US President Donald Trump, during his signing room ceremony at Emancipation Hall in the US Capitol on Monday, reiterated his claim that the 2020 presidential elections were “totally rigged” and stated that similar attempts were made in the 2024 elections but were thwarted because the mandate was “too big to rig.”
Reflecting on his political journey, Trump addressed his supporters following his formal inauguration at the Capitol Rotunda, where he was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. “This is a journey that started in 2015—probably 20 years before that. People used to ask me, ‘Are you going to run for president?’ I always said, ‘No, no, no.’ One day I said, ‘Let’s give it a shot,'” Trump recounted.
Trump emphasized that addressing border issues had been a priority since his first campaign. “In 2015-16, I talked about the border. And now I’m still talking about the border, but this border is much worse. We fixed the border—it was totally fixed… in 2020. The 2020 election was totally rigged, but that’s okay. The only good thing about it was showing how bad and incompetent they were,” he added, criticizing his opponents.
Discussing his decision to run again, Trump said, “We did much better the second time in 2020. We got millions more votes—no president has ever gotten that many more votes. I got 9 million more than anybody ever got… and they said we lost. Because of that, I asked Melania, ‘What do you think?’ She said, ‘You wanna do this again?’ Had I thought we lost, I wouldn’t do it again. But I know how well we did… and this time, we made it too big to rig. They tried, they tried.”
After taking the oath, Trump declared that the “golden age” of America had begun and referred to his inauguration day as “Liberation Day” for the country.
Addressing the January 6 Capitol Riots, Trump promised action for what he called the “J6 hostages.” He said, “I was going to talk about the J6 hostages, but you’ll be happy to know that it’s the action, not the words, that count. You will see a lot of action on them. They destroyed and deleted all the information and all hearings—practically nothing is left—on Nancy Pelosi turning down the offer of 10,000 soldiers.”
Vice President JD Vance, who was sworn in earlier as the 50th Vice President of the United States, also spoke at the event. Vance expressed gratitude to supporters and echoed Trump’s campaign slogan. “I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, thank you for making this possible. We love you, and it would not have been possible without you. We are going to make America great again for the next four years,” he said.
US Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath to Trump, marking the beginning of his second term. With promises of action and declarations of a brighter future, Trump and his administration vowed to deliver on their vision of “Making America Great Again.”
