The Journal. - Trump Declares a ‘Golden Age’ for America

Episode Date: January 20, 2025

Today, Donald Trump was sworn in as president for a second time. WSJ’s Natalie Andrews discusses Trump’s inaugural address. And we hear from Trump supporters who gathered in Washington D.C. to celebrate.  Further Listening: -The Scramble Is on to Fill Trump’s Cabinet  -What a Republican Congress Could Mean for Trump Further Reading: -President Declares New 'Golden Age' for the U.S.  -Trump Trashed Washington for Years. Now He’s Vowing to Make Over the City.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Please raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear. Today Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. Protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. The Constitution of the United States. So help me God. So help me God. Congratulations, Mr. Trump. In his inauguration speech, Trump made big promises about the next four years.

The golden age of America begins right now. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. In the room were members of Congress, former presidents, special guests, and reporters like our colleague Natalie Andrews. All there to witness Trump's first moments as the next president. The speech was decisive. It was not unifying and it made promises across the gamut from drilling more oil to ending illegal immigration to going to Mars. Donald Trump's vision is about releasing a new golden age of America. It's not immediately clear what the golden age means but I think his voters hope that it makes them all a

little more prosperous. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power. I'm Kate Leinbach. It's Monday, January 20th. Coming up on the show, President Trump, Term 2, Day 1. Air Transat presents two friends traveling in Europe for the first time and feeling some pretty big emotions. This coffee is so good. How do they make it so rich and tasty? Those paintings we saw today weren't prints.

They were the actual paintings. I have never seen tomatoes like this. How are they so red? With flight deals starting at just $589, it's time for you to see what Europe has to offer. Don't worry, you can handle it. Visit airtransat.com for details, conditions apply. Air Transat. Travel moves us. Trump's inauguration took place inside the U.S. Capitol building due to freezing temperatures in Washington, D.C. The Capitol Rotunda, where the inauguration happened, is one of the most beautiful places

in Washington, D.C. It's stunning. You walk in and it's a circular room and there's murals all around you and on the ceiling and natural light streaming through. And what was the vibe like? It was a party. People were very excited to see each other. They were very excited to see Donald Trump.

They were cheering. The vibe overall was a celebratory one. And who was up there on stage with him? So it was an interesting dynamic to, if you're looking at Donald Trump giving a speech, to the right of him was the President's Club, Barack Obama, Joe Biden. You know, the President's Club made it seem

like an old guard. And then on the left of Donald Trump, you had the Trump family right in front. You had tech CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg, you had Elon Musk. It was quite interesting. You had the TikTok CEO. He was on the very end of the crowd and kind of looked on for most of the time.

Is it unusual to have tech CEOs and business leaders up there? It seems so in this quantity. And to note, a lot of these folks had been very friendly with Democrats as well. It's just been interesting to watch how quickly they have not only just kind of been at the inauguration, but also been down to Mar-a-Lago, taking pictures with Trump really become chummy in the last few weeks since Donald Trump was elected. After JD Vance took the oath of office as VP, Chief Justice John Roberts sworn Trump

as president. He took oath. People cheered loudly. Every person sitting on the chair had a little sheet that said the etiquette for the inauguration and it said not to take pictures during the oath of office. And oh my gosh, so many members of Congress ignored that. They were all standing. How would you describe Trump's speech? This was not a speech about unifying America. This was a speech about Donald Trump taking the

promises he'd made on the campaign trail and showing that he had a plan and that he's planning to do a lot of executive actions. I think he joked at one point on the campaign trail and it seemed like a joke that he was going to be a dictator on day one only. And this is him saying, I have presidential powers and I'm going to do them in part because he does feel like he has a mandate. My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all of these many betrayals that have taken place and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy, and indeed

their freedom. He feels like he was elected overwhelmingly, and it's time for him to show how he's going to get that done. He's very much put a time stamp and urgency on a lot of things, and he didn't hold back. 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.

He was quite critical of the Biden administration when it was Joe Biden and Kamala Harris sitting right there on the front row watching. There was no qualms about that. And then he talked a lot about God. 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's something that a lot of, since the assassination attempt in July and then the subsequent one, you have seen a lot of Trump devotees be very adamant that Trump was saved to restore America and that language continued from him today. Then he laid out his policy visions and the actions he's going to take, saying he was going to sign a roster of executive orders. Said he was going to sign executive orders right away. For example, banning biological men from playing in women's sports or return on immigration really going back to a lot of the executive orders he'd issued in his first term on immigration, such as remain in Mexico.

I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. Yeah, he really kicked off the policy portion of his speech talking about immigration. What was his message there and what did he say he's going to do? He wants to limit border crossings from people who are crossing the border illegally. So he is wanting to implement processes that turn people back, you know, ending people being able to seek asylum and have a court date at a later time. He's also expected to sign an executive order ending birthright citizenship in the country, the idea being that if you come to the country and cross illegally, you cannot have your

baby in the US and have that baby be an American citizen. And from immigration, he went to another key issue from his campaign, which was inflation. What is his plan to address inflation? Donald Trump wants to push for more business in the country. He wants his whole cabinet to deal with inflation and then do more with energy. The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that is why today I will also declare a national energy emergency.

