Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president on Monday, and as is often the case with Trump, things were not normal. Here are just a few of the strange things the entire world saw as Trump took the oath of office.
Trump didn’t put his hand on the Bible
When Trump took the oath, he never placed his hand on the Bible held by his wife Melania Trump. By contrast, when Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama took the oath, they put their hands on the Bible.
Trump in the dumps
On his way in to take his oath, Trump didn’t look particularly happy to be there. He slowly walked in with a demeanor more appropriate for a funeral than a triumphant political victory.
Trump misses his kiss with Melania
The customary kiss for the presidential spouse was also a misfire. Perhaps due to the gigantic size of her hat, Trump gave his wife, Melania Trump, a mere air kiss instead of the real thing.
Oligarchs up front
Instead of congressional leaders, the people with the closest seats to Trump’s ceremony were billionaires who have bent the knee to him. They included co-president Elon Musk (the richest person in the world), Amazon and Washington Post head Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg (fresh off of unleashing hate speech across his sites), and Apple head Tim Cook.
Elon Musk investigates the ceiling
Elon Musk gave a close inspection of the ceiling of the Capitol, instead of keeping his eyes on the ceremony.
U.S. President Donald Trump's inauguration speech on Monday gave half of America what it wanted to hear, and will give the other half nightmares. While he may be better prepared than in 2017, when his administration was mostly dysfunctional, he will still struggle to achieve many of his pledges
It was "Liberation Day," President Donald Trump proclaimed with profound seriousness on Monday, referring to his election and inauguration. Just like Paris in August 1944 or East Berlin in 1989. Still, it's good he didn't use Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Thank God almighty, we are free at last," given that the inauguration coincided with MLK Day.
Split-screen America. Half of it was watching through joyous tears the inauguration of the person they believe is the last best hope of earth, a no-nonsense guy who hates everything they hate.
They watched a reality show featuring the man who speaks their mind and, just like them, has had it with liberal pontification and condescension. This is the man who will rid America of "woke culture," halve their Walmart bill, cut their taxes, punish bureaucrats, deport immigrants by the ton, return acceptable language and ethnic-sexist jokes to a 1970s level, and bring them all to the promised Greenland.
The other half was watching with tears of despair a twice-impeached, 34-counts-convicted felon; a sexual predator who instigated an insurrection after refusing to accept the 2020 election result. A man they viscerally and apoplectically hate, convinced he is on a mission to undermine American democracy; to undo everything that has been achieved since 1776 and turn America into a dystopian, authoritarian oligarchy in which experts are derided, abortions are illegal, the police can be brutal at will and the media is the enemy.
Who would have thought that after four years of record job numbers following the COVID pandemic, falling murder and other crime rates, one of the highest stock market performances ever, no U.S. troops involved in foreign wars and record energy production, "America's decline is over," as Trump declared. Why has the decline stopped? Easy – by virtue of his election.
In the end, both halves of America got exactly what they expected on Monday. Trump is Trump, and delivered a Trump speech.
The first half of America will get little from what they think he will deliver to them. The second half may have a four-year mental meltdown, but will hopefully find out in 2028 that America survived.
The campaign is over
On a cold January 20, 1961, John F. Kennedy made arguably the most famous presidential inaugural address in modern American history: "And so, my fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: Ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man."
Trump's first inaugural address, on January 20, 2017, won rave reviews. As former President George W. Bush put it, "That was some weird shit."
There were other memorable inaugural addresses. On March 4, 1865 (before the 20th Amendment in 1933, the presidential inauguration was always on that date), Abraham Lincoln uttered the famous words: "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations." A month later, the Civil War was over.
On March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt stated: "So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
The shortest Inaugural address was a mere 135 words, made by George Washington on March 4, 1793, during the swearing-in for his second term: "This oath I am now about to take, and in your presence: That if it shall be found during my administration of the government I have in any instance violated willingly or knowingly the injunctions thereof, I may, besides incurring constitutional punishment, be subject to the upbraidings of all who are now witnesses of the present solemn ceremony."
For obvious reasons, Trump chose not to borrow that particular passage. However, nor did he go the length of the longest address in U.S. history – that of William Henry Harrison (8,445 words, six times the length of this article) on March 4, 1841.
The biggest question for Americans and the watching world ahead of Trump's speech was how much of his boisterous and far-reaching campaign promises would be rekindled.
The campaign is over, the transition period has ended. He is now president. Would he pledge mass deportations? Would he threaten political enemies and civil liberties? Would he repeat his promise to fire thousands of "disloyal" civil servants? Would he make any major foreign policy statements? He did. All along those campaign rally lines.
