An emboldened Donald Trump declared that "America's decline is over" as he reclaimed the U.S. presidency on Monday, promising a crackdown on illegal immigration and portraying himself as a savior chosen by God to rescue a faltering nation.
"For American citizens, Jan. 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 now former U.S. President Joe Biden.
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 than a century to win a second term after losing the White House, and the first felon to occupy the White House. The oldest president ever to be sworn in, he is backed by Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress.
"I was saved by God to make America great again," Trump said on Monday, referring to the would-be assassin's bullet that grazed his ear in July.
After a day of ceremony, Trump got off to a quick start, signing a series of executive actions to curb immigration and roll back environmental regulations and racial and gender diversity initiatives. He did not take immediate action to raise tariffs — a key campaign promise — but said he could impose 25% duties on Canada and Mexico on Feb. 1.
Trump also once again took aim at international agreements and organizations, withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate deal — removing the world's biggest historic emitter from global efforts to fight climate change for the second time in a decade — and signing an executive order to take the U.S. out of the World Health Organization, which he claimed had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises.
He also announced the pardon of about 1,500 of his supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol four years ago as he moved swiftly to impose his will on the U.S. government just hours after reclaiming the presidency.
His decision to pardon supporters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is sure to enrage police, lawmakers and others whose lives were put at risk during an unprecedented episode in modern U.S. history.
Roughly 140 police officers were assaulted during the attack, with some sprayed with chemical irritants and others struck with pipes, poles and other weapons. Four people died during the chaos, including a Trump supporter who was shot dead by police.
Among those covered by the order were leaders of the far-right Oath Keepers and Proud Boys militant groups, who were serving long prison sentences.
Trump also moved quickly to clamp down on illegal immigration, a signature issue since he first entered politics in 2015.
Shortly after he took the oath of office, U.S. border authorities shut down a program that allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants to enter the U.S. legally by scheduling an appointment using a smartphone. Existing appointments were canceled.
At the White House, Trump signed an order that declared a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, which would unlock funding and allow him to dispatch troops there. He also signed an order that would end a policy that confers citizenship to those born in the United States, which is certain to trigger a lengthy court fight. Another executive order designated Mexican drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
"We're getting rid of all the cancer ... caused by the Biden administration," Trump said as he signed a stack of executive orders in the Oval Office.
Other orders revoked Biden administration policies governing artificial intelligence and electric vehicles. He also imposed a freeze on federal hiring and ordered government workers to return to the office, rather than working from home. And he signed paperwork to create a "Department of Government Efficiency," an outside advisory board headed by billionaire Elon Musk that aims to cut large swaths of government spending.
In the State Department, more than a dozen nonpartisan senior diplomats were asked to resign as part of a broader plan to replace nonpartisan civil servants with loyalists.
He also said he would issue orders to scrap federal diversity programs and require the government to recognize only genders assigned at birth.
While Trump sought to portray himself as a peacemaker and unifier during his half-hour speech, his tone was often sharply partisan. He repeated false claims from his campaign that other countries were emptying their prisons into America, and voiced familiar grievances over his criminal prosecutions.
With Biden seated nearby, Trump issued a stinging indictment of his predecessor's policies from immigration to foreign affairs.
"We have a government that has given unlimited funding to the defense of foreign borders, but refuses to defend American borders, or, more importantly, its own people," Trump said.
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 founder 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 Mars, prompting Musk — who has long talked about colonizing the planet — to raise his fists.
Shou Chew, the CEO of popular short-video app TikTok, also attended the inauguration, with Trump later ordering a 75-day pause on enforcing a law that would effectively ban TikTok in the U.S., as he floated an idea of partnering with the app's Chinese owner.
Meanwhile, Trump also 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.
Trump took the oath of office to "preserve, protect and defend" the U.S. Constitution at 12:01 p.m., 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, sat with her husband Bill. 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 Gen. Mark Milley, a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who Trump has suggested should be executed for holding back-channel talks with China. Milley's portrait was removed from the Pentagon shortly after Trump's inauguration.
He also issued preemptive pardons for five family members minutes before leaving office, citing fears that Trump would target them.
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