Senator Amy Klobuchar’s speech seemed a bit pointed. Wonder how many will catch it. Meanwhile, Donald Trump was looking at the ceiling

Reverend Franklin Graham’s invocation: “enemies”?!

After taking the oath, Trump talking with his children, Vance blends right in, looks just like another Trump son.

Trump’s speech: he can’t seem to stop campaigning. He spends too much time complaining about and insulting the government he will now be leading. Great presidents give inspiring, unifying, visionary speeches. Donald Trump gave a nasty, belittling, self-congratulatory speech. Donald Trump was not, and probably will not, be a great president. Guess he never read Winston Churchill: “In War: Resolution. In Defeat: Defiance. In Victory: Magnanimity. In Peace: Good Will.” There was nothing magnanimous about his speech, and very little good will.

Greatness is not a mantle a person can claim; it is an honor bestowed by others in retrospect.

He mentioned the assassin’s bullet that hit his ear, but there doesn’t seem to be even a scar.

Lines from Trump’s speech that caught my ear:

“The golden age of American begins right now.”

“We will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.”

“Our sovereignty will be reclaimed.”

“The scales of justice will be rebalanced.”

“America will soon be greater, stronger, and far more exceptional than ever before.”

“We must be honest about the challenges we face. While they are plentiful, they will be annihilated.”

“My election is a mandate to completely reverse this betrayal.”

“We will begin the great restoration of America.”

“First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted,” and we will begin the process of returning millions of criminals back where they came from.

“I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.”

“We will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.”

“And by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct the government to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks.”

“As commander-in-chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from foreign threats and invasions.”

“I will direct all members of my cabinet … to defeat record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices. The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending…”

“I will declare a national energy emergency. We will drill baby drill.”

“America will be a manufacturing nation once again.”

“With my actions today, we will end the green new deal and revoke the electric vehicle mandate.”

“We are establishing the external revenue service to collect all tariffs and duties.”

“My administration will establish the brand new department of government efficiency. After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression. I will sign an order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America.”

“As of today, it will henceforth be the policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.”

“We didn’t give the Panama Canal to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.”

“We will expand our territory…” manifest destiny…

“…plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”

“In America, the impossible is what we do best.”

Trump’s second speech in Emancipation Hall to supporters—longer than his official inaugural speech in the Rotunda, but far more rambling and stream of consciousness:

“The first week, the fake news was hitting him [J.D. Vance] pretty hard.”

“The J6 hostages.”

Complaining about lack of voter identification requirements: “we would have won the state of California.”

Rambling and babbling about building the wall in Texas.

“2020 was a rigged election. It showed how bad they are.” “I got like nine million more votes than any other president.” “We made it too big to rig, but they tried like hell to do it. Around 9:02, they gave up.” Also complaining about polling in the run-up to the 2024 election. “We won all seven swing states. We won the popular vote by millions of votes, which is hard for a Republican.” He’s just been sworn in as president for the second time, for a second term, but he can’t let go of the previous election. He’s obsessed with rewriting the past.