I had not seen anything like that before. By the time Donald Trump reached the midpoint of his inaugural address, my phone was blowing up with messages: “That was something else” and “Like nothing I’ve seen before.”
The people who had spent the Biden years on the sidelines, cautious about revealing their opinions on the excesses of the so-called “woke agenda,” were suddenly starting to speak up. Now, Trump’s words—blunt and unvarnished—had given them permission to emerge from their ideological foxholes.
“There are only two genders, male and female,” the newly inaugurated President said, declaring it the official policy of the United States. The message was deliberate, a line drawn in the sand for all to see. Sitting in the audience were the Clintons, Obama, and countless others who had once stood in his way. Now, he was speaking his mind and they could do nothing now but listen.
This was a different Trump. Not the bellicose showman, but a man who seemed to know his moment had arrived. The man, fully aware that when the clock strikes 5:00 p.m. on January 20, 2025, and he takes his seat behind the Resolute Desk, the change he seeks to enact will be set in motion.
I recalled my recent encounter with Trump during a Senate visit. Amid the cacophony of journalists vying for his attention, he turned to me, focused, and answered my questions with unprecedented calm. The firebrand remained, but it was tempered by a newfound gravity, as if the weight of survival—and triumph—had reshaped his persona. He was no longer reaching for power; he was power.
It crossed my mind then, as it does now, that the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania, had changed him. To come so close to death and emerge unscathed—or as he put it, “saved by God”—might shift any man’s relationship to life and power. Trump seemed newly aware of both, and in the wake of his landslide victory, there was a bolder certainty to his approach to power.
The firebrand remained, but it was tempered by a newfound gravity, as if the weight of survival—and triumph—had reshaped his persona. He was no longer reaching for power; he was power.
White House Correspondent Ksenija Pavlovic McAteer
In his inaugural speech, Trump declared his administration’s mission to “restore” the “integrity” of the U.S. government. “I hope my administration will be remembered as the most consequential in history,” he said. He tied his survival to divine purpose: “My life was saved for a reason: to make America great again.”
He didn’t pretend. He didn’t flatter. He simply laid out his agenda.
First, a national emergency at the southern border. Biden’s “catch-and-release” policies would be replaced by the “Remain in Mexico” program, alongside a fortified wall and stricter asylum protocols. Drug cartels would be branded as terrorist organizations. Inflation would be tackled with cabinet-wide urgency. He spoke of returning America to its manufacturing roots and declared an energy crisis to address the nation’s economic woes.
“We will win,” he said. “America’s decline is over.”
Trump’s administration would reinstate military personnel dismissed for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine and compensate them with back pay. He pledged to dismantle the Paris Climate Accord, end the Green New Deal, and scrap the electric vehicle mandate. “You will be able to buy the car of your choice,” he said, a nod to freedom framed in the language of consumption.
It was something to see him denounce government censorship with Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg sitting in the VIP section. Zuckerberg’s Facebook and Twitter’s then-leadership had famously silenced Trump during the final days of his presidency. Now, in the audience, they watched a man whose power had only grown, flanked by Elon Musk, who had bought Twitter in the name of “saving” free speech.
“Let’s go,” read the message from a Trump Cabinet member.
White House Correspondent Ksenija Pavlovic McAteer
The rhetoric of “merit” and “winning” peppered the address, an unusual angle for a politician but vintage Trump. He closed with a promise to end government censorship, bring back free speech, and halt the persecution of political opponents—hints, of course, at his own experience.
By the time Karoline Leavitt’s press team unpacked their files in the West Wing, the air was charged. Trump’s return wasn’t merely a continuation—it is a recalibration. Trump isn’t just back in power; he is redefining its contours in a way that only he could.
“Let’s go,” read the message from a Trump Cabinet member. The charge was unmistakable: Trump second term may end up being as consequential as his words—and perhaps even more so.
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