Even before his return to the White House, Trump has indicated on many occasions, and on a diverse set of topics, that he now regards presidential power – and his ability to exercise it – differently than he did in 2017. Eight years ago, still shocked and disoriented by his own surprise victory, an inexperienced Trump – hostile to government but unfamiliar with its machinations and Washington's political culture – was paralyzed.
He failed to govern effectively and his administration was mostly dysfunctional. He was easily distracted, course-corrected – or derailed according to him – by frequent confrontations and vitriolic friction with federal bureaucracy, which he depicted as a "deep state" out to get him.
Now he believes he is ready and knowledgeable enough to take them on from the outset.
Alarming promises, and more alarming promises
According to The New York Times, Trump already told people he wants to "sign around 100 executive orders" at the start, including what he boasts will be "the largest deportation operation in American history."
His list of campaign promises and pledges reads not like a major overhaul or reform but a full revolution upending what America is, how it has been governed and how it functioned for at least the least 50 years.
The framework is "Project 2025," a political initiative published in 2023 by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation. Trump disavowed the project during the campaign after being attacked over it, claiming he had never heard of it. However, it resonated loudly and clearly in both his transition period statements and his inauguration speech.
Campaign is poetry and governance is prose, goes the cliché, and Trump will likely not achieve even 20 percent of his ambitious agenda. But it is still worthwhile recalling the laundry list of promises he made on the campaign trail.
Let's start with the easy part: foreign policy. Trump said he would "end the Ukraine war in 24 hours" once in office. "You're going to see peace in the Middle East." And, of course, "we will finish the process of reevaluating NATO's purpose and mission." If it comes to withdrawal from NATO, Trump will need congressional approval. But like everything he promises or entertains, that is easier said than done.
Immigration is his most blustery and contentious trademark issue. He proclaimed that he would begin a "mass deportation on Day One." He said he would close the border with Mexico, despite the fact that illegal immigration was down significantly over the last four years. That's a monumental undertaking that requires federal-state-municipal-multiagency law enforcement coordination, not to mention the horrid optics.
He also said he would end "birthright citizenship" for children born in the United States to illegal immigrants. The constitutionality of this will surely be challenged as a violation of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. If that's not enough, he vowed to "end sanctuary cities" – a biblical term referring to American cities that refuse to cooperate with the federal government on deporting immigrants.
On the economy, Trump vowed to "end inflation" and "make America affordable again" – just like that. "We will lower grocery and car prices, and gasoline prices to under $2 a gallon," he said repeatedly.
Tariffs, one of Trump's favorite campaign and transition period topics, got a list of promises all to itself: a universal 10 to 20 percent tariff on all imported goods; a 25 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada and Mexico; and up to 60 percent tariffs on all imports from China. Warnings that this would raise prices and even inflation have been derided by Trump, as were threats by those countries to reciprocate.
Tariffs will be complemented by an extension and expansion of tax cuts from his previous term, particularly for the rich and corporations.
On energy, Trump said he would roll back federal incentives for buying electric cars and, simultaneously, increase and accelerate the production of oil and natural gas.
On crime and the police, he has pledged to increase the punishment for human and sex trafficking, impose the death penalty on illegal immigrants who commit deadly crimes, and substantially broaden policy immunity against lawsuits for alleged brutality and illicit practices.
On education and America's universities, he vowed to shut the Department of Education and delegate oversight authority to states, defund universities that have enacted DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and end the "transgender insanity."
His threats and warnings about the Justice Department are especially alarming to those who see him as an illiberal authoritarian intent on undermining American democracy.
He vowed retribution against his political rivals to such an extent that, on his last day in office, Biden issued preemptive pardons to people Trump was targeting. These included the entire January 6 inquiry commission, as well as the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and Dr. Anthony Fauci – who dared call the coronavirus a pandemic and recommended the closure of public spaces and stores.
Trump promised to persecute media organizations whom he deems enemies (the ABC network's parent company, Disney, already rushed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit the president filed against George Stephanopoulos' "This Week" show). He then guaranteed pardons to January 6 insurrectionists who were sentenced to jail terms for violently attacking the U.S. Capitol Building in D.C.
His biggest political challenge is not his real or imagined enemies but the GOP's razor-tight congressional majority, especially in the House of Representatives. It requires airtight discipline from Republicans on almost every important vote, and any political deviance could cost him critical legislation and momentum. This means that in terms of planning, his political window essentially stretches from now until the congressional midterm elections in November 2026.
Aware of this constraint, Trump has already indicated that he plans to begin governing through executive orders that circumvent Congress. Tomorrow, Americans may find out, is the first day of the rest of their democracy. For the world, it could be the beginning of the end of the "American order." Half of America thinks that's a good thing.
Tomorrow: INAUGURATION PART III: The Promises (that will hurt you)
No comments:
Post a Comment