The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

296: Takeaways from Trump's Inaugural Address: Key Highlights You Can't Miss

• Molly McPherson

Share episode

In this episode of The PR Breakdown, diving into Donald Trump’s second inaugural address and breaking down the PR strategies, rhetorical moves, and media messages woven throughout. From the decision to move the ceremony indoors to Trump’s subdued, teleprompter-driven delivery, the address was a masterclass in image-conscious storytelling. He leaned heavily into his narrative as the avenging hero, divinely chosen to save America—rhetoric that fires up his base but leaves communicators with plenty to dissect when it comes to the risks of divisive messaging.

Let's also get into the visuals—like Melania’s now-iconic hat and the up-close, tightly framed setting that gave the event a different vibe. Add in some eyebrow-raising claims (hello, "Manifest Destiny" and renaming the Gulf of Mexico), and we’ve got a lot to unpack about how these choices shape public perception. Love him or hate him, this address is full of lessons for anyone working to craft messages that stick. Let’s get into it!

Join Molly on Substack for even deeper dives into celebrity PR strategies and exclusive weekly live sessions!

Need a Keynote Speaker? Drawing from real-world PR battles, Molly delivers the same engaging stories and hard-won crisis insights from the podcast to your live audience. Her high-energy keynotes blend edge-of-your-seat PR war stories with actionable communication strategies that resonate with leaders, communicators, and teams alike. Click here to book Molly for your next meeting.

Follow Molly for daily updates and more PR insights:

© 2025 The PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson

Molly McPherson:

Hey there, welcome back to the PR Breakdown. I'm your host, molly McPherson, and this is the podcast where we dissect the biggest moments in public relations and public discourse. We want to figure out what's really going on behind the headlines. Today on the podcast, let's just talk about Donald Trump's second inaugural address. I wanted to speak about the address only. That was my plan for this podcast, but there was so much live and then I move people over to Patreon and we talked about the inauguration. My guest was Michael Jammin. He is an Emmy-nominated writer, screenwriter, comedy writer. He's a good friend of mine. He's on TikTok as well. He wrote the book A Paper Orchestra and he's worked behind the scenes on so many television shows out there and a lot of the people who attended the live with us were familiar with his work. So we had a lot of fun chit-chatting about everything. But we spent a lot of time talking about the inauguration and a number of people you know admitted that they didn't watch it, and even friends of mine like I would ask, but me, I had to watch every minute of it. Now the recap of the inauguration setting Donald Trump becomes the 45th person to be inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. So wrap your head around that one, if you haven't done that already. Also, vice President JD Vance was sworn in and you all know about him he's an author turned politician and now he is the vice president and the ceremony was held at the US Capitol Rotunda, and it was moved indoors due to the weather.

Molly McPherson:

Now, let's start here, shall we? Now? Fun fact I mentioned this on the live tonight I attended President Trump's first inaugural address, or his inauguration, back in 2017. Had insider access. Family member worked for the FBI. We were able to get tickets and I told the kids, like we have to go to this inauguration Because, if you remember, at that time when he was inaugurated, it was the same time that there were all these marches for women, if you remember, you know the pink hat era, and all of this was happening in Washington DC. So, for my kids and it was just three of my kids, because I think my daughter Rory I can't remember, you know she was at a prep school and I think she had sports or something, I can't remember, but she couldn't join us, but I just had the three kids with us and the inauguration was incredible. I mean, we did have tickets that were really really close up front so we could see President Trump right there. We saw all the people on the dance and even we were kind of high up on the US Capitol steps and I remember looking back and seeing the crowds and thinking, well, remember looking back and seeing the crowds and thinking, well, this is a big crowd, but I wonder if it's as big as previous crowds, like President Obama's crowd. And sure enough, you know, sean Spicer, the press secretary at the time, said Trump was saying that this was the most record-setting crowd ever for inauguration and people from the Obama administration were saying for inauguration. And people from the Obama administration were saying that's so fast. So then we're hearing that it was moved indoors to the US Capitol rotunda.

