Trump inauguration: Sky News experts on what the second term means for the world
In the hours before Donald Trump’s inauguration the world is preparing for a presidency that has huge implications for international security, global trade and the fight against climate change.
Here Sky News’ correspondents explain what Trump 2.0 could mean for their area of expertise.
Is Trump about to end the Ukraine war in a day?
Deborah Haynes, security and defence editor
Donald Trump will want to strike a deal on Russia’s war in Ukraine that brings him a “win” for ending the fighting, but without also gifting a victory to Vladimir Putin.
Crucially, any settlement must be acceptable to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has spent the past few months working hard to impress the value of Kyiv as an ally upon the incoming US leader – and the global menace posed by an emboldened Moscow.
Such a tricky balancing act – after almost three years of all-out war, hundreds of thousands of casualties and millions of Ukrainians displaced from their homes – will require careful, patient diplomacy.
This was not always a feature of Mr Trump’s first term in office, though his unpredictable, forceful style could yet bring something new to the table that enables the two warring sides to compromise in ways that had previously been impossible to imagine.
In a sign of reality biting, previous claims by the president-elect that he could end the conflict in a day have become less binding. General Keith Kellogg, his envoy to Ukraine and Russia, now says he hopes to secure a deal within the first 100 days of a Trump presidency.
Read Deborah’s full analysis here
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For Europe, Trump means a reset
By Adam Parsons, Europe correspondent
In Europe, the inauguration of Donald Trump will mean a reset in politics, trade and security.
Europeans have heard him talk about cutting support for Ukraine, introducing tariffs and forcing NATO members to massively increase defence spending. The question, as ever, is whether his actions will match his rhetoric.
Mr Trump has promised a rapid end to the Ukraine war, but he hasn’t said how. If Russia, after so much time and loss of life, felt it was suddenly in the ascendency over a weakened Ukraine, it might demand the sort of deal that would unsettle the whole of Eastern Europe.
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Mr Trump has previously been ambiguous about his support for NATO, so there will be plenty across Europe who push for their nations to spend more on defence and be less reliant on America.
And Denmark will continue to push back hard against Mr Trump’s intention of either buying or seizing Greenland. The Danes will expect, and surely receive, wholehearted backing from both the EU and NATO.
But the diplomats have their work cut out. Mr Trump is likely to introduce more tariffs against some countries, most notably China.
But will he do the same to Europe, or will he decide that it’s better to bring old friends into the tent? Certainly, Europe – struggling with poor growth in its biggest economies – would desperately want to avoid tit-for-tat tariffs.
Read Adam’s full analysis here
Trump might not be as damaging to climate action as some fear
By Victoria Seabrook, climate reporter
Donald Trump’s reelection has been likened to taking a “wrecking ball” to climate action. But it might not be so bad.
Certainly, the incoming president wants to ban new offshore “windmills” (his disdaining term for turbines), unplug any stops on oil and gas and roll back environmental rules, again.
On day one, he is expected to wrench the US out of global climate obligations under the Paris Agreement, which he says kills its economy.
As America is the second-largest emitter in the world, his actions will reverberate around the planet, not just by fuelling climate change that knows no borders, but by providing cover for others to do the same.
But America was no climate saint to begin with.
It was already a laggard in cutting emissions and paying into climate funding for developing nations. Oil production reached record levels under Joe Biden.
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How Trump’s inauguration will unfold
Meanwhile, the global transition to clean energy is not just underway but “unstoppable”, say advocates. China’s enormous wind and solar installations are a case in point.
Back in the US, some regional leaders will plough on with their own climate targets.
The US Climate Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of governors representing half the population – are still aiming to meet Biden’s goal of cutting emissions by 61%, which he rushed through just before Trump’s return to the White House.
Perhaps the climate movement is just putting a brave face on it when it says America is still in the fight.
His impact on global climate efforts will be felt for years. But the extent of that is not a done deal.
