Donald Trump pledged to rescue America from what he described as years of betrayal and decline after he was sworn in as president on Monday, prioritizing a crackdown on illegal immigration and portraying himself as a national saviour chosen by God.

“For American citizens, January 20, 2025, is Liberation Day,” Trump, 78, said inside the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, the symbol of U.S. democracy that was invaded on Jan. 6, 2021, by a mob of Trump supporters intent on reversing his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden.

The half-hour speech echoed some of the themes he sounded at his first inauguration in 2017, when he spoke of the “American carnage” of crime and job loss that he said had ravaged the country.

The inauguration completes a triumphant return for a political disruptor who was twice impeached, survived two assassination attempts, was convicted in a criminal trial and faced charges for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss. He is the first president in more then a century to win a second term after losing the White House.

“I was saved by God to make America great again,” Trump said, referring to the assassin’s bullet that grazed his ear in July.

Trump is the first felon to serve as president after a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star.

“Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback,” he said. “I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do in America. The impossible is what we do best.”

While Trump sought to portray himself as a peacemaker and unifier, his speech was often sharply partisan. He repeated false claims from his campaign that other countries were emptying their prisons into America and voiced familiar and unfounded grievances over his criminal prosecutions.

With Biden seated nearby, affecting a polite smile, Trump issued a stinging indictment of his predecessor’s policies from immigration to foreign affairs and outlined a raft of executive actions aimed at blocking border crossings, ending federal diversity programs and overhauling international trade.

“First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border,” he said. “All illegal entry will be immediately halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”

Numerous tech executives who have sought to curry favor with the incoming administration – including the three richest men in the world, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg – had prominent seats on stage, next to cabinet nominees and members of Trump’s family.

Trump said he would send astronauts to plant the U.S. flag on Mars, prompting Musk – who has long talked about colonizing the planet – to throw his hands up in celebration.

Trump vowed to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America and repeated his intention to take back control of the Panama Canal, one of several foreign policy pronouncements that have caused consternation among U.S. allies.

TRIUMPHANT RETURN

Following his address, Trump stopped by the Capitol’s visitor center and delivered an even longer, informal speech to supporters reminiscent of his freewheeling campaign rallies.

In the later remarks, Trump struck a sharply different tone, voicing suspicion about election processes, calling people charged with taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack “hostages” and suggesting the congressional probe into his actions around that day was illegal.

“I think this was a better speech than the one I made upstairs,” Trump said.

Trump took the oath of office to “preserve, protect and defend” the U.S. Constitution at 12:01 p.m. ET (1701 GMT), administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. His vice president, JD Vance, was sworn in just before him.

Outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in November, was seated next to Biden in a section with former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in 2016, arrived with her husband Bill, but Obama’s wife, Michelle, chose not to attend.

The ceremony was moved indoors due to the extreme cold gripping much of the country.

Trump skipped Biden’s inauguration and has continued to claim falsely that the 2020 election he lost to Biden was rigged.

Biden, in one of his last official acts, pardoned several people whom Trump has threatened with retaliation, including former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci, former Republican U.S. Representative Liz Cheney and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley. He also pardoned five family members just minutes before leaving office, citing fears that Trump would target them.

Trump acknowledged he was taking office on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and said he would work to honor the civil rights leader’s legacy. At the same time, he said he would issue orders to scrap federal diversity programs and require the government to recognize only genders assigned at birth.

“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” Trump said, as Democratic U.S. Representative Sarah McBride, the first transgender person to serve in Congress, quietly smiled in the audience.

Trump will not immediately impose new tariffs, instead directing federal agencies to evaluate trade relationships with Canada, China and Mexico, a Trump official said, an unexpected development that unleashed a broad slide in the U.S. dollar and a rally in global stock markets on a day when U.S. financial markets were closed.

Some of the executive orders are likely to face legal challenges.

