Megan Trotter | news editor

After winning both the electoral and popular vote in November, President Donald Trump took the podium in the U.S. Capitol in the Rotunda on Monday to deliver his second inaugural address.

“The golden age of America begins right now,” Trump said after addressing his staff, former presidents and vice presidents and lastly the American people.

During the speech, Trump declared he would be taking swift action by signing several executive orders over the next week and erasing former President Joe Biden’s legacy in office.

Among the list included ending the Green New Deal and increasing domestic energy production, revoking federal government policies for diversity, equity and inclusion programs and declaring a state of national emergency at the southern border.

William Blumel, the president of a chapter of Young Democrats, said a lot of Democrats saw many of Trump’s executive orders coming.

“I think something that mostly that we’re concerned about is his attempts to revert a lot of Biden era policies, which is something that is pretty common to happen, but it’s still concerning. But in general, I think our morale is just … uncertainty, because a lot of what he said we thought he was going to say, but we don’t know how he’s actually going to do the things he says he’s going to do,” Blumel said.

In the hope of increasing the United States’ wealth, Trump said he plans on resuming oil drilling and exporting the harnessed energy around the world.

“It is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it,” Trump said.

Trump also stated that he would be revoking what he referred to as the “electric vehicle mandate,” which was not a mandate but policies set in place during the Biden administration designed to encourage Americans to buy electric cars and car companies to shift away from manufacturing gas-powered vehicles. In his speech, Trump said this will bring back Americans’ ability to choose between electric and gas-powered cars.

One of Trump’s larger declarations, which received a standing applause from attendees, was that he would be making it the official policy of the U.S. to only recognize two genders – male or female.

“This week, I will end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life,” he said.

He said instead, that society will be colorblind and “merit-based.”

Ava Hickman, president of the Duquesne College Republicans, said she was shocked to hear Trump reinstated the two-gender policy.

“I know a lot of people, personally and professionally, that are members of the LGBTQ community that voted for Trump. I’m sure some of them feel betrayed, but I’m sure a lot of them are very relieved to get back to more of a common sense agenda, because I feel like people in the LGBTQ community faced a lot of backlash for very progressive sections of the community behaving poorly,” Hickman said.

Throughout his address, Trump talked about his presidential win boastfully, referencing the assassination attempt against him during a campaign rally in Butler last July.

“Over the past eight years I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250 year history,” Trump said.

A major part of Trump’s campaign was centered around a crackdown on immigration policies, and on Monday, Trump made it clear he plans to carry through with his promises.

In his address, he reinforced use of his ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy, which was created during his first term in 2017. The policy would require asylum seekers at the southern border to wait in Mexico for their hearings in U.S. immigration court, according to NPR.

He also said that he would be signing an executive order designating cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

“By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities,” Trump said.

The Alien Enemies Act is a wartime authority that allows the president to detain, relocate or deport non-citizens from a country considered an enemy of the U.S., according to NPR. It has been enacted three times throughout history – during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.

Hickman said that stopping illegal immigration at the border is important because it is dangerous to the people coming into the U.S.

“There needs to be some kind of assimilation of proper care for people, not just dumping them out in the middle of nowhere and expecting them to be able to be a part of society productively,” Hickman said. “Some of the policies I think are more controversial on getting rid of birthright citizenship, which I think are definitely going to be constitutional challenges too. I’m someone that’s personally not in favor of that, but I still appreciate a lot of what his immigration plan has done, but I think there’s going to be some constitutional turnover.”

Trump stated that he would also be signing an executive order to stop government censorship and bring back free speech as well as reinstate military personnel who objected to the COVID vaccine mandate with full back pay.

He also said he will create an ‘External Revenue Service’ agency to collect tariff income.

“I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” Trump said.

While the creation of a new agency will require an act of Congress, Republicans currently hold the majority in both the House and the Senate.

“In recent years, especially, there’s been just basically zero trust in the federal government. And that is definitely something that no matter what size of support, most people don’t trust the government. Don’t trust Congress to do the right thing, anything like that. So that is something that I think he said that is true. I don’t know what he’ll actually be able to do to increase trust in the government,” Blumel said.

Trump said he plans to expand U.S. territory. Part of this plan includes acquiring Greenland from Denmark and restoring U.S. control of the Panama Canal.

“American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape or form, and that includes the United States Navy. And 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,” he said.

Trump also once again announced his plan to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the ‘Gulf of America,’ and pledged to send American astronauts to Mars during his presidency.

“We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars,” Trump said.