On Wednesday, Jan. 20, Joe Biden will address the nation for the first time as President of the United States.
As Biden himself has repeatedly said, the words of a president matter — and the ears of a bitterly divided nation are sure to be on the president who centered both his campaign and incoming administration around unity.
Under the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, a president by law must take the oath of office on Jan. 20. While presidents are not required to give a public address after taking the oath, it has become tradition to do so since George Washington gave the first inaugural speech in 1789.
An inaugural address sets the tone of the incoming administration, and is typically used as a “bipartisan and unifying” moment to introduce the president’s “vision to the nation and the world,” according to the White House Historical Association.
Some former presidents, like Franklin Roosevelt in 1933, spoke directly to the concerns of a nation in the midst of a recession; others, like John F. Kennedy in 1961, called on Americans to serve their country.
More recent presidents, like Barack Obama, spoke directly to their own first-term accomplishments, pledging to do more during their final four years. Others, like George W. Bush, used the address to warn enemies abroad that America would protect its democracy at all costs.
Here’s a look at previous inaugural speeches from this century:
President Donald Trump was well-known for his catchphrases during the 2016 election cycle, two in particular being "Make America Great Again" and "Drain the Swamp."
Then-presidential hopeful Trump coined the former phrase as part of a pledge to jumpstart the American economy and reinstate its place as a world power; the latter referenced Trump’s promise to remove mainstay Washington politicians from power.
Both were messages carried through to Trump’s inauguration, when he said the citizens of the country were “joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and to restore its promise for all of our people.”
Those two campaign phrases were joined by two more in his inaugural address that echoed throughout his presidency:
- "The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer," and, a line that became synonymous with the speech;
- "This American carnage stops right here and stops right now."
"Today we are not merely transferring power from one Administration to another, or from one party to another – but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the American People," Trump said during his inaugural address. "For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost."
Trump had long attacked Washington politicians for outsourcing jobs, taking particular issue with what he saw as China’s inappropriate influence on the American economy.
Trump’s approach to the presidency was perhaps best summed up in several lines later on in his inaugural address, when he said: “We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this moment on, it’s going to be America First."
"America will start winning again, winning like never before. We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth. And we will bring back our dreams," Trump continued, adding: “We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American."
After incumbent President Barack Obama won reelection in 2012, he used his inaugural address to invoke the vision of America’s founders: that all men are created equal.
“Today we continue a never-ending journey to bridge the meaning of those words with the realities of our time,” Obama said. “For history tells us that while these truths may be self-evident, they’ve never been self-executing; that while freedom is a gift from God, it must be secured by His people here on Earth.”
Obama stressed the need to bring this vision into the 21st century, while also allowing room for progress, saying the “fidelity to our founding principles requires new responses to new challenges.”
By 2013, Obama had been president for four years, and had passed both a major stimulus package and banking regulations to address the lagging economy. Obama had also begun pulling back the U.S. troop presence in countries like Iraq, and signed his landmark healthcare legislation the Affordable Care Act — i.e., Obamacare — into law.
Obama pledged to continue progressing in areas of economy, civil rights, and foreign policy in his second and final inaugural address.
“This generation of Americans has been tested by crises that steeled our resolve and proved our resilience. A decade of war is now ending. An economic recovery has begun,” he said, adding: “We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law. We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully –- not because we are naïve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.”
When Barack Obama was inaugurated as the 44th president, the country was on the heels of one of the greatest economic downturns in modern history. The financial crisis of 2007–08 was, in part, brought on by the failure of market regulators to “rein in the excesses of Wall Street,” per a bipartisan Senate report.
Obama addressed the recession head-on in his first speech as president, saying: “Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age.”
But Obama, whose campaign message in 2008 was “Change We Can Believe In,” also offered a hopeful message to his new constituents, saying while the country faced many challenges, he was confident America could pull through.
“Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time,” he said. “But know this America: They will be met.”
Obama’s inauguration also came amid heightened sentiments of Islamophobia across the country, which experts define as the “exaggerated fear, hatred, and hostility toward Islam and Muslims that is perpetuated by negative stereotypes.” At the time, the U.S. was involved in numerous protracted conflicts across the Middle East, several of which are still ongoing.
But Obama sought to bridge cultural and religious divides in his inaugural address, saying: “For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.”
"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” he added, while still promising forceful response to unfriendly nations. "To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society's ills on the West, know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.”
George W. Bush’s second inaugural address was the first to come after the terror attacks on 9/11, and the event heavily influenced the president’s speech.
Now widely known as the “Freedom Speech,” Bush continuously pushed the goal of spreading democracy across the globe, saying the U.S. would protect itself from tyranny by whatever means necessary.
“Across the generations we have proclaimed the imperative of self-government, because no one is fit to be a master, and no one deserves to be a slave,” Bush said. “Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our Nation. It is the honorable achievement of our fathers [...] So it is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.”
Bush spoke of “America's ideal of freedom” at length, although the focus of his words were rarely to the American people themselves, but rather as a warning to those who sought to threaten democracy.
“America has need of idealism and courage, because we have essential work at home - the unfinished work of American freedom,” Bush said. “In a world moving toward liberty, we are determined to show the meaning and promise of liberty.”
When he did address American citizens, Bush thanked them for allowing him to secure the nation’s borders and protect its foreign interests.
“From all of you, I have asked patience in the hard task of securing America, which you have granted in good measure,” he said, later adding: “Yet because we have acted in the great liberating tradition of this nation, tens of millions have achieved their freedom. And as hope kindles hope, millions more will find it.”
George W. Bush delivered the first inaugural address of the 21st century after an election like no other, in which the Supreme Court was forced to settle a recount dispute in Florida's vote count between Bush and Democratic presidential candidate Al Gore.
Bush ultimately won, and thanked his challenger for “a contest conducted with spirit and ended with grace” at his inauguration. Still, thousands of people gathered in the nation’s capital to protest the controversial outcome of the election.
Nevertheless, Bush persisted in his quest to unite the country, saying: "Today, we affirm a new commitment to live out our nation's promise through civility, courage, compassion and character."
Bush’s address was also the first inaugural speech in the 21st century, and the president aimed to bring America’s history of democratic ideals into the present.
"Through much of the last century, America's faith in freedom and democracy was a rock in a raging sea. Now it is a seed upon the wind, taking root in many nations," Bush said. "Our democratic faith is more than the creed of our country. It is the inborn hope of our humanity, an ideal we carry but do not own, a trust we bear and pass along. Even after nearly 225 years, we have a long way yet to travel."