President Trump, in his first remarks after being sworn into office inside the Capitol Rotunda on Monday, portrayed himself as the only person who could save the United States from decline, and offered early indications of his first actions he would take in office.
Here is an annotated transcript of the speech.
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1
Trump promised an “America First” vision in his first term, and he made a similar promise in his first inaugural address. This idea has been one of the animating ideas behind his political movement.
2
Trump has frequently accused his political rivals of “weaponizing” the government against him, but he has also promised retribution against his enemies. In one of his last acts in the White House, Former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., pardoned government officials, members of Congress and members of his own family over fears that a Trump-led Justice Department might investigate and punish them.
3
This might look and sound like a different ceremony than the one held eight years ago. The angry tone from the new president and the crowd was palpable. But Trump’s sedate delivery, as he speaks of annihilating challenges and disparages the Biden administration, is not largely different in content.
4
Trump repeated his claim, made countless times during the 2024 campaign, that “many from prisons and mental institutions” had illegally entered the country through the southern border. He has offered no evidence for this.
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5
Trump’s aides had billed this as an optimistic and hopeful address. But it’s really a redux of his 2017 “American Carnage” address: He describes the current America as a catastrophic mess of crime and chaos.
6
Though he later detailed actions he planned to take as president, Trump’s language on this issue was less specific than his campaign trail promises to shutter the Department of Education, end the teaching of critical race theory and keep schools from recognizing transgender identities.
7
Trump, who united religious conservatives behind him, has for months suggested divine intervention was behind his surviving an assassination attempt at a rally in Butler, Pa., in July.
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On the campaign trail, Trump generally used this phrase as he discussed ending what he portrayed in violent terms as a rampant migrant invasion of the United States.
9
Trump and his allies have talked about his victory as something akin to a landslide that gives them a mandate to govern, but he prevailed with one of the smallest margins of victory in the popular vote for a president in decades.
10
President Trump did gain among both Hispanic and Black men from 2020. Worth noting: Earlier today, an incoming official announced that the administration would be doing away with diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
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11
This policy forced migrants to wait in Mexico until the date of their immigration case in court. The United States, however, would need Mexico’s cooperation to bring back the policy. And the details of deploying military assets to the border remain unclear.
12
This centuries-old law allows for the quick deportation of people from countries with which the United States is at war, that have invaded the United States or that have engaged in “predatory incursions.” It is unclear whether it can be used to encompass drug cartels.
13
Energy analysts have said that gas prices are difficult for a president to affect. Trump doesn’t directly control oil companies, and oil production in the United States reached record highs under the Biden administration.
14
This ignores that the United States is already the world’s richest nation by almost every measure.
15
There is no federal electric vehicle mandate. But the Biden administration issued environmental regulations on emissions meant to push car companies to speed up electric vehicle production, which Trump has called an electric vehicle mandate.
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16
Trump in recent days has talked repeatedly about creating an “External Revenue Service” to collect on new tariffs. It’s a promise that makes a number of congressional Republicans uncomfortable, but that others are pushing.
17
Led by the billionaire Elon Musk, this department — which is not a cabinet department but an advisory group of ambiguous structure— is supposed to target what Trump frames as wasteful government spending and burdensome regulation.
18
Trump has filed a number of lawsuits against news outlets recently. This action would also likely include social media companies; he has complained that companies such as Facebook and YouTube censored him and his allies over health misinformation and the election results of 2020.
19
The speech felt like a State of the Union in its laundry list of policy prescriptions. Inaugural Addresses traditionally aspire to lofty and unifying themes and shy away from details on policies, leaving those for a later day.
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20
Here, Trump took credit for the release of the Israeli hostages, something done jointly with the Biden administration.
21
Trump could press for these changes as these geographical names are used in the United States, but whether other countries might honor them is up to them.
22
Though Trump discussed tariffs often and extensively during his campaign, he only mentioned them twice in his inaugural address. In his view, tariffs will revitalize the American economy and bring in significant revenue for he federal government.
23
The claim that China is operating the Panama Canal is false – Panama operates the Panama Canal, though the ownership of ports at either side of the canal by a Hong Kong-based company has raised some security concerns.
24
Trump pledges to “end the chronic disease epidemic” while also assailing the nation’s public health system as one that “does not deliver in times of disaster,” while failing to mention that many of its stumbles during the coronavirus pandemic occurred while he was president.
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Elon Musk’s dream has long been to help humans colonize Mars; he beamed as Trump promised to plant the U.S. flag there. And one of Trump’s proudest accomplishments in his first term was the creation of the Space Force, a reminder of how much he and Musk align in certain ways.
—Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman
26
Trump’s evocation of Manifest Destiny and American expansion stands out given his recent refusal to rule out using military force or economic pressure to take control of the Panama Canal and Greenland.
27
This portion of his speech sounds similar to Trump at one of his rallies: listing American achievements, putting himself at the top.
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28
One subject was notably absent from Trump’s address: the Jan. 6 criminal defendants. Trump has promised to pardon many, maybe even most, of them today. The rioters and their families are expectantly watching events today — some at watch parties — and waiting for word of how Trump intends to proceed.
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