Fearing the wrath of Dear Leader, congressional Republicans are either refusing to comment on Donald Trump’s disgusting pardons
of violent Capitol insurrection convicts, or are flat-out lying about what Trump actually did to avoid having to criticize his behavior.
Hours after being sworn in to his second term, Trump gave unconditional pardons
to 1,550 people who either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of crimes related to their actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
The pardons and pending dismissals also covered more than 600 rioters were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers at the Capitol, nearly 175 of whom were accused of doing so with deadly or dangerous weapons including baseball bats, two-by-fours, crutches, hockey sticks and broken wooden table legs.
Trump also commuted the sentences of members of right-wing militia groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers
who were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their roles in planning and encouraging violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021—leading to the release of those men from prison.
But multiple members of the House and Senate, including Republican congressional leaders, told reporters on Tuesday that they couldn’t make a judgement on the blanket pardons Trump issued because they haven’t read up on them yet—the least believable lie on earth.
“I haven’t gone into the detail,” Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida said.
SEN RICK SCOTT: “If you violate the law you should be prosecuted.” ABC: “What about those [Jan 6 rioters] who assaulted police officers and then were pardoned by the president?” SCOTT: “I haven’t gone into the detail.” pic.twitter.com/TlIU4sidCn
“I don’t know all the cases. I certainly don’t want to pardon any violent actors. But there’s a real miscarriage of justice here so I’m totally supportive of it,” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin told
Fox News reporter Chad Pergram, apparently unaware that Trump pardoned violent actors.
Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama said
he wouldn’t be for pardoning the violent insurrectionists, but wouldn’t comment because he “didn’t see” if Trump did that.
Republican Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota knew that Trump issued pardons, but played dumb about what they entailed.
“My understanding, there was a range of actions that he took. And I guess I want to look and see what those are,” Hoeven said
.
Other lawmakers straight-up lied about the pardons, saying Trump issued them on a “case-by-case basis.”
“We’re not looking backwards, we’re looking forward,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told
CNN’s Manu Raju, adding, “I think they were case-by-case.”
“Republican senators are physically shrugging when reporters ask them what they think of Trump pardoning January 6 defendants,” Haley Byrd Wilt, a Capitol Hill reporter for the nonprofit news outlet NOTUS, wrote
in a post on X.
Former Sen. Marco Rubio, who is now Trump’s secretary of state, said
he wouldn’t comment.
“I’m not going to engage in domestic political debates,” Rubio told NBC News.
In another interview
with CBS, Rubio refused to comment again, saying “I work for Trump.”
“You said the images of the attacks stirred up anger in you. You said the nation was embarrassed. How do you reconcile that with the pardons?” RUBIO: “I work for Trump.” pic.twitter.com/enD3dJQRwW
“I assume you’re asking me about the Biden pardons of his family,” Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa told
Semafor’s Burgess Everett—a ridiculous whataboutism. “I’m just talking about the Biden pardons, because that is so selfish.”
“You’ve seen President Biden’s preemptive pardons. Pardons of his own family. The power presidential pardons is one granted to a president and there’s really no role for the Congress … it’s the president’s prerogative,” Cornyn said
.
The pardons go against what Trump’s own vice president said just a few days ago that Trump would do.
“If you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn’t be pardoned,” JD Vance said
in a Jan. 11 appearance
on “Fox News Sunday.”
WATCH: @JDVance
lays out President-elect Trump’s pardon process for January 6th participants. Tune in tomorrow for the rest of Shannon’s exclusive interview with Vice President-elect JD Vance. pic.twitter.com/RvqXrL6rO3
“I’m disappointed to see that and I do fear the message that is sent to these great men and women that stood by us,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, one of the few Republicans who’s actually stood up to Trump in the past, said
.
“Anybody who is convicted of assault on a police officer, I can’t get there, at all. I think it was a bad idea,” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said
.
“Well I think I agree with the vice president,” Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky told
Semafor, referring to Vance’s belief that violent insurrectionists shouldn’t have been pardoned. “No one should excuse violence. And particularly violence against police officers.”
Of course, we don’t want to praise anyone for doing the bare minimum and speaking the truth about Trump’s awful actions.
And McConnell is largely to blame
for the fact that these pardons took place at all, as he refused to convict Trump in the impeachment trial in January 2021, allowing Trump to run for president again.
