This is the inauguration speech I would like Trump to give.
First, I want to thank President Biden and VP Kamala Harris for the peaceful transition of power. It is too easy to take for granted.
This is my last election. I will step down in 4 years, and you will have another president.
The path here was acrimnious. George Washington predicted this. Party politics poisons our minds and turns us against each other.
This is not going to be a typical inauguration address. Usually there’s a call for unity, then the new president rattles off a bunch of incredibly partisan policies that upset half the country. We stay divided into political teams.
Then the other party takes back power in 4 or 8 years, it would be time for retribution. The new president throws everything into the trash and pushes the agenda of the next party.
This cycle is bad for everyone. Let’s all try to put this behind us and try something new.
You might not recall, but in late 2016 I tried to reach across the aisle and find a way to work together. I am sorry to say that I did not succeed. My first reaction would be to point fingers, but the buck has to stop with me. I do apologize for my part in driving that political wedge deeper.
I do not apologize for my record of accomplishments,a great many of which should be celebrated by everyone on all sides. But party lines were drawn, people chose sides, and it became impossible for one side to give the other credit for any progress. Roles were reversed four years later when Biden succeeded me.
This has to stop. We need to call balls and strikes fairly, no matter which team is at bat. There are excellent people on all sides.. Not everyone, to be sure… And of course even very good people have bad days and make mistakes. America’s story is one of forgiveness and redemption. As a nation, we learn from our missteps, we try to right the wrongs, and we keep working to build a more perfect union.
The founders understood this process would be messy and require lots of trial and error. They gave us federalism so that we could run controlled experiments, trying out new ideas without betting the whole nation.
When we talk to each other, and we raise difficult topics where we have seemly intractable, fundamental differences… We should recall the wisdom of a brilliant Canadian. Six years ago he wrote:
“The idiot sees the world as Good vs Evil. The cynic sees the world as Evil vs Evil. The truth that no one seems able to see is that the world is, and always has been, a battle of Good vs. Good.”
Of course the late great Norm MacDonald would probably agree with all of us that evil is real. I believe that is precisely the point he was making. All of us already oppose evil. All of us are trying to do good and make the world a better place.
The lesson for everyone, myself included, is that when we have our political debates, when we wrestle with difficult issues… Never forget that we are talking to people who are sincerely doing what they see as good, moral and the right thing.
And when we have these disagreements, try to be the better person. Be the change you want to see in the world.
When we look back on the great tragedies of history… The great evils… The millions whose lives were lost and families displaced… When we look at two world wars, we see combatants like France and Germany, Japan and our United States that are now friends and allies…
When we think about the tens of millions who died in the first decades of communist leadership in the Soviet Union and in Mao’s China… Try to remember that the average working class people really believed they were making the world a better place. They believed in their hearts that their horrible actions were justified. They saw their opponents as evil.
Imagine how much better History would have been if the bad guys stopped for a moment of self-reflection. It is never OK to do evil things, even if you believe you are committing these acts for good reasons. That is true of terror attacks and political violence of all kinds.
It’s also true of less violent forms of political attacks. It is un-American to go after someone’s lawyers. Everyone deserves the right to a legal defense, even if they vote differently.
It is un-American to go after someone’s career and livelihood because of the way they vote. The American left worked for decades to educate us about the benefits of diversity and inclusion. They have an excellent point. Now we need to all live these values and practice inclusion that truly matters far more than how people look. We should embrace the diversity of different perspectives and political points of view.
We should all treat each other with respect. It should not matter how someone votes, anymore than it should matter how they look, who they love, who they worship, or whether they worship at all.
I am not here to force through a bunch of policies supported by only the right half of my base. There will be no national abortion ban. The federal government will leave that issue to the states as long as I am president.
As for Project 2025, let me tell you this in plain English. I never read it. It is not mine. By now you know me. I don’t take orders from anybody. And I certainly don’t take orders from the Heritage Foundation, which wrote Project 2025 as their Wish List for the next 4 years. The Heritage Foundation had Dick Cheney speaking at their events. I have RFK Jr and Tulsi Gabbard at mine. We are not the same.
On the issue of immigration, I have the same position as all Democrats and Republicans just a decade ago. We need immigrants. We celebrate immigrants. I am the proud father of children of immigrants. We need to make it easier for immigrants to come into this country legally. It should not take so many years, so many dollars, and so much uncertainty. This is an abusive way to say “welcome to America”.
At the same time, it should not be possible to come here illegally. We should not reward lawbreakers with free housing, free healthcare, free money, and better treatment than we give our own veterans in need. If there are legitimate requests for asylum, those refugees can remain in Mexico as we did 4 years ago.
There is a social contract for immigration. Come here legally, follow our rules, and you will be treated equally under the law, with all the protections as the rest of us.
