Donald Trump sworn in as 45th President amid violent protests

WASHINGTON, January 20

Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States amid violent protests in Washington on Friday.

Mike Pence took oath of office as vice-president.

"This moment belongs to the people of America. Carnage of its people ends here and now," Trump said. "We will face challenges... confront hardships. But we will get the job done... We will determine the course of the world."

"From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it's only going to be America first." 

Black-clad activists protesting Trump's inauguration smashed store and car windows in Washington and fought with police in riot gear who responded with pepper spray and stun grenades.

About 500 people, some wearing masks and kerchiefs over their faces, marched through the city's downtown, breaking the windows of a Bank of America branch, a McDonald's outlet and a Starbucks shop, all symbols of the American capitalist system.

The crowd, which carried at least one sign that read ‘Make Racists Afraid Again’, also vandalised several cars and hurled trashcans and newspaper vending boxes into the streets before being largely dispersed by police.

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About 900,000 people were expected to pack the grassy National Mall facing the Capitol, where Trump will be sworn in at midday (1700 GMT), as well as the parade route along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House and nearby areas.

"The message I want to send is that Trump does not represent this country. He represents the corporate interests," said Jessica Reznicek, a 35-year-old Catholic aid worker from Des Moines, Iowa, who participated in a peaceful march.

Not far from the White House, protesters scuffled with police, at one point throwing aluminum chairs at an outdoor café. A motorcyclist in town to celebrate Trump's inauguration was struck in the face when he tried to intervene.

"I know, law and order and all that. We need more order.

This ain't right," Bob Hrifko, with a bleeding cut under his eye, told Reuters. Hrifko said he was part of the "Bikers for Trump" group that was holding an inauguration rally.

Earlier, liberal activists with a separate group called Disrupt J20 intermittently blocked multiple security checkpoints leading to the largest public viewing area for the ceremony.

Several were led away by police.

Disrupt J20 protest organizer Alli McCracken, 28, of Washington, said the group was voicing its displeasure over Trump's controversial comments about women, illegal immigrants and Muslims.

"We have a lot of people of diverse backgrounds who are against U.S. imperialism and we feel Trump will continue that legacy," McCracken said on a gray morning with light rain.

Trump supporters flooded into the capital, many sporting shirts and hats bearing his ‘Make America Great Again’ campaign slogan.

Thousands of people in New York marched to Trump Tower, the businessman's home, on Thursday night to protest his victory in the November 8 election. Activists in London hung a banner reading ‘Build bridges not walls’ on the city's iconic Tower Bridge on Friday, in a reference to Trump's signature campaign promise of building a wall on the US-Mexican border.

Trump, 70, enters the White House with work to do to bolster his image. During a testy transition period since his stunning November election win, the wealthy New York businessman and former reality TV star has repeatedly engaged in Twitter attacks against his critics, so much so that one fellow Republican, Senator John McCain, told CNN that

Trump seemed to want to "engage with every windmill that he can find". An ABC News/Washington Post poll this week found only 40 per cent of Americans viewed Trump favorably, the lowest rating for an incoming president since Democrat Jimmy Carter in 1977, and the same percentage approved of how he has handled the transition.

His ascension to the White House, while welcomed by Republicans tired of Democrat Barack Obama's eight years, raises a host of questions for the United States.

Trump campaigned on a pledge to take the country on a more isolationist, protectionist path and has vowed to impose a 35 per cent tariff on goods on imports from US companies that went abroad.

Trump's desire for warmer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and threats to cut funding for North Atlantic Treaty Organization nations has allies from Britain to the Baltics worried that the traditional US security umbrella will be diminished.

In the Middle East, Trump has said he wants to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, at the risk of angering Arabs. He has yet to sketch out how he plans to carry out a campaign pledge to "knock the hell out of" Islamic State militants. 

Democrats' boycott

The inaugural festivities may have a more partisan edge than usual, given Trump's scorching campaign and continuing confrontations between him and Democrats over his take-no-prisoners Twitter attacks and pledge to roll back many of Obama's policies.

More than 50 Democratic lawmakers plan to stay away from the proceedings to protest Trump, spurred on after he derided US

Representative John Lewis of Georgia, a hero of the civil rights movement, for calling him an illegitimate president.

Thousands of anti-Trump protesters were expected among an inauguration crowd that organisers estimated would be upwards of 900,000. Many demonstrators will participate in the ‘Women's March on Washington’ on Saturday. Protests are also planned in other cities in the United States and abroad.

Trump, whose November 8 victory stunned the world, will start his presidency with a 20-minute inaugural address that he has been writing himself with the help of top aides. It will be "a very personal and sincere statement about his vision for the country," said his spokesman, Sean Spicer.

"He'll talk about infrastructure and education, our manufacturing base," Spicer told reporters. "I think it's going to be less of an agenda and more of a philosophical document, a vision of where he sees the country, the proper role of government, the role of citizens." 

Quick action

Trump's to-do list has given Republicans hope that, since they also control the US Congress, they can quickly repeal and replace Obama's signature healthcare law, approve sweeping tax reform and roll back many federal regulations they say are stifling the US economy.

Democrats, in search of firm political footing after the unexpected defeat of their presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, are planning to fight him at every turn. They deeply oppose Trump's anti-immigrant rhetoric from the campaign trail and plans to build a wall along the southern US border with Mexico.

Trump's critics have been emboldened to attack his legitimacy because his win came in the Electoral College, which gives smaller states more clout in the outcome. He lost the popular vote to Clinton by about 2.9 million.

"Any time you don't win the popular vote but you win by the Electoral College it makes people come unglued," said presidential historian Douglas Brinkley. "It angers people that somebody can win the popular vote but you're not president." Trump's critics also point to the conclusion of US intelligence agencies that Russia used hacking and other methods during the campaign to try to tilt the election in the Republican's favor.

The president-elect has acknowledged the finding — denied by Moscow — that Russia was behind the hacking but said it did not affect the outcome of the election.

To his supporters, many of them working-class whites, Trump is a refreshingly anti-establishment figure who eschews political correctness. To critics — including Obama who during the campaign called Trump temperamentally unfit for the White House — his talk can be jarring, especially when expressed in tweets.

But while a Wall Street Journal opinion poll showed a majority of Americans would like Trump to give up on Twitter, the new president said he would continue because the US news media does not treat him fairly. — Agencies