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Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
Nobody ever accused Donald Trump of consistency. Shortly after being sworn in, he promised to bring peace to the world, reoccupy the Panama Canal and expand America’s territory. The latter sounded very much like a declaration of war — a first in the history of US inaugural addresses. The trick, as ever with Trump, is to figure out what he means from the merely rhetorical.
His imagery of a new golden age was very different to 2017 when he spoke of “American carnage”. But his speech this time round carried far more specific actions, including territorial aggression on America’s neighbours, US troops on the Mexican border, the start of mass deportations of illegal immigrants, an end to electric vehicle subsidies and a new age of “drill baby drill”. These should be taken seriously.
The vibes in the Capitol Rotunda also spoke volumes. It would be an understatement to say that Trump’s second inauguration was unprecedented. Surrounded by the world’s richest men, with north of a trillion dollars of wealth in the room, topped by Elon Musk ($434bn), Jeff Bezos ($240bn) and Mark Zuckerberg ($212bn), Trump’s return was blessed by what outgoing president Joe Biden called the new oligarchy.
Never before has such wealth rubbed inaugural shoulders with a president who is also a billionaire. Trump has been using his return to expand his own wealth. In the days before the inauguration, he added billions to his paper wealth by launching a meme coin instantly dubbed “$Trump”. His wife, Melania, followed suit with her own crypto offering. He also made a bid for the US to take a 50 per cent stake in TikTok, the China-owned social media app whose ban by Congress was upheld last week by the Supreme Court. Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s chief executive, was also there.
The contrast between Trump and his predecessors, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama, and Biden, signalled more of a regime change than an ordinary transfer of power. They listened with thinly disguised astonishment as Trump laid out an agenda that would undo virtually everything they stood for — whether Bush Republican or Biden Democrat. In the morning Biden said “welcome home” to Trump as he greeted him at the White House. He also pre-emptively pardoned former public officials and members of his own family from the retribution that Trump reiterated in his address. The ceremony took place in a room that was vandalised four years ago by Trump’s supporters claiming the 2020 election was stolen.
In addition to promising he would plant the stars and stripes on Mars, Trump said that God had saved him from the assassin’s bullet last July so that he could make America great again. After Trump finished speaking in 2017, Bush turned to the Clintons and said “that was some weird shit”. It is unclear if Bush had any words to describe Trump’s second inauguration on Monday.
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