Note to self: Start dressing like Melania. Start by looking for snazzy hats.
I’m quite happy — almost as happy as Elon Musk when Trump mentioned Mars.
Former VP Kamala Harris looks like she needs a drink.
Two of the four faith leaders here today are from Manhattan: Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of NY, and Rabbi Ari Berman of Yeshiva University.
Typically, presidents use their inauguration speeches to try and reach out to those who didn’t vote for them, to use more lofty and poetic rhetoric aimed at creating the sort of lines that get quoted throughout history. The actual vision is typically laid out in broad strokes. This was not one of those speeches. Instead, Trump’s speech was much more akin to the sort of speech we’ve heard from him many other times at rallies. Instead of aiming for more enduring or big picture rhetoric, Trump got very specific, down to the executive orders he intends to sign today on immigration, gender, etc.
Conclusion: this was a highly nationalistic speech, mostly in good ways. And Trump by this point is entitled to take some partisan shots. The substance included many things that are rightly controversial, but I doubt that he alarmed or offended anyone who wasn’t already alarmed or offended by the prospect of another Trump presidency. If we look back on this speech poorly, it will only be because Trump failed to deliver what he has promised.
Trump just promised, “our power will stop all wars.” Next up, immanentizing the eschaton!
The beginning of the speech had some of the “American Carnage” speech in it, but after that it’s mostly been uplifting and muscular and optimistic.
Speech isn’t over yet, but Trump’s litany of retaking the Panama Canal and renaming the “Gulf of America” seems to conspicuously omit mention of Greenland.
Someone has a shot glass that says “45.” Another person has a shot glass that says “47.” They have just toasted to the “Gulf of America.”