Phew, the moment we were all holding our breath for is over. The period between Trump’s election and inauguration was a weird one—a little like the calm before the storm when all the cats and dogs run away (or get eaten). Little solace, however, has been brought by Trump’s swearing-in; in fact, it seems everything has taken a highly expected turn for the worse. He had promised to take drastic executive action on day one, and he didn’t disappoint.
Trump’s big day
Beside Trump was his wife Melania, dressed oddly like Michael Jackson, and his son Barron, towering overhead getting a birds-eye view of the proceedings. Also attending the inauguration were six of the world’s wealthiest individuals, possessing a combined net worth of $1tn, or 30% of the UK economy. Three sat in a special VIP section; among them, Elon Musk, who later that day went on to make an insidiously similar gesture to a Roman Salute—more commonly known today as a ‘Sieg Heil’. Musk advocates have come out saying this was a result of his autism, however, considering his past few months of xenophobic rambling on X (formerly known as Twitter), it sadly wouldn’t be completely impossible to expect the worst here.
We have been told for years that it is pronouns and discussions of gender we should be terrified of, yet now we see what could well be a Nazi salute behind the presidential podium and are told to rejoice at the return of “common sense” and security.
Like Elon’s, Trump’s speech was particularly uninspiring. He spoke not with Obama-like charisma but more with the bored, tempered manner of one who didn’t need to persuade anyone of anything. He has evolved beyond the status of President to something more messianic and prophetic in the eyes of his acolytes. His soft-spoken delivery was jarringly juxtaposed with his ushering-in of a new “golden age of America”, unburdened by diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and migration, and rebuilt on the trading power of American oil and eye-watering tariffs.
The crowd was also surprisingly placid, offering little of the thunderous applause one might have expected from Trump’s return to the White House—likely lost in a mystified stupor, drunk off his every word. However, the sparks really flew as Trump announced the U.S. government would only recognise “two genders”, a declaration which, unsurprisingly, woke up the room and ignited a standing ovation.
The golden age of America
Trump then escorted Biden to the helicopter—a gesture which he later praised himself for, despite having refused the same courtesy from Biden in 2020 after his accusations of electoral fraud incited a riot at the Capitol. Mere hours after his inauguration, he made for the Oval Office to take questions and sign away human rights like they were checks to pornstars. He, confused, claimed Spain was a BRICS country, unknowingly defined all Americans as female—making him the nation’s first female president—and unabashedly reversed four years of Biden’s executive action.
Among his first moves was cancelling flights for over 1,600 Afghan asylum seekers, delivering on his promise to reclaim America’s supposedly scant resources from the “greedy” hands of the needy and redirect them back into the pockets of U.S. citizens. In addition, Trump implemented an unconstitutional removal of ‘birthright citizenship’—where babies born on US soil are granted immediate citizenship. This move, codified by the 14th Amendment yet disputed by Trump on the basis that it causes “birth tourism”, has already received heavy backlash from the 22 states which have sued Trump’s administration.
In his campaign to delete any and all migration, Trump also militarised the border, deploying 1,500 troops—with aspirations for a further 10,000—to the US-Mexico border, claiming a “national emergency”. He has also renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America; though, luckily, this is a rebrand neither we nor anyone else need to respect. The UK has already responded, stating it will not recognise the change, and Mexico has responded by suggesting the U.S. be renamed “Mexican America”.
Trump has further taken steps to dismantle the asylum system, while empowering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and urging border agents to deport migrants without allowing them the opportunity to request legal assistance. This includes blocking asylum hearings and overturning Biden’s policy that prevented ICE from making arrests at “sensitive locations” such as schools and churches. This also comes with new guidance for border officials to rebrand “migrants” as “illegal aliens”—a move technically permitted under U.S. immigration law, yet one opposed by Biden on the grounds of its immoral dehumanisation.
Once bored of targeting the vulnerable and destitute, Trump moved on to shafting the poor and sick, taking aim at the World Health Organisation—a global alliance that funds healthcare worldwide and provides vital medical support to the world’s poorest regions. He also deemed it necessary to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, reflecting his desire to “Drill, Baby, Drill”. However, given the ongoing failures to meaningfully address climate change, one might question whether America’s withdrawal even makes a difference.
Trump also issued more pardons in his first day than most presidents have in their entire terms. Perhaps least expected was Ross Ulbricht—the owner behind the dark-web drug empire, Silk Road. More expected, and arguably more disturbing, was his pardoning of over 1,500 Jan 6 rioters—individuals who breached the Capitol to prevent Congress from naming Biden as president in 2021.
Many of these rioters were charged with assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy, yet have been let off the hook in a cruel twist of fate by the very person who incited the riot. What is worse, Ed Martin—an advocate of Jan 6 defendants and speaker at the Jan 5 ‘Stop the Steal’ election rally—has been made attorney general despite having previously been subpoenaed by the Jan 6 Select Committee. Sadly, the shoe now seems to be on the other orange foot, as Trump has made him responsible for dismissing all pending indictments.
This weaponisation of the presidential pardon has effectively given the ‘all clear’ to political extremists and tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists who stormed the Capitol, acting on the unfounded Trumpian claim that the election was stolen. By extension, he has signalled that any anti-Trump resistance may be countered with government-sponsored vigilantism, effectively undermining Biden’s efforts to hold the rioters accountable and eroding the democratic rule of law as a whole.
Trump also issued a full pardon for two Washington D.C. police officers convicted for the unauthorised fatal chase and cover-up of U.S. citizen Karon Hylton-Brown, claiming “they were arrested… because they went after an illegal”. The fact that Trump’s statement came after the police confirmed Hylton-Brown was, in fact, a U.S. citizen displays just how willing Trump is to exploit the tragic death of a young man for political gain. Whether he was a migrant or not (he was not), Trump feels free to spew xenophobic bile, further dehumanising migrants and increasingly rendering moot the relevance of facts in shaping the political climate of the day.
Trump is also moving to purge the government of what he calls “DEI hires”. In what he suggests are “wasteful Government DEI programs”, he has called for not only the enforced sacking of federal DEI employees but also stated that failures to report information regarding the identity of said DEI hires will result in “adverse consequences”. I expected much from Trump’s second term, but a government-mandated, racially motivated witch-hunt targeting predominantly non-white employees was truly astonishing.
Short of executing Order 66, Trump has thus far done it all. Rest assured, for the average Trump supporter, however, the above facts are largely irrelevant in today’s climate. Evidenced by the election results, the average American believes the U.S. needs a ‘strong man’ to boost the economy and curb ‘mass migration’. Gone are the days when just one of the aforementioned actions would have spelled electoral suicide. Today our politics are dictated by disinformation, media hype, and narratives that seek to villainise the ‘others’ while victimising ‘us’, superseding the reason of truth and undermining the very democratic institutions that tragically allowed Trump to regain the political spotlight for at least the next four years.