Read Victoria’s full analysis here
Trump keeping China wondering what he’ll do
By Nicole Johnston, Asia correspondent
No doubt China and the Indo-Pacific region are gaming out how to handle a second Trump presidency, but given the high degree of unpredictability ahead, the best approach is likely to be a cautious wait-and-see.
Mr Trump has railed against China’s export-driven economy and trade surplus with the US. He has also called out China’s export of the chemical precursors for fentanyl, blaming it for the US opioid crisis.
On the campaign trail, Mr Trump brought up one of his favourite anti-China lines by calling COVID-19, the “China virus”.
He has threatened tariffs of up to 60 per cent on Chinese goods.
This hardly makes for warm relations. But in classic Trump style, the great disrupter is also engaging with President Xi Jinping and keeping China, and the rest of the world wondering, what will he do?
The two leaders have held a rare phone conversation. Mr Trump said they discussed trade, fentanyl and TikTok.
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What to expect from Trump’s second term
The Wall Street Journal reports that Mr Trump has told advisers he wants to travel to China after taking office.
Before the election, he told the same newspaper that China would not provoke him because Mr Xi knows he’s “crazy”.
Mr Trump invited Mr Xi to the inauguration. The Chinese president declined, but is sending his vice-president, Han Zheng.
Mr Trump has a penchant for strongman leaders and autocrats. He has previously expressed his admiration for Xi Jinping.
The president-elect is keeping the Chinese off balance. Will it be confrontation or concord? No one knows.
The Chinese do not want a trade war with the US. But if Mr Trump’s isolationist foreign policy preference means China is left to expand its influence in this region and beyond, Beijing will regard that as a major advantage.
The moment the world changed
By Ed Conway, economics and data editor
There’s a fair chance that when historians look back at the era we’re currently in, they will describe this – the second inauguration of Donald Trump – as the moment the world changed.
This, they may say (yes, of course, it all depends on what happens next) was the moment the 35-year long period of globalisation that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall gave way to a new era. It was the moment the prevailing assumptions among the governing elite – that free trade and free movement of people were critical principles of policy – were replaced by new principles.
Those principles – that barriers to migration flows and tariffs on trade flows are a valid part of the policy toolkit – are not exactly new. Indeed, look back over the past two centuries, and you see that every 75 years or so, the pendulum swings to and from an adherence to free trade.
Nor is it entirely true to say Donald Trump changed everything: look at Joe Biden’s policies while in office, and you see that far from reversing the Trump 1.0 stance on China, Mr Biden reinforced it with new tariffs and protectionist measures.
Even so, historians tend to be drawn towards symbolic moments, and this is certainly one of them. Americans have given their popular support to a president who not only espouses a very different rendition of American international engagement to most of his post-war predecessors but glorifies it.
Since Franklin Roosevelt, one of the overarching goals of American policy was to use its power to try to seek international stability and to enshrine democracy and certain social and economic values (the “Washington consensus” as it became known).
The Trump 2.0 era seems to suggest that model is now over.
The consequences are likely to be profound.
Read Ed’s full analysis here
US
Charlie Kirk suspect Tyler Robinson ‘was in romantic relationship with transgender roommate’ – Utah governor
The suspect accused of shooting dead right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk was in a romantic relationship with his transgender roommate, Utah’s governor has said.
Tyler Robinson, 22, from Washington in Utah, is due to appear in court on Tuesday after Kirk, 31, was killed during one of his rallies at Utah Valley University on Wednesday.
Robinson is being held without bail on suspicion of aggravated murder, a felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, and obstruction of justice.
According to Utah’s Republican governor, Spencer James Cox, he was in a relationship with his roommate – who was in the process of transitioning.
“The roommate was a romantic partner,” he told NBC News’s Meet The Press on Sunday. “We can confirm that that roommate is a boyfriend who is transitioning from male to female.”
He added that the roommate has been “incredibly cooperative” and had “no idea that this [the shooting] was happening”, but that Robinson has not been cooperating with police.
