Trump’s second inaugural address shows a president in a hurry to wield great power

President Donald Trump delivers his inaugural address in the US Capitol Rotunda on January 20, 2025.

President Donald Trump used his second inaugural address to hold up his indomitability and escape from a would-be assassin’s bullet as a metaphor for a “strong,” “proud” nation that “will not be conquered.”

“I was saved by God to make America Great Again,” Trump said Monday in a follow-up to his “American Carnage” first inaugural in 2017, this one delivered in the US Capitol Rotunda after frigid weather moved the ceremony inside.

Trump, in the manner of a classic strongman leader, leveraged his personal mythology after he was sworn in for a new term, inspiring his supporters but leaving those who fear him anxious that dark days may be ahead.

On one level, Trump’s speech could be viewed as a new attempt to redefine America’s historic mission, to inject new self-confidence into a citizenry worn down by years of crisis and to position himself as a global peacemaker.

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“We will be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage and exceptionalism. Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent and totally unpredictable,” he said. “America will be respected again and admired again … we will be prosperous. We will be proud, we will be strong, and we will win like never before. We will not be conquered. We will not be intimidated. We will not be broken, and we will not fail.”

Trump’s appeal was a powerful call to citizens to “dream boldly” to create a new “golden age of America.”

But after promising a “thrilling new era of national success,” the speech didn’t take too long to degenerate into his dystopian worldview — of a nation impoverished, in the grip of raging violent crime and defenseless against an “invasion” of convicts and overseas criminals. And in a later speech to supporters in the Capitol Visitor Center, he cut loose even further, pledging to soon take action to free rioters imprisoned after the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack.

With the rest of the world watching, Trump included an extraordinary moment in his inaugural address — warning that the spirit of the Panama Canal treaty had been broken and that “we’re taking it back.” His comment didn’t necessarily mean he’s planning an armed invasion to reclaim the critical waterway. But it hinted at a return to an age of American imperialism and a world of great power spheres of influence that has already been fostered by Russia’s and China’s claims on Ukraine and Taiwan, respectively.

Trump did exactly what his voters want him to do

Trump’s “America First” vision, at home and abroad, is one that millions of Americans share and helped him win last year’s election. Evoking it with the pillars of Washington’s elite political establishment around him — ex-presidents, senators, representatives and in front of the Beltway press — is consistent with Trump’s mission and mandate. He’s an avatar for frontier values and a voice of working Americans who see the VIPs as architects of a system that disdains them, rips them off and sends their children off to fight in unjustified foreign wars.

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Still, presidents traditionally use inaugural addresses to bind up the lingering wounds of bitter election campaigns and try to get a divided populace pushing, for a few months at least, in roughly the same direction. There wasn’t a lot to distinguish this inaugural from a Trump rally in a minor league sports arena during the campaign.

Despite his more soaring passages, Trump didn’t stick long with the poetry of unity. His address seemed more an attempt to assert dominance and to give definition to a second-chance presidency beginning in a blaze of executive power.

But perhaps because Trump is so well known, his address didn’t quite stir the kind of shock that he effected eight years ago. And it was a more coherent statement from a president who knows how to wield power and can’t wait to do so again.

“In 2017, he just wasn’t really prepared from the get-go to be president. He won kind of unexpectedly. Didn’t win the popular vote. There were all the questions of legitimacy, both externally and even his own party,” said Aaron Kall, director of the University of Michigan’s National Championship-winning debate team. “But clearly he has a better idea of what he wants to do and his governing philosophy and is much confident in his own political instincts.”

With Joe Biden sitting behind him, in the first minutes of his post-presidency, Trump launched into a bitter indictment of the last four years.

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“We have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home, while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalogue of catastrophic events abroad. It fails to protect our magnificent law-abiding Americans citizens but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals,” Trump said.

He went on: “We have a public health system that does not deliver in times of disaster, yet more money is spent on it than any country anywhere in the world. And we have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves.”

Inaugural addresses featuring a president of a new party always carry implicit criticism of the departing incumbent. But they are rarely so blunt.

Still, Trump had political work to do with his speech that heralded his entry into lame duck territory since he is constitutionally barred from running for another term. Despite his vast ambitions, his political viability may not last long unless he can bring down prices for food and lodging that shaped the election.

Trump also danced in the end zone, savoring his victory over former Vice President Kamala Harris, who looked on impassively.

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“It is my hope that our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most consequential election in the history of our country,” Trump said, in a typical boast. “Very importantly, we had a powerful win in all seven swing states and the popular vote. We won by millions our people.”

The new information oligarchy

The new president was watched at close quarters by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, and Mark Zuckerberg, representing internet giants X, Amazon, Google and Meta, who control the sources of information that decide how hundreds of millions will perceive the second Trump presidency.

Their rush to embrace Trump reflects a president vindicated by his triumph, with little room in his win-loss worldview to offer olive branches to the vanquished. This is also why his second presidency may be as acrimonious as his first.

In the same ornate space where his rioting supporters roamed on January 6, 2021, the president also portrayed himself as a victim of weaponized justice, in a fresh attempt to remake history over his efforts to steal the 2020 that he lost to Biden.

“Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and indeed, to take my life,” he said, referring to failed legal attempts to call him to account for January 6 and the first of two assassination attempts against him.

Biden’s presence at the inauguration was the last act of a presidency that he devoted to restoring democratic principles following Trump’s attempt to subvert democracy four years ago. Unlike Trump, he showed up to his successor’s swearing in, despite the deep animosity that simmers between them.

But in a stunning development, the outgoing White House announced in the last 20 minutes of his term that he’d offered preemptive pardons to his two brothers and his sister, to shield them from any criminal prosecutions by the incoming Trump administration. On the one hand, this was another example of Biden, who previously pardoned his son Hunter over firearms and tax offenses, subverting judicial norms and damaging the system he promised to protect. But the fact that he contemplated such action at all shows how Trump has already transformed perceptions of presidential conduct.

‘I will fight for you’

Trump ended his second inaugural address by telling “every parent who dreams for their child and every child who dreams for their future, I am with you.” He added: “I will fight for you, and I will win for you.”

New Vice President JD Vance had it right when he said the address was “hell of the way to start the next four years.”

But there was more. After the inaugural address, Trump went downstairs into the US Capitol Visitor Center to give the speech he really wanted to give. He confided to an overflow crowd that Vance and first lady Melania Trump had convinced him to leave some of his most alienating rhetoric out — including his coming pardons of January 6 prisoners.

The screed that followed was packed with Trump’s greatest hits — like his false claims of a stolen 2020 election, attacks on political enemies like Liz Cheney and hard-to-follow rambles through unconnected topics.

This second speech showed that in many ways, Trump’s next term will not be much different than the first. But as the inaugural address made clear, Trump knows exactly what he wants to do this time and thinks he has the unfettered power to make it happen.

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