The inauguration in Washington has captured attention on social media, with keen viewers noting several unusual moments.
Notable incidents include First Lady Melania Trump’s large hat seemingly preventing a kiss with the president, and Elon Musk giving a thumbs up next to Barron Trump, later being accused of making a ‘Nazi salute’, which he has denied.
Another viral moment from the ceremony involves Trump taking his oath of office.
Swearing on a Bible is a tradition going back to George Washington, who kissed the scriptures after his oath. During Trump’s swearing-in, though he raised his right hand to ‘solemnly swear’ to the duties of the president, his left hand did not hover over the two Bibles held by his wife.
The Bibles included a family Bible from his mother and the Bible used by Abraham Lincoln at his 1861 inauguration. However, Trump did not touch them, a departure from his first inauguration in 2017.
This has led many to question whether Trump’s decision not to touch the Bibles affects the validity of his oath and the traditional role of the Bible in the ceremony.
One Trump supporter expressed on Twitter: “Great. Just great. No hand on the Bible.
“Melania tried to get it close to him but Roberts and Trump didn’t notice.
“Now we get four more years of people saying he’s not president, and four more years of people saying he’s the AntiChrist.”
The reason behind Trump’s decision remains unclear.
Physically touching a Bible is not a constitutional requirement. The Constitution merely requires the president to take the oath, with no mention of a religious text.
Jeremi Suri, a University of Texas history professor and presidential scholar, told Reuters that there is no practical consequence if a president opts not to swear on a Bible or historical document.
Suri stated: “There’s nothing in the Constitution that says the president has to connect this to God in any way. The oath is to the Constitution.
“I don’t think it has any bearing on him taking the oath.”
Suri also noted that the Constitution allows presidents to either swear or affirm, making it accessible to atheists.
Nevertheless, Trump’s predecessors have adhered to the tradition, including Joe Biden, who used a family Bible from 1893.
In rare cases where the Bible was not used, presidents like John Quincy Adams employed a book of law, while Lyndon B. Johnson used a Catholic prayer missal found on the plane after JFK’s assassination, as reported by The New York Times.
Trump has also mentioned God in his inaugural speech, saying he was ‘saved by God’ to ‘make America great again’.
UNILAD has reached out to the White House press secretary for comment.
The president signed an order establishing an official policy recognizing only ‘two genders’.
The policy states: “Agencies will cease pretending that men can be women and women can be men when enforcing laws that protect against sex discrimination.
“These sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.”
The order will terminate ‘wasteful’ government programs promoting diversity and inclusivity, and aims to ‘defend women from gender ideology extremism’.
The president accused the previous administration of infringing on free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech and vowed to restore freedom of speech.
The order ensures that no federal government personnel will engage in or facilitate unconstitutional limitations on free speech and will end censorship of protected speech.
Trump criticized the World Health Organization’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, stating the US will no longer be ‘ripped off’ by it.
While signing an order to withdraw the US from the health agency, Trump said: “World Health ripped us off, everybody rips off the United States. It’s not going to happen anymore.”
Trump has also signed an executive order suspending the US ban on the popular app TikTok to allow time for an ‘appropriate course forward’.
“I guess I have a warm spot for TikTok that I didn’t have originally,” he commented.
Trump’s loss in the 2020 election led to the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021, resulting in numerous arrests of Trump supporters.
As anticipated, the president has issued pardons for offenders, stating he has pardoned approximately 1,500 individuals and issued six commutations.
Trump has enacted several immigration-related policies on his return to the White House, declaring illegal immigration at the US-Mexico border a national emergency.
He’s already begun reversing various Biden-era immigration orders and plans to deploy US troops to assist immigration agents and restrict refugee entry.
The president also initiated measures to prevent children of immigrants in the US illegally from obtaining citizenship.
During his inauguration, he proclaimed: “All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.”
Labeling capital punishment as an ‘essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes’, Trump signed an order to ensure states have sufficient lethal injection drugs for executions.
“The Attorney General shall pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use,” the order dictates.
Fulfilling a promise made during a recent press conference, Trump has now directed that the Gulf of Mexico be called the Gulf of America.
“President Trump is bringing common sense to government and renewing the pillars of American Civilization,” the executive order declared.
Despite this order, the name will not change globally.
In an effort to ‘unleash American energy’, Trump has pledged to export US energy worldwide by signing an order amid a ‘national energy emergency’.
“America is blessed with an abundance of energy and natural resources that have historically powered our Nation’s economic prosperity. In recent years, burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations have impeded the development of these resources, limited the generation of reliable and affordable electricity, reduced job creation, and inflicted high energy costs upon our citizens,” the order outlines.
This order will reverse Biden’s ban on drilling in Alaska as Trump declared America ‘will be a rich nation again’.
In the order, Trump promised to implement ’emergency price relief’ to help lower housing costs and create ’employment opportunities for American workers’.
The order will also ‘eliminate harmful, coercive “climate” policies that increase food and fuel costs’.
Trump announced that drug cartels will now be designated as terrorist organizations.
“International cartels constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime,” the order states.
Federal employees have been reclassified as political hires, theoretically making them easier to dismiss.
Trump also declared a federal hiring freeze to reduce the size of the federal government.