On Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, President Donald Trump took office again to start his second term. After his defeat in the Election of 2020, the Jan. 6 riot that came after it, and the multiple felonies that he was convicted of over the past four years, many thought that they’d never see him in the oval office again. However, his win over former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election put him back behind the desk with executive orders placed on top.
The 2025 Presidential Inauguration was ushered in by former President Joe Biden’s farewell address that warned about where America could be headed under the leadership that is being brought in.
In his farewell address Biden said, “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy. Our basic rights and freedoms.”
Only days later, Trump’s inauguration took place inside the Capitol building due to the cold weather in Washington D.C. With him sat members of his future cabinet as well as the CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, and famous tech billionaires such as Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, as well as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
In Trump’s Inaugural address he made many promises and remarks ranging from declaring a state of emergency at the southern border, calling for the Gulf of Mexico to become the Gulf of America, and declaring an official policy stating that in the United States that there are only two genders recognized: male and female..
In his opening remarks, Trump reflected on how he intended to put America first.
“Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will rebalance. The vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end,” Trump said.
During this speech he also remarked that he intended to sign a slew of “historic” executive orders, that he did end up signing in the hours after his inauguration. There executive orders were meant to be for the good of America and the American people.
“With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. It is all about common sense,” Trump said in his inaugural address.
Most of his speech was greeted with thunderous applause and standing ovations by the majority of those in attendance.
In the hours following his inauguration Trump was on live news feeds signing executive orders at his post-inauguration celebration. He signed an executive order declaring a state of emergency at the southern border, reinstated the “Remain in Mexico” policy, attempted to end birthright citizen ship, and declared a national energy emergency. This energy emergency led to President Trump to say “drill, baby, drill” in his inauguration speech and he then signed an executive order for the United States to leave the Paris Climate treaty.
Among all of these executive orders regarding immigration and energy, President Trump also signed executive orders to leave the World Health Organization as well as pardon the majority of the defendants who were charged for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot in 2020.
Another important part of the after-inauguration celebration included Elon Musk doing a Sieg Heil salute, more commonly called the Nazi salute, twice while addressing Trump’s supporters.
Many people have said that this salute was an “awkward gesture” or Elon trying to “give his heart” to America, but many people have a different view. Foreign newspapers in places like Germany are censoring this salute when they are talking about it on major news sites.
These actions were all taken in the hours after the inauguration, there were many more executive orders to follow these in the week after, and there will likely be more on the way in the future.
More information on the executive orders signed so far and a more comprehensive list of these executive orders can be found on AXIOS.
