Courtesy of AP

On Jan. 13, 2025, the United States (U.S.) witnessed President Donald J. Trump’s second Inaugural speech in which he promised an America that will be “greater, stronger and far more exceptional than ever before.” 

For every promise he made in his speech, there lies a contradictory moment in the past. Here are the top five moments from his speech that made the American public want to break their television. 

“Today is Martin Luther King Day, in his honor, this will be a great honor, but in his honor, we will strive to make his dream a reality, we will make his dream come true.”

Succeeding the opening lines of the “I Have a Dream Speech,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. strongly proclaims, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’” 

To uphold the legacy of the great Civil Rights Activist Dr. King would mean supporting a U.S. social system where all people can stand on equal ground. President Trump has shown from his first administration that he has no intention of making that a reality. 

In 2017, President Trump issued an executive order that established a Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety to support law enforcement agencies locally and federally in combatting illegal immigration, drug trafficking and violent crime. Drug trafficking and violent crimes typically occur in lower income minority neighborhoods; as a result of this task force, and similar Trump Administration policies these communities are now facing even more over-policing and extreme racial profiling. 

“All illegal entry will immediately be halted and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We will reinstate my Remain in Mexico Policy.”

The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) — more commonly known as the Remain in Mexico Policy — was instituted by President Trump in 2019. These protocols would bar admission to individuals who attempt to enter the United States (U.S.) from its southern border without proper documentation. Detained individuals would then be held in Mexico while they await their immigration hearings. Asylum seekers, fleeing from some of the most egregious human rights violations, should not be detained in the country that they are trying to escape.

In a country where land has been stolen from the Indigenous, nobody should be classified as “illegal.” President Trump — who self-identifies as Swedish —  has been vocal about his stance on so-called “illegal” immigration since his first campaign for the presidency in 2016. 

Implementing the MPP has led those seeking asylum to experience life threatening and psychologically altering experiences that put them in “serious harm, including kidnapping, assault and family separation.”  A statement provided by the Department of Homeland Security shared that “MPP had endemic flaws, imposed unjustifiable human costs, and pulled resources and personnel away from other priority efforts,” leading to their eventual termination in 2021 under the Biden administration. 

Reimplementation of MPP would mean a return to the egregious human rights violations that take place at the border. According to Human Rights First, “there were at least 1,544 publicly documented cases of rape, kidnapping, assault, and other crimes committed against individuals sent back under MPP.” President Trump’s so-called “protection” of the southern border should not come at the expense of human rights and lives.

“WE WILL 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… With my actions today we will end the Green New Deal…”

As of 2024, Venezuela is the country with the largest oil reserves in the world, sitting at 303.22 billion barrels. The U.S. lags behind in tenth place with 68.8 billion barrels. Beyond mining the U.S. and its territories into oblivion, there is no feasible way to even catch up to Venezuela or any other country that focuses on managing its oil reserves, such as Saudi Arabia or Iran.

The Green New Deal is a resolution to move America to 100 percent clean and renewable energy. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, under the United Nations, shared that “global emissions must be cut by 40 to 60 percent by 2030” in order to create substantial change to limit global warming. 

Pulling out of the Green New Deal and renewing efforts into oil production will be detrimental to the nation and the world. The U.S. is responsible for about 15 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. As one of the key contributors to climate change, this nation has a responsibility to address the consequences of their polluting actions and make amends to reverse the irreparable damage being made to the environment.

“My Administration will establish the brand new Department of Government Efficiency. 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.”

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is established under the basis of “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” When President Trump first announced the creation of DOGE, he declared it would “provide advice and guidance from outside of government” and would be headed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. With Ramaswamy bowing out to run for governor of Ohio, Musk will be the sole head of DOGE — a bold move to be made considering Musk’s recent Nazi salute.

As the richest man in the world, Elon Musk holds a substantial amount of influence in any field he steps into. Leading businesses such as SpaceX, Tesla Motors and X, he has his hands in a variety of profitable expenditures. 

When Musk bought out Twitter, he claimed, “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy.” A crazy statement to be made when X quietly removed hate conduct policy which explicitly protected transgender people from deadnaming and misgendering online. Free speech is not conducive to a functioning democracy when it comes at the expense of hate speech and fear mongering.

“I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.”

This is the beginning of the end for diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the U.S. In a nation haunted by its colonial past and with deep-rooted systemic racism, the implementation of a colorblind system only seeks to further disadvantage minorities. By ignoring the past, it sets precedent for repeat offenses in the future. 

College enrollment rates after the end of Affirmative Action reveal that admittance of Black and Hispanic students faced its largest annual drop since 2010. In a system that prioritizes education for a chance at social mobility, it is a must to be race-conscious in various aspects of life.

The whole gender debate is also a fancy way for President Trump to spread his anti-trans agenda. While the designation of sex is an externally imposed signifier placed upon individuals by medical professionals, gender is more of a performance and expression of self. Under President Trump, government agencies will require official documents to “accurately reflect the holder’s sex” and will “no longer promote gender ideology” through the usage of their funds. 

President Trump’s insistence on reversing these protections means significant strides backwards for progress in free speech and demonstration of self. Characterized as a bastion of freedom, regular infringements on the rights and liberties of the American public seems to be the reigning policy of the new administration. 

 

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