President Trump took office again Monday, completing a remarkable political comeback and becoming only the second person to serve nonconsecutive terms as commander-in-chief.
Trump’s inauguration ceremony was moved indoors, to the Capitol Rotunda, owing to cold temperatures in Washington. That meant he was sworn in before around 600 dignitaries rather than in front of the huge crowds that usually line the National Mall to watch outdoor inaugurations.
Among those who came to the Capitol were all the living former presidents – Presidents Biden, Obama, George W. Bush, and Clinton.
Trump’s vanquished opponent Vice President Harris also looked on.
Here are five big takeaways from the day.
Trump makes quick moves with executive orders
Trump, ever the showman, signed a brace of executive orders before a big crowd in Washington’s Capitol One arena on Monday evening.
The text of the orders was not visible but they were announced as rescinding 78 Biden-era executive orders, freezing the enactment of new regulations, ordering federal workers to return to in-person work and withdrawing from the Paris climate accord, among other things.
There were also new executive orders with more nebulous aims, including one purporting to protect free speech and another claiming to prevent the “weaponization” of the justice system.
The latter is inherently controversial given Trump’s often-expressed belief that he has been unfairly prosecuted and his critics’ equally strong conviction that he has repeatedly sought to intimidate and punish his enemies while protecting his friends.
On Monday evening, the X account of Zuny Tarrio, the mother of Enrique Tarrio, claimed he was “being released.”
Enrique Tarrio, a former leader of the Proud Boys, was convicted of seditious conspiracy in 2023 for his role in the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has referred to people convicted of Jan. 6-related offenses as “hostages” – a word he repeated during Monday evening’s speech.
Later on Monday evening, Trump signed more executive orders in the Oval Office including one offering full pardons to about 1,500 people imprisoned for their role in Jan. 6, according to pool reports.
That decision alone is sure to create a firestorm.
Earlier, in his inaugural address, Trump promised to declare a national emergency on the southern border, reinstitute the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy – a measure under which asylum-seekers must wait south of the border to have their claims adjudicated in the U.S. – and send troops to the southern border.
He also pledged to end what he calls the “electric vehicle mandate” – a Biden-era measure that sets emission standards for new cars – and to end non-binary gender options on passport applications and in other measures within the purview of the federal government.
All of those measures were intended to underscore to Trump’s supporters that he was taking swift action to wrench the nation onto a new course.
An inaugural address of darkness and light
When Trump was inaugurated the first time, in 2017, his bleak speech – commonly referred to as the “American carnage” address – drew consternation and adverse comment.
This time around he tried – sometimes – to leaven the darkness with some light.
He began his address by insisting that “the golden age of America begins right now.” He went on to talk about how “sunlight is pouring over the entire world.” He asserted that “national unity is now returning to America, and confidence and pride is soaring like never before.”
But those were slivers of light in an address that also featured the emphatic reiteration of a number of Trump complaints, including about the purported politicization of the justice system and his own supposed persecution.
Trump also contended that the nation had experienced a “horrible betrayal” during the Biden years and, more broadly, that the nation had suffered at the hands of a “radical and corrupt establishment.”
Trump ratcheted up the fractiousness even further in remarks soon after the inauguration itself, in which he suggested that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) may have “wanted” the Capitol riot of Jan. 6, 2021 “to happen.”
Trump as peacemaker?
Trump has remade the GOP in myriad ways since he began his political career in earnest in 2015.
One of the more intriguing elements is his apparent distaste for American military interventionism – a break with the hawkish neoconservatism seen during the Bush administration, when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan began.
During his inaugural address, he contended, “We will measure our success not only by the battles we win but also by the wars that we end and, perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.”
He also contended that his “proudest legacy” would be as a “peacemaker.”
His critics will of course look askance at such claims, but they nevertheless show how Trump has jumbled some of the traditional partisan lines in American politics.
One final Biden controversy
Former President Biden, leaving office with some of the lowest approval ratings of any recent president, got enmeshed in one final controversy.
Biden issued preemptive pardons to five members of his own family – adding to the existing pardon of his son, Hunter, issued on Dec. 1.
He also issued preemptive pardons to Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark A. Milley (ret.) the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the members of the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 riot.
The family pardons, in particular, seemed an inglorious way for the outgoing president to depart.
Prior to the Hunter Biden pardon, the elder Biden had repeatedly argued that Trump was the one who sought to bend the justice system to his personal benefit.
Now, on his way out the door, the 46th president has issued blanket pardons to his brother James, his sister Valerie and their respective spouses. He also pardoned his other brother, Francis.
Announcing the pardons, Biden contended that “my family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me – the worst kind of partisan politics.”
Still, the last-minute nature of the pardons was a bad look for a president who had presented himself as a defender of democratic and legal norms. It elicited criticism even from some Democrats.
Prominence of tech titans tells its own story
Tech titans Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg were among the most prominent attendees at Trump’s inaugural address – a conspicuous moment in itself.
Musk spent around $250 million to help Trump get elected. Bezos and Zuckerberg, with whom Trump previously had contentious relationships, have gone out of their way to get closer to him this time around.
Both Bezos’ Amazon and Zuckerberg’s Meta contributed $1 million to the inaugural festivities. Bezos has described himself as “optimistic” about Trump’s second term, while Zuckerberg has abandoned the third-party fact-checking program that Meta — then Facebook — launched in 2016.
On Monday, the tech titans were given far more favorable seating arrangements than many elected politicians – a testament, perhaps, to where the real power lies in 2024 America.
