‘I want to be a peacemaker, stop all wars’: Trump hails hostage releases in inaugural address
Incoming US president promises new ‘golden age’ as he takes oath for historic second term; NYC rabbi offers prayer for remaining 94 hostages held by terror groups in Gaza

US President Donald Trump on Monday cast himself as a peacemaker in his second inaugural address, pointing to the hostage release-ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas that went into effect on Sunday.
“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be — a peacemaker and a unifier,” he said after being sworn in inside the US Capitol.
“I’m pleased to say that, as of yesterday, one day before I assumed office, the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families,” Trump added, prompting a standing ovation from the audience.
The Gaza agreement, which includes an exchange of hostages kidnapped by the terror group on October 7, 2023, and Palestinian security prisoners, follows the outlines of a proposal outlined in May by then-US president Joe Biden, but it was pushed through after intensive last-minute diplomacy by envoys of both Biden and Trump.
In his inaugural address, Trump vowed, “Like in 2017, we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen. We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and, perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.”
“Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent, and totally unpredictable,” he added toward the end of his address.

During the inauguration, Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, the president of New York City’s Yeshiva University, offered a prayer for the remaining 94 Israeli hostages held by terror groups in Gaza, for peace in the Middle East, and for calm on college campuses.

Hailing a “moment of historic opportunity,” Berman prayed for Trump and US Vice President JD Vance “to choose the right and the good, unite us around our foundational biblical values of life and liberty, service and sacrifice, and especially of faith and morality.”
“Guide our schools and campuses which have been experiencing such unrest to inspire the next generation,” added Berman during the inauguration’s benediction.
“Hear the cry of the hostages, both American and Israeli, whose pain our president so acutely feels. We are so thankful for the three young women who yesterday returned home,” he said, wearing a yellow ribbon symbolizing the plight of the captives.
“Pray that the next four years bring peace to Israel and throughout the Middle East,” he added.
Berman, the university president since 2017, on Monday became the first American-Israeli to speak at a presidential inauguration, and the only university president to deliver remarks at Trump’s inauguration. He was the 10th rabbi to participate in a presidential inauguration, and the third to deliver a benediction.
Trump takes a shot at Mexico, despite ‘peacemaker’ pledge
Trump has also promised to end the war in Ukraine by pushing for compromises — a contrast to Biden’s approach of supporting Kyiv to a potential military victory.

But despite his vow to be a unifier, Trump immediately fired a symbolic but provocative shot across the bow to Mexico, and also vowed that the United States would be “taking back” the Panama Canal.
He said that the US would start referring to the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America” — making the water body the latest in the world whose name is disputed between neighbors.
“America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on Earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world,” Trump said.
Trump issued the threat, without explaining details, after weeks of refusing to rule out military action against Panama over the waterway, which the US handed over at the end of 1999.
“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 said.
While Panama maintains control of the canal, Chinese companies have steadily been increasing their presence around the vital shipping link between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Panama denies that China has any role in running the canal, and has repeatedly asserted its sovereignty over the waterway since Trump first threatened to take it over after he was elected in November.
At his inauguration, Trump said that the United States has been “treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made.”
“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,” he said.
The Panama Canal was built by the United States mostly with Afro-Caribbean labor and opened in 1914.
Former US president Jimmy Carter, who died last month, negotiated its return in 1977, saying he saw a moral responsibility to respect a less powerful but fully sovereign nation.
Trump has also not ruled out force to seize Greenland, an autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, where Russia has been increasingly active, as ice melts due to climate change.
‘Golden age’ to reverse ‘American decline’
Trump vowed a new US “golden age,” as he took the oath for a historic second presidential term Monday, but focused most of his dark inaugural speech on touting hardline policies to reverse what he called “American decline.”

In an often divisive address, the 47th president took aim at illegal immigration and the culture wars, as he capped the most remarkable comeback in US political history.
“The golden age of America begins right now. From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world,” Trump said in the US Capitol, where his inauguration was held indoors for the first time in decades, due to freezing weather.
The Republican also referenced the assassin’s bullet that grazed him at a rally during his victorious election campaign, saying: “I was saved by God to make America great again.”
While promising renewal, Trump denounced what he said had been a “betrayal” of Americans by a “radical and corrupt establishment” under Biden.
He said the outgoing government had been “stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad.” It had “given unlimited funding to the defense of foreign borders but refuses to defend American borders or, more importantly, its own people,” he charged.
“My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all of these many betrayals that have taken place, and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy, and indeed their freedom,” Trump said.
“From this moment on, America’s decline is over.”

Biden — who had earlier hosted Trump and his wife Melania at the White House for tea — looked on as his political nemesis read the last rites over his single term in office.
Trump also vowed to “plant the Stars and Stripes” on the planet Mars.
Executive orders
The billionaire — at 78 now the oldest person ever to take the presidential oath — was set to kickstart his new term with a host of executive orders.
“I will declare a national emergency at our southern border” with Mexico, Trump said to loud cheers inside the ornate Rotunda hall, vowing to deport “millions and millions” of illegal immigrants.
Trump said his government would recognize “only two genders, male and female,” ending the current practice of providing a third gender option in some settings.
He will also pull Washington out of the Paris climate accord aimed at halting global warming, he said.
While Trump was a political outsider at his first inauguration in 2017 as the 45th president, this time around, he was surrounded by America’s wealthy and powerful.

The world’s richest man Elon Musk, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon chief Jeff Bezos and Google CEO Sundar Pichai all had prime seats in the Capitol, alongside Trump’s family and cabinet members.
Musk will lead a cost-cutting drive in the new administration.
Former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton all attended the ceremony with their spouses — except for ex-first lady Michelle Obama who pointedly stayed away.

Clusters of supporters watched the ceremony — normally viewed by thousands of people on the National Mall — on their phones outside the Capitol.
‘Welcome home’
While Trump refused to attend Biden’s 2021 inauguration after falsely claiming electoral fraud and inspiring a violent assault by supporters on the Capitol, this time, Biden was keen to restore the sense of tradition.
“Welcome home,” Biden said to Trump when the incoming president arrived at the White House for tea.
But it was a bitter departure for Biden, who was forced to drop out of the 2024 election against Trump at the last minute, due to concerns about his age.
In the waning minutes of his presidency on Monday, Biden issued extraordinary pre-emptive pardons for his siblings and their spouses to shield them from “politically motivated investigations.”

He also pardoned former COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci, retired general Mark Milley, and members of a US House committee probing the violent January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack by Trump’s supporters.
Trump is just the second president in US history to return to power after being voted out, after Grover Cleveland in 1893.
Another notable factor is Trump’s criminal record, related to paying a porn star hush money during his first presidential run — and a string of far more serious criminal probes that were dropped once he won the election in November.