Around noon on January 20th, 2025, President Trump was officially sworn into office, starting his second term. After being sworn in, Trump began his inaugural address speech saying that “the golden age of America begins right now.” Then, he continued talking about how he will make America better by solving specific problems he feels need to be tackled. Trump said, “A radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens.” Trump went on to talk about his belief that the government favored immigrants over American citizens.
In a second speech later in the day, Trump reiterated this belief claiming that the immigrants were from mental asylums and prisons, despite no concrete evidence to support these beliefs. Next, Trump mentioned several states and cities that have been affected by recent natural disasters as examples of America’s shortcomings. Continuing on, he went on to talk about the executive orders he would sign in the coming weeks. A large portion of these orders had to do with hindering immigration from the border, making the cartels a terrorist organization, and allowing federal and state law enforcement to direct their forces at foreign gangs—all of which have been pillars of his campaign. The rest of the orders were focused on the economy with goals of bringing down inflation by declaring a national energy emergency (specifically generating this energy through oil), ending The Green New Deal, establishing a Department of Government Efficiency, and creating The External Revenue Service for handling tariffs. Some of these actions such as placing more tariffs may have an adverse effect and make consumer goods more expensive. Trump ends his speech with “God bless America.”
In what might be one of the more controversial remarks Trump made, he also issued a new policy that there are only two genders. Additionally, a website controlled by the government, reproductiverights.gov, was also shut down. Senior Owen Archbold, president of the Gay-Straight Alliance Club said, “He did that to try and scare people. It’s all just culture war fear tactics where they just want to make trans people and queer people feel unsafe and to make conservatives and bigots feel that they’re winning.” It is no secret that, as President Trump settles into office, a portion of Americans feel threatened by ideas proposed by government officials close to Trump. His gender policy is just the start. On the other hand, some students at LJHS feel differently. Sophomore Coco Mayfield says, “I’m a female, so when guys are using the girls’ bathroom it makes me uncomfortable.”
Overall, President Trump’s inauguration was a continuation of everything he promised during his campaigning. In the next weeks, he will undoubtedly sign many executive orders and bills, just as any president does. These will bring change to the country, for better, or for worse.
