Inauguration of Donald Trump

==== Inaugural address ====
President Trump then delivered his 16-minute inaugural address of 1,433 words.<ref>Sean Rossman, [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/01/20/how-short-president-donald-trumps-speech/96830014/ How short was President Donald Trump's speech?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170406022522/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/01/20/how-short-president-donald-trumps-speech/96830014/ |date=April 6, 2017 }}, ''[[USA Today]]'' (January 20, 2017).</ref> The speech was the shortest inaugural address since [[Jimmy Carter]]'s in [[Inauguration of Jimmy Carter|1977]].<ref name="Bierman">{{cite news |first=Noah |last=Bierman |url=https://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-donald-trump-delivers-short-populist-1484934128-htmlstory.html |title=Donald Trump delivers short, populist inaugural address |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129191554/http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/trailguide/la-na-trailguide-updates-donald-trump-delivers-short-populist-1484934128-htmlstory.html |archive-date=January 29, 2017 |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=January 20, 2017}}</ref>

In late December 2016, Trump told visitors that he was writing the first draft of his inaugural address, citing previous inauguration speeches by [[John F. Kennedy]] and [[Ronald Reagan]] as inspirations.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/12/28/trump-tells-visitors-hes-drafting-his-inaugural-speech-with-reagan-and-kennedy-in-mind/|title=Trump tells visitors he's drafting his inaugural speech with Reagan and Kennedy in mind|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=January 29, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122045956/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/12/28/trump-tells-visitors-hes-drafting-his-inaugural-speech-with-reagan-and-kennedy-in-mind/|archive-date=January 22, 2017}}</ref> Trump "insisted publicly that he wrote his own speech,"<ref name="Calamur">Krishnadev Calamur, [https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/trump-america-first/514037/ A Short History of 'America First'] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170130094648/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/trump-america-first/514037/ |date=January 30, 2017 }}, ''[[The Atlantic]]'' (January 21, 2017).</ref> although ''[[The Wall Street Journal]]'' and others reported that it had been written by Trump senior aides [[Stephen Miller (political operative)|Stephen Miller]] and [[Steve Bannon]].<ref name="Calamur"/><ref name="BenderWSJ">{{citation |title=Donald Trump Strikes Nationalistic Tone in Inaugural Speech: Historians and speechwriters call the address one of the most ominous entrances ever, reinforcing familiar campaign themes of American decline |newspaper=[[The Wall Street Journal]] |date=January 21, 2017 |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-strikes-nationalistic-tone-in-inaugural-speech-1484957527 |author=Michael C. Bender |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170310014741/https://www.wsj.com/articles/donald-trump-strikes-nationalistic-tone-in-inaugural-speech-1484957527 |archive-date=March 10, 2017 }}</ref><ref>Shane Goldmacher, [http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-miller-inauguration-speech-232967 Trump taps aide Stephen Miller to write inaugural address] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202023959/http://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/trump-miller-inauguration-speech-232967 |date=February 2, 2017 }}, ''[[Politico]]'' (December 26, 2016).</ref><ref>{{citation|url=https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/315464-bannon-miller-wrote-trumps-inauguration-address-report/|title=Miller and Bannon wrote Trump inaugural address: report|author=Max Greenwood|date=January 21, 2017|access-date=January 28, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170126193550/http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/315464-bannon-miller-wrote-trumps-inauguration-address-report|archive-date=January 26, 2017}}</ref>