Molly McPherson:

Personally I don't have any inside information, but if you just look at the characteristics of a person and President Trump kind of as a leader, he's very, very concerned with appearances. He's very, very concerned with appearances. He's very concerned with how he measures. He knew that it would be a talking point if the crowds were smaller from his first inauguration, which could be likely because it's a second inauguration. But also, yes, he won, but there's still going to be a lot of the coverage would be probably about January 6th and he probably couldn't control even what people in the crowds were doing. So there's that element. Then there's the other element where this is more vanity. But I don't think he wanted to be on the dais with wind also because it was going to be around 27 degrees I think that's the temperature at the time of the inauguration, which is cold, yeah, but it's not that cold. There have been other inaugurations that were 27 degrees, but it probably would have cut down on the numbers there. But I also think the vanity piece of it was not wanting the hair to be blowing around. But also, if you watch the coverage now, there was different coverage. I think it was. I don't know if it was pool coverage, to be honest, because I was watching the Trump coverage of the inauguration because it was just it was straight audio and it probably was pool coverage. Come to think of it, hair was covering one ear and not the other ear and it was covering the ear. That was I mean, depending on who you believe was either partially torn off or allegedly torn off, but you couldn't tell during the inauguration and I think I saw either a hearing aid or an earpiece in there. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I know plenty of people wear hearing aids but I thought, oh, that's the first time that I've ever seen that. So I think bringing it inside made sense because it was a much more controlled environment.

Molly McPherson:

Now for the speech itself, the tone of the speech. It was the subdued Trump. It was the similar cadence of Trump when he was speaking at the RNC, you know, the Republican National Convention. He was very subdued and part of the reason why I was so subdued is because he was reading from a teleprompter and, based on how he was looking at the teleprompter, it's as if his advisor said to him do not veer off that prompter ever. Like you, stay on script the entire time. So his head was tilted in a certain way, just looking at the teleprompter, and it was also the ear that was covered was always away from the camera view.

Molly McPherson:

But that intimate audience also created a different televised dynamic because we didn't have the long shot you know, see the vast crowds and shots of the dais and shots of the crowd and shots of the Capitol. It was only indoors and it was that straight shot. So it was very intimate and so you could see facial expressions. You could see how people were reacting in there, for instance, when President Trump announced that he was going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. You could see in the camera shot Hillary Clinton and President Clinton former President Clinton sitting next to her with this very confused look on his face. You wouldn't see that in normal coverage if it were outdoors because everybody is so separate, you know, in their seating, but everybody was sitting right on top of each other.

Molly McPherson:

Now, going back to the tone of the speech, there are a lot of references to this narrative that Trump wanted to be the sort of triumphant hero you know, if you will. He cast himself as the avenger of corruption and disorder and chosen by God to restore America, a narrative that fits right into MAGA language and why this matters anytime you see the phrase like divinely chosen or saved by God. That is a very strong rhetorical stance. It can certainly bolster support from the religious segments of the electorate you know the MAGA electorate, if you will but it also raises eyebrows. Trump has a very strong conservative base, if you will, but it also raises eyebrows. Trump has a very strong conservative base, a very strong conservative evangelical base. So that type of rhetoric plays very, very well with Trump followers.

Molly McPherson:

Now, next, I want to highlight some takeaways from the address. One it is Trump, the avenging hero. You know. He painted a dark portrait of America and positioned himself as uniquely capable of saving it. He talked about his life being spared by God to accomplish this mission. You know, when he was in Pennsylvania, butler, pennsylvania. It leaves this, you know, rhetorical question. You know, does claiming a divine mission unify a nation or does it deepen the cultural divide?

Molly McPherson:

Next, the veiled and not so veiled shots at the previous leadership. He criticized Biden's administration, the handling of disasters, referencing hurricanes and wildfires as if President Biden was controlling wildfires and hurricanes and the management of it. The wildfires were a little tricky for President Trump managing them from two weeks ago because right out the gate when they happened, he wanted to pick a fight with the governor of California. I mean, there's so much devastation, someone clearly got to Trump to say you've got to stand down. You have to stand down on this because part of the reason why that devastation was there and proof by virtue of so many insurance companies canceling policies because they believe in global warming and the global warming was causing the dryness in the grounds and just the weather and the Santa Anta winds, and then they had rain and then they had all these dry spells, and for an administration that is heavy on fossil fuels and not on renewable energy, it's a really tough argument for Trump so he needed to back off. Plus, so many people were impacted by those fires, not just wealthy wealthy people, not just famous people and celebrities, middle class people, lower middle class, lower class immigrants so many people there and also to rebuild so much of California, they're going to need the immigrant population. So that's another challenge, you know, for Trump. Who's allegedly starting all these raids for illegal immigrants, but highly unlikely you're going to see raids around Los Angeles, but again, these shots at Biden and the administration. He accused, you know, the government leaders of failing at the basics, from infrastructure to emergency management. Fema is struggling. I know this as a former FEMA employee and knowing people who work at FEMA. They're struggling just for money and resources and people.

