Trump Lays Out Detailed Agenda in Second Inaugural Address

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump, who became a bold-faced name 40 years ago as a brash and combative New York City real estate developer, and later enjoyed a star turn on television, completed the political comeback of the ages on Monday as he was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States.

“Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback. But as you see today, here I am,” Trump said about two-thirds of the way through his 30-minute speech.

“I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do. In America, the impossible is what we do best,” he said.

There was to be no talk about crowd size this time around, as bitter cold forced Trump’s second inauguration to be held in the Capitol Rotunda.

But the talking heads on some networks are sure to make hay of Trump’s passing reference to the July 2024 attempt on his life during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

“I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason,” the president said. “I was saved by God to make America great again.”

He also claimed that his 49.9% to 48.4% victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris “showed” that “the entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda,” an declaration that threw shade on his subsequent assertion that his “recent election is a mandate.”

However, Trump got on much more solid ground when he talked about the “dramatic increases in support from virtually every element of our society: young and old, men and women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, urban, suburban, rural, and very importantly, we had a powerful win in all seven swing states, and the popular vote we won by millions of people.”

His biggest increase, as has been written about elsewhere, was the 14-percentage-point swing he enjoyed among Hispanic voters. 

Some 46% of self-identified Hispanic voters picked Trump, up from 32% in the 2020 election when Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden, according to an exit poll conducted by Edison Research. 

Trump’s share of Hispanic voters in 2024 was the highest for a Republican presidential candidate in exit polls going back to the 1970s.

Another big shift to Trump in the last election was among voters without college degrees — a huge population of voters that spans racial and ethnic categories.

Several post-election analyses found that voters without college degrees made up just over half of the electorate in 2024.

Of that group, 56% cast their vote for Trump, a gain of 6 percentage points over his performance with them in 2020.

Among people without college degrees and who are not White, however, Trump’s share of the vote increased by 8 points.

Equally in line with Trump’s assertion is the fact some of his biggest advances were in and around big cities — a case in point, his performance in Nassau County on Long Island, New York, where he won 52% of the vote.

“To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. We set records and I will not forget it,” Trump said.

“National unity is now returning to America, and confidence and pride is soaring like never before,” he added.

Trump spoke just after Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. administered the oath of office before a crowd of about 2,000 dignitaries. 

Former Ohio Sen. JD Vance was sworn in as the nation’s vice president by Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

As he did in 2017, when he spoke of “American carnage” in his first inaugural address, Trump’s assessment of the current state of America was grim.

“As we gather today our government confronts a crisis of trust,” the president said. “For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens, while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair. 

“We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home, while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad,” he continued. 

“Our country can no longer give basic services in times of emergency, as recently shown by the wonderful people of North Carolina,” Trump said.

“Or more recently, Los Angeles, where we are watching fires still tragically burn. From weeks ago, without even a token of defense,” he added.

He then went on to decry “a public health system that does not deliver” and an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves in many cases, to hate our country.”

But as he also did in 2017, Trump told those present and those watching on television or via streaming, that he is the man — perhaps the only man — who can fix all these ills.

“The golden age of America begins right now,” he said.

“From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world,” Trump said. “We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put America first.

“I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success,” he said, adding that “challenges,” whatever they may be, “will be annihilated.”

“From this moment on, America’s decline is over. … For American citizens, Jan. 20, 2025, is Liberation Day,” Trump said.

“We will immediately restore the integrity, competency and loyalty of America’s government,” he said.

Trump vowed to “meet every crisis with dignity and power and strength,” and promised that his administration “will be inspired by a strong pursuit of excellent and unrelenting success.”

With that, he moved on to the policy portion of the speech, offering broad details on the many executive orders he plans to sign in the coming hours.

A National Emergency at the Southern Border

As his first order of business, Trump said he will declare a national emergency at the United States’ border with Mexico.

As part of this, he 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. 

• We will reinstate my Remain in Mexico policy. I will end the practice of catch and release.

• And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.

• Under the orders I signed today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. 

• And by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gang criminal networks, bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.

Trump said he will also direct all members of his Cabinet to “marshall the vast powers at their disposal” to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices.

National Energy Emergency

Toward that end, he said he would also declare a national energy emergency. “We will drill, baby, drill,” Trump said.

Here, he vowed:

• America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have: the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it. We’re going to use it.

• We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again, right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.

• We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it. With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers.

• In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice. We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago. And thank you to the autoworkers of our nation for your inspiring vote of confidence. We did tremendously with their vote.

Trade and Tariffs

Trump said he would immediately begin the overhaul of the nation’s trade system to protect American workers and families.

• Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. 

• For this purpose, we are establishing the External Revenue Service, to collect all tariffs, duties and revenues. It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury, coming from foreign sources.

DOGE

“The American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before,” Trump said. 

To restore competence and effectiveness to the federal government during his administration, Trump said he would quickly move to establish the brand-new and much-discussed Department of Government Efficiency.

“After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America,” Trump said.

“Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law. And we are going to bring law and order back to our cities,” he said.

The president also promised to end “the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.” 

“We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.” 

In a blow to the transgender community, Trump announced that as of today, “it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”

He also said that within the next week, he will reinstate any service members who were expelled from the military for objecting to the COVID vaccine mandate, with full back pay. 

“And I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty. It’s going to end immediately,” Trump said.

Longer term, Trump said he plans to go ahead with his plan to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. “And we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs,” he said, reversing a decision by former President Barack Obama to restore the mountain’s historic name, “Denali.”

Segueing from the era of President McKinley to that of McKinley’s successor, Teddy Roosevelt, Trump also said he plans to “take back” the Panama Canal.

“Above all, my message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization,” Trump said.

“Together we will end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy and disease-free,” he said, adding a short time later, “And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.”

He also obliquely referred to his stated desire to make Greenland part of the United States, saying the nation “will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons.”

“The call of the next great adventure resounds from within our souls,” Trump declared. “We stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. … We are going to win like never before.” 

A short time after Trump’s remarks, the White House Press Office issued the first press release outlining his priorities and offering a few more details on aspects he spoke about in his inaugural address. That release can be found here.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue