Anthony Zurcher: With the promise of a 'golden age', a second Trump era begins

Donald Trump returned to power amid a wave of voter discontent with the status quo, promising a new "golden age" for the United States in his inaugural address.

The speech was both a promise and a contradiction, highlighting some of the opportunities and challenges the new president will face in his second term. He began speaking just after noon on Monday and seemed to keep going—including later impromptu remarks at the Capitol, an indoor rally at a downtown arena, and the signing of executive orders at the White House late into the night.

Throughout, Trump displayed his flair for the dramatic and his penchant for controversy and confrontation, which both energized his supporters and infuriated his critics. In his inaugural address, Trump focused specifically on immigration and economic issues, which polls showed were the top concerns of American voters last year. He also promised to end government diversity programs and stated that official U.S. policy would recognize only two genders, male and female.

That last statement drew a thunderous response at the Capitol and erupted in cheers from the crowd of supporters gathered at a nearby arena. This suggested that cultural issues—where he drew the sharpest contrast with Democrats in last year’s election—will continue to be one of the new president's most powerful ways of connecting with his base.

However, before outlining what this new era would entail, Trump painted a bleak picture of the current American political climate. As his predecessor, Joe Biden, and other Democrats sat by stone-faced, Trump said the government was facing a “crisis of trust.” He decried the “vicious, violent, and unjust weaponization” of the U.S. Justice Department, which had investigated and sought to prosecute him for questioning the results of the 2020 election.

He claimed he had a right to overturn “a terrible betrayal” and railed against a “radical and corrupt establishment” that he said was extracting power and wealth from American citizens. This was the same kind of populist, anti-elite rhetoric that Trump has been using for a decade. However, unlike when Trump first began his climb to American political power in 2015, Trump now represents the emerging establishment as much as anyone. Seated behind him on the dais were some of the world's wealthiest and most influential business leaders.

On his inaugural day, Trump seized the spotlight and the initiative. His aides promised hundreds of executive actions on a range of topics including immigration, energy, trade, education, and hot-button cultural issues. In his inaugural address, he detailed some of those actions. He pledged to declare national emergencies on energy and immigration, allowing him to deploy U.S. troops to the border, sharply limit the rights of asylum seekers, and reopen vast tracts of federal land for energy extraction. He reiterated his promise to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and reclaim the Panama Canal.

He falsely claimed that China was operating the key waterway and that American ships, including naval vessels, were paying too much in transit fees—perhaps hinting at a real goal of future negotiations with the government of Panama. “America will once again think of itself as a growing nation,” he said, promising to increase American wealth and expand “our territory.” That last phrase might raise some eyebrows among U.S. allies, who are already wary of Trump's interest in acquiring Greenland and jokes about making Canada the 51st U.S. state.

During the campaign and in this speech, Trump made many big promises. Now that he is president, he will face the challenge of delivering on those promises and showing what his promised "golden age" really means. After Trump finished his speech and watched Biden depart in a Marine Corps helicopter, he gave impromptu remarks at a gathering of supporters elsewhere on Capitol Hill. It was there that the more unvarnished Trump—the one who frequently makes headlines and upends American politics—reemerged.

He said the 2020 election was “rigged.” Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was criminally responsible for the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. He boasted about his victory in the 2024 election and said he barely agreed to talk about “unity” in his inaugural address. It was just a preview of what the next day—and the next four years—would hold.

At an evening signing ceremony, Trump turned an ordinary presidential act—rescinding orders from the previous administration of a different party—into a spectacle. After delivering another lengthy speech—his third of the day—Trump went to a small table on stage at a downtown arena, where his indoor inaugural parade had just ended. He then got to work, freezing new federal regulations and hiring, rescinding Biden administration directives, forcing federal workers to return to the office full time, and withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord. “Can you imagine Joe Biden doing these things?” he asked after signing the freeze on regulations—but it applied to both the moment and the substance of the orders.

He also signed more symbolic orders to end the “weaponization of government” and directed his administration to address higher costs of living. After the ceremony at the arena, Trump threw the pen he had used into the crowd—another Trumpian flourish. Then he returned to the White House where executive orders continued to be released—pardoning nearly all of the more than 1,600 supporters arrested in the January 6 Capitol riot, temporarily suspending the TikTok ban, and pulling the U.S. out of the World Health Organization. He also reinterpreted a key constitutional amendment and directed his administration to stop granting citizenship to the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants. All the while, he issued a stream of commentary—including proposing 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada beginning on February 1, accusing Democrats of cheating in the 2020 election, and expressing skepticism about a ceasefire in the Gaza war.

Trump returned to power with a team that has detailed policy strategies and an aggressive agenda. Yet Trump himself remains as unpredictable and unfocused as ever—making statements that may represent new policy or simply temporary distractions. The second Trump era has truly begun.