WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance were officially sworn in at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Monday during an intimate ceremony that was moved inside due to the blistering cold Washington weather.
Vance followed by Trump each took the oath of office — administered by Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and John Roberts, the court’s chief, respectively – around noon. The 45th and now 47th president then took to the stage to deliver his second inaugural address, in which he indirectly criticized his predecessor’s administration, previewed his policy goals and declared that America was setting off on a “golden age” with his ascension back to the nation’s highest office.
“I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success,” Trump said, going on to promise to “put America first” every day of his administration.
The president pledged to sign “a series of historic executive orders” Monday and touched specifically on the topics of the border, economy and energy.
Trump said he was declaring a national emergency at the southern border with Mexico, “immediately” halting illegal entry into the U.S., starting the process of deporting those convicted of crimes and sending American troops to the border.
A separate emergency, he said, will focus on energy and boosting domestic oil production. (Such figures hit record highs during the Biden administration.)
“We will drill, baby, drill,” Trump said, going on to mention two climate-related policies he will do away with.
He promised an “overhaul of our trade system,” doubling down on his plan to impose tariffs on foreign countries and create an “External Revenue Service” to collect them.
The freshly sworn-in president said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” change the name of the mountain Denali in Alaska back to Mount McKinley, take back the Panama Canal and pursue planting “the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.”
Trump used his remarks to criticize his predecessor, President Joe Biden, who was sitting just feet away from the new commander in chief. Trump didn’t mention Biden by name but railed against the current government for not being able to manage a “simple crisis at home” and “stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad.”
The president specifically mentioned the border and both the hurricanes that ripped through the southeast U.S. this fall and fires that raged in Los Angeles in recent weeks. Firefighters have made notable progress on the blazes in recent days despite Trump’s assertion that the disaster is being met “without a token defense.”
Meanwhile, the new president painted himself as the sole man who can save the country, asserting that his political comeback was proof that nothing is impossible in America.
“The impossible is what we do best,” Trump said.
He specifically referenced the first assassination attempt against him at a rally in Pennsylvania over the summer, making the case that he was “saved for a reason.”
“I was saved by God to make America great again,” he said.
The ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda also featured invocations from several religious figures, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York, and the Rev. Franklin Graham before the new leaders took the oath. The chair and ranking member of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies, Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Deb Fischer, R-Neb., respectively, kicked off remarks.
Members of Congress and the other three living U.S. presidents — Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton — were also present. The ceremony was also attended in person by several big names in technology, including X owner Elon Musk, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg and Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Country star Carrie Underwood performed “America the Beautiful.”
Trump started the day by attending a service at St. John’s Episcopal Church, located just across the street from Lafayette Park in front of the White House. He and first lady Melania Trump then made their way to the White House, where they were greeted by Biden and his wife, outgoing first lady Jill Biden, before the couples sat down for tea and coffee.
“Welcome home,” Biden said to his predecessor and now successor.
In keeping with tradition, the outgoing president told reporters that he left a letter for Trump in the Oval Office before leaving but wouldn't disclose its message.
“That's between Trump and me," Biden said when asked what the note said.
When situations were reversed in 2020, Trump left Biden a note as well. But the other traditions, such as the incoming and outgoing presidents having tea together in the White House Blue Room before riding together to the Capitol building were shunned by Trump during the transition four years ago.
“This is democracy in action,” outgoing Vice President Kamala Harris, who lost to Trump in the 2024 election, told reporters as she and her husband waited to greet her successor, Vance, and his wife, Usha, at the White House Monday morning.
Spectrum News' Joseph Konig and Susan Carpenter contributed to this report