Tyler Robinson. Pic: Utah Governor’s Office
Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University before he was shot. Pic: AP
Kirk, who co-founded the conservative student movement Turning Point USA, regularly expressed anti-LGBTQ views.
The motive of the shooting is unclear, and officials have not said whether Robinson’s relationship – or his roommate’s gender – is relevant to their investigation.
Authorities are still trying to get access to cloud storage linked to Robinson, according to NBC.
Mr Cox has previously said the suspect came from a “conservative family, but his ideology was very different than his family”, adding in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that he had been “deeply indoctrinated with leftist ideology”.
According to the governor, his relatives have said Robinson was critical of Kirk, saying he was “full of hate and spreading hate” and “talked about why he didn’t like him and the viewpoints that he had”.
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Security camera shows Charlie Kirk suspect
The 22-year-old is due to be charged when he makes his first court appearance on Tuesday, according to the Utah County attorney’s office.
He was in his third year of an electrical apprenticeship programme at Dixie Technical College in St George, Utah, NBC reported.
A spokesperson for Utah Valley University, where Kirk was speaking when he was shot in the neck, said Robinson studied there for one semester in 2021.
Kristin Schwiermann, a neighbour of his family’s, described him as “smart” and “quiet”, and added that he “never caused any problems”.
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Woman recalls encounter with Charlie Kirk suspect
Memorial to be held at Super Bowl venue
It was revealed on Sunday that a memorial to Kirk will be held at the stadium where the 2023 US Super Bowl was held.
State Farm Stadium, just outside of Phoenix, Arizona, is home to the American football team the Arizona Cardinals and can hold 60,000 people.
President Donald Trump has said he plans to attend and will posthumously award Kirk with the highest US civilian honour – the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Kirk, who hosted his own self-titled podcast, had millions of followers on social media.
He was a regular visitor at the White House and has been credited with the increase in young men voting for Mr Trump at the 2024 presidential election.
Experts have described engravings left on ammunition at the scene of the Charlie Kirk shooting as “extremely online” – so what do the words and symbols actually mean?
Authorities said on Friday that the suspect accused of fatally shooting the Conservative activist left behind bullet casings featuring references to fascism, video games and internet memes.
Kirk at Utah Valley University where he was shot. Pic: Reuters/The Salt Lake Tribune
To those who aren’t chronically online, the messages may appear to be total gibberish. But for others, specifically gamers, many of the meanings will have immediately been clear.
Here’s what each of the casings reference – and why experts have cautioned against using them to make assumptions about the suspect’s political leanings.
1. ‘notices, bulges, OWO, what’s this?’
This writing appears to reference a meme about the furry subculture, which centres on an interest in anthropomorphic animal characters.
Within the furry community, OwO is an emoticon of a cute face (with the Os as the eyes and the w as a cute mouth or nose) and used as a way of flirting – but outside the community, it is often used in a mocking way, or as part of trolling.
It’s incredibly common for phrases used by people who are “extremely online” – which essentially means highly engaged in online culture – to have double or multiple meanings.
For this reason, experts have cautioned against trying to interpret messages such as these engravings to determine an attacker’s political leanings or motive.
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What we know about the shooting arrest
Jamie Cohen, an assistant professor of media studies who studies memes at Queens College in New York, said: “Oftentimes this extremely online disguise is meant to be doublespeak.”
Speaking to Sky News’ US partner NBC News, he continued: “It’s meant specifically for someone like me to dive into what they would call meme culture and declare them something so that they get more press.
“So it could just be another bait and switch for researchers who are falling into the same trap that they are designing for more viral exposure.”
2. ‘Hey, fascist! Catch ↑ → ↓↓↓’
When asked by Sky News’ US correspondent James Matthews what the messages on the casings meant, Utah governor Spencer Cox said the writing referring to a fascist “speaks for itself”.
