Amber Duke: The Spectator Washington Editor on Donald Trump's inauguration as US President

Donald Trump has been sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. 

In his speech he said that "America's decline is over" and the "golden age of America begins right now". 

He says America will not be intimidated, will not be broke, and will not fail in becoming a free, sovereign and independent nation, with a colour-blind and merit-based society. 

The returning US President is pledging to be a "peace maker and unifier" while building strongest military ever seen. 

He says their power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent and totally unpredictable. 

Trump says the US will pursue its manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars. 

Washington Editor of the Spectator, Amber Duke told Ryan Bridge his speech was really ahistorical in how detailed and specific he was about his policy priorities on his first day of office. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's back, baby. Donald Trump has become the forty seventh
president of the United States. The seventy eight year old
took office for the second time in the last hour.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Under the orders I signed today, we will also be
designating the Cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

Speaker 1 (00:32):
He had a lot to say in his addressed to
the American people, and Amberduk is with us the Spectators
Washington editor in DC to break down exactly what he said. Amber,
I'm great to have you on. So you're going to Mars,
renaming the Gulf of Mexico. What else did we get
out of this speech?

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Well, look, it was a very policy forward speech, which
is pretty atypical for an inauguration speech. Typically, and the
new president will lay out sort of his vision for America.
He will usually offer some more generic platitudes, so to speak,
about how he views the country and what he hopes

(01:08):
to achieve in the next four years. But Trump was
very explicit about his plans. He promised to on day
one reintroduce policies like remain in Mexico on the border,
declaring a state of emergency, declaring the Cartels a foreign
terrorist organization, as well as ending pets and release policies

(01:31):
and also promising to unleash American energy, as he puts it, Drill, Baby, Drill,
And then on questions of culture, talking about an executive
order he plans to sign that would essentially enshrine biological
reality of male versus female to prevent transgender ideology from

(01:52):
being entrenched in the federal government. So it was really
a historical his speech really in just how detailed and
specific he got about his policy priorities on his first
day in office.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
And I guess that's an indication of just how he's
not here to waste time, He's not here to mac around.
He's getting stuck in from day dot right. But what
about the declaring a national emergency at the southern border,
what exactly does that mean?

Speaker 3 (02:19):
Well, that will allow him to mobilize military forces if needed,
to go down to the southern border and assist customs
in border patrol as well as immigrations and custom enforcement
with a combination of border security and carrying out his
mass deportation plans.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
Joe Biden, obviously, we're saying farewell to him. And in
the next couple of hours did they talk publicly together,
Was there any indication of the relationship today.

Speaker 3 (02:46):
They did not speak publicly together today, although both seem
to be in good spirits. Joe Biden in the past
has said that he had a good conversation with Trump
after his election back in November, and that he sent
him a letter talking to him about what he has
done in office and what he hopes Trump will do,
But he did not give any specifics about what was

(03:07):
actually in that letter. But what was most interesting about
Biden's final hours in office is that he decided to
sign multiple sweeping pardons, some of who some of which
were for individuals that he believes Trump would potentially, in
his words, weaponize the Department of Justice against, including Liz
Cheney and Anthony Fauci, and then also provided pardons for

(03:32):
several of his family members, including James Biden, who has
been accused of being involved in corrupt business practices with
his son Hunter.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Which is that not an indication? I mean, he got
so much flax for doing Hunter, and then he turns
around in the last gasps of his presidency and preemptively
patterns his brothers and sisters. Does that not imply that
they did do something wrong?

Speaker 3 (03:51):
It does imply that, And that's really the problem is
that Biden has simultaneously given more fodder for critics of
his family's business practice is while also basically giving a
free pass to Trump to pardon whoever he thinks appropriate.
There's been a lot of criticism of which January six
participants Trump might pardon, and his allies are now going

(04:14):
to take Biden's decision to pardon his family members as
a free reign to pardon every single January sixth participant,
whether violent or nonviolent, because the line has been crossed.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
And but just finally, Trump said he's going to rename
the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America Denali. He's
going to rename to McKinley. Can he actually do that?
Does he can? He just redrule the met, rewrite the MET.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
I believe he can do it for Denali or Mount McKinley,
But the Gulf of Mexico or Gulf of America would
obviously have to be accepted by Mexico as well, So
we could end up with a situation where you have
different countries calling it different things. But you know that
wouldn't be the first time that's and there's certainly other

(05:01):
places around the world where countries called them different things.
So but we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
And but thank you very much for that excellent reporting.
As always, Amber Duke, the Spectators Washington editor in DC.
For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
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Speaker 2 (05:16):
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