Inauguration speech: Donald Trump vows to unseat establishment

In his inauguration speech, Trump pledged that US interests would be at the centre of his presidency

Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States, delivering a fiery attack on the Washington establishment in which he vowed to return power to the American public and deliver on pledges he made in his campaign.
 
“Today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another,” Trump said on Friday in his inauguration speech. “We are transferring power from Washington, DC and giving it back to you, the people.”
 
Trump, 70, who has not previously held elected office, took the oath of office at about noon from Chief Justice John Roberts at the US Capitol. In a nod to the populist groundswell that propelled him to the White House, he said he would remake the nation’s political order.

 

“The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer,” Trump said as light rain began to fall. “Everyone is listening to you now.”
 
Trump’s speech was aimed squarely at supporters who felt aggrieved and overlooked during the Barack Obama presidency. With Obama sitting steps away, he described an America riven by crime and social tumult. Trump pledged that US interests would be at the centre of his presidency, even at the expense of longstanding foreign relationships.
 
“This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” Trump said. “The wealth of the middle class has been ripped from their homes and redistributed all across the world. But that is the past, and now we are looking only to the future.”

 
Yet Trump enters office with historically low approval ratings — 40 per cent according to Gallup — and a challenge to unite his divided nation.