After not putting his hand on the Bible as he took the oath of office, Donald Trump gave an extremely dark and lie-filled inaugural address on Monday in which he rattled off a list of his priorities—none of which will lower prices for Americans, as he promised to do.
YouTube Video
In his speech, Trump bragged about his narrow victory, whined that he’s been “challenged more than any president in our 250 year history,” and ultimately declared that God himself saved Trump so he could “make America great again”—a totally humble thing to say.
He then went on to list his priorities, most of which were either immigration related or meaningless gestures meant to hurt vulnerable populations or make him feel macho.
In fact, after the official speech was over, Trump spoke to an overflow crowd of his supporters—who were kept out of the Capitol Rotunda where the speech took place so that the cadre of billionaire tech bros Trump pals around with could get front-row seats—telling them that his advisers really wanted him to talk more about inflation, but he refused.
“How many times can you say an apple has doubled in cost?” Trump said in a rambling speech in which he went on to complain about his 2024 victory again and said he would have won California if it were not for fraud—a complete lie.
Trump claims he would’ve won California last year if not for election fraud (this is a lie)— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-01-20T18:43:50.984Z
In any event, here are the promises Trump made in his inaugural address that won’t help your pocket book and could actually make your finances worse:
1. He’s sending troops to the border.
“I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country,” Trump said, invoking the Nazi-esque language about immigrants seeking asylum at the southern border.
Trump: “I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-01-20T17:31:09.446Z
Deploying troops to deal with immigrants at the border will cost taxpayers money, and likely won’t make a difference as it is legal to seek asylum in the U.S.
2. “Drill, baby, drill.”
“America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have, the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth and we are going to use it,” Trump declared. “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again, right to the top and export American energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.”
Contrary to what Trump said, America is already producing a record amount of crude oil, and is currently the lead oil producer in the world for the sixth consecutive year.
What’s more, experts say his “drill baby drill” policy won’t actually lower prices.
“This will likely have little to no impact on #gasprices or fuel prices in the short-term, as a President can de-regulate, but there is no direct action that can be issued requiring oil companies to raise production,” Patrick De Haan, a gas prices expert, wrote in a post on X.
3. He claims he’s creating a new agency to collect tariffs.
“I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” Trump said. “For this purpose, we are establishing the External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties, and revenues that will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources.”
Trump announces the creation of an “external revenue service” to collect tariffs— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-01-20T17:31:50.541Z
Of course, foreign countries do not pay tariffs. Companies in the United States that import goods pay the tariffs, and then they pass those added costs down to consumers, raising prices and causing inflation to soar.
His new tariff policy will be destructive to the economy, and your pocket book.
4. Trump says he will “bring back free speech to America.”
“After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America,” Trump said.
There’s already a thing called the First Amendment that protects speech, so it’s unlikely a toothless executive order will do anything more than give Trump a piece of paper to sign at his big boy desk.
5. Trump declares there are only two genders.
“As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female,” Trump said.
This declaration will literally do nothing to make your daily life better, and instead will only hurt transgender Americans, who are already at risk of being targets of violence and discrimination.
6. Trump says he will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Trump wants to look macho by declaring he will unilaterally change the name of a major body of water. How will this help you, you ask? It won’t. It’s literally a meaningless gesture.
It was such a dumb promise that Hillary Clinton was seen laughing out loud in the audience.
Hillary laughing at Trump announcing he’s renaming the Gulf Of Mexico to the Gulf of America 😂 pic.twitter.com/UWypR7d8vb— Adam (@AdamJSmithGA) January 20, 2025
7. Trump says he will rename Denali to Mt. McKinley.
“We will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley to Mt. McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs,” Trump said. “President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent.”
Alaskans, where Denali is located, don’t even want this, but that’s not stopping Trump from using his sharpie to sign an executive order to make him feel like he’s accomplishing something.
8. Trump declares he will take back the Panama Canal.
“We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made and Panama’s promise to us has been broken,” Trump said. “The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape or form. And that includes the United States Navy and above all, China is operating the Panama Canal and we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama and we’re taking it back.”
Trump on the Panama Canal: “We’re taking it back”— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-01-20T17:37:03.393Z
There’s a lot to unpack here.
First, American ships are being charged the same as other ships in the canal.
And second, China is not operating the canal.
Trump has been telling this lie for weeks, leading Panamanian President Jose Mulino to declare publicly, “There are no Chinese soldiers in the canal, for the love of God. The world is free to visit the canal.”
Trump even threatened to use military force to take back the canal, which would violate Trump’s other inaugural speech promise of not starting any wars.
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow pointed out that conflicting message after Trump’s inaugural address.
“He pledged to be a president of peace and not start any new wars but also pledged to forcibly take another country’s territory,” Maddow said.
9. Trump says he’ll put astronauts on Mars.
“And we will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars,” Trump said, a line that really got co-President Elon Musk going.
Elon Musk and Baron Trump after President 47 talks about Mars https://t.co/izdDvF14w0 pic.twitter.com/M1dNO5PZYC— NoLightStreets (@NoLightStreets) January 20, 2025
If this speech is any indication, the next four years are going to be so incredibly stupid. Just 1,461 days to go.
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