Editorial: After a first term spent tarnishing the presidency, Trump takes office again with empty promises of a gilded age

The Inquirer Editorial Board, The Philadelphia Inquirer on Jan 24, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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Declaring the start of a new “golden age” for America, Donald Trump has returned to the White House. Even as his record of lies, division, and criminality continues to tarnish the office of the presidency.

Trump was sworn in at the U.S. Capitol on Monday, four years and 14 days after a mob of armed supporters stormed and desecrated the same building in an effort to overturn the election he lost. Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president occurred less than eight months after he was convicted in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election he narrowly won.

Trump’s return following two impeachments, four criminal indictments, and one conviction is unprecedented. His vision for the country is even more jarring.

“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 people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy, and indeed their freedom. From this moment on, America’s decline is over,” he said in a monotone and grim speech that painted the country in ruin even as others recently declared the U.S. economy is the envy of the world.

Trump announced plans to sign as many as 100 executive orders on his first day in office that include deploying troops at the southern border, ending birthright citizenship, deporting millions of migrants, designating drug cartels as global terrorists, imposing steep tariffs on foreign countries, ending electric vehicle mandates, withdrawing again from the Paris climate agreement, and pardoning insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

The competing dreams of many Americans played out as Trump took office on the day set aside to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was an ironic counterpoint, as some of Trump’s headline-grabbing plans are the antithesis of the civil rights icon’s peaceful and humane legacy.

Trump called for renaming the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America and restoring the name Mount McKinley to Alaska’s highest peak, which former President Barack Obama renamed Denali as a sign of respect to Alaskan tribal groups.

Trump also said the United States would retake control of the Panama Canal. “We’re taking it back,” he said, without explaining how.

He also announced plans for astronauts to plant a U.S. flag on Mars and declared the government will only recognize two genders, male and female.

Despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and concerns about national security, Trump unilaterally said he would allow the TikTok social media app to keep operating.

Billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk wrote on social media: “The Return of the King.”

Trump has claimed to have a mandate from voters, but he narrowly won the election by 1.5% and failed again to get more than 50% of the popular vote. But while the country remains deeply divided, there is no denying Trump bent it to his will.

The tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets after his first election are mostly gone and dispirited. Republican Party leaders who once derided him are now fully behind his America First agenda. Even some Democrats are willing to work with him.

Billionaire business titans who once kept their distance flocked to Mar-a-Lago to kiss his ring. Corporations are ending diversity and climate initiatives to get in his good graces. Facebook did away with efforts to fact-check misinformation, while some media moguls want to play nice.

With the help of a conservative Supreme Court majority, Trump has amassed unchecked power and is now largely above the law. He has assembled an administration of loyal sycophants willing to act on his whims and grievances.

He obliterated presidential norms during his first term and is poised to forever alter nearly 250 years of a democratic republic that the founders designed to guard against a demagogue and mob rule.

As is often the case, Trump’s return includes unprecedented firsts. He is the first convicted criminal elected to the White House. He is the first president elected to two nonconsecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in 1893. And at 78, he is the oldest person ever sworn in as commander in chief.

For now, Trump’s MAGA supporters are ecstatic. It remains to be seen if he can (as promised) lower the price of eggs, let alone fix any of the nation’s other real or imagined problems. For those who believe in honesty, truth, justice, the rule of law, and caring for the least of our brothers, it is a dark day.

But it is worth remembering what MLK once said: “Only when it is dark enough can you see the stars.”

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