… Trump didn’t place his hand on the Bible while he was sworn in. The last president who failed to place his hand on a Bible while taking the oath of office was Calvin Coolidge a century year ago. Trump has never opened one either. He has sold them though. And autographed them. And held them upside down.
… The richest oligarchs in America and their spouses got front row seats for Trump’s inauguration while Trump’s Cabinet sat behind them, and state governors and congressional spouses had to watch the ceremony in the Emancipation Hall overflow room. Letting everyone know from the first minute who is really in charge.
… Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT): “That’s all you need to know. The billionaires are in charge. Not you.”
… One Republican Representative grumbled to Axios: “Charlie Kirk has better seats than every member of Congress. Tells you how little Trump’s team thinks of Congress.”
Lots more pictures today than usual. I really felt like, for some of this stuff today, words alone simply could not do the scene justice.
… During his speech, Trump said he was signing an executive order today renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Hillary Clinton immediately started laughing when he said that.
… He also issued an executive order that the tallest mountain in North America - Mount Denali in Alaska, be renamed as Mount McKinley. The native Koyukon who lived near the mountain called it Denali for centuries. An American gold prospector then named it McKinley in 1896, who was running for president at the time. It was officially renamed back to Denali in 2015 by President Obama’s Department of the Interior. Now it goes back to McKinley again apparently.
… Alaska’s Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski reacted to the news by saying she was “so against” renaming it back to McKinley, and thought she had an understanding with Trump after speaking to him about it that he was not going to do this. But he did. Needless to say, this one is a Stephen Miller special all the way.
… Meanwhile, Mark Zuckerberg had a difficult time keeping his eyes off Jeff Bezos’s girlfriend Lauren Sanchez, while Jared Kushner demonstrated excellent eye discipline.
… Megyn Kelly on Sanchez’s outfit: “She has no class. No dignity. No respect.”
… The governors who traveled to DC to attend the ceremony but were stuck in the overflow room watching it were Ron Desantis (FL), Mike Braun (IN), Brian Kemp (GA), Tate Reeves (MS), Glenn Youngkin (VA), and Ned Lamont (CT). Lamont was the only Democratic governor in attendance.
… But Jeff Bezos’s girlfriend was inside. In the front row, too.
… Mike Johnson was in a bit of panic before the ceremony even started. After all the drama of Trump demanding the flags over the Capitol be raised for his inauguration despite Jimmy Carter’s death, they couldn’t get the flags to go up despite trying for two hours because the cords were frozen solid and stuck to the pole. They eventually got the flag up, but probably only after MAGA Mike wet his pants thinking about Trump yelling at him again.
… Trump tried to lean in to give Melania a kiss, but she was wearing a very wide brimmed hat that was pulled down close to her eyes so he wasn’t able to make contact to even give her a Josh and Erin Hawley-style peck on the cheek. The brim of that hat probably left a good dent in his forehead. This is as close as he was able to get.
… Sen. John Fetterman showed up to the ceremony in a hoodie sweatshirt, shorts, and sneakers.
… Mike Pence was booed when he was shown on the big screen walking into the event. Karen Pence did not attend. Hillary Clinton was also booed.
… The Proud Boys marched in DC today, calling for Trump to pardon their “brothers.” There was about 50 of them in their black and yellow colors chanting: “Free Our Boys!”
… Shortly after that, J6 inmate Jacob Lange, who is charged with beating police officers with a bat along with several other things, announced he was being released: “Just announced DOJ is dropping my J6 case!!! I’m finally coming home!!! God be magnified!!! Mountains do really move in Jesus name!!!”
… Then Proud Boys’ leader Enrique Tarrio’s mother posted on X that he was going to be released from prison by Trump. Could be a full pardon or a sentence commutation. Tarrio was serving a 22 year sentence for seditious conspiracy.
… I guess maybe this doesn’t count as a pardons of “violent” J6ers since Jake delayed his trial long enough for Trump to just drop the charges, and Tarrio led others to commit violence rather than do it himself. Tarrio was outside of DC on J6 because he was out on bond for stealing a BLM flag from a Black church and burning it in the street a few days before J6 and was ordered not to return to the city.
… Last night, at the only event open to the public since Trump canceled most of the festivities, a long line of MAGA fans were lined up for hours in the freezing rain to try and get through security and into the building. After a while, several hopped over the barricades to cut the line and arguments ensued with other people in line and security.
… There was also piles off trash littered everywhere as MAGA attendees just threw everything they had on the ground. Tons and tons of trash. Many of them didn’t realize that security wasn’t going to let them bring any containers into the arena. One guy had to leave his bottle of viagra behind.
… The former PM of Poland also tried to skip the line to go in with the VIPs. They didn’t let him because he didn’t pay for a VIP ticket. He then pulled up his Wikipedia page on his phone and tried to show it to security to prove who he was. That also didn’t work.
… Elon Musk brought Shivon Zillis to the event. She is the mother of 3 of Musk’s 12 children. She is rarely seen in public with Musk, and had lengthy conversations at the party with Jared Kushner and Lauren Sanchez.
… Kellyanne Conway wore an interesting outfit to the VIP reception.
… Crazy Rep. Clay Higgins was hosting a “Bikers for Trump” rally near the venue and was complaining on social media that the US Park Service wouldn’t let them run their generators: “We the People won’t be stopped. Not by weather, not by the deep state, not by drones, not by terrorist threat, not by corrupt judges, not by establishment hacks, not by a liberal journalist, and not by the DC machine.” Alrighty then. Just back away slowly. Don’t make eye contact.
… Elon Musk appeared to be high as a kite on ketamine or something else, rolling his