Donald J. Trump has been inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States of America.
Taking place in the rotunda of the capitol building rather than the usual spot of the building’s western porch, Trump, along with Vice President JD Vance, officially took the office back from Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. He became the second president in U.S. history to serve non-consecutive terms.
In the speech he gave immediately after being sworn in, Trump lambasted the previous administration, calling Biden’s term as president a “radical and corrupt establishment,” and criticized the former President for providing “unlimited funding to the defense of foreign borders, but refuses to defend American borders, or, more importantly, its own people.” He did not name specific foreign borders.
Trump also laid out what the goals of his administration were, including working to stop illegal immigration and deport the millions currently in the country, becoming energy independent and pursuing a goal of, “launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.”
Many people were in attendance in the limited crowd present during Trump’s Inauguration, including former Presidents Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama and now former President Joe Biden. Many of the world’s richest people, including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk also attended. There was also a large group of other miscellaneous people, such as former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, wrestlers and former YouTubers Jake and Logan Paul and Tik Tok CEO Shou Zi Chew.
Trump later signed multiple executive orders, including declaring a national emergency at the U.S. southern border, declaring that the U.S. government will only recognize two sexes – male and female – and declaring a national memorandum on inflation.
At a reduced version of the traditional presidential parade held at the Capital One Arena, Trump continued his remarks, saying that he will sign pardons for “a lot” of the people currently in prison or on trial for what he calls “the J6 hostages.” This is in reference to Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol Building on January 6th, 2021. He also stated that with this administration he is vowing to “go back to a golden age of America.”
Many Point Park students reacted to Trump’s Inauguration with some worry and confusion. Second-year history major Izzy Steigerwald called the fact Trump won again “impressive.”
“He has a lot of ideas and direction for the country that could cause lot of chaos if done improperly,” Steigerwald said.
First-year undecided student Berkley Alexander has taken a different approach, distancing themselves from politics. “After the results came out, I was in a very bad place because it upset me so bad. So I have been, virtually, ignoring the reality that Donald Trump is now our president.”
There is still an air of worry and curiosity surrounding Trump’s second term as president. He has made many claims, and has already signed executive orders related to some of them. However, to what extent he will be able to enforce some of the orders and further make progress on the rest of his policies remains to be seen.