Molly McPherson:

So the subtext for anyone working in PR communication is it's classic contrast messaging. It's highlighting failures of your predecessors to justify your future moves. That is classic Trump. This is how he does a lot of his messaging. It's by taking shots at everyone. Next, it's the emphasis on manifest destiny. When he said manifest destiny, my first reaction was wait a minute. I had to go back into school. Like, wait a minute, what does manifest destiny mean? And then you're like, oh yeah, expansion. So he's reviving this 19th century idea of manifest destiny, pointing to a future that includes placing American flags on Mars.

Molly McPherson:

And did you see Elon Musk, owner of SpaceX? Like he stands up and he's like cheering on, like so goofy. And then Elon Musk who spoke at an inaugural event with the Nazi salute. A lot of people on my live tonight were asking, like what kind of PR help does Elon Musk need? He doesn't need any PR help because he is on his own. It's like he's on Mars. There's nothing he can do to like clean up that image. His image is just who he is. But it makes me wonder how long President Trump is going to want to align himself with people like Elon Musk. Because here's an interesting thing about leadership and about power People who are in power, they're like the master of power, right, but you never want to overpower the master. You never want to be smarter than the master, better than the master, anything like that. And I think Elon Musk has to walk a fine line there. So we'll see if in the future, if he is as close to Trump as he is right now.

Molly McPherson:

But more controversially, suggesting reclaiming the Panama Canal, and he named some numbers that were inaccurate. But, oh my gosh, mount Denali to back to Mount McKinley, but the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Like I said, hillary Clinton laughing at that, that was a head scratcher moment. It's like is this a literal plan or is it just a symbolic, like chest thumping line? And with Trump, honestly, it's hard to say. It is hard to say.

Molly McPherson:

Next, false or dubious claims. Like I said, he overstated the US death toll in the building of the Panama Canal. Most of those deaths were from foreign workers. Many were from France. He also claimed that many undocumented immigrants come from prisons and mental institutions. There's no solid evidence to support this and many people if you saw this online or even in the coverage, when he was at the religious service, the bishop who stood up on that pulpit and she talked about how scared people are with this administration. People are with this administration. You know people who are I'm paraphrasing here LGBTQ and trans, how they're worried for their safety and then talked about the people who bus our tables, who work the overnight shift, who work as janitors. You know talking about all those people who take those jobs, those low-level jobs. Those are immigrants, are undocumented workers, she said. Many of them pay taxes. They're not all criminals and prisoners. I mean the number is so minor.

Molly McPherson:

It was a public rebuke from the pulpit and Trump just looks straight ahead. Now. These typical fact checkable lines might cause friction between the administration and the press when he continues to do this. Every time Trump does this, he will be called out for it. There is no denying that, and it will happen right out the gate. Are we going to be a society that accepts misinformation or do we call it out even more Because we're starting to hear it more?

Molly McPherson:

Next is the weaponization of government, but no explicit retribution. So he slammed the quote radical and corrupt establishment and vowed to end the weaponization of the Justice Department. He felt that the Biden administration weaponized the Justice Department against him. But why it was difficult for him to do that is because he's someone who is known for targeting opponents. So he didn't explicitly pledge to go after his political enemies. Many anticipate investigations that might happen anyway. So the key PR angle here is you know, trump frames himself as a victim of government overreach, while many critics are pointing out that he has a history of pushing the DOJ to target opponents. So is it contradiction or cunning strategy? All right Now. So here are some of the interesting moments that I noticed watching because, yes, like I said, I did listen to the speech. Now for the attendees of the inauguration itself, I mean, there were several former presidents who were there Obama, bush, you know, clinton and Biden, the array of tense expressions mixed with the smirking of President Obama and President Bush smirking at each other. President Clinton looked confused most of the time, like just kind of stunned, and Biden sat there with face for a lot of it, chief Justice, sworn both Trump and JD Vance.