Donald Trump has terminated the Secret Service detail assigned to his former national security adviser John Bolton. The move comes at the same time that Trump revoked
Bolton and other former national security officials’ security clearances.
“I am disappointed but not surprised that President Trump has made this decision,” Bolton confirmed to CNN
. “Notwithstanding my criticisms of President [Joe] Biden’s national-security policies, he nonetheless made the decision to once again extend Secret Service protection to me in 2021.”
In 2022, the Justice Department revealed
that Bolton was allegedly the subject of an assassination plot by a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. “The Justice Department has the solemn duty to defend our citizens from hostile governments who seek to hurt or kill them,” the DOJ explained in a statement at the time.
At the time, the DOJ said that Bolton and other Trump-era officials became a focus of the IRGC after Trump ordered an airstrike
that killed Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani
in January 2020. The Biden administration levied sanctions
on Iran over the alleged plots to kill Bolton and others in 2023.
RT, Russia’s state-owned propaganda network, mocked Donald Trump just a day after he offered up light criticism of Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
RT posted a video
of Trump apparently dozing off at a National Prayer Service in Washington along with the caption, “Trump must be tired after signing all those executive orders, deporting all those people and abolishing all those genders. Melania makes sure he doesn’t pull a Biden and fall asleep.”
Trump must be tired after signing all those executive orders, deporting all those people and abolishing all those genders Melania makes sure he doesn’t pull a Biden and fall asleep https://t.co/IvRUqDjz8fpic.twitter.com/eVPi3psrpq
The jab at Trump comes less than 24 hours after Trump criticized
Putin for “not making a deal” to end the war against Ukraine.
“He’s not doing so well. I mean, he’s grinding it out … it’s not making him look very good. … I think he would be well off to end that war,” Trump told reporters.
Trump has usually avoided criticizing Putin over the issue of Ukraine. Trump has even claimed that the war wasn’t Putin’s fault and blamed it on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The war began in 2022 after Putin lied and said
areas of Ukraine were under control by neo-Nazis, justifying an incursion across the border by the Russian military who has been there since.
Not only has Trump offered up excuses for Putin, he has even blamed
Ukraine for their predicament—at one point claiming that Zelenskyy “let that war start.”
RT has traditionally been in Trump’s corner. In September, the Department of Justice accused
the network of being part of a scheme to funnel millions of dollars to pro-Trump media influencers. Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said RT was “functioning like a de facto arm of Russia’s intelligence apparatus.”
Trump, of course, benefitted from Russian assistance during the 2016 presidential campaign. A bipartisan report from the Senate released in 2020
detailed contacts between Trump associates and the Russians, who distributed pro-Trump disinformation.
The Russian criticism of Trump comes on the heels of signals
from North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un that he would pursue his “toughest” anti-U.S. policy. Trump has lavished Kim with praise and during his last stint as president gave the international pariah state a public relations boost by posing for photos with the dictator.
Trump is already causing disruption and concern with America’s traditional allies
in NATO while making threatening overtures against
Greenland and Panama. Just a few days into his second presidency and Trump already has the beginnings of a foreign policy headache on his hands.
Shortly after being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States, Donald Trump set out to fulfill many of his campaign promises, signing a flurry of executive orders
and pardoning roughly 1,500
people convicted for their role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
While many of these moves have earned him plaudits
from both members of the media
and his base, polling shows they’re divisive, if not outright unpopular, with the American electorate.
Mass deportations
Starting with Trump’s most audacious immigration-related proposals, he’s sought to send troops
to the Southern border, reinstate the controversial “remain in Mexico
” policy for asylum-seekers, and end birthright citizenship for those born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants—a concept promised by the Constitution’s 14th Amendment
.
While Americans’ attitudes toward increased immigration have soured
and there’s an uptick in support
for securing the U.S.-Mexico border, the public hasn’t quite taken to mass deportations, which Trump has promised
. A December Civiqs poll for Daily Kos
found that just over half of registered voters (53%) support this, while an almost equal percentage (46%) were opposed.
Deporting immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally but who have not been convicted of a crime nets even less support. According to recent polling from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research
, just 37% of Americans support deporting undocumented immigrants who have not committed a crime, compared with 44% who are against doing so.
Ending birthright citizenship
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order
seeking to end birthright citizenship—despite the fact that few Americans want him to do so. The same AP-NORC poll found that 28% of Americans support this, while a majority (51%) were opposed.