DISRUPTIVE FORCE

As he did in 2017, Trump enters office as a disruptive force, vowing to remake the federal government and expressing deep skepticism about the U.S.-led alliances that have shaped post-World War Two global politics.

Police separated a group of 40 supporters of the militant far-right group the Proud Boys, backers of Trump whose former leader Enrique Tarrio was among those imprisoned for Jan. 6, and a dozen counter protesters in downtown DC.

“Whose streets? Our streets,” the Proud Boys chanted as several protesters aimed loud speakers playing sirens at them. Each side shouted expletives at the other

He returns to Washington emboldened after winning the national popular vote over Harris by more than 2 million votes thanks to a groundswell of voter frustration over persistent inflation, though he still fell just short of a 50% majority.

Trump, who surpassed Biden as the oldest president ever to be sworn in, will enjoy Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress. His advisers have outlined plans to replace nonpartisan bureaucrats with hand-picked loyalists.

Trump’s influence was already felt in the Israel-Hamas announcement last week of a ceasefire deal. Trump, whose envoy joined the negotiations in Qatar, had warned of “hell to pay” if Hamas did not release its hostages before the inauguration.

Unlike in 2017, when he filled many top jobs with institutionalists, Trump has prioritized fealty over experience in nominating a bevy of controversial cabinet picks, some of whom are outspoken critics of the agencies they have been tapped to lead.

Even as he prepared to retake office, Trump continued to expand his business ventures, raising billions in market value by launching a “meme coin” crypto token that prompted ethical and regulatory questions.

The inauguration took place amid heavy security after a campaign highlighted by an increase in political violence.

The traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue past the White House was moved indoors to the Capital One Arena, where Trump held a victory rally on Sunday.

-Reuters

Donald Trump will be sworn in as U.S. president on Monday, ushering in another turbulent four-year term with promises to push the limits of executive power, deport millions of immigrants, secure retribution against his political enemies and transform the role of the U.S. on the world stage.

Trump’s inauguration completes a triumphant comeback for a political disruptor who survived two impeachment trials, a felony conviction, two assassination attempts and an indictment for attempting to overturn his 2020 election loss.

That promise is among a flurry of executive actions concerning immigration, energy and tariffs that Trump intends to sign as soon as Monday after taking the oath of office. At a campaign-style rally on Sunday in Washington, Trump vowed to impose harsh immigration restrictions on his first day.

As he did in 2017, Trump enters office as a chaotic and disruptive force, vowing to remake the federal government and expressing deep skepticism about the U.S.-led alliances that have shaped post-World War Two global politics.

The former president returns to Washington emboldened after winning the national popular vote over Vice President Kamala Harris by more than 2 million votes thanks to a groundswell of voter frustration over persistent inflation, though he still fell just short of a 50% majority. In 2016, Trump won the Electoral College – and the presidency – despite receiving nearly 3 million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton.

Jeremi Suri, a presidential historian at the University of Texas at Austin, compared the present era to the late 19th century, when Grover Cleveland became the only other president to win non-consecutive terms. Like now, he said, that was a time of upheaval, as industrial advances transformed the economy, wealth inequality exploded and the proportion of immigrant Americans reached a historical peak.

“What we’re really talking about is a fundamentally different economy, a fundamentally different country in terms of its racial and gender and social makeup, and we are as a country struggling to figure out what that means,” he said. “It’s an existential moment.”

Trump will enjoy Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress that have been almost entirely purged of any intra-party dissenters. His advisers have outlined plans to replace nonpartisan bureaucrats with hand-picked loyalists.

Even before taking office, Trump established a rival power center in the weeks after his election victory, meeting world leaders and causing consternation by musing aloud about seizing the Panama Canal, taking control of NATO ally Denmark’s territory of Greenland and imposing tariffs on the biggest U.S. trading partners.

His influence has already been felt in the Israel-Hamas announcement last week of a ceasefire deal. Trump, whose envoy joined the negotiations in Qatar, had warned of “hell to pay” if Hamas did not release its hostages before the inauguration.

