Donald Trump’s Second Inauguration: Mass Tariffs, Mass Pardons and Mass Deportations

By Luke Collins

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Trump’s nascent second term? It would be a common opinion of supporters and opponents alike that Trump is dealing in some very ugly business, with his announced trade war against neighbouring Canada, his supposed planned colonisation of Greenland, the strengthening of ICE and a “border czar” to deport thousands of undocumented immigrants, and his policy towards international conflicts, such as backtracking on his claim to end the Russo-Ukrainian War in “24 hours”, and taking credit for the Israel-Hamas ceasefire – which took place prior to his term.

Following the election in November, whereby 77 million Americans – the second highest for any presidential candidate ever (following Biden in 2020) – Donald Trump has returned as commander-in-chief. Many feel threatened by the return of Trump as seen by the Women’s March in Belfast last Saturday, mirroring similar marches that took place during his 2017 inauguration. Trump had made headlines since his election victory occasionally hinting that he intends to invade Greenland and Canada, rename the Gulf of Mexico the ‘Gulf of America’ and taking credit for the Gaza ceasefire.

The inauguration and its contrasts with a not-so-peaceful 2021

The Democrats made a commitment to ensure a peaceful transition of power to contrast the actions of Trump in 2021, who encouraged his supporters to storm the US Capitol and refused to attend the inauguration of his successor, Joe Biden. The decisions of AOC and Nancy Pelosi to not attend the inauguration of a man so critical of them should be unsurprising while Mike Pence’s attendance is perhaps confusing.

The day of the inauguration commenced with the outgoing President and First Lady inviting their successors for tea in the White House. Despite the terrible things that both men have said about one another, Biden and Trump seemed at ease with one another. Freezing conditions forced the inauguration to be moved inside, the first since Ronald Regan was sworn in in 1985. Many of Trump’s diehard supporters who made the trip up to Washington were metaphorically left out in the cold while Trump hung out with newfound billionaire friends, which includes beyond his “DOGE” advisor Elon Musk; Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Sundar Pichai of Google were in attendance, with many fearing that America has entered a new phase of oligarchy. Nigel Farage, Georgia Meloni, Javier Milei and Conor McGregor also attended as did the former Presidents; Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and their wives while Barack Obama attended alone. [1]

When the two presidents arrived, the proceedings begun. Trump’s family walked out followed by the First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, Melania Trump followed them, her outfit going viral. After Opera singer Christopher Macchio performed a rendition of ‘Oh, America’, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris walked out as President and Vice-President for the last time. The final moments of the Biden presidency were bittersweet but ultimately full of regret. JD Vance walked out confidently before the returning President made his way down Capitol Rotunda. He hasn’t let impeachment trials, criminal convictions or even assassin’s bullets stop him from making it back to the top; the world is at Trump’s feet for better or for worse. Trump revelled in the applause knowing many people in the room treat his every word as gospel.

The procession began with a speech given by Amy Klobuchar, Democrat Senator Chairwoman with Archbishop Timothy Dolan and Reverand Franklin Graham delivering eulogies before J.D. Vance was sworn in as Vice-President of America, the oath being administered by Brett Kavanaugh, a justice appointed by Trump.  The presidential oath was administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. For the first speech of the 47^th President’s administration, Trump made a not-so-subtle dig at the Biden presidency; “we now have a government that cannot manage a simple crisis at home while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalogue of catastrophic events abroad”. He announced many of his presidential intentions; ‘declare a national emergency at our southern border’ (accompanying the initiation of mass deportations),  ‘drill, baby, drill’ (an unsurprising revival of US oil), “end government policy of socially engineering race and gender into every aspect of private life” (by passing laws restricting DEI hires) to create a  ‘colour-blind, merit based society’ and “measure success not just by wars we win but also by wars we help bring an end to and never get into” (Gaza war has come to an end and Trump may try to prevent Ukraine conflict from escalating further). He finished by stating,

“I stand before you as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do, in America the impossible is what we do best”. [2]

Reactions this side of the pond – diplomatic, not daring

On this side of the world, there have been many reactions to Trump becoming the 47^th President. Keir Starmer formally congratulated him, but their relationship will not be easy. Trump accused Labour of election interference as many Labour members campaigned for Harris. Foreign Secretary David Lammy had previously called Trump a “racist KKK and nazi sympathiser” [3], which echoes the very Vice President JD Vance’s disowned labels of him as Hitler; Lammy has backtracked on any notions of a rift. In Northern Ireland, Ian Paisley’s attendance is another hint at the links between MAGA and loyalism with the Paisleys and Trumps being good friends, while First Minister and Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly commented that they are unsure over whether to join the President at the St Patrick’s Day celebrations in the White House, but both are willing to “engage” with the administration. [4]

Trump has pronounced his goals of mass tariffs (against Canada, Mexico and the EU), mass deportations (strongly condemned by human rights groups such as HRW [6], and Amnesty [7]), and mass pardons (through the pardoning of 1600 of those involved in the January 6 riots). It has undeniably been a very pronounced return. The first time in a millennium that a President is serving two non-consecutive terms and that the inauguration falling on the same day as Martin Luther King Day. Trump’s first day consisted of a “blizzard” [5] of executive orders – more than any other president’s first day in history. Whether there is effectiveness in Trump taking credit for the past administration’s achievements, or a misstep in initiating a massive trade war with America’s neighbours, it is clear that Trump has made a very pronounced return these past two weeks. It is difficult to exaggerate how different America will be now that Trump is in power, but it will be interesting seeing what happens next.

References

[1] White, Munir, Wells, et. al. “Trump inauguration as it happened: New president sworn in and signs barrage of executive orders.” Financial Times. 21 Jan 2025. https://www.ft.com/content/a6ced7bd-3942-4ab9-a8c1-9e19e0809153

[2] “Donald Trump’s Second Inaugural Speech, Annotated”. The New York Times. 20 Jan 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/01/20/us/trump-inauguration-speech-annotated.html

[3] Davis, B., “David Lammy breaks silence on past criticism calling Trump ‘neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath’ for first time”. The Independent. 8 Nov 2024. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/david-lammy-donald-trump-neo-nazi-b2643436.html

[4] McCurry, C., Black, R., “Michelle O’Neill will ‘judge’ invite from US president to St Patrick’s Day events”. The Irish News. 21 Jan 2025. https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/michelle-oneill-will-judge-invite-from-us-president-to-st-patricks-day-events-6R7W2DX44VCTHJ7WG7GKZ4EZUM/

[5] Looker, R., Somaskanda, S., “Trump promises blizzard of executive orders on first day of presidency”. BBC News. 20 Jan 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce8ymk73xj5o

[6] Parker, A.L., “Trump’s Executive Orders Promise Systemic Detentions, Deportations”. Human Rights Watch. 23 Jan 2025. https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/01/23/trumps-executive-orders-promise-systemic-detentions-deportations

[7] “USA: States throughout the Americas must not play a part in President Trump’s harmful policies against people seeking safety”. Amnesty International. 29 Jan 2025. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/01/states-throughout-americas-must-not-play-a-part-in-trumps-harmful-policies-against-people-seeking-safety/