Global News Podcast - US inauguration special

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

Donald Trump returns as 47th US president.

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This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Nick Miles, and in this special edition recorded at 18 Hours GMT on Monday the 20th of January, Donald J. Trump has been inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States. It is my honour and pleasure to introduce to you the 45th and the 47th president of the United States of America, Donald J. Trump. CHEERING He's only the second person in history to be elected to two non-consecutive terms.

We have Donald Trump's swearing-in ceremony and his inauguration speech with analysis from our North America correspondent. and his inauguration speech with analysis from our North America correspondent. The United States has a new commander in chief. Donald Trump was sworn in a short time ago as the country's 47th president in the ornate surroundings of the rotunda in Washington's Capitol building. At the age of 78, he overtakes his predecessor, Joe Biden, as the oldest US

president to take office. It was just after midday local time that Mr. Trump took the oath on the Bible. Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear. That I will faithfully execute swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. So Constitution of the United States. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations. Earlier JD Vance was sworn in as Vice President. At 40, he's the third youngest vice president in US history.

The ceremony was held indoors as the US Capitol shivers in sub-zero temperatures. Nonetheless, thousands of spectators took their seats in an outdoor arena where they watched a live stream of the inauguration and President Trump's inaugural address. In it, he set out his goals for the next four years and called for a revolution of common sense. The golden age of America begins right now. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.

During every single day of the Trump administration, I will very simply put, America first. Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end. And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous, and free. America will soon be greater, stronger, and far more exceptional than ever before.

But first, we must be honest about the challenges we face. While they are plentiful, they will be annihilated by this great momentum that the world is now witnessing in the United States of America. As we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust. For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens, while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair. All of this will change starting today. From this moment on, America's decline is over. Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history, and I've learned

a lot along the way. Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and, indeed, to take my life. Just a few months ago in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear. But 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. It is my hope that our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most consequential election

in the history of our country. Today I will sign a series of historic executive orders. With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. It's all about common sense. First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We will reinstate my remain in Mexico policy.

I will end the practice of catch and release. And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country. Under the orders I signed today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks, bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities. Next, I will direct all members of my Cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal

to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices. That is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill. America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have. The largest amount of oil and gas of any country on earth, and we are going to use it. Fill our strategic reserves up again, right to the top, and export American energy all over the world.

With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American auto workers. I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. For this purpose, we are establishing the external revenue service to collect all tariffs,

duties and revenues. It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our Treasury to restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government. My administration will establish the brand new Department of Government Efficiency. After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America. Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents.

I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based. It will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. This week, I will reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the COVID vaccine mandate with full back pay. And I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political

theories and social experiments while on duty. It's going to end immediately. We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end and perhaps most importantly the wars we never get into. My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That's what I want to be. I'm pleased to say that as of yesterday, one day before I assumed office, the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families.

America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on Earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world. A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and we will restore the name of a great President, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs. President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent. He was a natural businessman and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did including the Panama Canal which has foolishly been given to the country of

Panama after the United States. I mean think of this spent more money than ever spent on a project before and lost 38,000 lives in the building of the Panama Canal. The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape, or form. And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal, and we didn't give it to China.

We gave it to Panama, And we're taking it back. Above all, my message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor, and the vitality of history's greatest civilization. So as we liberate our nation, we will lead it to new heights of victory and success. We will not be deterred. Together we will end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy, and disease-free. The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations,

and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons. I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do. In America, the impossible is what we do best. After all we have been through together, we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. With your help we will restore America's promise and we will rebuild the nation that we love and we love it so much. We will be a nation like no other full of compassion, courage, and exceptionalism. We will stand bravely.

We will live proudly. We will dream boldly. And nothing will stand in our way because we are Americans. The future is ours. And our golden age has just begun. Thank you. God bless America. Thank you all.

Thank you. God bless America. Thank you all. Thank you The inaugural speech of the 47th president of the United States Donald Trump So how is the new president's speech likely to go down our North America correspondent?aufik, spoke to my colleague, Nula McGovern. Yeah, well look, you're already seeing people react that this sounded more like a State of the Union speech that was very policy heavy and repeated a lot of his campaign rhetoric rather than a kind of visionary outline of his goals and attempts to unify the country. But what we saw in the room was Democrats, a kind of stone-faced, some visibly reacting to some of his lines,

such as Hillary Clinton bursting out loud when he talked about changing the Gulf of Mexico's name to the Gulf of America, while others who are in line with Donald Trump's agenda stood up and applauded numerous times. But this was for Donald Trump, again, a chance for him to declare that he has started a movement and that this will lead to a long-lasting movement and a new direction for the country. There were a few things that we've kind of never heard before in a state of the union. Again, those kind of policies when it comes to, for example, transgender rights and saying there are only two genders in America.

Big cheer here, Neda, for that one, actually. Maybe more than any of the other elements. And I think it's Donald Trump's willingness to go where other politicians are unwilling to on those very touchy, difficult subjects that makes his base so excited. They view political correctness as censorship. They view traditional American values as under attack. And so it does not surprise me at all that some of those kind of red meat issues in his speech would have made his base extremely happy.

And they would have felt that he was speaking directly to them because those in the rotunda, of course, represent a cross-section of American politicians, corporate leaders, some who have recently now come over to Donald Trump's side. But they are in no way kind of core base MAGA supporters that would have been outside listening to this speech in person there in that arena. And so I suspect tonight, when he does eventually get there, when the presidential parade is held at the Capital One Arena,

when he does address the crowd there, and we hear he may even sign some executive orders in front of the crowd. I expect that to be an incredibly ruckus event. Speaking of ruckus, you've probably heard the crowd behind me here. America's tenor, as he sometimes calls Christopher Macho had just finished singing. He went over and gave a bear hug to President Trump. President Trump now holding hands with First Lady Melania Trump is beginning to make his way out of the room, kind of shaking hands, giving a wave. Of course he's got a very busy schedule ahead of him in the coming hours, no less than three balls, I believe, to attend in the coming hours.

And that's all from us for now, but there will be a new edition of the Global News podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or the topics covered in it, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. You can also find us on X at Global News Pod. This edition was produced by Nikki Variko. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Nick Miles. And until next time, goodbye. What does it take to go racing in the fastest cars in the world? Oscar Piestri. Your head's trying to get rid of one way, your body's trying to go another. Lance Stroll.

It's very extreme in the sense of how close you're racing wheel to wheel. We've been given unprecedented access to two of the most famous names in Formula One, McLaren and Aston Martin. I'm Landon Aris. They build a beautiful bit of machinery that I get to then go and have fun in. They open the doors to their factories as the 2024 season reached its peak. I'm Josh Hartnett. This is F1, back at base. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.