Articles
Trump, Take Two
January 23, 2025
Donald Trump Completes His Triumphant Return to the White House
Meir Kass
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president on Monday, returning to power with a promise to end America’s decline and to “completely and totally reverse” the actions of Joe Biden, the man who drove him from office four years ago.
Trump overcame impeachments, criminal indictments, and a couple of assassination attempts to win another term in the White House, and he planned to act swiftly after the ceremony. Dozens of executive orders were prepared for his signature to clamp down on border crossings, increase natural gas development, and end woke diversity and inclusion programs across the federal government.
The orders from the incoming Republican president will begin the process of unraveling the Democratic agenda of Joe Biden, whose term ended at noon, moments before Trump took the oath of office.
Declaring that the government faces a “crisis of trust,” Trump said in his inaugural address that under his administration, “our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced.”
Trump claimed “a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal,” promising to “give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy, and indeed, their freedom.”
“From this moment on,” he added as Biden watched from the front row, “America’s decline is over.”
The executive orders were the first step in what Trump called “the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense.”
Other goals will prove more difficult, perhaps testing the patience of supporters who were promised quick success. Trump has talked about lowering prices after years of inflation, but his plans for tariffs on imports from foreign countries could have the opposite effect.
Trump’s swearing-in was held indoors at the Capitol Rotunda due to frigid weather—the first time that has happened in 40 years—and the inaugural parade was replaced by an event at a downtown arena. Trump supporters who descended on the city to watch the ceremony outside the Capitol from the National Mall were left to find other places to view the festivities.
At the Capitol, Vice President JD Vance was sworn in first, taking the oath read by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Trump followed, with his oath administered by Chief Justice John Roberts.
A cadre of billionaires and tech titans—including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, and Google’s Sundar Pichai—were given prominent positions in the Rotunda, mingling with Trump’s incoming team before the ceremony began. Also there was Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, who’s expected to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an effort to slash spending and federal employees.
Stopping at the White House on their way to the Capitol, Trump and his wife, Melania, were greeted by Biden and first lady Jill Biden for the customary tea-and-coffee reception. It was a stark departure from four years ago, when Trump refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory or attend his inauguration.
“Welcome home,” Biden said to Trump after the president-elect stepped out of the car.
The two presidents, who have spent years bitterly criticizing each other, shared a limo to the Capitol. After the ceremony, Trump walked with Biden to the building’s east side, where Biden departed via helicopter to begin his post-presidential life.
Trump followed Biden’s departure with freewheeling remarks to supporters, revisiting a litany of assertions about voter fraud and grievances against political enemies such as former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, whom he called “a crying lunatic.”
He spoke for even longer than in his inaugural address, saying, “I think this is a better speech than the one I gave upstairs.”
Trump’s Historic Comeback
Trump’s inauguration completed a political comeback without precedent in American history. Four years ago, he was voted out of the White House during an economic collapse caused by the covid-19 pandemic. Trump denied his defeat and tried to cling to power. He directed his supporters to march on the Capitol while lawmakers were certifying the election results, sparking a riot that interrupted the country’s tradition of the peaceful transfer of power.
But Trump never lost his grip on the Republican Party and was undeterred by criminal cases and two assassination attempts as he steamrolled rivals and harnessed voters’ exasperation with inflation and illegal immigration.
Trump used his inaugural address to repeat his claims that he was targeted by political prosecutions, and he promised to begin “fair, equal, and impartial justice.” He also acknowledged that he was taking office on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which honors the slain civil rights hero. “We will strive together to make his dream a reality,” he said.
“It’s action, not words, that count, and you’re going to see a lot of action,” Trump said.
Eight years after he first entered the White House as a political newcomer, Trump is far more familiar with the operations of federal government and emboldened to bend it to his vision. Trump wants to bring quick change by curtailing immigration, enacting tariffs on imports, and rolling back Democrats’ climate and social justice initiatives.
He has also promised retribution against his political opponents and critics and placed personal loyalty as a prime qualification for appointments to his administration.
Trump has pledged to go further and move faster in enacting his agenda than during his first term, and already the country’s political, business, and technology leaders have realigned themselves to accommodate him.
Democrats who once formed a “resistance” are now divided over whether to work with Trump or defy him. Billionaires have lined up to meet with Trump as they acknowledge his unrivaled power in Washington and his ability to wield the levers of government to help or hurt their interests.
Long skeptical of American alliances, Trump’s “America First” foreign policy is being watched warily at home and abroad as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will soon enter its third year, and a fragile ceasefire appears to be holding in Gaza after more than 15 months of war between Israel and Hamas. Trump, who had promised to end the Ukraine war even before he was sworn in, didn’t mention the conflict in his inaugural address.
Trump said he would lead a government that “expands our territory,” a reference to his goals of acquiring Greenland from Denmark and restoring US control of the Panama Canal.
Biden’s Last Breaths as President
Joe Biden, in one of his final acts as president, pardoned his entire immediate family, Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol, in an unprecedented use of executive power.
The decision by Biden came in response to now-President Trump’s warnings of an enemies list filled with those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him criminally liable for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results and his role in the Jan. 6 protest at the Capitol four years ago.
“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
The prospect of such pardons had been the subject of heated debate for months at the highest levels of the White House. It’s customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but those acts of mercy are usually offered to Americans who have been convicted of crimes.
Trump said after his inauguration that Biden had pardoned people who were “very, very guilty of very bad crimes”—“political thugs,” Trump called them.
In doing so, Biden used the power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who have not even been investigated. His decision lays the groundwork for an even more expansive use of pardons by Trump and future presidents.
While the Supreme Court last year ruled that presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution for what could be considered official acts, the president’s aides and allies enjoy no such shield. There is concern that future presidents could use the promise of a blanket pardon to encourage allies to take actions they might otherwise resist for fear of running afoul of the law.
It’s unclear whether those pardoned by Biden would need to apply for the clemency. Acceptance could be seen as a tacit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, validating years of attacks by Trump and his supporters, even though those who were pardoned have not been formally accused of any crimes. The “full and unconditional” pardons for Fauci and Milley curiously cover the period extending back to January 1, 2014—why they would need such a broad blanket pardon was not revealed.
“These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said, adding that “Even when individuals have done nothing wrong—and in fact have done the right thing—and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances.”
Biden also extended pardons to members and staff of the Jan. 6 committee that investigated the riot, as well as the US Capitol and DC Metropolitan police officers who testified before the House committee about their experiences that day. It’s a “full and unconditional pardon,” for any offenses “which they may have committed or taken part in arising from or in any manner related to the activities or subject matter.”
Before the blanket preemptive pardons, Biden had already set the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued. He also pardoned his son Hunter for tax and gun crimes. Moments before leaving office, he pardoned his siblings and their spouses in a move designed to guard them against potential retribution.
He isn’t the first to consider such preemptive pardons. Trump aides considered them for Trump and his supporters involved in his failed efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. But Trump’s pardons never materialized before he left office four years ago.
The only similar preemptive pardon in presidential history goes back to when President Gerald Ford granted a “full, free, and absolute pardon” in 1974 to his predecessor, Richard Nixon, over the Watergate scandal.