The wrecking ball

A blitz of executive orders, a radical shake-up of the global order and a 'revolution of common sense' were among the 47th US president's immediate pledges, marking a new era of disruption and division.

- David Smith

HE IS RISEN. After dodging an assassin's bullet and the prospect of jail, Donald Trump staged a political resurrection like no other. On Monday, as he returned to power, he embraced the role of a demagogue on a divine mission.

Sworn in as the 47th US president at the US Capitol in Washington, Trump delivered an inaugural address that cast himself as a holy warrior.

The first convicted criminal to take the oath of office channelled eight years of grievance and retribution to roast his predecessor, Joe Biden, sitting just metres away, as both his biological family and adopted family - the tech billionaire boys - looked on.

And in setting out a far-right populist agenda that spanned the border, the classroom and the rapidly heating planet, he reached for the oldest and most ominous political armour.

"My life was saved for a reason," he said, recalling how he survived an assassination attempt by centimetres at a campaign rally on a Pennsylvania field last year. "I was saved by God to make America great again... For American citizens, January 20, 2025, is liberation day." The speech quickly dispelled notions that Trump might be older, wiser and more unifying this time, that the dire warnings of the election campaign, in which his own former officials branded him a fascist, were just hype in the heat of political battle.

The only bipartisan thing about Trump on Monday was his purple checked tie and opening promise of "the golden age of America". VicePresident JD Vance, whose swearing in by conservative supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh was another "owning the libs" moment, wore a tie of familiar Maga red.