If you commit crimes, you will be punished and deported. We welcome immigrants who make America a better, stronger country. We will not tolerate guests who abuse our hospitality and prey upon our good people. We will not open the floodgates to cheap labor, taking good jobs away from hard working Americans and doing them for minimum wage (or less in some cases).
Americans will absolutely do difficult and dirty jobs for the right paycheck. Big corporations would prefer to import migrants willing to work for peanuts. This is wrong. Democrats agreed with me on this until very recently. Your party changed. I do not believe you changed with them.
We will find room for more legal immigrants. We can accommodate a few million every year. But there is a balance. When we have strong economic growth and ten million more job openings than we have workers, then immigrants can fill these roles to keep growing our economic engine.
Right now, the good citizens of our nation are struggling to find work and struggling to earn a paycheck to keep pace with rising inflation. Now is not the time to open the door to massive numbers of unemployed folks competing for scarce job opportunities and driving down wages.
If you can look past your opinion of me, if you can put aside any preconceptions about my plans.. Stop and consider what I have said so far today. At least two thirds of you find these positions reasonable.
That is how I plan to govern these next four years. I will focus on things where at least two thirds of us can agree.
We agree that we should address the chronic disease epidemic. We agree that our foods should not be pumped full of unpronounceable chemicals banned in other civilized nations. We agree that our health institutions should never put politics ahead of science. We agree that the pharmaceutical sector has produced some of the greatest medical advances in history, but also have done a great deal of harm doing things the wrong way. I have asked RFK Junior to address these issues to make America healthier.
We agree that government regulators play a critical role in keeping our country safe, clean and fair. We also agree that regulations should be as simple and clear as we can make them. We want to minimize paperwork, bureaucracy, and the need to hire armies of lawyers and lobbyists just to run your company or build your house. We agree that the government needs to run a tight ship, finding ways to improve efficiency and service without 500 bloated agencies with overlapping jurisdictions. I’ve asked Elon Musk to help explore ways to improve government efficiency. He will not be alone. Elon will work with Ron Paul and many other people inside and outside of the government to finally bring our government into the 21st century in a way that makes Singapore and Dubai jealous. If you think the current American government is efficient, you should visit those two cities to see what is possible.
Elon tells the story of how SpaceX is banned from hiring anyone except American citizens and green card holders because it deals in advanced rocket technology. Another part of the government sued SpaceX for failing to hire any migrants. There is literally no way legal to run a space company under current American law. We can all agree that makes no sense.
When it comes to our men and women in uniform, we should all agree that we want a powerful military that is prepared for the challenges of tomorrow. We need to be able to protect our people, our homeland, and our interests. We need our armed forces to be effective and efficient. Their mission should not be the enrichment of the military industrial complex. We do not need electric plug-in tanks that will be useless in a conflict. And we certainly should not be sending hundreds of billions of dollars in military equipment to fight other countries’ wars. Military readiness should not be compromised by political correctness and woke ideology. And we certainly should not be putting our people in harm’s way unless we have a damned good reason. When a soldier dies in the line of duty, I must be able to look their family in their eyes and tell them honestly, “They lost their lives doing something worth dying for. Their sacrifice meant something. You should be proud of how they were making the world a better place.” I have asked Lt Colonel Tulsi Gabbard to make sure we keep this commitment to our military,
There are many other common sense reforms that we can all agree on. There are many issues where two thirds of us are on the same side.
But if you are in the minority, I want to put your mind at ease. I’m going to quote Governor Tim Walz: “Even if we wouldn’t make the same choice (that a neighbor would), there’s a Golden Rule: ‘Mind your own damn business!’”.
Our message is the same whether you are male or female. It is the same if you are trans. It is the same if you are black, brown, white, asian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or atheist. You do you. Leave other people’s kids alone, respect each other’s civil rights, and we will all get along.
If you campaigned against me… If you repeated malicious lies and smears, even after they have been debunked, don’t worry. I am not coming after you. Weaponizing the government against political enemies is a path that could ultimately lead to civil war. I will not do it. I did not do it when my political opponents were caught red handed in serious federal crimes. I will not do it now. I will not take revenge on those who weaponized the courts and federal agencies against me.
But I will not tolerate it one minute longer. It stops now. It’s not OK no matter which party is in charge.
To be clear: Nobody is above the law, Democrat or Republican. We must all play by the rules. For those that break laws, they must be held to the same standard of justice as everyone else. Prosecutors should not concoct novel legal theories to go after political opponents. Judges should not arbitrarily impose massive penalties disproportionate to other defendants in similar circumstances. It should not matter whether you wear a hat that says MAGA or BLM. Crimes should be punished evenhandedly. There can only be one standard of justice for everyone, otherwise it is not really justice.
