T-minus three days until Washington D.C. hosts the presidential inauguration. On Jan. 20, President-elect Donald Trump will once again take his place in the White House as the 47th President of the United States.
Following the heated September 2024 Presidential Debate, the country was given a clear lens into the Trump administration’s agenda. Since his victory, he has continued to be transparent, sharing his plans about using the U.S. Military to aid his goal for mass deportation and meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to help settle tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
One of his most notable goals is to review the cases of the incarcerated Jan. 6 rioters. In a December interview with Time, Trump explained how this process will begin “in the first hour that [he gets] into office.”
Previously, Trump referred to the rioters as “patriots” and “hostages.” However, in the same interview with Time, he explained his new mindset about the situation. He outlined his new approach: “I’m going to do case-by-case and if they were nonviolent, I think they’ve been greatly punished,” and therefore do not deserve to be in jail.
The upcoming inauguration has also caused developments in the digital world. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is ending its fact-checking program, which worked to limit the spread of false information across social media platforms. Many have attributed this policy change to Trump’s upcoming presidency. According to the New York Times, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, described the 2024 election as a “cultural tipping point” for the company.
Meta has donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and promoted Joel Kaplan, a Meta employee with close association to the Republican Party. In an interview with the New York Times, Kaplan said, “We have a new administration coming in that is far from pressuring companies to censor and a huge supporter of free expression. It gets us back to the values that [Zuckerberg] founded the company on.”
Social Studies Teacher Dr. Antony Farag agreed that Trump’s victory initiated “a chain reaction of events.” Noting X’s shift from moderators to community notes in the spring of 2022, he believes that Meta’s decision is in an attempt to mirror X’s progress. Farag said, “I think the decision by Meta to get rid of fact-checkers is copying Elon Musk. And knowing that because Musk aligned himself with Trump and was successful, [Meta] might as well do the same thing.”
Free speech is often a grey area in both American political and social settings. Many citizens wonder where the line for this right should be drawn or if there is any line at all. Meta’s removal of the fact-checking program adds fuel to this controversy. While junior Giancarlo Giannetta believes that it will contribute to the reinforcement of free speech rights, he also acknowledged that “the loud and powerful will be believed more, even if [what they are saying is] a lie. [This is] because they have a larger image and presence online, so those who see it will be more likely to believe what they say.”
To give insight regarding his intentions for Monday, President Joe Biden spoke at a reception for new Democratic members of Congress on Jan. 5. According to apnews.com, Biden acknowledged the Democrats’ eventual minority in all branches of government, reflecting on the importance of keeping an open mind, even with contrasting ideologies. In an interview with The Associated Press, California Congressman Sam Liccardo said that Biden made it clear “he appreciates the importance of the passage of the torch.”
The start of a new year brings many changes. As the inauguration grows closer, the world waits in suspense to see what the future of America holds.