Trump announces national emergency at border, tariff body

Washington, Jan 20 (IANS) President Donald Trump on Monday said he will declare a national emergency along the border, and all illegal entry be immediately halted and he will start the process of sending back people who came to the US illegally.

Trump also said he will be ordering troops to secure the border.

Trump was administered the oath of office by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. J D Vance was administered his oath as vice president by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“I will declare a national Emergency at our southern border,” Trump said in his inaugural address of executive orders that will be issued by his administration. “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. We will reinstate the ‘remain in Mexico’ policy. I will end the practice of catch and release, and I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”

President Trump also said he will be announcing new tariffs as he had promised and indicated on the campaign trail. “I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. For this purpose, we are establishing an external revenue service to collect all tariffs, duties and revenues. There will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources, the American dream will soon be back and thriving like never before to restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government.”

The President did not specify what tariffs will be levied and on whom.

Trump also announced he will issue an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.

Outgoing President Joe Biden and Trump rode together to the US Capitol for the latter’s oath-taking ceremony after a traditional tea ceremony at the White House along with their wives, Kamala Harris and her incoming successor J D Vance and their spouses.

Jill Biden and Melania Trump rode together to the Capitol in a separate car as did Kamala Harris and her successor J D Vance.

They had gathered at the White House for a traditional tea ceremony, at which Biden welcomed the incoming President with two words: “Welcome home”, according to media reports.

Guests for the swearing-in had begun arriving at the Capitol Rotunda where the ceremony took place; indoors instead of the traditional venue outside because of frigid conditions. This will be only the second instance of the swearing-in taking place indoors; the last time was in 1985 when President Ronald Reagan took the oath for his second term.

Trump’s return to the White House is also only the second time for an American President to serve two non-consecutive terms. The first was Grover Cleveland at the end of the 19th century.

The swearing-in was attended by Trump’s nominees to the cabinet such as Marco Rubio, for secretary of state, who is expected to be the first to be confirmed, as early as Monday; Robert Kennedy Jr, Doug Burgum, Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth and others.

Among the first people high-ranking officials to arrive at the Capitol Rotunda on Monday was Gen. CQ Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who sat on the platform where Trump took his oath. Current and former House and Senate leaders also arrived, including former Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and his wife former Trump Cabinet member Elaine Chao. Former House speakers Kevin McCarthy, John Boehner and Newt Gingrich also took their seats.

According to pool reports, supporters were filling Emancipation Hall at the Capitol, the overflow viewing room in the Capitol Visitor Center, where Trump is expected to speak after the inauguration ceremony. Notable attendees include AI billionaires Sam Altman and Alexandr Wang, YouTube influencers and brothers Logan and Jake Paul, indicted New York Mayor Eric Adams, mixed martial artist and boxer Conor McGregor, comedian and podcaster Theo Von and former race car driver Danica Patrick. House and Senate spouses have also been seated in the overflow space.

Trump started Monday’s inauguration proceedings by attending a private service at St John’s Church with the incoming first lady Melania Trump, Vice-President-elect JD Vance and wife Usha Vance and some members of the cabinet.

No TV cameras were allowed inside but the Trump inauguration team released pictures from inside that showed other attendees including Trump’s sons Barron Trump, Don Trump Jr, Eric Trump and his wife Lara Trump, Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.

Also among Trump’s guests were Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla and Space X’s Elon Musk, and Google’s Sundar Pichai. They would go on to also attend the swearing-in ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.

Former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, former President George W Bush and his wife Laura Bush, and former President Barack Obama minus his wife Michelle Obama attended the oath-taking ceremony as is the tradition, which was broken by President Trump who skipped Biden’s inauguration in 2021.

–IANS

yrj/uk