Författare: Dafydd Townley Teaching Fellow in International Security Uni

Donald Trump has been sworn in as president of the US for a second term – and this time there won’t be any arguments about crowd sizes. The most glaringly obvious difference in optics this time round for both those in attendance and the millions watching around the world was the fact this year’s ceremony was conducted indoors. The US has been experiencing significant snowfall and wintery conditions. As guests gathered in Washington DC to see Trump sworn in as 47th US president, the temperature was around -6°C.

Trump announced on social media last Friday that the ceremony would be moved to the US Capitol building’s Rotunda. This is not the first time the ceremony has been held there – Ronald Reagan also moved his inauguration to the Rotunda in 1985 because of the cold weather.

Looking on was the Trump family – his wife Melania, and his children Ivanka, Barron and Donald Jr. Joining them were many of the former residents of the White House, including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff. Michelle Obama and Karen Pence, the wife of Trump’s former vice president Mike Pence, skipped the inauguration.

Amassed inside was an audience of the high and mighty of the American business world, including the leaders of the major tech companies. Elon Musk, who spent US$300 million (£243 million) on supporting Trump’s election was joined in prominent seats by Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Tom Cook of Apple and Sundar Pichai of Google. It was the first time they had all congregated together since the congressional hearings in July 2020 over their companies’ dominance in the tech market.

International political leaders do not traditionally attend the inauguration. But this year, Argentinian president Javier Milei and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni were invited by Trump. The UK’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, maintained tradition and sent Dame Karen Pierce, the outgoing British ambassador to the US. Boris Johnson, the former UK prime minister and a longtime supporter of Trump, also looked on.

Other audience members included media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and the president of football’s governing body Fifa, Gianni Infantino, as well as leading sportsmen and celebrities such as YouTube influencers Jake and Logan Paul.

Elon Musk and Donald Trump Jr. during President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Shawn Thew / Pool / EPA

The key takeaways

After swearing his oath, Trump delivered his second inaugural address. He told the nation that “the golden age of America begins right now”. Criticising Biden’s administration, he said he would end “the vicious violent and unfair weaponisation” of the justice department”, and that “the scales of justice will be rebalanced”. “Our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous and free”, he added.

Turning to immigration, Trump continued his assault on the Biden administration, stating that the Democratic White House had protected illegal immigrants that were “dangerous criminals”. This, he said, had led to a crisis in the nation’s political institutions. “We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home.”

To loud applause, Trump said the solution to the crisis was to declare a national emergency on the Mexico border. This will involve sending more troops and funds to the region, and declaring the cartels as “foreign terrorist organisations”. By using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, Trump also said he would use the “full and immense power of the federal and state law enforcement” to combat criminal gangs in the US.

To finance this, Trump promised to make America a “rich nation again”. He pledged to beat inflation and “rapidly bring down costs and prices”. As well as the emergency on the southern border, he declared an energy emergency that he would defeat through increased oil and gas drilling. “Drill baby drill”, he said to acclaim from inside the Rotunda.

Trump then declared there are “only two genders – male and female” in the US. He vowed to make this an official policy of his government, and promised to sign an executive order that would roll back protections for transgender people and terminate diversity, equity and inclusion programmes within the federal government.

For his international partners, he promised tariffs and the resumption of American control of the Panama Canal (it was turned over to Panama in 1999). Much to Hillary Clinton’s amusement, Trump promised to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and to increase US territory.

Where might this territorial gain be made? “We will pursue our manifest destiny”, Trump said, “to plant the stars and stripes on planet Mars”. While clearly popular with the onlooking Elon Musk, such territorial claims in space are prohibited by the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, to which the US is a signatory.

There will now be much speculation about the implications of what Trump said. But what is just as interesting is what he left out. There was no mention of the conflict in Ukraine, or of Russia and Nato. And precious little of China.

American carnage

His 2025 speech was a reworking of his denunciation of “American Carnage” in 2017. Instead he vowed to halt the American decline of the past four years. But the common theme in both was his pledge to “put America first”.

Although Trump declared he would declare a national emergency on the southern border, what will happen over the next four years is unclear. Trump has promised a raft of radical and contentious initiatives in his effort to “make America great again”. What is certain is that there will be an array of executive orders from the Trump White House, with a particular focus on immigration.

Whether the US has the infrastructure to initiate the promised mass deportations, which is unlikely without the support of the armed forces, or the legal footing to nullify the 14th Amendment’s granting of citizenship to all those born in the US (doubtful, although the US Supreme Court is as right-leaning as – if not more than – it has been for the best part of a century) remains to be seen. But many Trump supporters will believe their “golden age” has just begun. Läs mer…

The Biden administration comes to an end on January 20. Joe Biden joins Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush on the list of single-term presidents in the modern era. So, how will the Biden presidency be remembered?

