USA "Almost like God" - Trump celebrates before being sworn in
US President-elect Donald Trump wants to reverse important decisions made by his predecessor Joe Biden in the first few hours after his inauguration.
20.01.2025, 04:53
SDA
"Every radical and senseless executive order of the Biden administration will be reversed within hours of my swearing in," said the Republican at a rally in front of cheering supporters in the capital Washington. The 78-year-old promised a big wave of resolutions on his first day in office, including on deporting migrants and securing the border.
Two and a half months after the election, Trump will be sworn in today in Washington as the 47th President of the United States. The ceremony, originally planned on the west side of the Capitol, was moved at short notice to the domed hall of the parliament building due to the icy cold in the US capital, where there is much less space for guests. The presidential parade, which traditionally leads past crowds of people from the Capitol to the White House, will now also take place indoors: in a sports arena in the center of Washington.
Trump dances
This is exactly where Trump was celebrated frenetically in front of supporters on the eve of his swearing-in. The Republican took a dip in the crowd as he entered the hall and shouted to his supporters: "We won!" His fans jeered, danced and cheered. Some of them had queued for eight or nine hours in the cold in sleet and hail to get into the arena.
"We're ready!" Trump fans shouted ecstatically in anticipation of his return to power. The man who will once again be the most powerful man in the world was also in high spirits, joking and dancing somewhat awkwardly with the band Village People to their disco classic "Y.M.C.A." at the end.
One resolution after another
Trump promised that he would immediately begin to solve "every single crisis" in the country. He held out the prospect of signing numerous resolutions directly on Monday. "Somebody said to me yesterday, "Sir, don't sign so many in one day. Let's do it over a period of weeks." I said, "Hell, (...) we'll do it right at the beginning"."
A Trump adviser told CNN that the Republican wanted to use practically every free minute in the tightly scheduled program on the day of the swearing-in. The Fox News channel reported that Trump's team is planning more than 200 resolutions on day one - some of them in bundled form.
Among other things, US presidents can implement political priorities without the approval of Congress with the help of so-called executive orders. These decrees enable quick decisions to be made, but can just as easily be revoked by successors. Trump intends to do the latter.
Deportation action from day one
He wants to focus on migration policy. By the time the sun sets on the evening of his inauguration, "the invasion at our borders will have come to a halt", Trump shouted into the hall. "All illegal border violators will be on their way back home in one form or another." This sparked cheers. During the election campaign, the Republican promised the "biggest deportation program in American history".
According to the US media, the first raids under the name "Operation Safeguard" are to begin in several cities shortly after Trump's swearing-in. The campaign is set to last a week. Trump and his team have not officially revealed any details, but have spread fear among migrants with their pithy announcements.
Clemency for Capitol strikers
Trump also promised once again to pardon some of the supporters convicted of involvement in the attack on the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 immediately after his inauguration. "Everyone in this very large hall will be very happy with my decision on the January 6th hostages," he said. Trump regularly refers to the convicts as "hostages" and "political prisoners" - a fighting term used by his movement to blatantly glorify the anti-democratic outbreak of violence back then.
On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters violently stormed the seat of parliament in the capital Washington, where at the time Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election against Trump was to be formally confirmed. Five people died as a result of the riots. Trump had stirred up his supporters with the unsubstantiated claim that the election victory had been stolen from him through massive fraud. He has never conceded defeat. And the attack still has repercussions today.
Trump also announced that he would save the popular video app Tiktok from being shut down in the USA. Immediately after taking office, he would initiate an extension of the deadline set for the Chinese Tiktok owner Bytedance to divest itself of its US business.
"Almost like God"
The rally had the character of a standard Trump campaign event: a mix of church service, party and populism. Several members of Trump's family were present, as were candidates for his cabinet, governors, members of Congress and tech billionaire Elon Musk, who once again made a point of taking to the stage. In tow: Musk's son with the unconventional name X Æ A-Xii, who bounced around excitedly. Above all, however, there were hard-core Trump fans in the hall.
A woman named Christina said she had driven a total of 27 hours by car from Houston, Texas, to Washington to be there. The 49-year-old said she had been a Trump supporter for years and had attended around 60 of the Republican's rallies during the election campaign. "He's almost like God," she said. He had survived two assassination attempts, "and only he can save people". From what? From women suddenly being men and men being women, she lamented. "That's so sad." Trump would put an end to that.
On stage, the Republican actually promised a resolution to restrict the rights of transgender people on the very first day. Only to dance for minutes afterwards to the hit "Y.M.C.A.", which is considered an unofficial anthem of the LGBTQ+ community.
