President Trump on Monday declared it was the beginning of a new “Golden Age” in America, pledging to restore a country that he said had been decimated by the previous administration as he officially took the oath of office for his second White House term.
In an inaugural address from the Capitol, Trump depicted a nation in disrepair and laid out an ambitious agenda that he argued was validated by his election victory in November.
The president, in taking a shot at his predecessor Joe Biden, who was also seated directly next to the lectern as he spoke, said he was inheriting 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.”
“Our recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal, and all of these many betrayals that have taken place, and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and, indeed, their freedom,” Trump said. “From this moment on, America’s decline is over.”
Trump said he would address the “inflation crisis,” which he blamed on overspending by the Biden administration. He vowed to declare a national emergency at the southern border and to impose tariffs on foreign goods.
He said he would end “weaponization” of the Justice system. He vowed the official policy of the government would be that there are “only two genders.” And he cast himself as a “peacemaker,” even as he signaled, he would seek to reclaim ownership of the Panama Canal.