5 highlights from Trump's inauguration speech

President Trump’s formal inauguration speech laid out his vision for America, promising an ambitious agenda and a flurry of executive actions.

Just moments after he was sworn in as the 47th president, he gave remarks inside the Capitol Rotunda, where he put major focus on his key campaign issue of curbing immigration and the failures of the Biden administration's four years in the White House. He also invoked God while discussing the assassination attempt on him in July.

Here are five highlights from Trump’s speech.

Immigration orders

Trump received the first standing ovation of his remarks after declaring that he would declare a national emergency at the southern border. He previewed the 10 executive orders he is set to sign later on Monday that aim to swiftly crack down on immigration and drug cartels.

Trump also received standing ovations after declaring he would reimpose the “remain in Mexico” policy, known officially as the Migrant Protection Protocols during the first Trump administration, and that he would designate drug and smuggling cartels as terrorist organizations.

Trump’s move to declare a national emergency would mobilize the military to the border. He will also take actions to fast-track construction of his border wall, end birthright citizenship and pause refugee resettlement programs, incoming White House officials previewed earlier on Monday.

The president made curbing the influx of migrants at the U.S. southern border a major promise of his 2024 campaign, and his team said that his victory in November created “a mandate” for him to carry out those vows.

Aspiring to a 'Golden Age'

Trump struck a much more inspiring tone compared to his 2017 speech, when he was sworn in as the 45th president. In those remarks, Trump had a dark vision of America and talked about “American carnage,” while arguing that some men and women have been forgotten and are struggling.

In his remarks on Monday, Trump opened by declaring, “the Golden Age of America begins right now.” He later said in the overflow room of the Capitol, while talking to supporters, that he wanted to make his speech “beautiful.”

The president said that the country will flourish and be respected all over the world during his four years as president.

“During every single day of the Trump administration I will, very simply, put America first,” he said, renewing the isolationist theme from his 2017 address.

“We stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history,” Trump said.

To close his remarks, he told the audience, “we will not be conquered, we not be intimidated, we will not be broken and we will not fail.”

“Our Golden Age has just begun,” Trump said.

'Saved by God' from assassination

Trump declared that he had been “saved by God” in order to “make America great again” after he survived a shooting at a campaign rally last year.

“Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history,” the president said.

Trump survived two assassination attempts during the 2024 campaign, including in July when a gunman shot at him during an outdoor rally in Pennsylvania. Trump clasped his ear when shots were fired. With blood on his face and ear, he pumped his fist in the air as Secret Service surrounded him.

The president recalled that moment in his address.

“Just a few months ago in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear, but I felt then and believed even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again,” he said.

Critical of Biden's work

The president was critical of former President Biden, who was seated next to the podium.

“We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home, while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad. It fails to protect our magnificent law-abiding American citizens, but provide sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals, many from prisons and mental institutions that have illegally entered our country from all over the world,” Trump said.

He railed against the federal response to natural disasters, the cost and lack of access to health care, and what he called the “shame” heaped upon students in schools across the country.

“All of this will change, starting today,” Trump said.

He criticized the federal response to the hurricane in North Carolina, saying the state's people have been treated “so badly.” And he noted “fires still tragically burn” in Los Angeles and are impacting some of “the wealthiest and most powerful individuals.”

Additionally, Trump touted another executive order he plans to sign on Monday that will recognize only two genders, male and female, part of an effort to end a “government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life,” he said.

“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” Trump said.

Panama Canal and 'Gulf of America' pledges

Trump again pledged to take back the Panama Canal and called the sale of the canal for $1 a “gift that never should have been made.”

He said the U.S. had been treated “very badly” and that the “spirit of our treaty has been violated,” while falsely claiming that China was operating the canal.

He also said he would rename the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” as part of his day one executive orders. He floated changing the name of the gulf during a press conference earlier this month.

Former first lady Hillary Clinton, who Trump beat in the 2016 election, laughed when Trump talked about the Gulf of Mexico plan and shook her head at the Panama Canal promise.

Brett Samuels and Mychael Schnell contributed to this report.

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