Bloglander

Surrounded by friends, family and presidents past, Donald J. Trump was sworn in this morning as America's 45th president.

God bless America.

In his speech, Trump vowed to "rebuild" and "restore" the country and to give the power back "to you, the people."

"The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country," Trump said. "Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs and while they celebrated in our nation's capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land."

Trump's speech drew applause from the relatively calm crowd gathered at the U.S. Capitol while police clashed with protesters on the streets of Washington throughout the day.

Two Whitworth University students attended the inauguration and demonstrations today and sent us some pictures and descriptions of what they saw:

Hundreds of protesters flooded the streets — some just blocks from Trump's parade route following his swearing in. They held cardboard signs and paper banners accusing Trump of racism. They also shouted profanity.

Police used pepper spray, tear gas and other nonlethal crowd control techniques to prevent destructive protesters from advancing. Video footage of the demonstrations show people throwing bricks at cars and at the police and lighting trash cans on fire.


Some news organizations are reporting more than 200 people arrested. More protests are planned throughout the country during the next few days — including Spokane's version of the Women's March on Washington.

Josiah Van Wingerden contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.