Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Open the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
Donald Trump promised a “golden age of America” as he used his inaugural address to reverse Joe Biden’s policies and reverse the “crisis of trust” that has plagued the government.
The new president announced new measures to increase energy production and curb immigration as he promised to speed up the public and national platform that led to his victory in last year’s race for the White House.
Trump made a personal statement about his return to the White House following two assassination attempts, and a dramatic overhaul of domestic and foreign policy.
In the year “I was saved by God to make America great again,” he said in a speech that added to his dystopian description of the “massacre of Americans” in his first inaugural address in 2017.
“For years, a radical and corrupt institution has taken away power and wealth from our citizens at a time when the pillars of our society seem to be broken and completely broken,” he said.
“We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple problem at home, while at the same time it is stumbling through a catalog of terrible events abroad,” he said.
Trump has promised to “build the strongest military force the world has ever seen.” But he hinted at a new era of American expansionism when he said the United States would regain control of the Panama Canal.
He said he would be a “peacemaker” on his campaign pledge to end the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East.
“We measure our success not only by the wars we win, but also by the wars we stop and, perhaps more importantly, the wars we don’t enter,” Trump said. “My proud legacy will be peacemaker and unity.”
The ceremony was attended by former presidents including George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, who have recently flocked to Trump, were prominent in the audience.
Trump in 2016 With far greater support from the public and the business community than when he left office in 2021, the White House entered the US Capitol weeks after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol to overturn Biden’s election.
Trump now faces the daunting task of fulfilling his promise to lower the cost of living for middle-class families, a pledge that was a powerful political tool in his campaign victory over Kamala Harris.
The new president has said he will declare national emergencies, including on immigration and energy, giving the president the power to take new measures. As he spoke, the White House said it was withdrawing from the Paris climate accord.
But far from immediately announcing new tariffs, Trump plans to release a memo ordering government agencies to reassess US trade relations with trade partners China, Mexico and Canada.
The hesitation suggests his top aides are still grappling with how much to impose tariffs on America’s top trading partners. But Trump has said tariffs are still coming.
“Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we impose tariffs and taxes on foreign countries to enrich our own citizens,” he said.
Before he spoke, the dollar was down about 1 percent against other currencies in U.S. morning trading, putting it on track for its biggest daily decline in more than five months.
Trump’s return to the White House has worried some of America’s closest allies, who fear increased protectionism and a new turn toward Washington isolation.
But staunchly conservative world leaders won the election. Argentine President Javier Mille and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni were among the leaders who attended the inauguration.
