DONALD TRUMP was sworn in Friday as the 45th president of the United States, taking power over a divided country after a savage campaign and setting the country on a new, uncertain path at home and abroad.
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Protesters at the National Mall in Washington, Friday.
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In a ceremony that draw 900,000 people, including protesters, Trump and his vice president, Mike Pence, took the oath of office at midday (1700 GMT) outside the domed US Capitol, with US Chief Justice John Roberts presiding.
Security was tight around the White House and Capitol. Streets near the president’s home were blocked to traffic by empty buses and dump trucks or temporary pedestrian security checkpoints where law enforcement officers and National Guard troops checked people’s bags.
Some 28,000 officers were in place to secure the roughly 8 sq. km area of downtown Washington. The National Mall in front of the Capitol opened early to begin admitting guests, who were barred from bringing selfie sticks, coolers for beverages, and long umbrellas despite the rainy weather.
Trump, 70, enters the White House with work to do to bolster his image. During a testy transition period since his stunning November election win, the wealthy New York businessman and former reality TV star has repeatedly engaged in Twitter attacks against his critics, so much so that one fellow Republican, Senator John McCain, told CNN that trump seemed to want to “engage with every windmill that he can find.”
An ABC News/Washington Post poll this week found only 40 percent of Americans viewed trump favorably, the lowest rating for an incoming president since Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1977, and the same percentage approved of how he has handled the transition.
His ascension to the White House, while welcomed by Republicans tired of Democrat Barack Obama’s eight years, raises a host of questions for the United States.
Trump campaigned on a pledge to take the country on a more isolationist, protectionist path and has vowed to impose a 35 percent tariff on goods on imports from US companies that went abroad.
Trump’s desire for warmer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and threats to cut funding for North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations has allies from Britain to the Baltics worried that the traditional US security umbrella will be diminished.
In the Middle East, Trump has said he wants to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem, at the risk of angering Arabs. He has yet to sketch out how he plans to carry out a campaign pledge to “knock the hell out of” Daesh (the so-called IS) militants.
The inaugural festivities had a more partisan edge than usual, given Trump’s scorching campaign and continuing confrontations between him and Democrats over his take-no-prisoners Twitter attacks and pledge to roll back many of Obama’s policies.
More than 50 Democratic lawmakers stayed away from the proceedings to protest Trump, spurred on after he derided US Representative John Lewis of Georgia, a hero of the civil rights movement, for calling him an illegitimate president.
Thousands of anti-Trump protesters were among the inauguration crowd. Many demonstrators will participate in the “Women’s March on Washington” on Saturday. Protests are also planned in other cities in the United States and abroad.
Trump’s critics also point to the conclusion of US intelligence agencies that Russia used hacking and other methods during the campaign to try to tilt the election in the Republican’s favor. Trump has acknowledged the finding — denied by Moscow — that Russia was behind the hacking but said it did not affect the outcome of the election.
To his supporters, many of them working-class whites, trump is a refreshingly anti-establishment figure who eschews political correctness. To critics — including Obama who during the campaign called Trump temperamentally unfit for the White House — his talk can be jarring, especially when expressed in tweets.
But while a Wall Street Journal opinion poll showed a majority of Americans would like trump to give up on Twitter, the new president said he would continue because the US news media does not treat him fairly.
— Agencies
