Newly sworn-in US President Donald Trump has outlined his priorities for his new term in the White House.

Donald Trump in the Rotunda, Capitol Hill before his inauguration speech as US President. Photo: Getty.
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president of the United States at noon on January 20, local time. He is the second president ever elected to non-consecutive terms. In his inaugural address, Trump laid out how he plans to create a “golden age” for America, addressing issues ranging from energy independence and immigration reform, to ending wars around the world and colonizing Mars.

Here are the key points from his speech.

“The Golden Age of America”

“The golden age of America starts now,” Mr Trump declared, adding that America “will soon be greater, stronger and more exceptional than ever before”.

He described the past four years as a series of “betrayals” of the American people by “a radical and corrupt establishment” and declared his inauguration “Liberation Day”.

“From this moment on, American decline is over,” Mr Trump said, describing his upcoming executive actions as the beginning of “a full American restoration and a revolution of common sense”.

Immigration emergency

Mr Trump has vowed to immediately halt “all forms of illegal entry” into the US across the southern border, reinstate the policy of forcing asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, end the release of people who enter the US illegally and begin deporting “millions of criminal aliens” back to their countries of origin.

Mexican drug cartels will be designated as foreign terrorist organizations, while foreign criminal gangs that have infiltrated some US cities will be pursued under the Foreign Enemies Act of 1798, the newly sworn in president said.

“Just dig it out”

The United States has vast natural resources that can ensure its energy independence and global power, Mr. Trump argued. He said he would declare a national energy emergency, allowing new oil and gas drilling and repealing the “green new deal” that Democrats have been trying to implement.

“We will export American energy all over the world. We will be a wealthy nation again, and the liquid gold beneath our feet will make it happen,” he said.

Tariffs and taxes

Mr Trump has declared his intention to make the US “a manufacturing nation again”. He has also pledged to reform trade policy to protect American workers, and to create an Internal Revenue Service to collect taxes on imports.

“Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens,” he said.

The Big Question About Gender

The US is ending its policy of “trying to inject race and gender into every aspect of public and private life”, Mr Trump said, declaring that as of January 20, the US government’s policy is that “there are only two genders – male and female”.

“We will build a society that is colorblind and based on merit,” the new president said, rejecting “radical political theories and social experiments” imposed on Americans, including their military.

No war

Vowing to once again “build the greatest military the world has ever seen”, so that America can “reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on Earth”, Mr Trump said he intended to be a unifier and a peacekeeper.

“We will measure our success not merely by the battles we win, but by the wars we end, and perhaps most important, the wars we never fight,” he said.

Gulf of Mexico and Panama Canal

The United States will seek to regain control of the Panama Canal from the Panamanian government, which “totally violated” the 1977 treaty that gave it back by partnering with China, Mr Trump declared in his inaugural address.

He also said the Gulf of Mexico would be officially renamed the Gulf of America and the tallest peak in North America would once again be called Mount McKinley, after the 25th president. The official name was changed to Denali in 2015.

Mr Trump did not mention Greenland in his inaugural address, although he has said in recent weeks that control of the autonomous Danish island is a matter of US national security.

American Flag on Mars

It is time for Americans to “once again act with the courage and vitality of the greatest civilization in history,” Mr Trump said at the end of his speech, arguing that the US needed to act like a “growing nation”, expanding its territory as well as increasing its wealth.

“We will pursue our manifest destiny to the stars, landing American astronauts and planting the American flag on Mars,” he declared, referring to America’s early doctrine of continental expansion — and the ambitions of his backer, billionaire Elon Musk, to colonize another planet.