WASHINGTON — In his inaugural address, President Donald Trump promised a new golden age, casting himself as a uniter. But for a speech that heralded a bright future, it often echoed the past.

Much of Mr. Trump’s rhetoric mirrored his words eight years ago, when he was first sworn in as president and spoke about a country with a failing economy and cities torn apart by crime. On Monday, he portrayed himself as a victim of a weaponized justice system under Democratic former President Joseph R. Biden.

Mr. Trump said he had a mandate to carry out his vision for the country after winning the popular vote in an improbable political comeback that culminated in his taking the oath of office in the very building his supporters stormed four years ago in a failed attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss.

“From this moment on, America’s decline is over,” Mr. Trump said, speaking in the US Capitol Rotunda. “Our golden age has just begun.”

He promised to be “a peacemaker and a uniter.”

Mr. Trump, however, then swiftly announced sweeping policy changes on issues that have divided the country. He vowed to end federal diversity initiatives and said he would sign an order declaring that there are only two genders.

He called for a “revolution of common sense” on gender and racial diversity issues as he defines it, one that includes some and excludes others.

He thanked the Black and Hispanic voters who supported his campaign and in honor of Martin Luther King ,Jr. Day said he wanted to make the slain civil rights leader’s dream a reality.

Mr. Trump’s idea of that dream appears to be what he referred to as a “colorblind” America that is a pure meritocracy.

Despite a close popular vote in the 2024 election of just over one percentage point, Mr. Trump suggested his victory gave him license to pursue his hard-right policies, while adding that he believes the attempt on his life last year was a matter of divine intervention that further fueled his resolve.

“I was saved by God to make America great again,” TMr.  Trump said.

After contentious elections, new presidents often moderate their campaign-style rhetoric and drop attacks on their political adversaries. Not Mr. Trump.

With Mr. Biden seated nearby, Mr. Trump tore into the outgoing president’s policies on everything from immigration to foreign affairs. He argued that his win had given him a “mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal.”

“It was a campaign speech,” said Lindsay Chervinsky, a historian and executive director of the George Washington Presidential Library. “He blames the same people for the same things. It’s the same grievances.”

Rather than detail a list of lofty objectives for his administration, much of the near-term agenda Trump outlined involved simply reversing Biden-era policies.

Mr. Trump did, at times, speak in aspirational terms, referring to the country’s “manifest destiny” and suggesting that he sought to expand its territory.

Mr. Trump also called for unity when he first took office in 2017. His subsequent presidency, however, was marked by divisiveness, both in rhetoric and policy.

To move forward, Mr. Trump may need to demonstrate in the coming weeks and months that he can let go of the grievances that have fueled him for so long  — his two impeachments and his 2020 loss to Mr. Biden.

“Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history,” Mr. Trump said. “And I’ve learned a lot along the way.”

Mr. Trump didn’t say what he had learned, but in his inaugural speech and two more he gave to supporters over the course of the day, he sounded like the same aggrieved Mr. Trump that Americans have come to know well over the years. — Reuters

WASHINGTON — The attendees at a US presidential inauguration do not often resemble the annual gathering of the world’s richest in Davos, Switzerland, which kicked off on Monday, but the parallels were hard to ignore as Donald Trump was sworn in as US President.

The globe’s wealthiest individuals attended Mr. Trump’s inauguration in Washington on Monday and the glamorous balls to celebrate with the new president afterwards.

Among those seated prominently were the three richest men in the world: Elon Musk, Amazon Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jeff Bezos, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with a combined net worth of nearly $900 billion, according to Forbes.

To some, the presence of the world’s wealthiest represents the apex of Trump’s return to power in Washington after attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joseph Biden.

To others, it stands as a warning that the new administration’s priorities in coming years will favor the most well-connected through tax, labor, trade and other policies. Ex-president Joseph Biden in his outgoing address warned of a growing oligarchy in the United States that endangers democracy.

US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, noted the favorable seating for the tech CEOs at the inaugural — in front of Trump’s Cabinet nominees.

Mr. Musk, who spent upwards of $250 million on Mr. Trump’s re-election bid, after years ago suggesting he retire following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, is perhaps the most well-situated.

The Tesla CEO has been tabbed to lead a new panel to find ways to cut government spending, is expected to push for speedier regulatory approval for self-driving vehicles, and there are questions about what will happen to federal investigations into him and his companies with Trump in office.

“Some of the business people who have been cozying up to Trump represent companies that get a lot of government contracts or are worried about government regulation,” said Darrell West, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.

Following Trump’s November win over Vice President Kamala Harris, numerous CEOs quickly ingratiated themselves with Trump, particularly Mr.  Zuckerberg.

Meta announced it would suspend factchecking on its US platform. Mr. Zuckerberg sat next to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh at the exclusive inauguration luncheon on Monday, an event also attended by Bezos and Apple CEO Tim Cook, and the Meta CEO also hosted a pre-inaugural ball with other billionaire Republican donors on Monday.

Numerous other members of the Forbes list were in Washington as well, including LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault and several family members, who rank fifth-richest worldwide; Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who chatted up Trump during the luncheon, and Mukesh Ambani, the richest man in India.

The tie between business interests and US policy was on display just before Trump took office in a frenzied few days for popular social media app TikTok.

US legislators in 2024 voted by overwhelming margins to ban the app in the United States on national security concerns, only to watch Mr. Trump put the law on hold as he invited TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to the inauguration at the last minute.

Trump has floated the idea that the US government could partially own TikTok, while some media outlets have reported that Beijing has discussed having Musk somehow take ownership of TikTok.

“You certainly see the obvious and overt involvement of the richest people in the world on his first day in office,” said David Kass, executive director at the Americans for Tax Fairness. — Reuters

PRESIDENT Donald Trump on Monday declared that a global corporate minimum tax deal “has no force or effect” in the US, effectively pulling America out of the landmark 2021 arrangement negotiated by the Biden administration with nearly 140 countries.

Trump, in a presidential memorandum issued hours after taking office, also ordered the US Treasury to prepare options for “protective measures” against countries that have — or are likely to — put in place tax rules that disproportionately affect American companies.

The European Union, Britain and other countries have adopted the 15% global corporate minimum tax, but the US Congress never approved measures to bring the US into compliance with it. The US has a roughly 10% global minimum tax, part of Mr. Trump’s landmark 2017 tax cut package approved by Republicans.

But countries that have adopted the 15% global minimum tax may be in a position to collect a “top-up” tax from US companies paying a lower rate. Mr. Trump’s memo referred to such actions as “retaliatory.”

“Because of the Global Tax Deal and other discriminatory foreign tax practices, American companies may face retaliatory international tax regimes if the United States does not comply with foreign tax policy objectives,” the memo reads.

“This memorandum recaptures our Nation’s sovereignty and economic competitiveness by clarifying that the Global Tax Deal has no force or effect in the United States.”

After years of stalled negotiations on global tax issues hosted by the Paris based-Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to end competitive reductions in corporate tax rates, former US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen agreed to the deal in October 2021.

Mr. Trump’s Treasury nominee Scott Bessent said on Thursday that following through with the global minimum tax deal would be a “grave mistake.”

Another part of the OECD negotiations were aimed at a new arrangement to share taxing rights on large, profitable multinational companies with countries where their products are sold. The effort was aimed at replacing unilateral digital services taxes that target largely American technology firms from Meta Platforms’ Facebook to Apple.

But these so-called “Pillar 1” talks have largely stalled, and without US participation, countries including Italy, France, Britain Spain and Turkey may be tempted to reinstate their digital taxes, risking retaliatory tariffs from Washington. — Reuters