Donald Trump began his second term with a series of complaints and hatred
Every hope that Donald Trump can find happiness in his presidential victory was destroyed Monday morning, when the new president took the oath of office His scripted inauguration speech with a second—and slightly longer—speech to air old grievances and take aim at his sworn enemies.
Second speech to a crowd of supporters There was no actual inauguration ceremonybegan in what appeared to be an attempt at appeasement. “I don’t want one all those big shots up there,” Trump said of the business leaders in attendance, telling the crowd: “You are more powerful than them, you look better than them and I love you.” He also heaped praise on his stagemate, Vice president J.D. Vance—but admits Vance “is very The first week was difficult”—and shot at it Mike Johnsonwhom Trump noted “received a negative vote a few weeks ago,” referring to Johnson’s narrow re-election as Speaker of the House.
Finally, Donald Trump made a famous rhetorical move: recounting a conversation with someone who was trying to suppress his excitement. In this case, it’s the tag team of Vance and his wife Melania TrumpWho-still wearing that thing hat—was seated to Trump’s right. “Please, sir,” he claimed they had said. “What a beautiful and unifying speech. Please don’t say these things.”
Of course, Trump went on to say those things in a long and rambling speech (“weaving” has no effect). He spoke up in defense of the “J6 hostages”, referring to violent uprising of 2021 at the Capitol. “You will see a lot of action on the J6 hostages,” he said to applause. He also mentioned the people who received the then president Joe Biden‘S pardoned earlier on Mondaywhom Trump described as “people who committed very, very bad crimes,” before diving into a mire of false claims and disinformation about a violent attack on democracy. In a line of attack, Trump specifically accused his supposed enemies of crying foul, including Liz Cheney (a “crying lunatic”) and Adam Kinzinger (“he is a super crybaby”).
Other targets include California, with Trump baseless claim that “lost ballots” put his loss of the state in doubt. His wounds from the 2020 election defeat have also not healed, as he falsely claimed that “By the way, that 2020 election was completely rigged.” Trump even went back as far as 2016, saying Hillary Clintonhis then-presidential opponent, “doesn’t look too happy today.” And while we’re on the subject of people looking unhappy today, Trump turned to Melania for a little more teasing. “I shouldn’t say this. I’m going to be angry when I say this, but her legs are extremely sore,” the president said before mentioning his headgear. “With the hat she was wearing, she was almost blown away,” Trump said. “We almost lost her. She is being lifted off the ground. She was almost blown away.”
Trump ended by declaring “this was a better speech than the one I gave upstairs,” a reminder that the president liked it much better. these unspoken verbal exchanges to the rare times he deliver prepared remarks. When he began his second term, in which inner circle resistance seems less likely, but it is safe to assume that Trump’s freewheeling rhetorical style will be the rule rather than the exception.