It’s possible that recent polling might undersell how many people are opposed to this policy, especially since it’s sure to get tied up in legal challenges. Republicans have pushed to end birthright citizenship since at least 2011
, but polling from around that time suggests that there was never a majority support for it.
For instance, a 2010 poll from Quinnipiac University
found that 45% of registered voters said they wanted to “continue to grant citizenship to all children born in the U.S.,” while 48% said that existing laws should change “so children of illegal immigrants are not automatically granted citizenship.”
Pardoning Jan. 6 rioters
According to former special counsel Jack Smith’s report
, Trump could not accept his loss to former President Joe Biden in 2020 so he tried
to “direct an angry mob to the United States Capitol … to further delay it.” Smith added that the crowd was predominantly supporters of Trump and that they “violently attacked” law enforcement officers attempting to secure the building.
Insurrectionists loyal to Donald Trump riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Public sentiment is overwhelmingly against pardoning the convicted rioters.
The same December Civiqs poll
found that 51% of voters were opposed to pardoning the rioters, including a plurality (47%) who said they were strongly opposed.
Other surveys have found similar results. According to December polling from CBS News/YouGov
, 80% of Americans still disapprove of the actions of those who forced their way into the Capitol on Jan. 6, compared with 19% who approve of it. Meanwhile, AP-NORC found just only 2 in 10 Americans favor pardoning most people who participated in the attack, but a much larger share (6 in 10) oppose it, including half who strongly oppose it.
Imposing tariffs
Trump has also announced plans to impose 25% tariffs
on imports from Canada and Mexico starting on Feb. 1. But according to data from the Global Strategist Group
, released in December, 3 in 5 Americans view tariffs unfavorably and believe that they’ll increase costs (which they likely will
).
Meanwhile, data released on Tuesday by Navigator Research
showed that 37% of registered voters support Trump’s tariff plan, while a slightly larger share (41%) are against it. Like Trump’s other proposals, support for tariffs is highly partisan: Nearly two-thirds of Republicans (67%) support imposing taxes on foreign goods, while 67% of Democrats oppose it. Independents are more split on the issue: While a plurality (43%) are against Trump’s tariff plan, roughly one-third of them (35%) are unsure.
Withdrawing from Paris climate agreement
Sections of pipe for the Mountain Valley Pipeline are seen lined up Elliston, Virginia, on Sept. 15, 2020.
On Monday, Trump signed an executive order
directing the U.S. to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, but about half of Americans oppose this, according to aforementioned AP-NORC polling.
That polling found that roughly half of Americans (52%) “strongly” or “somewhat” oppose that action, with even Republicans fairly split on it (only 45% support the move). Meanwhile, only 2 in 10 Americans (21%) support withdrawing from the 2015 Paris climate agreement, a move that could isolate the nation from the global campaign to curb climate change.
Mandated return-to-office policies
Another one of Trump’s executive orders mandated that federal employees return to the office
five days a week, ending almost all remote-work arrangements. This is likely to be one of the Trump administration’s most unpopular policies since many workers have come to appreciate the flexibility of remote or hybrid work, which was popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In October, the Pew Research Center
found that a little under half (46%) of U.S. employees who work from home at least sometimes would be unlikely to stay at their current workplace if their employers required them to come into an office. Only about one-third (36%) said they would stay at their current job if existing remote-work policies changed.
There are a number of reasons why workers might prefer more flexible work policies, though Gallup
found in 2021 that some of the top reasons for wanting fully remote work included avoiding a commute (52%) and feeling more productive (35%).
While Democrats most strongly oppose the majority of Trump’s plans, Republicans also display some ambivalence, especially over pardons for Jan. 6 rioters. Despite Republican lawmakers and Big Tech allies hyping up Trump, this data seems to suggest that Trump’s honeymoon period
might be over soon.
Then again, if Trump’s ever on the outs with voters and finds himself looking to curry favor with them, maybe he can sign an executive order to lower the prices of eggs
.
Donald Trump gave a negative review to a church service that asked for mercy for immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community.
Trump attended a national prayer service at National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday accompanied by Vice President JD Vance. The Right Rev. Mariann Budde, an Episcopal bishop, delivered the service and called for unity across ideologies.
Directly addressing Trump, Budde said, “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared. There are gay, lesbian, and transgender children in Democratic, Republican, and independent families—some who fear for their lives.”
Budde then mentioned immigrants and noted, “The vast majority of immigrants are not criminals,” as Vance appeared to roll his eyes and Trump shuffled in his seat.
