President-elect Donald Trump rang the famous bell at the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, basking in the glow of his pending inauguration and status as Time magazine’s Person of the Year.

Mr. Trump smiled as he rang the bell at 9:30 a.m. to begin Wall Street trading. Incoming first lady Melania Trump, NYSE President Lynn Martin and others applauded next to him and people in the hall chanted, “USA! USA! USA!”

The president-elect said it was a “tremendous honor” to be named Person of the Year for a second time.

“I thank the whole group at Time, really professional people,” he said, flanked also by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance and his Cabinet picks.

He pushed his agenda in the remarks from Manhattan, saying he’ll cut taxes and speed up the permit process to rev America’s economic engine.

“I think we’re going to have a tremendous run,” Mr. Trump said. “The economy is going to be very strong. We do have to solve some problems.”

Mr. Trump criticized President Biden, though not by name, over inflation, the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and foreign-policy headaches in Ukraine and the Middle East.

Mr. Trump also pledged to bolster defense capabilities, citing advanced weaponry elsewhere, and recounted his trip to Paris for Saturday’s reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral.

“There was a lot of goodwill,” he said.

Mr. Trump hinted he would “take chances” by inviting certain VIPs to his Jan. 20 inauguration, but did not elaborate.

In his Time interview, Mr. Trump said that upon taking office he would pardon people who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and would use the military for deportations “to the maximum level of what the law allows.”

Also, Mr. Trump said he would speak to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, about whether the childhood vaccination program is safe.

Critics of the choice fear Mr. Kennedy will revive the theory that vaccines cause autism. Mr. Trump didn’t affirm a link but hinted at the possibility in a portion of the Time interview that focused on vaccines.

“The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible,” Mr. Trump said. “If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it.”

• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.