I would like to address what happened here 4 years ago. I wish it played out differently, but the truth isn’t nearly as bad as what you were told. There was indeed a political gathering. There was indeed a protest march intended to go past the Capitol building. I told the protestors to, and this is a direct quote, “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
There is no question that some people crossed the line. I do not excuse any vandalism or trespassing. And of course, as I am the victim of attempted assassination, I abhor political violence. There is no place for it. However, the stories told about that January day have nothing in common with the truth. There was only one person shot. A police officer shot an unarmed female air force veteran on her way into the Capitol building. He was not prosecuted. There were no riots about that.
On that day, as soon as I learned about the events at the Capitol, I immediately tried to calm things down with some tweets in support of law enforcement, reminding the protestors that, and this is a direct quote, “WE are the Party of Law & Order – respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue.” I sent other tweets after that.
Twitter blocked my tweets. My messages did not go through. The situation got worse.
Prosecutors and judges threw the book at the people involved. While I do not condone any lawbreaking, it’s not fair that even nonviolent people walking through the capitol building – after law enforcement held the door open for them – got a more severe sentence than criminal migrants in New York City who assault police officers and go back on the street within four hours.
We should all be treated equally under the law, or else we are no longer a nation of laws. The alternative is living in fear that the other side will go after us when they gain power. We treat every election as a “life or death”. We treat each other as enemies, not as colleagues and fellow citizens.
Let’s lower the stakes. Let’s return to smaller government. Let’s make each election less consequential. In the America that I want, it should generally not matter who the president is. Live your life. Be a good neighbor. Don’t politicize every little thing. Don’t worry about the party labels of your elected leaders because they will treat you fairly regardless. This is the way.
I do want to talk about election integrity. The whole purpose of elections is to provide a legitimate basis for the transfer of power. We have to agree on the rules. The processes should be airtight. There should be no room for any fraud, errors or omissions.
Just as importantly, there must be an appearance of integrity. Whoever loses the election must see the tight controls working properly. Their supporters will not accept being told “Trust me, you lost.” The election must be obviously fair. Everyone should work to win elections the right way, by appealing to voters and encouraging turnout. There should be no way to influence elections the wrong way, by breaking the rules or changing them last minute, by doing software patches on election machines and keeping them connected the internet during live elections, by failing to keep a reliable paper trail, by allowing a dubious chain of custody, by easy access to blank ballots, and by completed ballots returned by the hundreds without any voter ID.
Elections should be transparent. Votes should be counted within hours. There should be complete audit-ability. There should be zero software or computers. There should be a better balance between ease of ballot access and controls around improper ballots being counted.
None of this should be controversial. None of it should be partisan. In 2016, my opponent claimed the election was stolen. I still have concerns about irregularities in 2020, but I accepted the certification of those results and supported the transition to President Biden. This past election demonstrated that there are still many opportunities to run a better process. None of this is sour grapes. We are where we are, and we should all be working to keep making progress on a better America. Nobody should be against fair, clean, well-controlled elections.
To the conservatives that were hoping for me to spike the football, I say to you… Whether you realize it or not, this is what you really want.
You want a federal government that minds its own business. You want safe communities. You want good jobs. You want efficient and accountable government. You want schools that teach reading, writing and arithmetic but do nothing to advance any political ideologies – Not yours, not Mine, not Kamala’s. You want classrooms don’t fly any flags except maybe the American stars and stripes. You want strong defense of free speech and the first amendment. You want to preserve your second amendment rights by imposing severe punishments on anyone who commits gun crimes. You want law enforcement to deter crime and go after lawbreakers while respecting your fourth and fifth amendment rights. You understand that civil society absolutely needs good cops, and that part of being a good cop is to never tolerate a bad cop. You don’t want to hand over total control of your children to government schools that refuse to even notify you when there are things that you should know.
Republicans will be happy with the next four years. But if I do my job right, most Democrats will be happy, too. Libertarians will be happy with the accountability and reforms that we will put in place.
In three or four years from now, I look forward to watching a better Democratic party compete for your votes. I want both major parties to outdo themselves to appeal to American workers and American families. I want both parties to champion free speech and accountable government. I would like to see competing proposals to make America healthier, safer, and more prosperous. I want to see both parties working to build the biggest possible tents, attracting the widest possible cross section of voters of all walks of life. I want us to have confidence that no matter which party takes the white house in 2028, we can sleep soundly knowing the country will be in good hands.
In the meantime, I will do all I can, along with my amazing team, to keep my promises and run the government better than you ever thought possible.
To my critics, I ask that you please hold me accountable, but do it fairly. Fear-mongering just divides us and moves our nation backwards. I want to get back to a place where we can talk through our differences respectfully. Maybe we can sit together with Joe Rogan for three or four hours every few months. I am game if you are.
Thank you for giving me another chance to be your president. I have learned many lessons along the way. I am definitely more humble than before (maybe that wasn’t a particularly high bar).
Let’s all use this chance to build the country and the future that we want. What unites us is far more common than what divides us.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go change the curtains back to the ones I picked last time I was here.
Thank you! God bless you and God bless America!