On Jan. 25, 2025, President Donald Trump was inaugurated as the president of the United States. Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris sparked controversy across the world and among the Palo Alto High School community. Here’s what some Paly students had to say about the inauguration.
“I thought it was interesting in many regards. I noticed that during the speech, all the presidents tend to hold their hand on the bible when they state their oath to the United States of America. I noticed Trump didn’t do that, so that was something that sparked my attention there.”
– Kacey Washington, 11th Grade
“I thought it was fine, honestly, Trump didn’t do anything too crazy. I think the thing that people paid attention to the most was Elon Musk’s hand motions. I think that was really controversial and he shouldn’t have done that. I don’t know what his motives behind that were, but it’s not okay. And I think it kind of shows how the rest of the term is going to be.”
– Maria Uribe-Estrada, 10th Grade
“I don’t really agree with his policies, especially tariffs against China, because it’s really gonna hurt the consumerism and it’s not really gonna hurt China. And also not standing up for Ukraine, I don’t like cutting funding for Ukraine.”
– Peter Revenaugh, 10th Grade
“I don’t really care about politics, but I just thought it was interesting that instead of the cabinet being in the front row, it was just the world’s richest people.”
– Cormac White, 12th Grade
“I heard that Trump is going to get us out of the Paris agreement, and that might be bad for the environment.”
– Jonathan Gu, 9th grade