WASHINGTON — Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on Monday, promising the “golden age of America begins right now” and vowing to help Americans with his MAGA movement.
Trump spoke for nearly 40 minutes in the Capitol Rotunda after being sworn in, using the speech to lay out his agenda and attack former President Joe Biden’s administration. He went through his usual hits, calling the 2020 election “totally rigged,” and blamed former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) for his supporters attacking the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump spoke about the assassination attempt over the summer in Butler, Pennsylvania.
“An assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear, but I felt then, and believe, even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again,” Trump said.
“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be,” he added.
Following the inaugural speech, Trump spoke to a crowd and continued to air his past grievances, from his election loss to the investigations into the Jan. 6 riot. He ripped into Pelosi, Biden, and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who served on the House Jan. 6 committee.
“I was going to talk about the J6 hostages,” Trump said, referring to people convicted of crimes related to the riot at the Capitol. “And I was going to talk about the things that Joe did today with the pardons of people that were very, very guilty of very bad crimes, like the unselect committee of political thugs.”
Trump continued to discuss his plans and possibly set a high bar in promises that may be hard to fulfill.
“I will declare a national emergency at our southern border,” Trump said. “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.”
Trump also said that he would declare Mexican drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations and rename the Gulf of Mexico.
The small crowd inside the Capitol Rotunda included SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerburg, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.
On the same day Biden issued pardons to several of his own family members, politicians, and several others, Trump reiterated his view that his four criminal indictments — and convictions on one set of the charges — resulted from persecution by Biden.
“The scales of justice will be rebalanced,” Trump said. “The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.”