“I ask you to have mercy on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away,” Budde asked.
Following the service, Trump was asked
by reporters to comment.
“Not too exciting,” he said. “They could do much better.”
Budde’s call for mercy comes as Trump prepares to deliver on the anti-immigrant promises he made during the presidential campaign, most notably planning for mass deportations
. Senior Trump aide Stephen Miller, who has a considerable history of racism
and affiliations with white supremacists, recently huddled
with congressional Republicans to begin making plans on that front.
Trump also signed an anti-transgender
executive order, claiming that there are just two biological sexes—a return to his campaign’s demagoguery of transgender Americans. (Biologists largely disagree
with the idea of binary sex.)
Trump’s flippant remark following the religious service comes just a day after he notably declined
to put his hand on the Bible during his inauguration ceremony, bucking a cross-party tradition.
His negative review of the sermon also echoes his habit of reacting poorly to criticism. During the presidential campaign, he backed out
of a second debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, who was widely seen as the winner
of their first and only debate.
As arguably the most prominent leader in the world, Trump will attract considerable criticism, and like the last time he held office, he is showing early signs of not being able to handle it well.
Less than 24 hours into his second term, Donald Trump is already trying to settle scores with his perceived enemies, taking multiple petty actions to stroke his giant and fragile ego.
Less than two hours after being sworn in, Trump had a portrait of Gen. Mark Milley—the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who called Trump a “fascist
” and a “dangerous” person—removed from the Pentagon, The New York Times reported
. The portrait had been unveiled
just 10 days ago.
Trump’s hatred of Milley runs so deep that former President Joe Biden gave Milley a preemptive pardon
to prevent Trump from ordering his administration to prosecute Milley for whatever made-up crimes they could conjure up.
Milley said he was grateful for Biden’s pardon.
“I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights,” he said in a statement. “I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety.”
Trump also announced that he removed four people Biden appointed, including Milley.
Our first day in the White House is not over yet! My Presidential Personnel Office is actively in the process of identifying and removing over a thousand Presidential Appointees from the previous Administration, who are not aligned with our vision to Make America Great Again. Let this serve as Official Notice of Dismissal for these 4 individuals, with many more, coming soon: Jose Andres from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, Mark Milley from the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars, and Keisha Lance Bottoms from the President’s Export Council—YOU’RE FIRED!
Andres is a humanitarian who has been nominated
for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit he founded that feeds people suffering from natural disasters, war, and poverty.
Andres wrote in a post on X that he couldn’t be removed from his position because he already resigned a week ago.
I submitted my resignation last week…my 2 year term was already up. I was honored to serve as co-chair of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition. My fellow council members – unpaid volunteers like me – were hardworking, talented people who inspired me every day. I’m proud of what we accomplished on behalf of the American people…like a historic partnership between the White House and every major sports league to increase access to sports and health programs for kids. I hope @realdonaldtrump
exercises his presidential authority so the Council can continue to advocate for fitness and good health for all Americans. These are bipartisan issues…nonpartisan issues. May God give you the wisdom, Mr. President, to put politics and name calling aside…and instead lift up the everyday people working to bring America together. Let’s build longer tables….
Bottoms served as mayor of Atlanta and later worked in the Biden White House as the director of the Office of Public Engagement.
Like Andres, Bottoms said she already left her position so Trump’s “firing” was moot.
“A day late and a dollar short … My resignation from the President’s Export Council was submitted January 4, effective yesterday,” Bottoms said
. “You can’t fire someone who has already resigned. Of all the things happening in the world, not sure why I’m on Donald Trump’s mind at 1:30 am following his inauguration, but I count it as a badge of honor.”
And it’s unclear why he targeted Hook, who actually served
in Trump’s first administration as an envoy to Iran.
As for other pettiness, following Trump’s dark and low-energy inaugural address
, he gave rambling 30-minute remarks
in which he complained about his 2024 victory and lied about voter fraud, falsely saying he “would have won the state of California” in 2024 were it not for fraud.
In those remarks
, Trump also falsely accused Milley as well as the members of Congress who investigated the Capitol insurrection of being guilty of “very, very guilty of very, very bad crimes”—making Biden’s preemptive pardons look well justified.
Ultimately, Trump’s first day in office was an abject disaster
that proved his detractors right when they warned that his second term would be four years of Trump going after anyone who he deems insufficiently subservient.
