An ‘awkward’ salute, a fancy hat and a new era: Trump returns to office

President Donald Trump has declared that America’s golden age “begins right now” as he was sworn back into office on a day that featured frigid weather, tech bros, a flurry of executive orders, and a surprise move by Joe Biden.

Trump won the election in November, making him only the second president in history to win two non-consecutive terms.

He used his speech, held inside the Capitol Rotunda due to the -9 degrees Celsius temperatures outside, to paint a bleak picture of a country in disarray.

“My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all these many betrayals that have taken place and give people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom,” he said.

“From this moment on, America’s decline is over.”

After Trump and his vice-president JD Vance were sworn in, they held a lunch that was attended by tech billionaires, foreign dignitaries, and members of the president’s family — but there were a few notable absentees.

Inauguration day is not just about the festivities.

Biden used his final hours in office to issue pre-emptive pardons to Trump critics, in what he described as “exceptional circumstances”.

Meanwhile Trump promised to sign 100 executive orders — directives that allow the president to wield power without action from Congress — as soon as he was sworn in. 

These were the key takeaways from Trump’s first day back in power.

Trump moves speech indoors due to bad weather

January is notoriously freezing in Washington DC, making inauguration days a chilly event.

In 1841, president William Henry Harrison gave the longest inauguration speech to date, refusing to wear a hat or coat, on a frigid Washington day.

Within days, he developed a cold, and died a month later.

Ever since, presidents-elect have tended to take weather warnings seriously, with William Taft and Ronald Reagan moving their festivities inside to avoid catching a chill.

Trump followed in his predecessors’ footsteps, delivering his big speech inside the Capitol four years after a mob of his supporters breached the building in an unsuccessful effort to block Biden’s victory. 

The new president used his address to weave a narrative of light and shade, portraying himself as a national saviour of a country in decline before reflecting on the two assassination attempts he endured on the 2024 election campaign trail.

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“I felt then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason: I was saved by God to make America great again,” he said.

Trump made a handful of false claims when speaking. He returned to form in a second unscripted address delivered later in the day.

Trump delivers second speech, the one he wanted to give

Inside the US Capitol Visitor Center’s Emancipation Hall, Trump surprised supporters with a second, off the cuff speech.

During his remarks, he revived old grievances, including his false claim that he actually won the 2020 election, instead of Biden.

“By the way, that election was totally rigged,” Trump told the crowd.

“That was a rigged election.”

Trump also noted that his Vice President JD Vance and his wife, first lady Melania, convinced him to tone down his first speech.

“I think this was a better speech than the one I made upstairs,” he told supporters.

He spoke again later in the day to a crowd inside Capital One Arena in Washington.

The address touched on Israeli hostages in the wake of the recent Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement and then turned to the agenda of his incoming administration.

Carrie Underwood suffers tech issues

A lot has changed in the eight years since Donald Trump was last inaugurated in Washington DC.

Back in 2017, Trump reportedly struggled to enlist A-list stars to be part of the swearing-in ceremony, with many celebrities in Hollywood turning their back on the incoming president.

Some even participated in nationwide marches against him.

But after his re-election in November, the tide has seemingly turned in his favour. Trump is still persona non grata among Hollywood’s elite, but celebrities including Kid Rock, Billy Ray Cyrus, The Village People and Lee Greenwood performed at a MAGA style rally over the weekend.

Country music star Carrie Underwood was the headline act at today’s inauguration. But the singer suffered tech issues as she prepared to perform the patriotic song, America the Beautiful.

“You know the words, help me out here, ” she asked the crowd in the rotunda after a malfunction cut off the backing music.

They joined her in singing an a cappella version of the song.

Underwood has drawn criticism for her decision to perform, with some of Trump’s opponents threatening to delete her songs from their playlists in response to her appearance at the event.

All eyes on the wives

All eyes might have been on Trump as he arrived with Melania at the St John’s Church service early on inauguration day, but it was his wife who stole the show.

Dressed in a double-breasted coat, pencil skirt and white blouse, Melania caused a stir online with her choice of matching headwear.

The navy boater-style hat obscured part of her face, making it difficult for those watching to see her eyes and for her husband to land a kiss on her cheek.

