Trump Sworn In as 47th President, Vowing Return to Glory

U.S. President Donald Trump was sworn into the White House for his second term on Monday, promising a “complete restoration of America” and a “golden age” for the nation.

Trump’s ascent to a second term in Washington comes after two impeachment efforts, two assassination attempts, and a 34-count criminal indictment. In his 30-minute inaugural address delivered indoors at the Capitol Rotunda, Trump described a divided and troubled nation poised for change.

“My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal, and all of these many betrayals that have taken place, and to give the people back their faith,” Trump said.

“From this moment on, America’s decline is over,” he added.

During his speech, Trump outlined priorities for his second term — and higher education, temporarily, took a back seat. He pledged to announce a national emergency at the southern border; launch a new department charged with streamlining federal operations; and ramp up domestic fossil fuel extraction.

But while Trump promised to fix “an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves in many cases,” he stopped short of immediately announcing any actions targeting universities.

Education policies that Trump’s campaign previously endorsed — like a hike to taxes on university endowments — were also not included in the Day One actions outlined in a two-page memo Trump’s team sent to Republican congressional offices on Monday morning.

Rabbi Ari Berman — the president of Yeshiva University, a Jewish university — was the only speaker at the inauguration to directly address pro-Palestine protests at American colleges, which Trump threatened to crack down on during his campaign.

“Guide our schools and college campuses, which have been experiencing such unrest, to inspire the next generation to pair progress with purpose, knowledge with wisdom, and truth with virtue,” Berman said during his blessing for Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance.

Several Harvard affiliates were in attendance at the inauguration. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta and a Harvard College dropout, sat alongside Trump during the ceremony — one of a flock of Silicon Valley CEOs onstage.

Trump’s Cabinet appointees Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ’76 and Rep. Elise M. Stefanik ’06 (R.-N.Y.) listened to the address from their seats in the audience. Stefanik, who has used her position in Congress to hound her alma mater, is expected to vacate her seat if the Senate confirms her as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.

Hedge fund magnate John A. Paulson, a Republican megadonor who gave $400 million dollars to Harvard in 2015, also attended the inauguration proceedings.

While Trump’s inauguration was met with some protests in Washington, the ceremony proceeded more quietly than in 2017. Roughly 500,000 demonstrators — including some Harvard students — marched through D.C. to protest Trump’s first inauguration, chanting “no Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA.”

Though education issues remained on the sidelines Monday, Harvard has already begun preparing for the incoming Trump administration.

In December, just days before students left campus for winter break, the Harvard International Office advised international students to return to campus before the day of the inauguration to head off any changes in immigration policy.

And just last week, the University hired Ballard Partners, a lobbying firm with ties to several of Trump’s current and former advisors. The president’s pick for attorney general, Pamela J. Bondi, spent nearly six years at the firm as a partner.

Harvard’s relationship with the last Trump administration ended on fragile ground.

Just a few months before Trump left office in 2021, Harvard and MIT sued his administration over its Covid-era policy barring international students attending colleges and universities offering online-only courses from staying in the United States.

Former University Presidents Drew Gilpin Faust and Lawrence S. Bacow, as well as College Dean Rakesh Khurana, spoke out against Trump’s policies in his first term. But Harvard’s new “institutional voice” policy, which limits its political statements to issues affecting the University’s “core function,” may set a different tone for administrators’ response to the second Trump administration.

Harvard President Alan M. Garber ’76 has signaled he sees some proposals from Trump and congressional Republicans — including the endowment tax and cuts to federal research funding — as threats. But he has not taken a combative approach to politics, instead saying Harvard has lost public trust and must “make the case” for its value.

Like in 2016, the Republican Party controls both chambers of Congress and the presidency.

—Staff writer Dhruv T. Patel can be reached at dhruv.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @dhruvtkpatel.

—Staff writer Grace E. Yoon can be reached at grace.yoon@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @graceunkyoon.