Online creators have been buzzing about Stewart and Lynda Resnick
, billionaires who own a portion of Southern California’s water supply, claiming that the couple is to blame for fire hydrants running dry
amid the ongoing wildfires across the region.
But while the Resnicks have a reputation
for being the “California couple who uses more water than every home in Los Angeles combined,” the blame is actually misplaced.
The Resnicks made their billions from their Wonderful Company
, which produces foods like Wonderful Pistachios, POM pomegranate juice, and Halo tangerines.
Firefighters hose down a burning structure in Pasadena, California.
In 1994, the Resnicks signed a controversial backroom deal
securing 58% of the Kern Water Bank. But according to CBS News
, California’s water laws allow owners the right to usage, not ownership of the water itself. Moreover, the state actually has laws prohibiting people from withholding or hoarding water.
Felicia Marcus, former chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board, told CBS News that the state constitution includes a “prohibition against waste and unreasonable use.”
In other words, if “you actually ended up in a situation where somebody was withholding water at a grand scale,” the government could step in.
The Resnicks, who pledged $10 million
from Wonderful Company for wildfire relief efforts, are just one example of the misinformed blame-throwing going on since the fires started.
President Donald Trump falsely claimed
that California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s failure to sign a “water restoration declaration” was the reason for water supply shortages. Newsom’s office later noted that “no such document” even exists.
Other finger pointing was aimed at AI and tech companies
, where social media users quickly circulated claims that super computers used up the water supplies desperately needed by the firefighters.
The real reason
for the lack of water, however, is much more complicated. And, even more so, Los Angeles was simply not equipped for a natural disaster of this scale even with water supplies at a historical high.
“What’s happening in LA is not because there’s not enough water in LA in storage,” Marcus said. “There are no urban water systems that are built out to handle a firestorm like this.”
At the end of the day, people are angry and scared. Many have lost their homes, their financial safety net, and their sense of security. And as of Jan. 16, at least 27 people
died in the fires.
Firefighters work to put out a fire in Malibu, California.
While conditions have eased, allowing firefighters to push back the flames, the ultra-dry conditions have experts concerned about future vulnerability
.
For those looking to help out but not sure where to start, disaster relief expert Irwin Redlener
told Daily Kos that it’s not always helpful to throw money at large nonprofits like American Red Cross, since they often already have large endowments for disasters.
Instead, he recommends supporting charities at the local level, including churches. But even that, unfortunately, can be complicated as it’s difficult to trace where exactly funds are going.
“It’s hard for the consumer to tell what is actually most effective,” he said, adding that Charity Navigator
is a helpful tool for assessing a charity’s effectiveness.
Redlener also pointed out that the destruction from the California wildfires will last much longer than the media coverage.
“It will disappear from the front pages of news organizations, and it will be replaced by other issues. And, ironically, that may be the time when we really need to be thinking about what’s happening to the people who have been affected by the disaster,” he said. “So sometimes it might be worth it for people to sort of hold on to their generosity.”
Donald Trump’s chaotic inauguration
was the focus of Jon Stewart’s opening monologue during Monday night’s episode of “The Daily Show.”
After years of righteously, and justifiably
, criticizing the convicted felon for trying to overthrow our government, many of his detractors rolled on into the Capitol rotunda to watch his coronation.
“Even Mike Pence showed up, I guess, to let the crowd finish the job,” Stewart said about the former vice president, who almost lost his head after Trump targeted him
ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
“Only Michelle Obama seemed to have the consistent ethical stance of saying, ‘When they go low, I stay the fuck home,’” he added.
The entire inauguration was a display of the oligarchical takeover of the U.S. government, with the front row literally filled
with the world’s wealthiest men.
“Populism, ladies and gentlemen,” Stewart said. “Shouldn’t this gathering be happening at a volcano lair near Zurich? Or are we just open source illuminati now?”
And to top it all off, Trump didn’t even bother
to put his hand on the Bibles that Melania Trump held for his swearing in.
“Yes, it turns out Trump didn’t actually put his hand on the Bible. Obviously, because one or the other would burst into flames. Perhaps both,” Stewart joked.
Early in Donald Trump’s new presidency, mainstream media outlets confirmed fears of how they would cover him—by avoiding the truth, equivocating on his abuse of power, and even praising him.
The actions by widely read and watched outlets was the continuation of a recent trend that has seen outlets like ABC News
, MSNBC
, and The Washington Post
cave to Trump, even before he was sworn in.
