By Bianca Flowers
U.S. President Donald Trump’s supporters on Monday praised his swift executive actions upon his return to the White House, while critics derided his planned mass deportations and a rollback in diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Others said they tuned out the inauguration altogether.
More than a dozen interviews with Americans nationwide indicated that the country remains polarized even as Trump in his inaugural address sought to portray himself as a peacemaker and unifier. Still, his speech was often sharply partisan as he promised a crackdown on illegal immigration and plans to usher in a sweeping agenda to reshape the federal government.
Trump, a Republican, lost to former President Joe Biden in 2020 and then beat Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in November 2024 on promises to strengthen the economy, tighten immigration laws and curb regulations on business while slashing the “deep state” federal bureaucracy.
The election was close, Republicans hold slim majorities in Congress and many experts say Trump will have to struggle to push through an agenda that could have an indelible impact on millions of Americans.
In San Marcos, California, there were only two men seeking work on Monday in a Home Depot parking lot where many immigrant day laborers typically congregate. They expressed concern that Trump’s policies would disrupt the construction and agriculture industries that depend on immigrant labor.
“Many of the guys who come here looking for work didn’t show because supposedly there was going to be a raid,” said Baudelio Victorio, 51, a legal U.S. resident, who has been in the country for 12 years.
In Los Angeles, the second largest U.S. city where 24 people have died in unprecedented wildfires, residents worried about how Trump would respond to the blazes that have displaced thousands and destroyed more than 10,000 structures.
“I would hope he would have sympathy for us dealing with this situation,” said Denise Jones, 61, a claims adjuster who lost her house in Altadena. “Will he send resources? Do I believe that he is going to? No.”
Trump has criticized California’s response to the wildfires in Los Angeles and will visit the state on Friday to tour the damage. He and Republican allies have spoken about possibly withholding disaster aid and have accused Democratic state officials of mismanaging water resources and forests.
Elementary school teacher Sandy Burch, who evacuated her California home for 11 days due to the fire, said she voted for Trump and was looking forward to his visit.
“He’s a very clever man,” Burch said. “I’m sure he will think of something to help.”
Trump settles into the Oval Office at a time of declining interest rates and positive job growth. But many voters were unhappy with the economy under Biden and business owners and conservative voters expressed optimism about putting Trump back at the helm of the world’s largest economy.
Jamal Johnson, 59, a cryptocurrency enthusiast, said he voted for Trump because the Republican has championed digital currency. He said the economy has been a sore spot for communities like Englewood, a predominately Black and impoverished neighborhood on Chicago’s Southside.
“Because of the economy and the state of things, people are in fear,” Johnson said.
In Texas, Jac Jones who lives outside of Houston and installs museum exhibits, said she is “extremely nervous” about women’s rights. Jones, 39, said she worries that Trump “has surrounded himself with soulless advisors and billionaires who will try to crush us just to get richer.”
Women’s rights have been a concern for Trump critics since the U.S. Supreme Court, with three justices appointed by Trump, overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, ending the federal guarantee to a woman’s right to an abortion. On Saturday, thousands gathered in Washington to protest Trump’s inauguration and policies. Still, the protest was far smaller than those during Trump’s first term in 2017. The U.S. women’s rights movement now seems more splintered.
Karla Miller is one of a handful of people Reuters spoke to who did not tune into the inauguration. The pastor of First Congregational Church in Hendersonville, North Carolina, instead spent the day with her congregation to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. on the national holiday in his honor.
“I preached on Grounding – how to move forward even though we are feeling a sense of impending doom and chaos,” said Miller, who voted for Harris.
With Trump’s inauguration coinciding with the King holiday, civil rights leaders called it ironic that Trump spoke in his inaugural speech of being a “peacemaker” and “unifier”.
“We know he’s going to do exactly the opposite, in particular making sure that he serves his conservative base,” said Jamarr Brown, executive director of Color of Change PAC.
Paul Hambleton, a Democratic state party chair in St. Croix County, Wisconsin, noted America is “still a democracy.”
Hambleton called the King holiday “a much needed reminder that our democracy has changed and adapted to new times in the past, that we will again, and that human and civil rights remain central to our nation.”
(Additional reporting by Daniel Trotta in Los Angeles, Peter Henderson in San Francisco, Keith Coffman in Colorado, Stephanie Kelley in New York, Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Kat Stafford and David Gregorio)
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