The most remarkable aspect of Donald Trump’s second Inauguration was the decorum of everyone participating in it—except Donald Trump.
As the master of ceremonies, Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar pointedly observed, this year’s Inauguration was in keeping with the all-but-unbroken tradition of the peaceful transition of power from one presidency to another. It was in utter contrast with the 2021 Inauguration of Joe Biden—boycotted by Trump, who’d just violently tried to overturn Biden’s election and still has not admitted he lost in 2020.
Biden, his wife, Jill, as well as defeated Vice President Kamala Harris dutifully—even graciously— attended Monday’s ceremonies.
Speeches by other participants at Trump’s Inaugural were uniformly anodyne, but Trump couldn’t resist describing the country’s condition in terms almost as dire as the “carnage” he said he inherited from Obama in 2016. And he blamed it all on Biden and “a radical and corrupt establishment (that) has extracted power and wealth from our citizens while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair.” In a separate speech to cheering supporters he called Biden’s “one of the worst administrations in American history, maybe the worst.”
Trump also reviewed his favorite grievances, notably being charged with an “unprecedented” number of crimes by Biden’s “weaponized” Justice Department. He neglected to repeat his and his FBI director-designate, Kash Patel’s vows to “go after” his adversaries, including even media figures who’ve criticized him.
Biden issued last-minute preemptive pardons to many of his targets, including former Rep. Lynne Cheney, retired Gen. Mark Milley, and retired National Institutes of Health official Anthony Faucci. In one of his speeches Monday, Trump accused both Cheney and Milley of “treason.”
Trump also neglected to mention that most of the charges that had been laid against him were entirely valid. He did try to overturn the 2020 election. He did collect highly sensitive government documents and then not only conceal them but obstruct federal authorities from recovering them. He’s on tape trying to intimidate Georgia Secretary of State Brent Raffensperger to “find” him the votes to overcome his 2020 defeat in that state.
Slick lawyering and friendly judges, including the US Supreme Court, helped him escape accountability for any of the offenses. The high court went so far as to issue him blanket immunity from prosecution for any crime he might have committed while in office.
He characteristically exaggerated his 2024 election victory as a “tremendous landslide” proving that the country was “united” behind him and that he has a mandate to fire thousands of federal employees, use the US military to patrol the Southern border and try to reclaim the Panama Canal. In fact, his Electoral College victory ranks 41st among all presidents and he carried the popular vote by just 1.5 percent.
The most obscene of all his Inauguration Day actions was his grant of clemency to all of nearly 1,600 of his supporters charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, violent attack on the US Capitol, which he instigated (and did not halt) in a last-ditch effort to steal the 2020 election. Trump referred to them as the “J6 hostages” and has long called them “patriots” even though 452 were charged and convicted with attacking or obstructing police officers. More than 140 officers were injured and five died as a result of the rioting. Among the beneficiaries of Trump’s clemency were 14 leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers convicted of seditious conspiracy and were serving up to 22 years in prison.
The released paramilitary group leaders and other violent J6 criminals—now Trump ultra-loyalists—are now available to form the core of goon squad that he can depend upon to threaten or attack adversaries that he only needs to mention. Trump is thus demonstrating anew that he believes in using violence to enforce his will—a characteristic of fascist leaders in the past and current-day authoritarians.
Probably the most dangerous of Trump’s moves was to reverse Biden’s actions to cope with climate change and to institute a policy of “drill, baby, drill” for oil and natural gas. This, in spite of fires raging in drought-plagued California, floods in the Southeast US, and all-time high temperature records set practically every year.
It’s the overwhelming consensus of climate scientists that burning of fossil fuels is responsible for temperature increases that they deem an “existential threat” to mankind. Trump refers to climate change change as a “hoax.”
I was impressed that during President Trump heaped praise on American industrial might built by adventurous entrepenuers and visionaries. And here he was, the son of a predacious New York slumlord, and, himself, four or five times bankrupt, getting ready to rule America with his mighty fist.
As if Donald’s massive ego needed such a boost. And the Felon-in-Chief released over 1500 fellow felons from prison the other day. Many them swearing total allegiance to The Donald. Now they are his own personal militia. Maybe it’s only fair. His lies led them into disaster.
Now the Grifter-in-Chief is already cashing in on the bitcoin business that he once declared to be like money out of thin air. If Orange Man lives the full 4 years of his presidency he and his family will be rolling in dough. But America will be so very diminished, not great, not respected in the world. Just so much smaller.
Trump and his far-Right wrecking crew are certainly working at changing the nature of the American political landscape, and in the process are destabilizing the federal government. It would be reckless to ignore the possibility that the federal bureaucracy will become highly politicized to the point that only party members or their fellow-travelers need apply for civil service jobs.
In the run-up to the 2016 election, and during most of Trump 1.0, pundits and Very Serious People repeatedly failed to envision how bad things would go with Trump, first as candidate, then as POTUS, and finally as leader of a failed insurrection.
Now we should know better: Trumpism isn’t a one-time aberration but THE motive force in US politics. It could define both our domestic and foreign policy for decades. Threats and pettiness will very likely turn into the promised Trumpian retribution – I call it “Revenge of the Trump-Lumpen” and the “Triumph of Dumb-ocracy.”
Nice little country we had there, wasn’t it? Too bad we didn’t see all this coming a decade ago, when there was a good chance it could have been avoided.