Kelby Chichester
Donald Trump served at the 45th President of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Now, entering 2025, he is serving his second term. Trump is making history by being the second President to serve two nonconsecutive terms.
In addition, Trump is now the first individual with a felony conviction to enter presidency.
Due to forecasts of extreme cold temperatures in Washington, D.C., organizers announced that the Inauguration ceremony would be moved indoors to the United States Capitol Building.
The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies had issued more than 220,000 tickets for the swearing-in event. This would traditionally takes place outdoors on the steps of the U.S. Capitol.
Trump’s second Inauguration follows the fraught transition of power in 2020, when he refused to concede after losing the election to President Joe Biden. That period was marked by the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, by a mob of Trump’s supporters. Trump also broke with longstanding tradition by not attending Biden’s Inauguration that year.
This time, however, the transition of power has been more peaceful. Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were present at Trump’s swearing-in ceremony on Monday.
The three wealthiest Americans, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg were seated together in the VIP section. Their presence symbolized a remarkable concentration of wealth, representing over $1trillion collectively.
In his farewell address last week, outgoing President Joe Biden warned of an emerging "oligarchy" of extreme wealth and power, which he said poses a threat to democracy and basic rights.
The warning appeared to be directed towards Trump and his wealthy allies. This was targeted particularly towards Musk who donated more than $250 million to Trump’s reelection. Musk now heads the new Department of Government Efficiency and reportedly has access to a White House email address.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and a key backer of Donald Trump’s return to the White House sparked controversy Monday with a gesture at a post-Inauguration rally. Musk slapped his chest and raised his arm diagonally, palm down, repeating the Nazi salute toward the crowd.
On his first day back in office, Trump pardoned the sentences of over 1,500 supporters charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack which injured more than 100 officers.
He also commuted the sentences of Proud Boys and Oath Keepers leaders convicted of seditious conspiracy and ordered the Attorney General to drop related pending cases, according to the Associated Press.
The pardons were expected, as Trump had vowed during his campaign to support those involved in the Capitol riots, claiming they were unfairly treated by the legal system.
As of Monday, Trump's sweeping executive orders resemble those outlined in Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint aimed at reshaping the federal government under a Republican administration.
Project 2025 is a 900-page plan led by the Heritage Foundation. This is a plan that outlines proposals to expand executive power, replace civil servants with partisan appointees, restrict abortion rights and enforce stricter immigration policies.
Democrats have labeled the initiative as a blueprint for Trump’s second term, portraying him as extreme. While Trump initially criticized parts of it as "ridiculous and abysmal," he later softened his stance, telling Time in December, "I don't disagree with everything in Project 2025, but I disagree with some things."
Among the flurry of orders he signed, Trump withdrew from the Paris Agreement, rescinded 78 Biden-era executive actions, froze federal hiring, and signed immigration-related orders.He also curbed diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and announced new tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
While not identical to Project 2025, Trump’s actions aligned with its policies on immigration, DEI, transgender rights, tariffs, the environment, and reducing federal bureaucracy.
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