No Ukraine, No Tariffs: What Trump Left Out Of Inaugural Address

Donald Trump made sweeping promises Monday in his inaugural address, including a vow to send troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and a declaration that the government would recognize no other genders other than male and female.

But there was much that went unsaid. Trump avoided topics that were staples on the campaign trail and may help determine the success of his second presidency. These unmentioned areas included the war in Ukraine, which he said he would end within 24 hours of taking office, and tariffs, which he pledged to implement on day one.

The avoidance of these complex topics suggests that the new administration must still navigate competing interests as the president fields counsel from people with divergent views on trade, foreign affairs and aspects of domestic policy such as abortion.

Here’s a look at some of the unmentioned policy areas confronting the new administration:

Abortion

It was the No. 1 issue for Democrats during the campaign. It was also a winning issue for them in the 2022 midterm election, and one that Trump was able to apparently neutralize in the presidential race with his promise to leave the issue of abortion access to the states in the post-Roe era.

Still, its absence from his inauguration address was notable in that the repeal of Roe was one his most significant first-term accomplishments. His decision not to talk about it reveals just how deeply polarizing the issue remains for the country and his desire to stay away from that political albatross.

Obamacare

Trump spent much of the first year of his term trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, an effort that famously ended in part with a “thumbs down” on the Senate floor from the late Arizona Sen. John McCain. House Speaker Mike Johnson, back in October, promised “massive” reform to the sweeping federal health program if Trump won the election — but the topic was notably absent from Trump’s Monday address.

Instead, he proclaimed a much broader health agenda, one that mirrors a key focus of his Health and Human Services Secretary pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — ending the “chronic disease epidemic,” which he said would “keep our children safe, healthy and disease-free.”

Ukraine

Trump pledged on the campaign trail that if elected president he would end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours. But the country, and its ongoing war with Russia, didn’t even get a brief mention in the president’s inaugural address — which instead focused on the success of the recent ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, which led to the first Israeli hostages captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack being released.

He did, however, say that his “proudest legacy” would be to be a “peacemaker and unifier,” proclaiming that he would measure success “not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars we end,” as well as “the wars we never get into.”

Keith Kellogg, a retired U.S. general who is Trump’s pick to be special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, is expected to play a major role in navigating the ongoing conflict, as well as helping to guide other portions of the president’s foreign policy agenda.

The power of the courts

Republicans have been long fixated on moving the courts to the right. During his first campaign for president, Trump even went so far as to release a list of potential Supreme Court picks.

And while many conservatives laud the fact that Trump was able to appoint three conservative justices to the nation’s highest court during his term — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — they argue their work is far from done. Just take a look at Trump legal defender Mike Davis’ Article III project, which describes itself as bringing “brass knuckles to fight leftist lawfare.”

Still, there was no talk of conservative judges or a rightward shift on the court during Trump’s Monday address, only broadly restoring “fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.”

Tariffs

Trump promised Monday to create an “External Revenue Service” to collect tariffs and other revenue from foreign nations and promised to “overhaul” the country’s trade system. But he didn’t get into specifics about the levies he’s hoping to put on imported products from other countries, including Canada, Mexico and China.

And while Trump in November promised to impose 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada on his first day in office — an effort he said was aimed at stemming the flow of fentanyl — his Day One policy was much broader. It instead charges federal agencies with investigating and addressing trade deficits and unfair trade and currency practices by other countries.