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Donald Trump is the same. But Washington and the world have changed the 2nd time around.


WASHINGTON – Donald Trump's second inauguration at midday Monday had many of the hallmarks of his first, from his warning of a nation in peril to his vow to redefine America's economy and its role in the world.

"My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all these many betrayals that have taken place, and give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed their freedom," Trump declared from inside the U.S. Capitol, characterizing President Joe Biden's administration as "a radical and corrupt establishment" that had left a dystopian landscape behind. "From this moment on, America's decline is over."

Biden was seated just behind him, a stoic expression on his face.

But Trump's second verse won't be the same as his first.

That was clear from his move to begin signing dozens of far-reaching and controversial executive orders. He was poised to declare a national emergency at the southern border, end the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, and rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America − steps likely to spark legal challenges, but an unmistakable statement that he sees himself as a man on a mission. He cited a "manifest destiny" of territorial expansion, saying his administration would be "taking back" the Panama Canal − just how wasn't clear − and would "plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars."

As the 47th president, Trump is entering the Oval Office with more experience and more specific ambitions than the neophyte public official who was sworn in as the 45th president eight years ago. He leads a very different Republican Party and faces a more fractured Democratic one. Even the Supreme Court has a friendlier tilt, given the three conservative justices he was able to appoint during his first term.

Foreign leaders, corporate titans, Democratic governors and others who made clear their concern or outright opposition to Trump during his first term have moved since the November election not to challenge and resist him – but to accommodate him and curry his favor.

Trump 2.0 hasn't changed, not his agenda nor his manner. But Washington and the world have.

Donald John Trump, at 78 the oldest president ever inaugurated, launches his second term in a more powerful position than ever before, and with more confidence in his ability to wield that power. In the past, a president's conviction that he holds a sweeping mandate has sometimes been an opening for transformative tenures, and sometimes a recipe for overreach.

Before the speech, Trump aides had advised that he was going to deliver a more optimistic address than he did in January of 2017. On Monday, he did promise a "golden age" of America in its economy and its standing in the world, but the portrait he painted of the nation he inherited was as dire as it was following the end of the Obama administration, when he memorably decried an "American carnage."

In some ways, his second Inaugural address was more like a State of the Union speech, chockablock with a series of specific actions implementing pledges he made during the bitter, tumultuous 2024 campaign.

Still, there were several things Trump didn't mention. He didn't refer to the Democratic Party or promise outreach across the aisle. He didn't offer the words of most incoming presidents acknowledging their predecessor's service, referring to Biden only as one of the names on the list of former presidents in attendance.

At the ceremony, moved inside the Capitol because of frigid weather, the attendees included not only all four living presidentsBiden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton − but also a covey of tech billionaires who have spent weeks offering praise and millions in contributions to the incoming president: Sam Altman of OpenAI, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Sunar Pichai of Google, and Mark Zuckerberg of Meta. Shou Zi Chew of TikTok was there in anticipation of Trump's quick rescue from Congress' ban.

And, of course, Elon Musk of Tesla, SpaceX, X − and the Trump administration.

Steve Bannon, a chief White House strategist in Trump's first term, on ABC's "This Week" Sunday described them as "supplicants" whose attendance represented an "official surrender" to the new president.

There are others newly reaching out to Trump.

Even California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a fierce critic, said Sunday he was offering the new president "an open hand, not a closed fist." With good reason: He is seeking massive federal aid to deal with the wildfires that have devastated the Los Angeles area.

After Trump had complained about flags being at half-staff because of the national period of mourning for former president Jimmy Carter, Newsom ordered flags in California raised on the new president's Inauguration Day. So did Democratic governors Jared Polis of Colorado and Kathy Hochul of New York and others, Democratic and Republican.

Trump's comeback is arguably the most remarkable in presidential history.

When he left the White House four years ago in the wake of a violent assault on the Capitol that his words fueled, almost no one in the political universe would have predicted such a turnabout.

Then, he didn't attend Biden's inauguration or deliver a farewell address. A modest crowd of a few hundred loyalists gathered at Joint Base Andrews as Trump boarded Air Force One for what nearly everyone assumed would be the last time. "I will always fight for you," he told them, and added, "We will be back in some form."

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