“Here I am,” President Donald Trump proclaimed. 

Trump 2.0 may be older, yet he yearns to be bolder. During his second inaugural address, Trump had scorn, and no praise, for his predecessors, many of whom sat nearby. He implied, because of God, he was brought back to save the American Dream and reestablish American dominance in the world.

“For American citizens,” he proclaimed, “this is Liberation Day.” He predicted his 2024 victory would be remembered as “the greatest and most consequential election in the history of the country.”

Trump says America has fallen into disarray and decline. He says he is back to make America great again.

We need a new ambition, he says. We need to expand our territory, like when we won the wild west. Trump promised a determined America “that carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons… We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars (and) on the planet Mars.”

Trump did speak at his second presidential inauguration to the two issues that probably got him elected in 2024, although in general terms.

He said he would urge all his top administrators to try to figure out how to bring down costs and prices (fighting inflation). Faulting excessive federal spending and past energy policies, he roared: “We will drill, baby, drill,” bring prices down, and “we will be a rich nation again” — even though the United States is already the world’s richest nation.

Stay up to speed: Sign up for daily opinion in your inbox Monday-Friday

Then, as expected, he spoke at length about illegal immigration. He declared an emergency and promised to end existing policies. He said he will authorize government agencies to expel illegal immigrants, especially those with criminal records.

President Trump has the support of most Americans in these promised actions. But most Americans say they oppose mass deportations of tax-paying immigrants, who have been here for years and abide by the laws.

A moment of irony occurred when Trump proclaimed “the vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end,” adding “our safety will be restored.”

Meanwhile, former Vice President Mike Pence, who had been threatened with lynching during the Trump inspired Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, was sitting just 20 feet away from Trump.

And even as Trump spoke, Capitol police officers — dozens of whom were injured during the 2021 insurrection — were on duty, protecting Trump and the other dignitaries at the Capitol rotunda. A few hours later, Trump issued a controversial blanket pardon for the 2021 insurrectionists, who tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power from Trump to former President Joe Biden four years ago.  

At least two-thirds of Americans, including many Republicans, oppose Trump’s blanket pardon of those insurrectionists, who engaged in violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Four former presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden — who collectively served in the White House for 28 years — were seated about six feet to the right of Trump during his speech. Trump acknowledged them by name but did not acknowledge their decades of public service and leadership.

Instead, Trump implied they had been responsible for America’s decline. “For many years,” Trump criticized, “a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens, while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair.”

And, Trump added: “We have a government that has given unlimited funding in the defense of foreign borders but refuses to defend American borders…” Trump blamed past administrations for a failed heath system, misguided schools and an inability to handle crises at home while stumbling into “catastrophic events abroad.”

Take that, former presidents Bush, Clinton, Obama and Biden!

All this will now change. Trump promised to be our much-needed liberator. “America’s decline is now over,” he announced, even though he’d been in office less than hour. A golden age was about to begin, and he would be our peacemaker and unifier.

A super confident, newly reelected Trump announced, “We stand on the verge of the greatest four years in American history.”

Trump said and did things in his first days back in the presidency that pleased many people. Business leaders hailed him as pro-business and welcomed his promises of deregulation and his artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto proclamations.

General Motors and autoworkers cheered his ending of EV (electric vehicle) mandates. America Firsters liked his ideas about renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” and the U.S. reclaiming ownership and control of the Panama Canal.

His sweeping use of the pardon power on behalf of Jan. 6, 2021 demonstrators at the Capitol divided the country. His “instructions” for supposedly independent Federal Reserve Bank officials were off-putting. His threats about putting tariffs on imported goods from friends and foes alike are concerning. His talk about ending birthright citizenry (you are a citizen if born in the U.S.) will be widely opposed.

Here are a few other notes on Trump’s first days in office:

• Trump’s celebration of the American Dream and entrepreneurship are much welcomed, but his continued retribution-style comments about political opponents are counterproductive to his messages about healing and unity.
• His planning to change the name of Alaska’s famed mountain Denali after President William McKinley, for whom the mountain was previously named for a time, was immediately rebuked by Alaska’s two GOP U.S. Senators. Such an act seemed out of place for this occasion.
• Trump’s inaugural ceremonies included a record setting number of corporate leaders and some notable foreign leaders, including China’s vice premier and Trump’s new pal, Argentina President Javier Milei.
• Elon Musk was obviously thrilled by Trump’s new pledges about sending humans to Mars, deregulation of business and deemphasizing racial diversity.

Everyone should be pleased we witnessed a peaceful transfer of power this past week. But we also have early evidence Trump 47 will continue to be a challenge for our three-branched system of government. Many of Trump’s goals and political positions are far beyond where many Americans are willing to go.

It is clear in recent decades America requires a vigorous and strong presidency, yet it is equally clear presidents need a variety of rigorous checks and balances.

The American experiment is still a work in progress. That experiment will be thoroughly tested by the upcoming second Trump presidency. Anticipate some volatility.

Tom Cronin and Bob Loevy regularly write on Colorado and American politics.