Trump's Inaugural Facade
It was real, but it's about what's behind it
I watched the inauguration. In recent years, I’ve drawn it. But this time, I could’t do it, nor could I draw a political cartoon. Just the above simple drawing of resistance made sense.
Before the actual swearing in this morning, President Biden pre-emptively pardoned a number of people, including Liz Cheney and Dr. Fauchi and the entire January 6th Committee. Then, moments before Trump became president, it was announced in the media that moments earlier, Biden pardoned five members of his family: his brother James B. Biden; Sara Jones Biden, James’s wife; Valerie Biden Owens, Mr. Biden’s sister; John T. Owens, Ms. Owens’s husband; and Francis W. Biden, Mr. Biden’s brother.
“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics,” he said in his last statement as president. “Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”
I find this to be chilling.
Tickets were hard to come by for this inside inaugural, but billionaire tech men Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos were in the audience. And of course Musk. NYC Mayor Eric Adams was there, although I didn’t see him. According to the observation of CBS News anchor Gayle King, he must have been in the minority, because she said that while scanning the attendees, there were very few people of color.
My observations of the event from the CNN stream: George Bush keeps winking at people, and looking like he wants to crack a joke, and, after a while, he had slid down in his seat, as if watching a football game on a large-screen tv. Doug Emhoff looked perpetually like he might do something rash. Hillary looked annoyed, Barack looked like he was just going through the motions. Bill looked like he didn’t have a care in the world. Kamala looked ticked off. I am all for the peaceful transfer of power, but this must have been very difficult for so many to attend.
Trump’s inaugural address was less a speech than a redo of one of his rallies. He began by listing how bad he thinks the US is now, and how great he is going to make it.
Droning on about his personal grievances, and “the many betrayals,” he said “from this moment on, American’s decline is over.” He had to mention that he was twice the target of a shooter, and spoke about his ear, and then said, “my life was saved for a reason: I was saved by God to make America great again.”
The ego.
As Trump spoke, Biden had the look of someone who expected nothing less, and had a slight smirk. At one point, when Trump said he was going to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of American, Hillary actually laughed.
Doesn’t Doug look like he might lash out at any minute?
Trump of course had to acknowledge Martin Luther King, Jr. today. He said, “On this day, MLK day, we will strive to make his dream come true.” I wish I believed him. Many stood in applause, but Biden, Harris, Hillary, and I assume the rest of the group in their vicinity, did not. Hollow words.
He laid out his list of things he will do, starting with immigration, and he repeatedly got applause at every line, at least from some. Here are some of the things he said — in a few cases, I paraphrase because I didn’t quite catch the exact words.
“We will eliminate gangs in all our cities.”
“We will drill, baby, drill.”
“We will end government censorship and bring back free speech to America”
We will end chronic disease.”
Re the Panama Canal: we’re gonna “take it back!”
“We will be the envy of the world”
“We will be planting the stars and stripes on the planet Mars”
“The spirit of the frontier is written in our hearts.” This is a cowboy/macho reference which is fitting for his macho administration.
“We stand on the verge of the four greatest years of America.”
“I will win for you. We are going to win like never before.”
“Our power will stop all wars.”
“America will be respected again, and admired again, we will be prosperous, we will be proud, we will win like never before. We will not be broken, we will not fail. We will dream boldly, and nothing will stand in our way. Our golden age has just begun.”
My ears heard these words as the words of a dictator.
And perhaps this is catty of me to say, but I saw lot of botox in the inaugural room, on both men and women. I think it’s symbolic. Trump is all facade. We can’t rest on that, because while he may be a facade, while he may sound like a president that a 7 year old might dream up, he has people close to him who could do a lot of damage. Our system of checks and balances has to remain strong.
While the U.S. is far from perfect, I have always believed that our country is a place that tries to help others; that is our reason for being. We should use the privilege that we have for good. I don’t believe he thinks that way, and that to Trump, greatness is about money.
Greatness - if you want to use that word- is about helping others.
Keep your mind on Dr. King, if you can.
Thanks for being here. See you tomorrow.
I like your focus on the People's March! Today is the first time in my life I haven't watched the inauguration. I'm 72, so there have been a lot of inaugurations in my life, but I feel no desire to support this administration. I read Robert Reich today and found his viewpoint helpful. Actually, Substack in particular is great at uplifting my spirits. Your drawings and comments are central to my window on the world these days.
thank you for the summation. I could not bring myself to watch it. thanks to Joe Biden for the last minute pardons. I hope the rest of the world will understand that Trump does not speak for all Americans.