Yesterday at a bit after high noon, Donald J. Trump was inaugurated as 47th President of the United States of America. George W. Bush’s oft reported statement of the proceedings the first time around, that is, Trump (v.1) in 2017: “…that was some weird shit” applied still – one could even say the whole affair was even more perplexing.
Due to freezing temperatures (complementing the state of some of those unfortunates in forced attendance), Trump’s inaugural address was held in the rotunda of the Capitol – yes that place where his out of control MAGA supporters tried to hinder the succession of power in 2021 – and was, though not quite the American carnage rhetoric from 2017, still dark enough to leave one aghast, and his reckoning with the outgoing Biden administration ruthless and complete. There he stood, ignoring precedent and ritualistic niceties, just as full of himself as ever, or more so. But, the more typical stream of consciousness diatribe followed a short time later as he spoke to loyalists elsewhere in the Capitol building, and was indicative for sure of what we are all in for during the next four years.
It all became even more madcap at a sports arena “rally” where, seated at a desk in the midst of the faithful, Trump signed a seemingly never ending series of executive orders. All this to raucous mega MAGA applause which he acknowledged with snide remarks and a flourishing pen – sorry, sharpie – to then be tossed to his adoring audience amidst more rapturous applause!
In the last hours more have followed, and many more intentions – some precise, some vague. Just a selection: renaming of Mount Denali (back to Mt. McKinley) and the Gulf of Mexico (to Gulf of America); immigration: securing borders, seeking out and expelling illegal aliens, (an attempt to) end birthright citizenship; gender and diversity: abandoning D.E.I. programs, two sex (m/f) only policy; international bodies: withdrawal from WHO, ditto the Paris climate agreement; tariffs: around the corner – 25% on imports from Canada and Mexico, 10% on those from China; climate and energy : Biden’s ‘green new deal’ torpedoed, Alaska opened up to drilling, EV’s no longer to receive federal subsidies, no more wind farms on federal property; government efficiency: the infamous DOGE, freeze on federal hiring, return to office order.
That all is but a sampling! Announcements are coming at a terrifying rate. This is another Trump, another Trump administration. A much more dangerous proposition.