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Engraving on bullet casing ‘speaks for itself’
The second half of the inscription – the directional arrows – were immediately identified by some gamers.
Helldivers 2 players have pointed out that the arrow sequence is the code used to summon a 500kg bomb in the 2024 game – which itself has been interpreted as a satire of fascism.
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3. ‘Oh bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao’
Bella Ciao is a classic Italian song that became a popular anti-fascism anthem during Benito Mussolini’s dictatorship.
It has won renewed popularity in recent years thanks, in part, to featuring multiple times in Netflix’s Spanish television series Money Heist.
A popular remix of Bella Ciao has hit more than 260 million streams on Spotify worldwide and it’s become a favourite on TikTok, as well as within the gaming community.
Read more:
All we know about the suspected assassin
The string of bloody political violence in the MAGA era
4. ‘If you read this, you are gay lmao’
This juvenile insult, using the well-known abbreviation for ‘laughing my ass off’, is a common ‘gotcha’ phrase and simply appears to mock investigators.
The messages, another expert has said, make one thing clear – the suspect was likely seeking fame.
Lindsay Hahn, a University at Buffalo associate professor who researches ideological extremism and the ways in which perpetrators of violence justify their actions, said the messages do not necessarily indicate a specific ideology.
“But what they do indicate, is that the shooter wanted to get a message across and therefore be talked about online,” she told NBC.
“It sort of seems like these messages, at the very minimum, were selected because he knew they were going to be talked about.”
A memorial for right-wing US influencer Charlie Kirk will be held next Sunday, in a stadium that previously hosted the 2023 Super Bowl.
The 31-year-old, who was a close ally of Donald Trump, was fatally shot in the neck on Wednesday while speaking to university students at an event in Utah.
His appearance at Utah Valley University was part of a planned tour of US college campuses.
A memorial for Charlie Kirk at Turning Point USA headquarters in Phoenix, Arizona. Pic: Reuters
Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University, shortly before he was shot. Pic: AP
Turning Point USA, the prominent youth conservative organisation of which Mr Kirk was the president and co-founder, is holding the event at State Farm Stadium outside Phoenix.
The venue is the home of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals and can hold more than 60,000 people.
Tyler Robinson, a 22-year-old from Washington, Utah, is being held without bail after being arrested on suspicion of aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily harm and obstruction of justice charges, according to court documents.
The motivation behind the fatal shooting is still unclear, but Utah governor Spencer Cox commented that Robinson described Mr Kirk as “full of hate and spreading hate”.
Robinson is due to make an initial court appearance on Tuesday, when he is also expected to be charged, the Utah County attorney’s office said.
Tyler Robinson. Pic: Utah Governor’s Office
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Suspect’s movements before and after shooting
President Trump, who will be back in the US after his UK state visit next week, has previously said he plans to attend Mr Kirk’s funeral.
Mr Trump has said he will be posthumously awarding Mr Kirk with the nation’s highest civilian honour, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Mr Kirk’s body was flown back from Salt Lake City to his home state of Arizona on Air Force Two on Thursday, with the US vice president and close friend JD Vance on board.
JD Vance helps carry the coffin of Charlie Kirk from Air Force Two in Arizona
His widow, Erika Kirk, has vowed to continue his campus tour and his radio and podcast shows.
Speaking publicly for the first time in a livestreamed video on Friday, she said: “To everyone listening tonight across America, the movement my husband built will not die.”
“It won’t. I refuse to let that happen.”
She said she told her three-year-old daughter: “Daddy went on a work trip with Jesus.”
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Charlie Kirk shooting: What bullet inscriptions mean
Read more: What the engravings on bullets in Charlie Kirk case may refer to
Mr Kirk, who was a father of two, had millions of followers across social media.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
A makeshift memorial to Mr Kirk has been set up at Utah Valley University, with flowers, American flags and handwritten messages left at the main entrance.
The university says there will be increased security when classes resume on Wednesday.
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