The speech struck a tone that was both [[American nationalism|nationalist]] and [[Right-wing populism|populist]],<ref name="Bierman" /><ref name="BenderWSJ" /> with suggestions of [[Autocracy|absolutism]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Marietta|first1=Morgan|last2=Farley|first2=Tyler|last3=Cote|first3=Tyler|last4=Murphy|first4=Paul|date=July 2017|title=The Rhetorical Psychology of Trumpism: Threat, Absolutism, and the Absolutist Threat|url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/for.2017.15.issue-2/for-2017-0019/for-2017-0019.xml|journal=The Forum|volume=15|issue=2|pages=319|doi=10.1515/for-2017-0019|s2cid=148986197|access-date=February 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180223055755/https://www.degruyter.com/view/j/for.2017.15.issue-2/for-2017-0019/for-2017-0019.xml|archive-date=February 23, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> and distrust of [[democracy]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ivie|first=Robert L.|date=June 2017|title=Rhetorical Aftershocks of Trump's Ascendency: Salvation by Demolition and Deal Making|url=http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-11ca5677-0d3b-44b3-bd27-9d2f9abe11de|journal=Res Rhetorica|issue=2|pages=67|access-date=February 22, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180223051329/http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.desklight-11ca5677-0d3b-44b3-bd27-9d2f9abe11de|archive-date=February 23, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> The ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' described the address as "a truncated version of Trump's campaign rally addresses, absent specific policy and big on a sense of anger at what he defined as a ruling class that has raided America for its own benefit."<ref name="Bierman"/> Historians and speechwriters termed the inaugural address as "one of the most ominous" in U.S. history,<ref name="BenderWSJ"/> striking an unusually dark and bleak note.<ref name="Page">{{Cite web |last=Page |first=Susan |date=20 January 2017 |title=Analysis: Trump's short, dark and defiant inaugural address |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/20/donald-trump-president-inauguration-speech-analysis-defiant-address-and-political-revolt/96836152/ |access-date= |website=[[USA Today]] |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>Thomas Leeper, [http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2017/01/23/president-trumps-inaugural-address-experts-reactions/#One Remarkably pessimistic, remarkably despondent] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201141331/http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2017/01/23/president-trumps-inaugural-address-experts-reactions/ |date=February 1, 2017 }}, in ''President Trump's inaugural address: Expert reactions'', [[London School of Economics and Political Science]] (January 23, 2017).</ref><ref name="Graham">David A. Graham, [https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/trump-inaugural-speech-analysis/513956/ 'America First': Donald Trump's Populist Inaugural Address] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121003122/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/01/trump-inaugural-speech-analysis/513956/ |date=January 21, 2017 }}, ''[[The Atlantic]]'' (January 20, 2017): "President Donald Trump took office on Friday with an inaugural address that was striking for both its bleakness and its fiery, populist promises for a better future."</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Altman|first1=Alex|last2=Miller|first2=Zeke J.|title=The Same Trump From the Campaign Spoke at Inauguration|url=http://time.com/4641313/trump-inauguration-speech-analysis/|work=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403020158/http://time.com/4641313/trump-inauguration-speech-analysis/|archive-date=April 3, 2017}} (January 20, 2017)</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ivie|first=Robert L.|date=Winter 2017|title=Trump's Unwitting Prophecy|jstor=10.14321/rhetpublaffa.20.4.0707|journal=Rhetoric and Public Affairs|volume=20|issue=4|pages=707–718|doi=10.14321/rhetpublaffa.20.4.0707|s2cid=158881745}}</ref> Former U.S President [[George W. Bush]] reportedly referred to the speech as "some weird shit" after the ceremony concluded.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Palma|first1=Bethania|title=Did George W. Bush Describe President Trump's Inauguration as 'Some Weird Sh*t'?|url=http://www.snopes.com/2017/03/31/bush-trumps-inauguration-weird-sht/|website=Snopes|date=March 31, 2017 |access-date=April 2, 2017}} (March 31, 2017)</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Mortimer|first1=Caroline|title=George Bush on Trump inauguration: that was some weird s***|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/george-w-bush-donald-trump-inauguration-weird-shit-word-ceremony-us-president-a7657246.html|access-date=April 2, 2014|work=[[The Independent]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330155428/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/george-w-bush-donald-trump-inauguration-weird-shit-word-ceremony-us-president-a7657246.html|archive-date=March 30, 2017}} (March 30, 2017)</ref>

Trump pledged to end what he referred to as "American carnage,"<ref>{{citation |url=http://globalnews.ca/news/3194820/donald-trump-inauguration-speech-and-transcript/ |title=Donald Trump's full inauguration speech and transcript |publisher=[[Global News]] |date=January 20, 2017 |access-date=January 28, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128155656/http://globalnews.ca/news/3194820/donald-trump-inauguration-speech-and-transcript/ |archive-date=January 28, 2017 }}</ref><ref name="WaPo">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-to-be-sworn-in-marking-a-transformative-shift-in-the-countrys-leadership/2017/01/20/954b9cac-de7d-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html|title=Donald Trump is sworn in as president, vows to end 'American carnage'|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=January 22, 2017|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170122040205/https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-to-be-sworn-in-marking-a-transformative-shift-in-the-countrys-leadership/2017/01/20/954b9cac-de7d-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html|archive-date=January 22, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2017/01/american-carnage|title=Donald Trump becomes America's 45th president|date=January 20, 2017|access-date=January 22, 2017|newspaper=[[The Economist]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121235051/http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2017/01/american-carnage|archive-date=January 21, 2017}}</ref> depicting the United States in a [[dystopia]]n light—as a "land of abandoned factories, economic angst, rising crime"—while pledging "a new era in American politics."<ref name="Page"/><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Torpey|first=John|date=December 2017|title=The End of the World as We Know It?: American Exceptionalism in an Age of Disruption|journal=Sociological Forum|volume=32|issue=4|pages=701–725|doi=10.1111/socf.12372}}</ref>
[[File:Obama hands over presidency to Trump at 58th Presidential Inauguration 170120-D-NA975-0960.jpg|thumb|[[Barack Obama]] with Donald Trump on Inauguration Day. [[Joe Biden]] stands behind Trump.|alt=]]

