Written by Akshar Patel
Edited by Annika Lilja
Although President Donald Trump officially won the presidential election of 2024 back in November, he would not hold the office and title of president until his inauguration on the 20th of January, 2025. Promising that his second term would mark the beginning of a “golden age,” Trump and his team planned for months to make his inauguration a spectacle for his base of supporters and the country as a whole. Thousands of ordinary citizens and Trump superfans booked tickets to see the former and now current president take the Oath of Office once more, but due to a sudden, sharp temperature drop—down to the low 20s—in the Washington D.C. area, the event was hastily moved inside the Capitol. Only a select group of influential political figures and key Trump allies were invited. As for the 220,000 originally booked, only 20,000 were given seats at the Capital One Arena to watch the inauguration, leaving the rest to find their own way to watch the swearing-in of President Trump.
The billionaire and influencer-studded guest list at the rotunda around the inauguration was not only a break from tradition but also indicative of the direction that Trump II will take. As Maggie Haberman of the New York Times stated, “The old guard of governing power looks like it’s being swallowed by the Trump appointees and his supporters at the Rotunda swearing-in.” Notable tech billionaires—sometimes pejoratively referred to as “broligarchs” for their growing influence over domestic politics—such as Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Sam Altman, and Mark Zuckerberg, were bestowed some of the best seats at the Rotunda. Other unorthodox invitees include comedian Theo Von, commentator Tucker Carlson, and influencer Logan Paul for their role in helping spread Trump’s message to Generation Z during the election. The rest of the seats were filled by more standard guests, such as the living ex-presidents, congressmen, and major donors like Miriam Adelson.
Then, before officially starting the next term, the guests listened to six separate preachers conduct prayers of different religions. In the author’s opinion, the organizers certainly could have done a better job checking the backgrounds of each preacher—one pastor, Lorenzo Sewell, launched a cryptocurrency to try and obtain some funds from his followers immediately after appearing at the Capitol (in vein, likely, with Trump and his wife launching their own crypto coins earlier that week). Another, Mariann E. Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, lambasted Trump in a sermon to “have mercy” on undocumented immigrants and LGBTQ Americans, disrupting his inauguration.
In spite of such setbacks, at noon sharp, JD Vance was sworn in as Vice President of the United States. Shortly after, Donald Trump was sworn in as president, next to his wife Melania in a particularly ominous outfit. As he took the Oath of Office, Trump curiously did not place his hand on the bible, a tradition that is not mandatory but usually ubiquitous as a sign of honesty at presidential inaugurations.
Afterward, Trump gave a speech on what the direction, policy, and goals would be for his new administration: doting lengthily on tariffs, the crisis at the Southern border, free speech, energy, tackling crime, and even the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
When he stated he wanted to plant the American flag on Mars, Elon Musk visibly applauded and smiled. The tech billionaire’s front-row seat and Trump’s reference to him in his speech both display Musk’s growing power over the Trump administration. In one of his first executive orders, Trump officially created the “Department of Government Efficiency” that Musk has been posting about for so long. However it is worth noting after the election, his influence has been waning; Elon was recently denied the chance to have a permanent office in the West Wing by Susie Wiles, the President’s Chief of Staff.
After Trump’s speech ended around 1:00, the V.I.P guests in attendance slowly poured into Statutory Hall for the “Inaugural Luncheon,” a tradition that began after the swearing-in of a new president in 1953. Before the luncheon, Donald Trump signed a slew of executive orders, starting with announcing cabinet-level appointments, to removing Biden-era executive orders, to ordering the flag be flown at full-staff (the flag had previously been flying at half-staff due to the death of Jimmy Carter just prior to the inauguration).
From how quick Donald Trump was to reverse the course of his predecessor, and how willing he is to put outsiders in top Washington positions, it’s clear Trump intends his second term to be nothing like his first. For Trump, it is of the author’s opinion that what drives him is a thirst to be remembered in history as one of the great presidents, as seen in his proud insistence on putting his last name on his buildings, companies, and most recently, memecoins. His idea of an American “Golden Age”—replete with Art Deco, 80s aesthetics, and men on Mars—is no doubt an attractive vision of the future for many, but it remains to be seen whether Trump can actually accomplish it.
Sources:
https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/26/politics/trump-inauguration-corporate-donors/index.html
https://fortune.com/2025/01/06/donald-trump-200-million-fundraisinginauguration-billionaires-corporations-donate/
https://apnews.com/article/trump-inauguration-obama-bush-clinton-f7212766dc0f69444d8a4537a736c2d2
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2025/01/17/why-trump-inaugurationmoved-indoors-capitol-rotunda-extreme-cold/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-2025-inauguration-performers/
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/20/us/trump-inauguration-president
https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-inauguration-swearing-capitol-b3549ebe5dae74a872502aa79def7a11
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01/20/us/trump-executive-orders
https://www.thetimes.com/us/american-politics/article/susie-wiles-chief-of-staff-elon-musk-wp0pfkxrx