His average job approval rating of 42% across his term suggests he would be ranked well below average by the US public right now. He was rated at 39% in December – exactly the same as his predecessor Donald Trump’s rating just before he left office.

But in many ways, Biden’s rating is a better representation of the political schism in the US, rather than an unbiased assessment of his performance in the office. So, what did he get right?

1. Managing the COVID crisis

Biden came into office at the start of the second wave of COVID. His administration’s handling of the crisis and the advice given to the public was in stark contrast to the chaos of the Trump administration.

Although experts have suggested the Biden White House failed to rebuild trust between the US public and the presidency on this issue, it managed to articulate a clear, logical plan to deal with COVID and, for the most part, implement a vaccine rollout that was effective, rectifying previous supply problems with sourcing vaccines. And the polls seemed to agree, with nearly half (47.8%) of Americans approving of Biden’s COVID strategy – although this was skewed by party lines (80.9% of Democrats against only 18.6% of Republicans).

2. Supporting Ukraine

Biden’s continued and unwavering support for Ukraine has been met with fierce opposition from Maga Republicans in Congress ever since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. Efforts at providing substantial support were delayed by the speaker, Mike Johnson, when the Republicans took control of the House of Representatives after the 2022 midterm elections.

However, polls from August of last year suggest that not only are the majority of Americans more sympathetic to Ukraine than Russia, but more Americans want to continue supporting Ukraine for as long as it takes. US support has been critical to Ukraine’s effort to repel the Russian invasion, and has inspired Nato allies to do the same.

3. Affordable healthcare

Biden has managed to double the number of Americans who have access to affordable healthcare. The administration recently announced that almost 25 million Americans have signed up during the 2025 open enrolment period, compared with the 12 million who signed up during the last year of the Trump administration.

As part of the 2021 America Rescue Plan, Democrats were able to increase tax credits for those who qualified for assistance and also capped health insurance premiums. However, the future of the healthcare plan, introduced by President Obama, will be up for debate in Congress in 2025. Trump has been a long-term critic of the Obamacare initiative, which aimed to make health insurance more affordable.

4. Economic improvements

The administration’s economic performance exceeded many forecasters’ expectations, especially in job creation. Biden will be the first president under whom jobs were created during every month they were in office.

The economy created 2.23 million jobs in the final year of Biden’s term. Although it was just 12,000 jobs in October, the statistics for the remainder of his term are impressive. This has been driven by significant moves such as the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal, which instigated significant federal investment in national infrastructure, and the Chips and Science Act, which saw significant investment in the building of microprocessor chip plants.

The chaotic nature of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan will be seen as one of Biden’s failures.

So, why didn’t Biden get re-elected if he got all of these things right? The Democrats have been criticised for not communicating these successes effectively. But more importantly, Biden underperformed significantly in other economic areas. These were:

1. Not lowering inflation

As much as Biden got right, the administration failed to solve the inflation crisis. It averaged 5.4% per year during his time in the White House, and made him an easy target for Trump to criticise during the 2024 election. Inflation was identified by 41% of Americans polled in May 2024 as their most important financial worry.

2. Chaotically pulling out of Afghanistan

The US’s withdrawal from Afghanistan was decided during the Trump administration, but the surprise evacuation in August 2021 under Biden was chaotic and left allies in the lurch. Although the majority of Americans (54% of those polled) agreed with leaving Afghanistan, 69% said Biden did a poor job in handling the departure. UK defence chiefs stated the US decision was not what they had hoped for.

Read more:
Afghanistan: why a visibly distressed government minister had to admit that ’some people won’t get back’

3. Tackling immigration

Immigration has been a weight around the Biden administration’s neck. Despite attempts to push through a number of bills such as the US Citizenship Act 2021 (which, for various reasons, Republicans have blocked), the administration has failed miserably in controlling illegal immigration. Biden’s polling numbers on immigration have been in terminal decline, revealing a nation that lacked any confidence in his ability to solve the crisis.

4. Staying in the election

Biden’s refusal to withdraw from the presidential campaign looked desperate. Even when significant donors and Democrats refused to support him, he stayed in the race. But his performance in the presidential debate finally brought his ambitions for a second term in office to an end. By not bowing out gracefully, his legacy has been tarnished – and those images of him struggling in the debate will last long in the memory. Läs mer…