Trump declares ‘liberation,’ claims mandate for emergency powers

Donald Trump took office as the 47th president claiming an electoral and divine mandate to immediately invoke emergency powers on immigration and energy, pursue territorial expansion and reverse Joe Biden’s policies on car emissions and trans rights.
Trump declared his inauguration “Liberation Day,” condemning the country’s past leaders joining him in the Capitol Rotunda for the swearing-in ceremony and describing a vision for the country that was at once nostalgic and futuristic: an America where there are two sexes, that calls Alaska’s tallest peak Mount McKinley, where most new arrivals are unwelcome, where the U.S. flag flies on Mars and all wars are over.
“My 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,” he said.
Referencing the July 13 assassination attempt that wounded his ear, Trump added: “I was saved by God to make America great again.”
Republican lawmakers, billionaire donors, media personalities and foreign allies rose to cheer, while fans at a downtown arena embraced and cried. As Trump began detailing first-day actions to deport millions of people and use wartime powers against gangs, outgoing President Joe Biden appeared to sink in his seat. Vice President Kamala Harris, whom Trump defeated on Nov. 5, sat stone-faced with her arms crossed in her lap. Inaugural co-chair Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who spoke before Trump about the endurance of democracy, visibly squirmed.
Trump’s remarks envisioned himself as a transformative figure in American history, citing the legacy of manifest destiny to set sights on renaming the Gulf of Mexico, retaking the Panama Canal and exploring Mars.
“The United States 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,” he said.
Shortly before entering the ceremony, Biden preemptively pardoned his family members, seeking to shield them from retaliation from a new president who has repeatedly threatened to investigate them. Biden also preemptively pardoned Trump critics including lawmakers who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, former public health adviser Anthony S. Fauci and former military chief Gen. Mark A. Milley.
Speaking to supporters in an overflow room after the speech, Trump said he was talked out of mentioning Jan. 6 defendants, whom he calls “hostages,” but hinted that he would be offering them clemency later today. He also criticized Biden’s pardons.
Trump did not mention revenge on Monday, but he repeatedly portrayed himself as a victim of persecution. He called himself the most “tested and challenged” president in history. He did not address reconciliation with Americans who have opposed him, encouraging them to submit to his popular majority.
“The entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda with dramatic increases in support from virtually every element of our society,” he said, mostly sticking to his script throughout the address. “Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback. But as you see today, here I am. The American people have spoken.”
Trump won the electoral college with a historically average margin and won the popular vote by about 1.5 percentage points. His party also controls Congress but has only a two-seat majority in the House, with looming deadlines to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling. Trump did not unveil any landmark legislative proposals on Monday, focusing instead on executive actions he could take unilaterally.
The new president said his first-day actions would include declaring a national emergency at the Southern border and starting to deport “millions and millions of criminal aliens.” Incoming staff said his executive actions on Monday would include measures to deploy the military and the National Guard to finish construction of a barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border, require migrants to await asylum hearings in Mexico, suspend refugee resettlement for at least four months, designate foreign gangs “global terrorists” and stop recognizing automatic citizenship for people born in the United States to undocumented immigrants.
Trump said he would also declare a national emergency to expand domestic energy production. Aides described planned actions on the economy in vague terms. An executive order on Alaska would support liquefied natural gas exports and production of timber, oil, gas and critical minerals. Trump also plans to declare a national emergency to expand natural resources production and repeal Biden administration efficiency standards for cars and consumer appliances - over the objection of domestic manufacturers who have asked for consistency.
Trump said he will sign a memo directing the government to address inflation, though the details of how that would operate were not provided.
Trump repeatedly praised tariffs in his speech, including by mischaracterizing them as a tax of foreign countries when they are paid by domestic consumers. He is not expected to impose any import duties on Monday, aides said.
Some of Trump’s actions faced immediate legal challenge. Public interest groups filed two lawsuit minutes after Trump was sworn in alleging that his appointment of billionaire donor Elon Musk to run a federal spending review called the “Department of Government Efficiency” violates laws on transparency for government advisory groups.
Musk attended the ceremony alongside Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Amazon founder (and Washington Post owner) Jeff Bezos, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, sitting in the Rotunda in front of Trump’s Cabinet nominees.
The new administration will officially recognize two sexes (male and female), defined based on the reproduction cells at conception. Government agencies will issue government documents showing people’s sex at conception, stop using gender identity or preferred pronouns, and maintain women-only spaces in prisons and shelters.
The measure will also direct the attorney general to write new policies about the 2020 Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which found sex discrimination in employment includes gender identity and sexual orientation. The Biden administration had relied on that ruling to say the same logic applies to Title IX, the law that bars sex discrimination in schools.
The action could prompt the Education Department to punish schools that recognize gender identity, for instance by allowing transgender girls access to girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms or sports teams. It might also affect teachers who, in some districts, are told to use students’ preferred names and pronouns. An incoming official said having to use someone else’s preferred pronouns violates free speech.
Another executive action will aim to eliminate government diversity programs by reviewing grants and contracts and holding regular meetings monitoring the issue. An incoming White House official named examples such as hiring people with intellectual disabilities in the Federal Aviation Administration, USDA spending on environmental justice and diversity training at the Treasury Department. The official called the measure “very fitting for MLK Day,” the holiday commemorating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., which coincides with Inauguration Day this year.