DailyMail.co.uk – Donald Trump delivered a populist elegy to Americans who felt left behind enough to send a non-politician to do the most powerful job on earth.
‘I will fight for you with every breath in my body,’ he pledged. ‘And I will never, ever let you down.’
Trump promised ‘America first’ would become the central organizing principle around which his government is organized.U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts (R) after being sworn in as president with his wife Melania, and children Barron, Donald, Ivanka and Tiffany at his side during inauguration ceremonies at the Capitol in Washington, U.S., January 20, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
‘We will follow two simple rules. Buy American and hire American,’ Trump declared.
His ‘America first’ mantra, which he put into common use as he can for the White House, found some flesh on its bone Friday.‘Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration on foreign affairs, will be made to protect American workers and American families,’ he said.
The 45th president’s oath of office – which he called ‘an oath of allegiance to all Americans’ – was marred by a protested blowing a whistle and another handful shouting muffled slogans in the distance.
But the moment passed. Trump spoke his vows. And America had a new leader.President Donald Trump speaks after being sworn in as the 45th president of the United States during the 58th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017
Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th president of the United States by Chief Justice John Roberts as Melania Trump looks on during the 58th Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Friday, Jan. 20, 2017Trump hinted at economic decline in America’s rust belt and breadbasket during his predecessor’s eight years in office.
‘The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and redistributed all over the world,’ he claimed. ‘But that is the past. We are looking only to the future.’
And in a hat-tip to one of his most famous catch-phrases, one that made hundreds of appearances on the campaign trail, the unlikeliest president promised that ‘America will start winning again, winning like never before.’‘We will bring back our dreams,’ Trump said, and ‘determine the course of America and the world for many, many years to come.’
‘We will face challenges, we will confront hardships, but we will get the job done.’
The billionaire’s improbable resonance with the middle class and the poor found new voice on Friday, as he framed his election and inauguration as a power-shift from Washington to the rest of America.
‘We are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the people,’ he said to cheers.‘For too long a small group in our nation’s capital have reaped the rewards of government while the people bore the costs.’
‘The jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself. But not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories,’ he said.
‘That all changes starting right here and right now, because this moment is your moment. It belongs to you.
‘It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America. This is your day, this is your celebration, and this, the United States of America, is your country.’
Speaking of the ‘American carnage’ of inner city blight, crime and failing schools, he vowed that it ‘stops right here, and stops right now.’‘We are one nation, and their pain is our pain. Their dreams are our dreams, and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home and one glorious destiny.’
Trump didn’t let the threat of Washington, D.C. rain showers spoil his inauguration, the long-time-coming culmination of an improbable political revolution that shows no sign of letting up.
The brash billionaire capped off a three-day parade of dinners, speeches, prayers and a concert with pomp and circumstance in front of the U.S. capitol as hundreds of thousands of Americans who he has said were ‘forgotten’ during the Obama years cheered him on.
The 45th president’s hated ‘dishonest media’ watched as storm clouds threatened, along with four former presidents, most of the U.S. Congress and a sea of ‘Make America Great Again’ devotees.
The sea of faces on the National Mall was dotted with red caps, Trump’s signature campaign items bearing that slogan, itself an artifact from Ronald Reagan’s 1980 campaign.When Trump was introduced, he turned and faced the crowd, smiled, and offered a wave.
Quoting Abraham Lincoln, Missouri Senator Roy Blunt, who headed the inaugural committee in the Congress, told the nation: ‘What we do here is both commonplace and miraculous.’
Blunt called it ‘not a celebration of victory,’ but ‘a celebration of democracy.’
Other senators visible on the balcony overlooking reporters included West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who met with Trump at Trump Tower, and Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina.
Burr will oversee a Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into Russian election-year hacking.
Across the balcony to the south, House Appropriations chair Harold Rogers of Kentucky, who will oversee funding of Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, picked a prominent standing position.A U.S. Marine Corps band played Sousa marches. Chants of ‘U.S.A.!’ broke out. Cheers erupted when when the vice-president elect, Mike Pence, was announced, among the standing-room crowd stretching more than a mile to the west.
And as giant TV screens flashed mobs of Americans their first glimpse of the new president behind the scenes, a rock concert-like whoop went up. Before he was introduced, screams of ‘Trump! Trump! Trump!’ reverberated on a scale even he has never seen or heard.
Among Trump’s living predecessors, only George H.W. Bush failed to make the trip, owing to his hospitalization in Texas. He sent his regrets to Trump, writing that his doctor warned sitting outside in the cold would put him ‘six feet under.’
Standing on the dais were his son, George W. Bush; Jimmy Carter; Bill Clinton; and Barack Obama.
Trump’s crowd applauded the outgoing chief executive of the U.S., audibly surprising some members of the media whose seats were far to the front.They were less kind to Sen. Charles Schumer, the newly minted Democratic minority leader. As his speech stretched beyond their patience, they broke into shouts of ‘We want Trump!’
Obama and the former first lady released a video message Friday morning, saying they would take a break from public life and ‘sit still for a little bit’ as they become private citizens again.
The message was an appeal for supporters to weigh in on the future of the Obama Presidential Center on the south side of Chicago.Clinton’s wife, the Democrat whom Trump defeated soundly in the Electoral College more than ten weeks ago, also participated Friday in America’s peaceful transition of power.
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