Donald Trump, sworn in as the 47th president on Monday, became only the second US president in history to lose re-election and then come back to win a non-consecutive second term. Despite 34 felony convictions, two impeachments and his role in inciting the January 6th insurrection to overturn the 2020 election results, Trump begins his second presidency overseeing a deeply divided nation.
His first term was marked by controversy, and it was thus fitting that his second term started off in a similar fashion. In the days leading up to his inauguration, he promised mass deportation of undocumented immigrants “very quickly,” which would most certainly face legal challenges. And he vowed to sign up to 100 executive orders his first day in office on everything from ending birthright citizenship to pausing a TikTok ban. In contrast, he signed one executive order his first day in office in 2017.
Here are some highlights from Donald Trump’s inauguration:
Inauguration Venue Change Sparks Controversy
Just two days before the meticulously planned event, Trump changed the inauguration venue from the National Mall outdoors to the Capitol Rotunda supposedly because of the bitterly cold forecast. That decision left hundreds of thousands of MAGA supporters literally out in the cold because there’s only room for about 600 people in the Rotunda while jumbotrons that could have streamed the proceedings for those unable to attend the inaugural ceremony were also removed from the Mall. Temperatures during President Barack Obama’s first inauguration in 2009, with 1.3 million people in attendance, was 28 degrees, and today’s high temperature in D.C. was forecast to be 24 degrees.
Civil Rights Leaders Ensure MLK Day Isn’t Overshadowed
January 20th is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The juxtaposition between President Trump, who has called majority Blackcountries “s-hole nations” and Black Lives Matter protesters “thugs” being sworn in on the same day that we celebrate an icon who courageously championed Black people’s freedom and died fighting for civil and economic justice for all was not lost on civil rights activists like Rev. Al Sharpton. Rev Sharpton scheduled his National Action Network (NAN) rally in honor of MLK to take place at Metropolitan AME Church in Washington DC at the same time as Trump’s inauguration.
Michelle Obama Exemplifies Black Women Choosing Self-care Over Self-Sacrifice
Michelle Obama chose not to attend the inauguration. While she gave no official reason, back in 2023 on her show The Light Podcast she reflected on her experience of Trump’s 2017 inauguration “To sit on that stage and watch the opposite of what we represented on display, there was no diversity, there was no color on that stage,” Obama continued. “There was no reflection of the broader sense of America. Many people took pictures of me and they’re like, ‘You weren’t in a good mood.’ No, I was not.” It’s also worth noting Trump entered the US political scene by spreading the racist birther lie that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States and was therefore not qualified to be President. Despite this history, President Obama did attend the inauguration as did Vice President Kamala Harris.
Rappers Face Backlash Over Inauguration Performances
During the 2024 election, 86% of Black people voted for Kamala Harris. However, Trump made small inroads with younger Black men. About 3 in 10 Black men under 45 years of age voted for Trump in the 2024 election, roughly double the number who voted for him in 2020 according to the AP. Perhaps in a nod to that demographic, he invited a number of Black male rappers to perform at his inauguration events, including Rick Ross, Soulja Boy, Snoop Dogg and Nelly. Snoop Dogg had previously been a very harsh critic of Trump so his performance took fans by surprise. During an interview on the Willie D. Live YouTube show Nelly framed his choice as support of the office of President rather than Trump himself.
“He’s the President. He won. This isn’t a campaign, this isn’t the RNC” Nelly explained, “I’m doing this because it’s an honor, I respect the office, it don’t matter who’s in office,” he said. However, when pressed during the same interview on Trump’s alleged white supremacy, Nelly claimed he saw no proof that Trump was a white supremacist and pointed out statements that President Biden made such as “if you don’t vote for me, you ain’t Black” to insinuate Biden was the actual racist. Black celebrity support was virtually non-existent at Trump’s 2017 inauguration, in fact R&B singer Chrisette Michelle faced backlash so severe for performing at the event that her career never recovered.
Executive Order Overload
Trump painted surviving two assassination attempts as nothing short of miraculous. “My life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again,” and his re-election as a mandate “the entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda, with dramatic increases in support from virtually every element of our society.” Seeking to seize momentum, Trump proposed a dizzying array of executive orders on immigration, economics and culture wars— issues that catapulted him to victory in the 2024 election.
He vowed to immediately halt all illegal entry into the United States and reinstate the remain in Mexico policy for those seeking asylum in the US. He also vowed to declare cartels foreign terrorist organizations and building on repeated declarations on the campaign trail that crime is out of control in cities (despite evidence to the contrary) he pledged to use law enforcement “to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to US soil, including our cities and inner cities.” On the economy, he promised to ask his Cabinet to marshal their “powers” to “defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices.” And on the culture war front, Trump continued his assault on transgender rights declaring “As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.”
In a clear promise to further dismantle DEI, Trump said, “I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit based.”
Peacemaker And Unifier?
Despite this fractious message, Trump nonetheless claimed he wants to be a “peacemaker and unifier” and made overtures to the Black community in his remarks. “To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. We set records and I will not forget it. I’ve heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come. Today is Martin Luther King Day and…in his honor, we will strive together to make his dream a reality, make his dream come true.”
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