friday. The Trump team also announced that Han Zheng, the vice president of China, would attend.
Here is how to watch the inauguration, coverage of which began 8:30 a.m. PT/11:30 a.m. ET.
Jan. 20, 10:30 a.m. This story was updated at the conclusion of Trump’s official address.
12 p.m. Updated to include Trump’s second speech
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