Trump claimed during the campaign he would end the Russia-Ukraine war on his first day, but his advisers have acknowledged any peace deal will take months.

Unlike in 2017, when he filled many top jobs with institutionalists, Trump has prioritized fealty over experience in nominating a bevy of controversial cabinet picks, some of whom are outspoken critics of the agencies they have been tapped to lead.

He also has the backing of the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who spent more than $250 million to help get Trump elected. Other billionaire tech leaders who have sought to curry favor with the incoming administration, such as Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Alphabet’s Sundar Pichai and Apple’s Tim Cook, will join Musk in attending Monday’s ceremony, according to Reuters and other media.

Trump said on Sunday he will travel to California on Friday to visit fire-ravaged Los Angeles County.

‘AMERICAN CARNAGE’

The inauguration will proceed amid heavy security after a campaign highlighted by an increase in political violence that included two assassination attempts against Trump, including one in which a bullet grazed his ear.

Federal authorities are also on alert after the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, when investigators say a U.S. Army veteran inspired by the Islamic State drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers, killing 14. Last week, the FBI warned of potential copycat attacks.

Eight years ago, Trump delivered a bleak inaugural address vowing to end the “American carnage” of what he said were crime-ridden cities and soft borders, a departure from the tone of optimism most newly elected presidents have adopted.

Foreign governments will be scrutinizing the tenor of Trump’s speech on Monday after he waged a campaign laced with inflammatory rhetoric.

The traditional parade down Pennsylvania Avenue past the White House will now take place indoors at the Capital One Arena, where Trump held his victory rally on Sunday. Trump will also attend three inaugural balls in the evening.

Amid the pageantry of the day, Trump will begin signing the first of what could be dozens of executive orders.

Some actions will begin tightening immigration rules by seeking to classify drug cartels as “foreign terrorist organizations” and declare an emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, among other moves, a source familiar with the planning said. Other orders may aim to scrap Biden’s environmental regulations and withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement, sources have said.

Many of the executive orders are likely to face legal challenges.

Trump will be the first felon to occupy the White House after a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records to cover up hush money paid to a porn star. He escaped punishment at his sentencing, in part because the judge acknowledged the impossibility of imposing penalties on a soon-to-be president.

Winning the election also rid Trump of two federal indictments – for plotting to overturn the 2020 election and for retaining classified documents – thanks to a Justice Department policy that presidents cannot be prosecuted while in office.

In a report released last week, Special Counsel Jack Smith said he had gathered enough evidence to convict Trump in the election case if Trump had reached trial.

-Reuters

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Morocco’s monarch, King Mohammed VI has welcomed the ceasefire between the Hamas and Israel which will begin this Sunday. The monarch’s statement released by Morocco’s foreign ministry came two days ahead of the ceasefire.

According to the statement issued by Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, King Mohammed VI stressed the significance of the ceasefire.

King Mohammed VI is the Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee which is an intergovernmental organization that focuses on issues in Jerusalem related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

The committee’s work includes political, social, cultural, religious, and human rights advocacy. A statement from Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates remarked that the ceasefire aligns with King Mohammed VI’s vision for peace. 

It reiterated Morocco’s consistent position on the urgent need to end violence and prioritize civilian protection since the conflict began on October 7, 2023.

“The Kingdom calls on all Palestinian and Israeli parties to give peace a chance and to demonstrate a sincere and constructive commitment, far from any short-term or opportunistic considerations”, says the press release.

It added that the Kingdom of Morocco hopes for the ceasefire agreement to be fully respected, and to lead to a halt of attacks on civilians, the return of displaced persons and the free flow of humanitarian aid in sufficient quantities.

Morocco also recalled King Mohammed VI’s message to the last Arab Summit, saying that it is essential to avoid resolving one crisis to enter another.

The ceasefire agreement should pave the way for a genuine peace process, enabling the establishment of a Palestinian State within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side in peace with Israel.