Washington: Donald Trump took oath as the 47th President of the United States for his second term, at a glittering ceremony in Washington on Monday. He was administered the oath of Office by Supreme Court Chief Justice John G Roberts on the holy book of the Bible in the presence of Melania Trump. Vice President JD Vance was administered the oath of office before Trump.
The ceremony was held indoors at the United States Capitol Rotunda due to the intense cold. The ceremony started earlier in the day after Trump arrived for service at St John’s Episcopal Church. After visiting the church ahead of the swearing-in, they proceeded towards the White House, where Donald Trump and Melania Trump were welcomed by the Bidens on a gold-trimmed red carpet, exchanging greetings. Outgoing President Biden welcomed Trump at the White House for a pre-inaugural tea, restoring the tradition of peaceful transition of power in the US.
Priority to create a proud , prosperous US: President Trump
Addressing the gathering after his oath President Trump said, “ The golden age of America begins now. The country will be flourish and respected once again across the globe. I will very simply put America first. Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our security will be restored.”
“The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end. And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous, and free,” he added.
Slamming the outgoing Government, the new President added, “ We had a government which could not manage a simple crisis at home. The election results in November were the mandate to reverse the horrible betrayal. From this moment on America’s decline is over. Our nation’s glorious destiny will no longer be denied. In the last 8 years, I learned a lot. The journey to reclaim the republic was not an easy one. I was attacked too. I was saved to make America great again.”
“We will abandon the policy of catch and release. I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country. Under the orders I signed today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organisations,” Trump said further.
Referring to the law and order in the US, Trump added, “We are going to bring law and order back to our cities. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female. This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private light. We will forge a society that is colourblind and merit-based. This week, I will reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the COVID vaccine mandate with full back pay.”
PM Modi congratulates Trump
Shortly after the swearing-in, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Congratulated President Trump. Taking to X, he wrote, “Congratulations my dear friend President Donald Trump on your historic inauguration as the 47th President of the United States! I look forward to working closely together once again, to benefit both our countries and to shape a better future for the world. Best wishes for a successful term ahead!”
The event was attended by a number of dignitaries from the US and abroad. Apart from Bidens, those who attended include Former Presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and George Bush. Both Clinton and Bush were accompanied by their spouses Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush respectively, while Obama arrived without his wife Michelle Obama. India was represented by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
Among others, who also attended the event included Tesla’s Elon Musk, Meta founder Mark Zuckerburg, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Apart from Jaishankar, prominent Indians, who attended the event included Reliance Industries (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani, his wife Nita Ambani, Tribeca Developers founder Kalpesh Mehta, M3M Developers MD Pankaj Bansal, and Ashish Jain, MD of Pune-based real estate company Kundan Spaces.