Fact-checking organizations, such as [[FactCheck.org]], [[PolitiFact]], and ''[[The Washington Post]]''{{'}}s Fact Checker claimed that Trump's portrayal of the United States in decline "did not always match reality."<ref name="FactCheck">Eugene Kiely, Lori Robertson & Robert Farley, [https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/20/fact-check-president-trump-inaugural-address/96836370/ Fact check: President Trump's inaugural address] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170515185857/https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/01/20/fact-check-president-trump-inaugural-address/96836370/ |date=May 15, 2017 }}, [[FactCheck.org]], [[Annenberg Public Policy Center]] (January 20, 2017) (republished by ''[[USA Today]]'').</ref><ref name="PolitiFact">[http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jan/20/donald-trumps-inaugural-address-fact-checked/ Fact-checking Donald Trump's inaugural address] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128071705/http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jan/20/donald-trumps-inaugural-address-fact-checked/ |date=January 28, 2017 }}, ''[[PolitiFact]]'' (January 20, 2017).</ref><ref name="Kessler">[[Glenn Kessler (journalist)|Glenn Kessler]] & Michelle Ye Hee Lee, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/20/fact-checking-president-trumps-inaugural-address/ Fact-checking President Trump's inaugural address] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170131015121/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/20/fact-checking-president-trumps-inaugural-address/ |date=January 31, 2017 }}, ''[[The Washington Post]]'' (January 20, 2016).</ref> The fact-checking organizations noted, among other things, that the U.S. violent crime rate was far below its 1991 peak; that the U.S. economy had gained jobs for 75 consecutive months and that [[unemployment]] was significantly below its historical average; and participation in U.S. [[welfare]] programs had declined.<ref name="FactCheck"/><ref name="PolitiFact"/><ref name="Kessler"/>

In the speech, Trump repeated his campaign-trail "[[America First (policy)|America First]]" slogan in reference to economic<ref name="WaPo"/><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Fidler|first=David P.|date=March 2017|title=President Trump, Trade Policy, and American Grand Strategy: From Common Advantage to Collective Carnage|url=http://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/aihlp12&i=4|journal=Asian Journal of WTO & International Health Law and Policy|volume=12|issue=1|pages=3–14|via=HeinOnline|access-date=January 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181017043032/https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals%2Faihlp12&i=4|archive-date=October 17, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> and foreign policy issues.<ref>[[Michael Crowley (journalist)|Michael Crowley]], [http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/2017-trump-inauguration-foreign-policy-reaction-233924 Foreign policy experts fret over Trump's America First approach] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202151350/http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/2017-trump-inauguration-foreign-policy-reaction-233924 |date=February 2, 2017 }}, ''[[Politico]]'' (January 20, 2017).</ref> Trump's use of the phrase was controversial because of the slogan's association with U.S. [[Isolationism|isolationists]] who had opposed American entry in [[World War II]].<ref name="Graham"/><ref name="WaPo"/> Trump's decision "not to make a strong case for the role of American power in shaping the outside world was a departure from the inaugural addresses of recent Republican presidents from Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush," and represented "a sharp break with the internationalist vision of nearly every U.S. president of the past 100 years that troubled veteran foreign policy experts."<ref name="CrowleyAmericaFirst">Michael Crowley, [http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/2017-trump-inauguration-foreign-policy-reaction-233924 Foreign policy experts fret over Trump's America First approach] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170202151350/http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/2017-trump-inauguration-foreign-policy-reaction-233924 |date=February 2, 2017 }}, ''[[Politico]]'' (January 20, 2017).</ref> Nevertheless, Trump's themes on foreign policy appealed "to many Americans as well as to critics of Washington's bipartisan foreign policy establishment."<ref name="CrowleyAmericaFirst"/>