Molly McPherson:

The Carrie Underwood performance we talked about it in the live and I had asked people if they saw this, because I really felt like I was the only person, because I saw a lot of information out there online about Carrie Underwood. Some people were praising her singing, some people, of course, making fun of her. The Daily Mail had an article saying that she threw a snit fit because of the music. Now, if you watched it, there was like over a minute delay where they announced Carrie Underwood, she walks down and then she just waits there. She was holding the mic because they were waiting. She was waiting for the music to play.

Molly McPherson:

But in these inaugural events or if there's any event at the Capitol, they have a tape that plays along with their live singing. And that's not just Carrie Underwood, that's all the artists do that, you know, for any administration. They do that because it is tough to be such a natural singer in the open environment like that indoors, and the planning was so quick, so you could see that everything wasn't effortless in terms of the flow and the planning. And this was a real botched job, because I think what they were struggling with was the backing tape. How do we sync the backing tape with the music when it's in this hall, with the acoustics, how they are? And then Carrie Underwood was singing over that backing tape. Maybe it was just me, but I thought I saw that tape and before her, like the timing was definitely off, I felt for her. I think she sounded amazing.

Molly McPherson:

I can't imagine how stressful that would be and if she threw a hissy fit leaving there, it's like you know what Welcome to the Trump administration, because that's how a lot of the messes are. But also on day one of administration. I mean that is tough to get that organized. A lot of people were really calling her out for performing at this inauguration. A lot of people disappointed in Snoop. They're saying you know he would do anything for a buck. But I have to give Carrie Underwood some credit there, because that would be incredibly stressful.

Molly McPherson:

Then there was the fashion Melania. That hat, oh my goodness. And that hat was pulled solo. You could barely see her eyes. Make of that what you will. On the live. Many people said she looked like the Hamburglar Spy versus spy, that magazine, which made me laugh. But so many people oh my gosh, we're making jokes about that hat that the boys were playing Frisbee with it. Afterwards I had to look at it and think, okay, what was she thinking? What was behind the hat? And if you saw President Trump try to kiss Melania, he couldn't kiss her under the hat. He missed her lips. Me thinks that that hat was definitely intentional. The outfit that she wore looked like it could have been worn for cold weather in her inauguration outfit anyway, but she did not show even an ounce of skin, which she didn't for the first inauguration either. I loved her inauguration outfit the first time that light blue with the gloves and that cowl neck. It was absolutely beautiful. So she looked a little pinned in, you know, for this inauguration, but she is so checked out of all of it you could tell it's almost as if she walked in and then she walked out, you know, and went right back to New York. But that hat was absolutely epic.

Molly McPherson:

Also, barron Trump, president Trump's son with Melania. He drew a lot of social media buzz. You know a lot of people always talk about how tall he is, because he's taller than most people in that room. He's taller than his parents. He's a very, very tall kid. But I saw clips of him. You know people were applauding him and he kind of wanted more applause. So he's definitely stepping out of the shadows. He's in college now. I think he's at NYU and I think we're going to see a lot more of Barron Trump Now.

Molly McPherson:

You know, when we talk about the themes, the PR strategy, you know, again, this is all about America first. That's what the Trump administration the second time around is going to be this presidency. He's revisiting a lot of the same slogans, banking on the same brand recognition. You know it shows like the comms angle on this. You know lean on a tagline that works. You know make America great again. It's brilliant, it works. You put it on a hat, you put it on a color, it makes sense. You know people remember it, love it or hate it, people know it.

Molly McPherson:

The speech was also really about unity versus division. There's a lot of division obviously between two sides here. Trump wants to really coalesce the unity within his base, but also the moderates. He wants to bring other people over as well. Then, of course, the divine providence messaging, you know speaking that his life was spared for this greater calling. We'll see if he will keep language up like that, but you know Trump's not known for striking emotional chords. He certainly did in this inaugural address. He repeated we will not allow that to happen, which appeals to fear and determination communities, which might be the effort to expand or cement that electoral support beyond his typical base for other Republicans, because they don't want to lose a house in two more years.

