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White House Memo
Restored to power, President Trump claimed that God put him there and asserted the right to single-handedly redraw the world map as he sees fit.
By Peter Baker
Peter Baker, the chief White House correspondent, is covering his sixth presidency. He reported from Washington.
Jan. 22, 2025Updated 12:51 p.m. ET
At a late-night inaugural ball on Monday, President Trump, flush with his restoration to power, began waving a ceremonial sword he had been given almost as if it were a scepter and he were a king.
Perhaps it is a fitting metaphor as Mr. Trump takes control in Washington again this week with royal flourishes and monarchical claims to religious legitimacy. His return to the White House has been as much a coronation as an inauguration, a reflection of his own view of power and the fear it has instilled in his adversaries.
His inaugural events have been suffused with regal themes. In his Inaugural Address, he claimed that when a gunman opened fire on him last summer, he “was saved by God to make America great again,” an echo of the divine right of kings. He invoked the imperialist phrase “manifest destiny,” declared that he would unilaterally rename mountains and seas as he sees fit and even claimed the right to take over territory belonging to other nations.
At an event with supporters at Capital One Arena, he introduced his relatives one at a time as if presenting the royal family, and he stood elevated on a platform looking down on supporters who were brought onto stage. By evening, reinstalled in the Oval Office, he relished signing one executive order after another, single-handedly reversing longstanding policies and instituting his own with the stroke of a black Sharpie pen.
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Mr. Trump particularly delights in his pardon power, the most kingly element of a president’s authority, one that cannot be challenged or overturned. He used it to wipe away the charges and convictions of about 1,600 supporters who rampaged through the Capitol four years ago on his behalf, including violent seditionists. At the same time, he signed an order attempting to rewrite the 14th Amendment to ban birthright citizenship for the children of many immigrants.