Previous first ladies have donned fashionable headwear to inaugurations in the past, including Nancy Reagan and Jackie Kennedy, but the usual style has been closer to what Ivanka Trump wore, a hat which sits further back on the head, leaving the face clear.

The New York Times wrote that “the hat gave her [Melania] an air of mystery and inaccessibility that was unusual for an inauguration, when the first family is traditionally put on view as the new face of the nation”.

Former first lady Michelle Obama also made headlines, not for her choice of hat but for failing to show up at Trump’s ceremony.

No reason was given for her absence but longtime allies told US outlet The Hill that she is sending a powerful statement by skipping the event.

“She meant every word she said on the campaign trail with every fibre of her being,” one ally said.

“And she’s no hypocrite.”

Hillary Clinton attended with her husband and former president Bill Clinton as well as Laura and former president George Bush.

But notably none of them planned on attending the inaugural luncheon.

Elon Musk’s inauguration address was punctuated by Mars and a bizarre arm gesture

After he was sworn in, Trump and his allies ate a lunch of crab cakes, steak, and apple terrine with sour cream ice-cream.

The lunch was a far more star-studded affair than Trump’s 2017 festivities, with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon magnate Jeff Bezos in attendance.

But it was Elon Musk, the world’s richest person and Trump’s benefactor, who raised eyebrows on inauguration day.

Musk will be leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), though the legality of the body is already facing legal challenges.

Speaking at a rally at the Capital One Arena hours after he was sworn in, Musk thanked Americans for choosing Trump at “a fork in the road of human civilisation”.

He then grunted, placed his hand over his heart, bit his lip, and extended his arm out to the crowd.

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“My heart goes out to you,” Musk said.

“It is thanks to you that the future of civilisation is assured. Thanks to you. We’re gonna have safe cities, finally safe cities. Secure borders, sensible spending. Basic stuff. And we’re gonna take DOGE to Mars.”

Haaretz, an Israeli newspaper, said Musk delivered “a fascist salute most commonly associated with Nazi Germany”.

But the American Defamation League [ADL], which fights anti-Semitism in the US, said it seemed more like “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm”.

“[It was] not a Nazi salute, but again, we appreciate that people are on edge,” the ADL wrote on X.

“In this moment, all sides should give one another a bit of grace, perhaps even the benefit of the doubt, and take a breath.”

Biden gives some unusual pardons on his way out

In one of his last acts in office, Biden issued a flurry of pardons, including to members of his own family and their spouses.

Biden granted clemency to his brother James and his wife, Sara; his sister, Valerie, and her husband, John Owens; and his brother Francis.

The surprise, 11th-hour move was announced just before noon, local time, when Biden was already at the Capitol to see Trump’s inauguration.

The new president has warned of an enemy list of those who have crossed him and has previously used members of Biden’s family, particularly Hunter’s troubled past and business dealings, as a political weapon against his predecessor.

Biden noted his family had been “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me” in his decision to pardon his siblings and their spouses.

“Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end,” he said.

Biden also pardoned several people Trump has targeted for retaliation, including members and staff of the January 6 committee.

The list includes:

• Former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci. He helped coordinate the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has been blamed by people on the right for mask mandates and other policies they believe infringed on their rights.
• Republicans Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who both served on the January 6 committee.
• US Capitol and DC Metropolitan police officers who testified before the January 6 committee.
• Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, who has previously criticised Trump and detailed his conduct around the January 6 insurrection.

A flurry of executive orders on day one

Within hours of returning to office, Trump was expected to deliver a raft of executive actions aimed at addressing the priorities of his administration.

He did just that, signing his first executive order before a gathered crowd at the Capital One Arena.

Among his first tasks was issuing pardons for participants in the riot at the US capital on January 6, 2021. It extended to 1,500 people involved in the insurrection. 

The pardons fulfil his promise to release supporters, who tried to help him overturn his election defeat four years ago

Trump also commuted the sentences of 14 others, deemed the most serious cases, and ordered they also be freed straight away.

He also revoked almost 80 previous executive orders made in the outgoing Biden administration, rolling back many of the former president’s significant policies.

Other orders included US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord, a freeze on new regulations, a requirement for federal workers to return to the office full-time, and an increase of government tariffs applied to countries in opposition to the values of the United States.

Officials told US media that Trump will sign more orders when he returns to the White House after leaving the evening rally.

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