LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — "The Golden Age of America begins right now," declared President Donald Trump, moments after taking the oath of office for the second time on Monday inside the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
Trump's theme — America is in decline, but he would restore its luster — continued throughout his 29-minute speech, hitting repeatedly on campaign themes familiar to anyone who has attended or watched a Trump rally.
Here are seven takeaways from Trump's second inaugural address:
Immigration
One of Trump's number one issues in the campaign — and one on which his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, was especially vulnerable — made up a big part of Trump's speech, but with a twist.
On the campaign trail, Trump pledged to implement the largest mass deportation in American history, sending back 'everyone' who'd come to the United States without authorization. The comments have caused immigrants here illegally and groups that help them to start preparing for mass raids and arrests. Trump later told "Meet the Press" that he may be open to allowing so-called DREAMers — immigrants brought to the country illegally as children — to stay
On Monday, Trump referred only to illegal immigrants who had committed crimes as targets for deportation.
All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.
In addition, Trump pledged to:
- Declare a national emergency at the southern border.
- Restore his "remain in Mexico" policy, which requires asylum seekers to wait for hearings in Mexico before they enter the United States.
- Send active-duty military troops to the border to stop what he called an "invasion" by immigrants.
- Designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
- Use the 1789 Alien Enemies Act to target foreign gangs and criminal networks.
But later in the day on Monday, Trump issued a lengthy executive order on immigration that set for a policy of "removing promptly all aliens who enter or remain in violation of Federal laws." A second executive order purports to revoke "birthright citizenship," or the idea that a person born in the United States is automatically a citizen. Most scholars believe birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, and was confirmed by the 1898 Supreme Court decision in United States v. Wong Kim Ark. That order is likely to be challenged in court.
The economy
Other than immigration, Trump's campaign promises aimed to fight the persistent inflation under President Joe Biden. Trump said one of his executive orders would tackle that issue directly.
"Next, I will direct all members of my cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices," Trump said to applause.
However, Trump didn't explain exactly how he and his cabinet would do that. With Biden and Harris sitting just a few feet away from him, he said inflation under Biden was caused by massive overspending and rising energy prices. To combat those prices, Trump said, America would exploit its oil and natural gas reserves, exporting energy to other nations under a newly declared "national energy emergency."
"We will drill, baby, drill," he said to applause.
Later in the day, Trump signed a memorandum that ordered his cabinet to "...deliver emergency price relief, consistent with applicable law, to the American people and increase the prosperity of the American worker. This shall include pursuing appropriate actions to lower the cost of housing and expand the housing supply; eliminate unnecessary administrative expenses and rent-seeking practices that increase healthcare costs; eliminate counterproductive requirements that raise the costs of home appliances; create employment opportunities for American workers, including drawing discouraged workers into the labor force; and eliminate harmful, coercive 'climate' policies that increase the costs of food and fuel."
Calls for unity, pokes at dissent
Most inaugural addresses seek to unify the country behind a new president, and Trump's was no different. He noted that he'd won all seven swing states, made gains among Black and Hispanic Americans and won the popular vote by "millions." He even said his administration would help make civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream a reality.
"National unity is returning to America," he said.
"If we work together, there's nothing we can't do," he said, echoing Biden's oft-repeated refrain. "In America, the impossible is what we do best. We are one American family."
At the same time, Trump didn't avoid remarks that were aimed at things that divided Americans. He denounced a "radical and corrupt establishment" that took money and power from Americans and an education system that he said teaches children to hate America. He said the official federal government policy is that there are only two genders. He pledged to restore to duty (with back pay) all service members discharged for refusing to obey an order to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
God
Trump has never portrayed himself as overtly religious. However, he has a strong following among conservative evangelical Christians and is marketing his own edition of the Bible (that includes the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution). But in this speech, he made more overtly religious remarks than ever.
He recounted the assassination attempt that came within a fraction of an inch of killing him and said divine intervention saved his life. "But I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason," Trump said.
I was saved by God to make America great again.
In another passage, he linked the government and God: "We will not forget our country, we will not forget our Constitution and we will not forget our God," Trump said. "Can't do that."
The remarks evoked a biblical passage that kings and other leaders cited for millennia. "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no one in authority except that which God has established. God has established the authorities that exist. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves," reads Romans 13:1-2.
But for millions of others — Christian and non-Christian alike — marrying religion to government raises concerns, not least of which is the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which says the government shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
Some surprising things
Trump also threw some curve balls into his speech, some of which he'd telegraphed in previous remarks. For example, he said the United States would rename the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America." Likewise, he said he would restore the name "Mt. McKinley" in Alaska after it was changed in 2016 to the traditional Indigenous moniker "Denali" as part of the U.S. Park Service's 100th anniversary.
Trump pledged not to involve the U.S. in foreign wars, but a short time later declared that the United States would be reclaiming the Panama Canal because the spirit of the U.S. canal treaty had been violated. China, he said, is now running the canal and overcharging fees to American ships that use it. "We didn't give it to China; we have it in Panama, and we're taking it back," he said.
And Trump — who created the U.S. Space Force during his first term from 2017 to 2021 — pledged to plant the American flag on the surface of Mars. However, he didn't say how much a mission to Mars might cost the U.S. treasury.
What wasn't said
The Mars costs weren't the only thing Trump omitted from his speech. He also didn't mention:
- The environment or climate change. Trump did mention natural disasters in the context of the government's inability to respond to hurricanes or wildfires. He did say he would end the "Green New Deal" (a set of proposals that Congress has never passed) and mandates for electric vehicles. He also said he would exploit America's fossil fuel resources, such as natural gas and oil. But he skipped any reference to climate, the environment, or regulations that protect clean air and water. (Later, he signed an executive order saying that economic growth would outweigh international climate accords.)
- The deficit or the national debt. Although Trump has criticized the debt before, his inaugural speech made no mention of the $35.46 trillion debt. The issue is important to many Republicans, however, including members of the House Freedom Caucus, who objected to a spending bill recently because the spending wasn't offset by cuts elsewhere. Trump did order a federal hiring freeze on Monday, however.
- Biden's pardons: Trump, at a post-speech gathering, did discuss the last-minute pardons Biden had extended to members of the January 6 Committee, Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Army Gen. Mark Milley, or members of his own family. (Biden said he extended those pardons because he feared reprisals from Trump's Justice Department.) But in his inaugural speech, he promised only an end to political prosecutions of political opponents and a return in impartial justice. That was the subject of another Trump executive order.
Nevada
Trump didn't say anything specifically in his inaugural address about the Silver State, which he won for the first time in 2024. But he did say that he'd won all seven of the swing states, including Nevada. However, not that he'd achieved another remarkable benchmark, coming within 27,135 votes of winning Clark County, where Democrats outnumbered Republicans by more than 92,000 active registered voters on Election Day.
But later on Monday, Trump credited his victory here to his "no tax on tips" policy that he first mentioned at his Sunset Park rally in June.
"Can you remember a little statement about tips? Anybody remember that little statement?" Trump asked. "I think we won Nevada because of that statement."
If you have questions about politics, government, or the Nevada Legislature, email them to us using the Ask Steve link on our website.
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