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Donald Trump was sworn in Monday as the 47th president of the United States, kicking off his second term in the White House after a historic political comeback from his defeat in 2020.
Trump took the oath of office shortly after 12 p.m. ET on Capitol Hill, along with Vice President J.D. Vance.
“The golden age of America begins right now,” Trump said in his inaugural address, which he delivered from the Capitol Rotunda after forecasts of brutally cold weather nixed plans for the typical outdoor ceremony. “We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.”
Later on Monday, Trump was expected to begin issuing more than 200 executive actions, including changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico and declaring a national emergency at the U.S. border with Mexico. The Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy will be reinstalled, and drug cartels will be designated as terrorist organizations.
In the past, Trump has said he wants to close the border, reinstate controversial travel bans, and deport as many as 11 million undocumented immigrants. That could destabilize the U.S. food supply chain, which relies heavily on migrant labor, and impact many other industries.
Trump has also outlined plans to immediately begin reversing his predecessor’s executive orders related to artificial intelligence, moves the tech lobby will likely welcome. On Monday, he plans to declare a national energy emergency as part of a push to fuel AI development.
The president also wants to make major cuts to green energy initiatives, including the Inflation Reduction Act and federal rules promoting electric vehicles. Trump plans to announce an immediate expansion to oil and gas drilling, although that may not be as simple as it once was, thanks to outgoing President Joe Biden’s 11th-hour bid to protect 625 million acres of federal waters.
“We will be a rich nation again, and it is the liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it,” Trump said Monday. “We will end the ‘Green New Deal’ and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate.”
Those energy plans will likely benefit the cavalcade of tech leaders who attended his inauguration, including the CEOs of Google (GOOGL-2.61%) and Apple (AAPL+0.03%), who have heavily invested in AI. Semafor reports that one of his first orders will officially establish Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, handing a win to one of his biggest donors and ever-present advisers.
Trump on Monday said the U.S. will pursue its “manifest destiny” to send astronauts to Mars. Musk believes his SpaceX can get unmanned ships there by late 2026.
As the inauguration kicked off, tech leaders got front-row seats — in front of Trump’s cabinet nominees. Amazon (AMZN-3.00%) CEO Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Meta’s (META-1.66%) Mark Zuckerberg, Musk, and others sat beside the president’s family and Vance.
One of the first decisions Trump will be met with is the fate of TikTok, the ByteDance-owned social media platform banned on Sunday despite attempts to save it. Trump, once an opponent of TikTok, changed his mind following a meeting with a billionaire donor and after his campaign employed the app during the election.
Over the weekend, Trump said he asked the companies that help TikTok run to bring the platform back online after it went dark on Saturday night. It was back by Sunday, with TikTok repeatedly emphasizing Trump’s support, as Trump confirmed his plan to issue an executive order to place a 90-day freeze on the ban. Fully clearing the ban requires ByteDance to agree to sell TikTok to a U.S. buyer.
Ahead of the inauguration, Trump said he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about TikTok, the U.S-China trade balance, and “many other subjects.” The country’s vice president met with Vance on Monday and attended the inauguration. On Sunday, Trump proposed giving the U.S. 50% ownership of TikTok through a joint venture.
A major goal of his first year will be getting Congress to renew his 2017 tax cuts and pass a number of the other tax cuts he’s touted, including an end to taxes on Social Security and lower corporate taxes. He has also floated an agenda that relies heavily on new tariffs, which have become the go-to tool in his arsenal during negotiations.
Trump has threatened universal tariffs of between 10% and 20% on all imports, although those plans may be scaled back. After winning the presidential election, Trump threatened to hit Mexico, China, Canada, the BRICS geopolitical coalition, and the European Union with varying tariffs unless they complied with his score of demands. As he set his sights on acquiring the Panama Canal, buying Greenland from Denmark, and making Canada a U.S. state, Trump refused to rule out tariffs.
“I think tariffs are the most beautiful word. I think they’re beautiful,” Trump said last month. “It’s going to make us rich.”
Tariffs would raise the prices of imported goods, such as food and clothing. Since most companies wouldn’t absorb much of the higher costs, consumers would likely have to pay higher prices for many imported products. According to one analysis of his campaign tax plans, consumers could lose as much as $78 billion in annual spending power.
Besides the looming threat of tariffs, businesses — big and small — have largely been excited for the new administration.
“The incoming administration has signaled a more business-friendly approach to policies and regulation, which should benefit the economy and our clients,” Wells Fargo (WFC-0.99%) CEO Charles Scharf said last week.
Bank CEOs are optimistic and forecasting more mergers and acquisitions, tech leaders are getting cozy with Trump, and pharmaceutical giants are already outlining their priorities. Trump reportedly raised a record $200 million for the inauguration, with much of the money coming from business groups scrambling to curry favor or make amends.