Donald Trump will be sworn in as president of the United States on Monday. The Republican will begin a second term at the head of the world’s most powerful democracy, marking one of the most stunning political comebacks in American history, Reuters reports.
Trump has also pledged to sign a series of executive orders on his first day in office on topics ranging from border security to oil and gas production.
Trump will be sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts at 12 p.m. EST. The ceremony was originally scheduled to take place outside the U.S. Capitol, but will now be held inside the Capitol Rotunda because of the extreme cold.
Trump will then deliver his inaugural address. In interviews, he has said he intends to be uplifting and unifying. That would mark a departure from his first speech in 2017, which detailed a shattered country that he described as “American Carnage.”
Outgoing President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has said he plans to attend the ceremony and witness the transfer of power, a courtesy Trump did not extend to him four years ago. The Joint Committee of Congress that administers the swearing-in ceremony on Capitol Hill had previously said it would provide more than 220,000 tickets for the event.
The National Park Service, which oversees the National Mall, where members of the public without tickets gather to watch the ceremony, had provided the Trump Inaugural Committee with a permit for an estimated 250,000 people. Many of those tickets are now being canceled, with the focus shifting to the Capital One Arena, where Trump said the ceremony would be broadcast live from the Capitol Rotunda, with the president-elect promising to show up to watch the parade. The arena seats only 20,000. Country music star Carrie Underwood is expected to perform at the swearing-in ceremony.
After a luncheon with congressional leaders at the U.S. Capitol, Trump was scheduled to ride down Pennsylvania Avenue in a motorcade to the White House, accompanied by a procession of military regiments, school marching bands, floats, and citizen groups. From the White House, the new president and guests were to watch the rest of the parade from a grandstand. But forecast arctic temperatures forced organizers to scrap the planned parade down Pennsylvania Avenue. The parade will now take place at the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena in downtown Washington.
After he was sworn in, Donald Trump announced that he would declare a state of emergency at the southern border to deploy the military to stop immigration, as well as an energy emergency to cancel all subsidies for renewable energy and electric vehicles. The new president stated that America will resume drilling and use oil to lower prices.
Among the most important statements:
From this day forward, the country will flourish and be respected worldwide. We will no longer allow anyone to take advantage of us. I will put America first. We will reclaim our sovereignty, and justice will be rebalanced.
The weaponization of the justice system will end, and our priority will be to create a proud, prosperous, and free nation. America will be greater, stronger, and more exceptional.
“My election is a mandate from the people to completely and totally reverse the horrible betrayal that has taken place and to restore faith, wealth, democracy, and freedom to the people. From this moment, America’s decline is over.”
The government faces a crisis of trust, with corrupt leadership siphoning wealth, leaving it unable to handle even minor crises. Around the world, countries are prioritizing the protection of illegal entrants. In such times of emergency, our nation can no longer respond adequately to situations like the hurricanes that swept citizens away in North Carolina or the fires continuing to burn in Los Angeles.
Our healthcare system no longer provides crisis assistance, and our education system teaches children to hate themselves. All this will change quickly. My reelection is a mandate to reverse some of the terrible policies of recent years.
I was saved by God to make America great again. Therefore, under our administration, we will work daily to address every crisis and act with purpose and speed to bring peace to citizens of every race, color, and religion. It is my hope that the recent presidential election will be the most significant and impactful in our history. To the African-American and Hispanic communities, I thank you for the support and love you showed me through your votes. We set records, and I will not forget that.
Today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders to begin the full restoration of America and the reinstatement of common sense. First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entries will be immediately stopped, and we will begin the process of returning millions of people to their countries of origin. We will reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy. I will end the current catch-and-release practice for those entering the U.S. illegally and deploy troops to the southern border to put an end to this crisis.
After signing these orders, we will designate drug cartels as terrorist organizations. I will invoke a 1978 law that allows the government to use all armed forces to eliminate criminal gangs across the country.
Next, I will instruct every member of my cabinet to use all resources to end inflation and reduce costs.