We will drill, baby, drill. Whereas Biden restricted drilling in the United States, Donald Trump wants to grab more fossil fuels in the United States. He wants to use that to lower costs for fuel. What else would you say is on his economic agenda that he outlined in his speech? He, Donald Trump sees kind of a greater efficiency across the board. He wants this idea of the Department of Government

Efficiency, which is an office, not a department. But the idea is to go look through every aspect of the federal government and see maybe what can you cut? I think a lot of his kind of policies in general on trade are also so key. And on Monday, he said he's going to overhaul the federal trade system. And he wants to establish this external revenue service to collect tariffs and duties that are coming in. And then he spoke about race and gender. Yes. 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. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. Why was that such a big focus? Well, there's an aspect of the Republicans who really, really like this idea of the traditional family, the man, woman, child set up. And so that got a lot of cheers.

There's been a lot of headlines right now about trans athletes playing in women's sports. And whether or not there's that many trans athletes playing, it's really become something that the cultural right has just jumped on as something they feel very passionate about. So that focus is something that's very important to Republicans right now and two conservatives at large. Trump also said he plans to rename the Gulf of Mexico to be the Gulf of America, that he wants to retake control of the Panama Canal, and that he wants to send American astronauts to Mars. How did he conclude his speech? What was his final message?

The way he closed his address was not phrasing that he's used before when he ends speeches. This was a very like, we will. 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 Americans, the future is ours, and our golden age has just begun. Thank you. God bless America. Thank you all. Thank you. It was a lot, a lot of promises and saying that our country has suffered and now we're going to restore this golden age. And it was received very well by the Republicans in the room. You know, it's good that it was received very well by the Republicans in the room because to do any of what he promised beyond executive order and to make it stick,

he's going to need every single one of those Republicans because he has such a narrow majority. After the break, how this went down with Trump supporters. Calling all sellers, Salesforce is hiring account executives to join us on the cutting edge of technology. Here, innovation isn't a buzzword. It's a way of life. You'll be solving customer challenges faster with agents, winning with purpose, and showing

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Visit td.com slash DI offer to learn more. Despite the cold, Trump supporters descended on the nation's capital to celebrate. They were on the street as his motorcade drove by. They were in bars, watching the inauguration and singing along to America the Beautiful. Our reporter Jessica Mendoza and producer Matt Kwong were out in D.C. talking to Trump supporters. Tell me what you're excited about. What are you excited to hear from them today? The next four years. I'm excited for the next four years.

I'm looking forward to a from him today. I'm excited for the next four years. I'm looking forward to a more secure country. I don't like all the people coming into our country illegally. That's a big issue for me. Defense protection of our country is it is a big deal. And the economy I think it's just gotten a little out way out of control. And he's going to open energy. He's going to drill. Doing that is going to bring in the money and that he's going to be able to accomplish the other things that he wants to accomplish for the American people. So it'll be fantastic. Maybe I might not agree with everything that Trump is going to do or wants to do. I feel as a captain at the ship now and that's, you know, I'm not afloat.

I feel like I'm not afloat anymore. After the speech, Jessica caught up with a couple from Tampa, Florida, Debbie and Gary Garcia. We just couldn't wait to hear this and be here present with all this excitement and exuberance We're thrilled to be here I just can't wait to see what the next four years has in store for the United States and for the rest of the world Did anything from his speech stand out to you? I think the taking of the taking back of Panama in whatever capacity will do that is

in whatever capacity will do that, is make the statement to the world that we're no longer the America of yesteryear. We're a new America. The America of not putting us first and creating a stability in the world through our stability here at home. And we're unstable here at home now and we can be more stable as purveyors in the world. How does it feel to be celebrating here with other Trump supporters in Washington, D.C.? I just feel like these people are just other people, just average every day, just like us, people who absolutely love their country. And I support people who love our country, not people who hate our country. So it's wonderful to be here with Kendra Dispieres.

Many of the people who Matt and Jessica spoke to shared this feeling of hope for the next four years. It's something that our colleague Natalie has been thinking about. I met so many voters and folks on the campaign trail who earnestly voted for Donald Trump because they want change. They have hope that Donald Trump can do that. Given what he said in his speech, what do you think Trump's first hundred days in office will be like? It seems as like a president who's going to twist arms. This is not a president who's going to want to negotiate.

This is a president who's saying, did you see by how much I won with? The people are with me and we need to work and get what I want to get done, done. This is not someone who's going to be wanting to do carve outs or negotiate with each and every member of Congress for their little part that they want in a certain bill. This is someone who wants to come in, feels as though he has a mandate and wants to accomplish it.

And what about the agenda he outlined? It seems incredibly ambitious. It's incredibly ambitious. It's incredibly vast. It's very difficult to do. He will face hurdle after hurdle, and it will be interesting to see if people are understanding about that as he tries to get things done. What does day one tell us about the next four years?

You know, he's determined. Donald Trump is determined. He fought for this. This is a president who's come back. He's made the ultimate comeback. And he feels that, he feels that support. He's got the tech CEO sitting behind him. He's got his cabinet sitting behind him.

He had people in the audience who helped get him elected raised millions to put on the inauguration. So much money they couldn't spend it. So he's feeling as though he has the world behind him to do what he wants to do. Before you go, we have some exciting news. Molly and Ryan are coming back. Join senior political correspondent Molly Ball and your co-host Ryan Knutson on Friday mornings for the first 100 days of Trump's presidency.

They'll unpack the news of the week and answer your questions. So please send us your questions. Either record a voice memo or email them to thejournal at wsj.com. That's thejournal at wsj.com. That's all for today, Monday, January 20th. The Journal is a co-production of Spotify and The Wall Street Journal. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.