Donald Trump's Inaugural speech and Annotations By Reporters

We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our people. Together we will determine the course of America and the world for many, many years to come. We will face challenges. We will confront hardships, but we will get the job done.


Mr. Trump begins with a hopeful message designed to appeal to all Americans, but there is an implicit critique of what has come before. He follows in the footsteps of other recent presidents, including Mr. Obama, in thanking his predecessor for a smooth transition.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis, White House reporter

Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. 

This is literally true. The Washington area has become one of the most prosperous parts of the United States in recent decades, while much of the country has stagnated economically.

Binyamin Appelbaum, Economic Policy reporter

The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation's capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

Mr. Trump begins with the theme that won him the election: a stark contrast between him and the political establishment, an us-against-them frame pitting ordinary American people against the elites.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis, White House reporter

What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people. Jan. 20, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again

Mr. Trump's advisers had said this speech would be about reaching out and uniting the country. In this passage, we hear 

an appeal to members of both parties.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis, White House reporter

This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.

This echoes his convention speech, and it paints a bleak picture of America's streets. Violent crime increased about 4 percent in 2015, but that is a small blip in a decades-long decline in crime. The United States remains far safer than it has been in generations.

Matt Apuzzo, National Security reporter

 at the expense of American industry, subsidized the ..............

Corporate profits have reached record heights in recent years. The biggest American companies have benefited enormously from globalization. It's the workers who have suffered.

Binyamin Appelbaum, Economic Policy reporter

while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military.

The Pentagon spends about $600 billion a year on the American military, more than is spent on the next six largest world militaries combined. Hardly a depleted force.

Eric Schmitt, National Security reporter

One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind. The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world.

Mr. Trump studied the first inaugural addresses of Ronald Reagan and John F. Kennedy while writing his own. There is a bit of a ring here of Reagan declaring that the United States was an “exemplar of freedom.” It also hits on Trump’s “America First” message, a nationalistic approach that was thrilling to his supporters and alarming to many others.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis, White House reporter

I will fight for you with every breath in my body, and I will never, ever let you down. America will start winning again, winning like never before. We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth. And we will bring back our dreams.

It is interesting that he chooses not to say more about immigration, given his message during the campaign. It appears to be an effort for a more inclusive tone, but there are still rumblings that he will take aggressive action to crack down on undocumented immigrants soon.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis, White House reporter

There should be no fear. We are protected, and we will always be protected.

This is a remarkable statement for an inaugural address. Mr. Trump takes a paternalistic approach to elucidating the dangers facing the nation and reassuring Americans: Don't be afraid; the nation will protect you.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis, White House reporte

We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action, constantly complaining but never doing anything about it. The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.

Mr. Trump may be taking pages from his predecessors, but the style of his rhetoric seems unique for an inaugural address. There is nothing flowery about this language. It's a simple message, very simply delivered.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis, White House reporter

A new national pride will stir ourselves, lift our sights and heal our divisions.

Mr. Trump casts this nationalist message as a unifying one, but it is the very thing that sowed fear in liberals, including many people of 

color, during his campaign. One of the biggest questions of his presidency will be whether it will heal or intensify the nation's divisions.

Julie Hirschfeld Davis, White House reporter

Together we will make America strong again. We will make America wealthy again.

America has never been wealthier. The issue, as Mr. Trump noted earlier in his speech, is that the middle class is not benefiting from that prosperity, which is accumulating disproportionately in the hands of a wealthy minority.

Binyamin Appelbaum, Economic Policy reporter