Today, I will also declare an energy emergency. We will introduce the “Drill, baby, drill!” policy, reopening drilling rights. America will be a producing nation again because we have something extraordinary—the largest oil reserves in the world, which we will utilize. We will lower prices, refill our strategic reserves, and export American energy worldwide. We will be a wealthy nation again, and the liquid gold beneath our feet will make that possible. We will end the Green New Deal, revoke the “electric vehicle mandate,” and save our auto industry. In other words, you will be able to buy the car of your choice. We will build cars in America again at a pace no one could have dreamed possible just a few years ago.
I will end our current system of trade exemptions to protect American workers and their families. We will impose tariffs on foreign nations to enrich our citizens. We will establish an offshore revenue agency to collect all taxes and dues.
After years of illegal efforts, I will sign an executive order to immediately end censorship and restore free speech in America. We will bring back impartial justice under the Constitution and the rule of law. Order and law will return to our cities.
Our society will be one that disregards race and is based on merit. From today, this will be an official U.S. policy, and the government will recognize only two genders—male and female.
I will reinstate any person unjustly removed from the military for refusing vaccination. I will sign an order to ban social experiments on our military. Just as in 2017, we will rebuild the most powerful military the world has ever seen. The legacy I will be most proud of is uniting people and bringing peace.
America will once again assume its role as the strongest and most respected nation on Earth. We will rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
We will take back the Panama Canal. China operates this canal, which we built, without our permission. That is why we are reclaiming it.
Most Americans are optimistic about the next four years with Trump as president, to a greater extent than in 2017
Most Americans are optimistic about the next four years with Donald Trump as president, to an even greater extent than they were in 2017, before his first term. And most are hopeful about the year ahead, according to data from a survey commissioned by CBS News, according to News.ro. This is supported by Americans’ expectations for a good economy in 2025, along with the widespread belief among his voters that Trump will reduce food prices, make them feel better financially and bring more peace and stability to the world. All of this reflects many of the reasons why Trump won the election in the first place, comments CBS News.
Trump is now starting with an optimism rating of 60%, up from 56% in his first term. Biden began his term with an optimism rating of 58%, but Obama inspired the most optimism at the start of his term — 79%. Before him, Bush Jr. started at 64%, compared to his father, H. W. Bush, who had 68%, and Ronald Reagan — 69%. Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter both enjoyed ratings of 70%.
Just as economic views and inflation propelled Trump to victory, today many Americans — especially Trump voters — expect to be better off financially. 52% of Americans surveyed said they expect the economy to be better off in 2025. And since inflation and the economy were the main issues in the election, they are by far the main things voters want Trump to prioritize now.
Americans are generally more confident about the coming year than they were at the beginning of 2021, when the pandemic was still ongoing. On foreign policy, more people believe Trump will increase peace and stability in the world (46% overall and 88% of Trump voters) than those who believe he will decrease it (37%), and in particular, they believe he will reduce conflict between Israel and its neighbors in the Middle East. (In contrast, just over half look back and say Biden’s policies have created more conflict there.) People are not convinced about the idea of buying Greenland (61%). Most Trump voters (68%) would agree with this, but 54% of all respondents believe it is, in fact, just a strategy to negotiate something else.
Also, a majority of Americans (55% overall, 90% among Trump voters) favor deporting immigrants who are in the country illegally, but not using the military to carry out the deportations. On a number of other potential policy ideas, opinions are more divided. Renouncing birthright citizenship is not very popular and only divides Trump voters.
On the issue of imposing tariffs on imported goods, Trump voters overwhelmingly (82%) favor the idea (even though they don’t necessarily think it will lower prices), while a slight majority of Americans overall (54%) oppose it.
There is also a sense of missed opportunity with Biden among Democrats: just over half of them think Harris could have won if Biden had dropped out sooner. Biden leaves with Americans evaluating his presidency at a level as low as during his term (37%). The CBS News/YouGov poll was conducted on a nationally representative sample of 2,174 American adults interviewed between January 15-17, 2025. The margin of error is ±2.5 points.