Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Melania Trump held the Bible during the 60th Presidential Inauguration in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol.
In his inaugural address, Trump repeated a line he usually brought up during his campaign, saying that immigrants arriving in the country illegally come from prisons and mental institutions.
There is no evidence countries are sending their criminals or mentally ill across the border.
Trump vowed to “defeat what was record inflation.”
The speech Trump delivered sounded a lot like his rally speeches, with plenty of grievance, including references to those who tried to “take my freedom” and the “weaponization of our Justice Department.”
Trump, after leaving office, became the first former President to be indicted, convicted and sentenced. But he has long tried to cast his many investigations as politically motivated.
Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 after rising steadily in the first 17 months of Joe Biden’s presidency from a low of 0.1% in May 2020. The most recent data shows that as of December it had fallen to 2.9%.
But other historical periods have seen higher inflation, such as a more than 14% rate in 1980, according to the Federal Reserve.
Trump said “all illegal entry will immediately be halted,” with few details on how he will achieve that. He said he would end the practice of releasing migrants in the United States to pursue asylum, known as “catch-and-release,” but didn’t say how he would pay for the enormous costs of detention.
Part of his plan relies on resuming the “Remain in Mexico” policy to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for hearings in U.S. immigration court, a hallmark of his first term. The Mexican government has agreed, signaling perhaps one of the most concrete and immediate changes that will be seen at the border.
Trump said little about his plans for mass deportation, saying only that he would deport “millions and millions of criminal aliens.”
Trump said he wants to send American astronauts to Mars, saying he “will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars” and “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.”
Billionaire Elon Musk of SpaceX threw his hands up in the air as Trump announced the U.S. would plant its flag on Mars.
The Rev. Al Sharpton and other Black leaders led a standing-room-only congregation in a passionate and political Martin Luther King Jr. Day as Trump was being sworn in.
The timing was no accident.
“We want people to see the tale of two cities in one,” Sharpton cried, as Trump was being inaugurated at the Capitol.
Sharpton introduced Korey Wise — one of the falsely accused Central Park Five Black defendants whose execution Trump had lobbied for — to cheers from the crowd, and rattled off a series of actions he said Trump had taken against Black Americans and civil rights.
“We will fight the next four years no matter what he says,” Sharpton said.
“Everything that Dr. King stood for is at risk with this president, this Congress,” Sharpton said.
Republished with permisison of The Associated Press.
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