“Time to Admit It: Trump Is a Great President,” reads the beginning of a Politico headline
published Tuesday. Contrary to its appearance, the column was not written by Trump himself or even one of his many MAGA acolytes in the media. Instead, it is the work of Politico co-founder and current Global Editor-in-Chief John F. Harris, a longtime mainstay of Washington journalism.
The gushing goes beyond the headline as Harris writes, “[Trump] is someone with an ability to perceive opportunities that most politicians do not and forge powerful, sustained connections with large swaths of people in ways that no contemporary can match. In other words: He is a force of history.”
When the mainstream press isn’t prematurely declaring Trump’s greatness (and ignoring the death toll
of his previous stint of making America “great”), it equivocated on one of his first acts, which gave a green light to hundreds of criminals.
But
at The Washington Post
, this was the equivalent of President Joe Biden’s decision
to preemptively pardon figures like Anthony Fauci, retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, and members of the Jan. 6 congressional committee whom Trump and his MAGA movement have targeted.
“Biden started the day with pardons. Trump finished with many more,” reads the Post headline—as if pardoning Enrique Tarrio, convicted of sedition against the United States, is the same thing as pardoning Dr. Fauci, who MAGA world hates for the sin of telling Americans to mask up during a global pandemic.
Things aren’t much better at The New York Times. Their headline
on Trump’s pardons: “In Dueling Pardons, an Intensified Fight Over the Meaning of Jan. 6.”
Apparently, the Times believes that Biden issuing a pardon to Milley, whom Trump has lambasted for calling him a “fascist
,” is on the same level as Trump’s pardon of the man who stormed the Capitol with a “Camp Auschwitz
” hoodie.
Yet,
at The Washington Post
, it was merely an “exuberant speech.” Meanwhile, for The New York Times
, the furor at the hand motion was explained away: “Elon Musk Ignites Online Speculation Over the Meaning of a Hand Gesture.”
Meanwhile, NBC’s Chicago affiliate apparently posted a video
of Musk’s speech where the feed cut to a shot of the audience at the precise moments of the offensive salutes.
Wild. Top is the NBC upload, bottom is the one aired as the live feed
Over the course of the 2024 election, the mainstream press made clear
that it would prioritize criticism of Democrats like Biden and Vice President Harris while playing down offenses by Trump. Now that Trump is back in the Oval Office, the press is continuing that trend.
The press has long been described as the watchdogs of democracy, but these outlets show that the watchdog has gone on a break.
In Donald Trump’s new conceit, America was a hellhole in 2016, he made it great, then former President Joe Biden broke everything, but thanks to Trump’s 2024 election win, everything will be great again. Or, as he said in his inaugural address
on Monday, “The golden age of America begins right now.”
You know he is full of shit. I know he’s full of shit. We’d like to think everyone around him knows so as well, but does he? It’s the age-old question: Is Trump evil or merely stupid?
If his inaugural speech
says anything, it’s that he is delusional in what he thinks he can accomplish.
After some throat clearing, Trump’s speech begins:
From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.
One of Trump’s conceits is that other countries no longer respect the United States but that they did respect us when he was president—a time when the world literally laughed at him
.
Our sovereignty will be reclaimed. Our safety will be restored. The scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent, and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.
Right off the bat, we find out that Trump has no intentions of uniting the country. Rather, he’ll be airing his usual grievances—Trump’s 24/7/365 celebration of Festivus
.
Trump wants to end the weaponization of the Justice Department? So patently absurd, especially as Trump frequently talks about
all his enemies he wants to prosecute. Just this past Saturday, he shared a post
on his Truth Social platform that called for Democratic politicians to be prosecuted.
It’s going to be an exhausting four years.
I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success, a tide of change is sweeping the country, sunlight is pouring over the entire world, and America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before.
Sunlight is pouring over the world, y’all.
As we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust. For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens, while the pillars of our society lay broken and, seemingly, in complete disrepair.
Imagine the gall of saying that when the front row of your inauguration audience—in front of your Cabinet picks—is the modern American oligarchy:
Inauguration guests Mark Zuckerberg (farthest left), Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai, and Elon Musk
Net worth
of those pictured as of Tuesday morning:
Add in Bernard Arnault, who also attended
and whose familial net worth is $181 billion, and you get a combined net worth of nearly $1.1 trillion. TRILLION. Four of the five richest men in the world were there, and it’s possible all five were if Trump pal Larry Ellison was also somewhere in the crowd.
