Donald Trump inauguration 2025: everything you need to know

Evening Standard

Emma Neely explains what to expect from Donald Trump's inauguration and the first 100 days of his presidency.

Transcript

00:00On the 20th of January, Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United

00:05States.

00:06This comes eight years after his first inauguration, making him the second president to serve two

00:12non-consecutive terms.

00:14The ceremony will take place at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., with Elon Musk,

00:19Nigel Farage and Argentine President Javier Mele expected to attend.

00:25In 2017, Trump used his inauguration speech to set out a vision of American carnage.

00:31Rusted out factories, scattered like tombstones across the landscape, and the crime, and the

00:38gangs, and the drugs.

00:40This American carnage stops right now.

00:45It remains to be seen what this year's speech will focus on, but what can we predict from

00:50Trump's presidency, and what will his second, first 100 days bring?

00:55This will truly be the golden age of America, that's what we have to hope.

01:00Well to start with, Trump has already made his cabinet picks, and they'll be facing confirmation

01:05hearings from the 14th of January.

01:08With a Republican-majority Senate, his nominees will likely face an easier path, even some

01:14of his most controversial picks.

01:16The first to face the Senate is Pete Hegseth, Trump's nominee for Defense Secretary.

01:21Kamala, your political future is done.

01:25A military veteran and Fox News host, Hegseth is facing allegations of sexual misconduct,

01:31financial mismanagement, and alcohol abuse.

01:33But Trump's made it clear that support for him among GOP senators is strong and deep.

01:39Trump's other picks include Florida Senator and China critic Marco Rubio for Secretary

01:44of State, Wall Street financier Scott Besent for the Treasury, and prominent vaccine skeptic

01:51Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

01:52There's no vaccine that is, you know, safe and effective.

01:56For health, as for Attorney General, Trump has now nominated Pam Bondi.

02:01His first pick, Matt Gaetz, withdrew over a congressional investigation into sexual

02:06misconduct and drug allegations against him.

02:10And what about the allegations against Trump?

02:13Once he becomes president, what happens to the criminal cases against him?

02:17The two federal prosecutions for mishandling classified documents have already been dismissed

02:22on the grounds of presidential immunity.

02:24As for the state case over election interference in Georgia, there's no chance that a trial

02:29will take place until he's out of office, if it takes place at all.

02:34So what are Trump's policies?

02:36Well, he has big plans.

02:39In his first press conference of the year, the president-elect said he wanted to rename

02:43the Gulf of Mexico Gulf of America, discussed a possible military seizure of Greenland and

02:48the Panama Canal and suggested he might reverse the upcoming ban on TikTok in the U.S.

02:54The Gulf of America, what a beautiful name.

02:56Mexico has to stop allowing millions of people to pour into our country.

03:00We need Greenland for national security purposes.

03:03The people are going to probably vote for independence or to come into the United States.

03:07But if they did, if they did do that, then I would tariff Denmark at a very high level.

03:12And as for his actual campaign promises, well, it's clear that the economy will be one of

03:17his key priorities in his first 100 days.

03:21Trump wants to make a quick start on cutting taxes and protecting U.S. business from foreign

03:26competition.

03:27He's promised to reward companies that move their overseas supply chains back to the U.S.,

03:32as well as threatening to put tariffs of 10 percent on global imports and 60 percent on

03:37Chinese goods.

03:38As for his tax cuts, projections suggest they could add $9.15 trillion to the U.S. debt

03:46over the next decade.

03:48Trump has also promised to gut President Biden's climate subsidies and offer tax breaks to

03:54oil, gas and coal producers.

03:56It remains to be seen whether Trump will once again withdraw from the Paris climate agreement,

04:01meaning the U.S. would no longer need to meet set carbon emissions reductions.

04:06We know that another one of his key priorities is controlling immigration and the border.

04:10We have to get the criminals out of our country.

04:13We have to get people that were taken out of mental institutions and put them back into

04:17their mental institution.

04:18These are murderers, many of whom murdered more than one person.

04:22You don't want those people in this country.

04:25Trump has pledged to deport as many as 20 million migrants.

04:29His press secretary, Caroline Levitt, recently told Fox News that he would sign an executive

04:34order to secure the southern border.

04:36Securing the southern border, deporting illegal criminals, rapists and murderers from our

04:41American communities.

04:43But Trump may face challenges on this front.

04:45Groups like the American Immigration Council estimate it would cost billions of dollars

04:50to implement his deportation plan and could have a drastic impact on the construction,

04:55hospitality and agricultural industries, shrinking the economy by at least 4.2%.

05:02As for Russia, Trump previously said he could end the war in Ukraine in a day.

05:07He hasn't given any indication of how he would negotiate the war's end, but many predict

05:12that a deal between Russia and Ukraine may be reached before the year is out.

05:17So what will all this mean for the UK?

05:19Well, the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary David Lammy have been working to foster a

05:24strong relationship with the incoming president.

05:28In September, they had dinner at Trump Tower in New York.

05:31In Washington DC, Lammy told US Republicans that he could find common cause with Trump

05:37and gets the agenda that drives America first.

05:40A strong pivot from a man who once called him a Nazi sympathiser and a tyrant in a toupee.

05:47Since then, the road has been bumpy.

05:50In October, the Trump campaign called for an investigation into election interference

05:55over Labour staff volunteering for Kamala Harris.

05:58Nigel Farage will of course be hoping to use his friendship with Trump to assert influence

06:03over politics at home.

06:04But the prospects for a wider US-UK trade deal look gloomy.

06:09And if Trump follows through on his blanket 10% tariffs, the UK could really suffer, because

06:14the US is Britain's largest export market.

06:18Estimates suggest this would reduce the UK's GDP growth by 0.7 percentage points next year.

06:24And of course, Trump's next moves on Ukraine will have an enormous impact on European politics

06:30and on the future of NATO.

06:33Trump has promised to echo in a golden age for America, with a party remade in his image

06:38and what he describes as an unprecedented mandate.

06:42With January 20th just around the corner, the world will be holding its breath to find

06:47out just exactly what that means.

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