Inauguration Day: Trump promises a ‘golden age of America’

President Donald Trump delivers remarks after being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Monday (early Tuesday, Macau time), as former President Joe Biden looks on. (Shawn Thew/Pool photo via AP)

Donald Trump, who overcame impeachments, criminal indictments and a pair of assassination attempts to win another term in the White House, was sworn in early today (Tuesday, Macau time)) as the 47th U.S. president taking charge as Republicans claim unified control of Washington and set out to reshape the country’s institutions.

Trump’s swearing-in ceremony, moved indoors due to intense cold, and began at noon ET. Festivities started earlier when the incoming president arrived for service at St. John’s Episcopal Church.

Here’s the latest:

Inauguration performer Carrie Underwood doesn’t usually get involved with politics
Country music star Carrie Underwood is performing “America the Beautiful” at today’s inauguration.

“I love our country and am honored to have been asked to sing at the Inauguration and to be a small part of this historic event,” Underwood said in a statement shortly after the news broke. “I am humbled to answer the call at a time when we must all come together in the spirit of unity and looking to the future.”

But Underwood has avoided discussing politics across her career, in 2019 telling The Guardian, “I feel like more people try to pin me places politically. I try to stay far out of politics if possible, at least in public, because nobody wins. It’s crazy. Everybody tries to sum everything up and put a bow on it, like it’s black and white. And it’s not like that.”

Trump wants to plant an American flag on Mars
Trump says he wants to send American astronauts to Mars, saying he “will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars” and “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.”

Billionaire Elon Musk of SpaceX threw his hands up in the air as Trump announced the U.S. would plant its flag on Mars.

Trump’s plans for reshaping American asylum
Trump said “all illegal entry will immediately be halted,” with few details on how he will achieve that. He said he would end the practice of releasing migrants in the United States to pursue asylum, known as “catch-and-release,” but didn’t say how he would pay for the enormous costs of detention.

Part of his plan relies on resuming the “Remain in Mexico” policy to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court, a hallmark of his first term. The Mexican government has agreed, signaling perhaps one of the most concrete and immediate changes that will be seen at the border.

Trump said little about his plans for mass deportation, saying only that he would deport “millions and millions of criminal aliens.”

There is more than 1 split-screen in Washington
The Rev. Al Sharpton and other Black leaders led a standing-room-only congregation in a passionate and political Martin Luther King Jr. Day as Trump was being sworn in.

The timing was no accident.

“We want people to see the tale of two cities in one,” Sharpton cried, as Trump was being inaugurated at the Capitol.

Sharpton introduced Korey Wise — one of the falsely accused Central Park Five Black defendants whose execution Trump had lobbied for — to cheers from the crowd, and rattled off a series of actions he said Trump had taken against Black Americans and civil rights.

“We will fight the next four years no matter what he says,” Sharpton said.

“Everything that Dr. King stood for is at risk with this president, this Congress,” Sharpton said.

Not-so-record inflation
Trump vowed to “defeat what was record inflation.”

Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 after rising steadily in the first 17 months of Biden’s presidency from a low of 0.1% in May 2020. The most recent data shows that as of December it had fallen to 2.9%.

But other historical periods have seen higher inflation, such as a more than 14% rate in 1980, according to the Federal Reserve.

Trump’s promised Day 1 executive orders
Here are a few of the executive orders Trump says he plans to issue on his first day:

1. Several on immigration, including declaring a national emergency at southern border, reinstating the “remain in Mexico” policy and sending troops to the southern border.

2. Seeking a broad government effort to reduce inflation and reduce prices.

3. Declaring a “national energy emergency” and allowing for more energy production.

4. Ending what he has called an “electric vehicle mandate.”

Trump repeats unfounded immigration claim at the crux of his campaign
In his inaugural address, Trump repeated a line he usually brought up during his campaign, saying that immigrants arriving in the country illegally come from prisons and mental institutions.

There is no evidence countries are sending their criminals or mentally ill across the border.

Trump’s inauguration address echoes his rally speeches
The speech Trump is delivering sounds a lot like his rally speeches, with plenty of grievance, including references to those who tried to “take my freedom” and the “weaponization of our Justice Department.”

Trump, after leaving office, became the first former president to be indicted, convicted and sentenced. But he has long tried to cast his many investigations as politically motivated.

Some Democrats join standing ovation over border emergency
Trump is laying out his executive orders, starting with declaring a state of emergency on the southern border, which received a standing ovation from all Republicans and a few swing state Democrats, including Reps. Don Davis and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez.

Trump wants to make Martin Luther King Jr.‘s dream ‘a reality’
Trump marked the fact that his inauguration is occurring on Martin Luther King Jr. Day., saying in his speech that his administration will “strive together to make his dream a reality.”

“We will make his dream come true,” Trump vowed of the Rev. King.

‘America’s decline is over’
Trump referred to the assassination attempt against him, saying he was “saved by God to make America great again,” drawing a standing ovation from Republicans in the room while Democrats, including Biden and Harris, remained seated and still.

Trump says the election has given him “a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal” he says has taken place, “and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom. From this moment on, America’s decline is over.”

Trump lays into the federal government
Speaking just feet from former Biden, Trump is delivering a forceful critique of the federal government, which he says “cannot manage even a simple crisis at home.”

He cites the wildfires in California and flooding in North Carolina, crises about which he has repeatedly spread incorrect claims. He also points to “a continuing catalogue of catastrophic events abroad” and illegal immigration.
MDT/AP