Trump will stand there and talk about “extracted … wealth from our citizens” when he seems to have just pulled a pump-and-dump cryptocurrency scheme
on his own followers?
It’s telling that when talking about national disasters, his real empathy has always been for the wealthy:
Our country can no longer deliver basic services in times of emergency, as recently shown by the wonderful people of North Carolina, been treated so badly, and other states who are still suffering from a hurricane that took place many months ago.
Or more recently Los Angeles, where we are watching fires still tragically burn from weeks ago without even a token of defense. They’re raging through the houses and communities, even affecting some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country, some of whom are sitting here right now.
Maybe those powerful and wealthy individuals can pay their fair share of taxes to support those services? Not to mention the brutal insult to the firefighters bravely fighting those fires in Los Angeles.
Also, Trump cut the FEMA budget
last time he was president. You better believe it’ll get hacked this time around as well.
It is my hope that our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most consequential election in the history of our country. As our victory showed, the entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda …
It won’t be remembered as such. Why would it be? Sheesh.
And no, the nation isn’t unifying. It’s just as divided as always
. In any case, Trump then starts with his promises, leading with sending troops to the U.S.-Mexico border and deporting millions of undocumented immigrants. As I’ve written before, good luck with that
. Even his own border czar, Tom Homan, is trying to temper expectations.
We will drill, baby, drill. … We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again—right to the top—and export American energy all over the world.
The U.S. is already a top energy exporter
in the world. Trump will soon take credit for something Biden has largely done
. Given the climate crisis, though, this may not actually be a good thing.
With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers.
Congrats, Elon Musk, who owns the electric car company Tesla.
Also, the Green New Deal isn’t law. Is Trump talking about green energy projects under Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act? In one of those inexplicable things Democrats keep doing to themselves, the bulk of investment from that law went to red congressional districts
. And those Republicans don’t want to give up that sweet federal cash.
Me, I’m actually rooting for Trump to kill those projects. If Republican voters want federal investment in their communities, they can vote Democratic next time. And when Democrats have power, they need to spend that money on their constituents. Build those factories in blue cities and states. Give them a reason to keep voting Democratic. Because watching their tax dollars go to ingrate conservatives isn’t doing the party any good.
Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. For this purpose, we are establishing the External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties, and revenues. It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury coming from foreign sources.
Every business leader, including those sitting in Trump’s inauguration audience, knows that this will be a tax on American consumers. Along with any deportations the administration manages, this will prove to be deeply inflationary. So all those people complaining about the price of eggs? Buckle down—it’s about to get much worse.
Also, there’s already an “External Revenue Service.” It’s the customs part of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency.
After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.
This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.
Cruelty will certainly be the official policy of the United States.
This week, I will reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the Covid vaccine mandate, with full back pay. And I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty.
I’m gonna have to research what “radical political theories” he’s talking about. Is it women in combat
? I bet it’s women in combat roles.
Our armed forces are facing a recruiting crisis
. Trump wants to make it worse.
My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be, a peacemaker, and a unifier.
I’m laughing too!
America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on Earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world. A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs.
Trump’s a loon.
He also claims he’ll take back the Panama Canal
. But remember, he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker and unifier, as he threatens Panama (and Greenland and Denmark
, and Canada
, among other allies).
Above all, my message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor, and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization. So, as we liberate our nation, we will lead it to new heights of victory and success. We will not be deterred. Together, we will end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy, and disease-free.
He wants to keep kids disease-free … and yet he wants a vaccine denier
to lead the Department of Health and Human Services … all while being the dude who loves McDonald’s
.
The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations, and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons.
He wants his legacy to be peace, and nothing says “peace” more than actual, literal imperialism.
In recent years, our nation has suffered greatly, but we are going to bring it back and make it great again, greater than ever before. We will be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage, and exceptionalism. Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent, and totally unpredictable.
So … is his vision of “unity” and “peace” actually more like “world conquest”? Sure seems that way. Because nothing says “angry, violent, and totally unpredictable” like Trump himself and his MAGA movement.
Indeed, if there’s anything we are sure to see over the next four years is more anger, violence, and unpredictability, courtesy of Trump. That is already his legacy, and everything he is pushing for—deportations, inflationary tariffs, anti-trans hate, and imperialism—will only further cement that legacy.