Molly McPherson:

So how this will likely play out in the media focusing on fact-checking, with the potential controversies over false claims, like even from the speech, like the Panama Canal death toll, the prison narratives. The alternative fact storyline might come back again. So for PR pros out there, we now need to anticipate any ongoing corrections. Is any company out there, a spokesperson, just going to do the Trump method and just kind of create their numbers? We're going to have a lot of diplomatic ripples, especially when he's renaming bodies of waters and mountains and trying to reclaim land like the Panama Canal. There's going to be some implications there and there's certainly going to be domestic policy implications as it relates to immigration, climate measures he's undoing a lot of. You know what Biden did for renewable energy, but what is the public perception going to be? You know, will this re-energize his base? Does it scare off the moderates out there?

Molly McPherson:

So big question for communicators how to respond to leaders or companies or brands who want to copy the Trump brand of communication. Are you fact-checking aggressively or focusing on the emotional resonance that's driving supporters? Are you just going to say anything to rev up your base or are you going to stick to the facts? But maybe there isn't going to be as much of a push from the public perception because of a Trump presidency. Also, you know the moral, the ethical angles here. When you're looking in, you know if you were in that crowd at the inauguration, was it a surge of patriotism or did it feel like a chill at the thought of an apocalyptic undertone here? You know, if you're anyone who's not a white male, do you have something to worry about and you want to have that empathy check? I think if you're a communicator, this speech might provide reassurance for some who feel the system is stacked against them, but for others it could be like a dog whistle for authoritarian tendencies.

Molly McPherson:

There was just so much going on there and I found it enjoyable to watch. I really did. My first note was Lauren Sanchez, jeff Bezos' fiance, who someone on my live tonight told me their wedding is going to be in Aspen, colorado. It's gonna be $600 million. And Michael Jammon, who was on my live tonight. He said how many crab cakes do you need? Like $600 million? That's crazy money Between the plastic surgery and the bustier, like the white bustier. And you saw the memes of like Mark Zuckerberg, who was sitting next to her, like looking down at her chest. That was interesting to me.

Molly McPherson:

Also wondering like where's Kimberly Guilfoyle, donald Jr's girlfriend? He dumped her just right before the election or right after the election. She's now the ambassador to Greece. So daddy had to give her ambassadorship to get her off of Donald's tail. But Donald Jr was there with his new girlfriend, but Kimberly was there as well with her son. But there was just so much going on and I just found it to be fascinating. I know a lot of people out there probably didn't watch it, but even if you're not a Republican or you are staunchly against Donald Trump, if you work in comms, I highly, highly, highly recommend that you watch the address. Watch it for the communication, because, love or hate President Trump, he knows how to call a base forward. All right, everyone.

Molly McPherson:

If you found this episode insightful, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share it with anyone who's obsessed with PR strategies and crisis comes, as we all are. Also, this is a time that I want to tell you that I have joined Substack. You can find me under the PR breakdown with Molly McPherson that's the name of this podcast. So you can look up Molly McPherson or the PR breakdown. It will bring youerson. That's the name of this podcast. So you can look up Molly McPherson or the PR Breakdown, it will bring you there.

Molly McPherson:

I have different levels of membership. I have a free membership, where you will receive a post from me every week highlighting ideas, thoughts and lessons from weekly podcasts. You'll also get links to ongoing lives that I'm going to have on YouTube. And then I'll have a second membership. That will be a paid membership. That's $7. And that membership you're going to get more of the insider off the record information from me. You're going to get more posts, more background, more intel, and then I also am going to be introducing a new segment. It's all around this idea of asking Molly, I'm going to get into the PR for people game.

Molly McPherson:

I love talking about public relations, whether it's with my clients, people on social media or you listeners to the podcast. I love the PR of it. But if you know me well or if you listen closely, a lot of what I talk about is just the personal PR. It's just the personal communication tactics. It's the personal battles. It's the personal challenges that people have on their own or together. It's like PR for people problems. Ask me questions about anything related to PR, celebrity news, politicians or life, because it's all the same. It doesn't matter if it's professional or personal, it's all the same. So definitely check out my Substack. You can find me the PR Breakdown with Molly McPherson on Substack. All right, everyone. Thanks for listening. Come back for next week's big story. Bye for listening. Come back for next week's big story. Bye for now.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Molly McPherson

Host

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.