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Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
No one has ever accused Donald Trump of consistency. Shortly after being sworn in, he promised to bring peace to the world, recapture the Panama Canal, and expand American territory. The latter sounded very much like a declaration of war – a first in the history of US inaugural addresses. The trick, as always with Trump, is to understand what he means from mere rhetoric.
His picture of a new golden age was very different from 2017 when he spoke of “American carnage”. But his speech this time carried far more concrete actions, including territorial aggression against America’s neighbors, American troops on the Mexican border, the beginning of mass deportations of illegal immigrants, the end of subsidies for electric vehicles and a new era of “drill baby drill”. This should be taken seriously.
The vibes in the Capitol Rotunda also spoke volumes. It would be an understatement to say that Trump’s second inauguration was unprecedented. Surrounded by the richest people in the world, with a trillion dollars of wealth in the room, led by Elon Musk ($434 billion), Jeff Bezos ($240 billion) and Mark Zuckerberg ($212 billion), Trump’s return was blessed by outgoing President Joe Biden called new oligarchy.
Never before has such wealth been found with a president who is also a billionaire. Trump is using his return to increase his own wealth. In the days before his inauguration, he added billions to his paper fortune by launching a meme coin promptly dubbed “$Trump.” His wife, Melania, followed suit with her own crypto offering. He also made a bid for the US to take a 50 percent stake in TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media app whose congressional ban was upheld by the Supreme Court last week. Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, was also there.
Contrast between Trump and his predecessors, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Biden, signaled more of a regime change than a simple transfer of power. They listened in barely concealed amazement as Trump laid out a plan that would undo almost everything they stood for — whether Bush was a Republican or Biden a Democrat. In the morning, Biden told Trump “welcome home” as he greeted him at the White House. He also preemptively pardoned former public officials and members of his own family from retaliation, which Trump repeated in his address. The ceremony took place in a room vandalized four years ago by Trump supporters claiming the 2020 election was stolen.
Besides promising to plant the stars and stripes on Mars, Trump said God saved him from an assassin’s bullet last July so he could make America great again. After Trump finished his 2017 speech, Bush turned to the Clintons and said “that was some weird shit.” It’s not clear whether Bush had the words to describe Trump’s second inauguration on Monday.