Triumphant Trump set for return to power
Washington, United States (AFP) — Donald Trump will be sworn in for a historic second term as US president Monday, promising a new “golden age” for America as the world braces for the return of his unpredictable leadership.
Freezing weather has forced the 78-year-old’s inauguration ceremony in Washington indoors, but the first hours of the most extraordinary comeback in US politics will be a blaze of activity.
The Republican vowed to unleash a blitz of executive orders undoing outgoing president Joe Biden’s legacy, and to launch immediate deportations of undocumented migrants.
If Trump painted a dystopian picture of “American carnage” at his first inauguration in 2017, this time around he is offering a more upbeat promise of a “brand new day” for the United States.
“I will act with historic speed and strength and fix every single crisis facing our country,” Trump told an inauguration eve rally where he danced with the Village People band.
But the billionaire populist also returned to some of the dark themes that drove his election victory over Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November.
The incoming 47th US president said he would “stop the invasion of our borders” and reverse “woke” policies including “transgender insanity” in US schools.
At sunrise on Monday morning, the National Mall, where the inauguration was originally due to be held, was largely empty — save for the Fairchild family, who traveled from Michigan to pay tribute to Trump.
“Ecstatic,” said grandmother Barb, when asked how they were feeling, adding she thought the move indoors was made “to protect our president.”