“And I did have a few things to say that were extremely controversial, and between JD and Melania and anybody else tha –’pluheesessir, it’s such a beautiful unifying speech, pleassir don’t say these terrible things’.” The voice rises into a mock growl. “I said ‘I’m telling you… it’s gonna play great’.” The new president of the United States is addressing the faithful shortly after his inauguration speech.
And then it starts, spooling out like ticker tape: “You’re the only ones I hurt by but oh we had some beauties didn’t we Melania… “ and he’s away, onto “J6 hostages” and the “deleted” evidence of Nancy Pelosi’s criminality.
Now this was more like it.
I’d had high hopes when I agreed to get up and watch Donald Trump’s second inauguration (his swearing-in was 4am AEDT). What better way to experience the unreality that clings to Donald Trump than watching him return to office through that buzzing, high-pitched static that fills the ears when one is operating on close to no sleep?
On that front, the inauguration was initially a disappointment. It seemed the real magic had come the night before at Trump’s victory rally when he joined camp icons Village People on stage for a performance of “YMCA”. Sky News Australia reported that he danced “spectacularly”, by which they meant he just sort of stood there, smiling absent-mindedly, occasionally breaking into that little push-pull fists dance he does while the group did the world’s easiest dance routine and still managed to make it look like they needed more rehearsal. Afterwards, the leather daddy character approached Trump and saluted, and the incoming commander-in-chief of the most powerful armed forces in human history saluted back.
The official inauguration was never going to match that energy, and by Trump’s warped standards, it was downright conventional. Partly the setting was the problem — the choice to bring the ceremony indoors rather than outside the Capitol building robbed the event of any grandeur. The room felt small and crowded and, filled as it was with partisans and hacks, the atmosphere was all practised and deliberate, with enthusiasm and rote standing ovations but none of the fizzing gonzo energy of his rallies.
It was still plenty dark. Trump confirmed that he intended to deport “millions and millions of criminal aliens”, send the army to America’s southern border, and assert “the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders — male and female”. It was also comically grandiose, with the assertion he had been saved from the assassin’s bullet by God so that he might make America great again. “The golden age of America begins right now,” Trump declared.
But even in its darkness and fantasy, the address failed to reach the fevered and hoarse energy of eight years ago, when Trump promised an end to “This American Carnage”. It replayed the themes of that speech — the dark, mythical story of a country stolen from its citizens by unaccountable elites and traitors — but not the vigour. By the time he was promising to take back the Panama Canal, he appeared to be flagging, mangling “the United States” into the “United Spyates” and more and more obviously reading directly from his autocue.
It was beginning to feel as though the best colour we’d get was from the first lady’s hat, (the internet compared it to the Hamburglar’s, low and wide so her husband couldn’t get close enough to kiss her), the open pandering to a trio of gurning tech billionaires, and the predictably theatrical reactions from the Democratic grandees to the left of the stage.
Then, after seeing Joe and Jill Biden off, Trump returned to address the supporters that had filled the overflow room, and that’s when we got Trump proper. A great ribbon of sound, it was conspiratorial, rambling, paranoid, circular and repetitive, almost impossible to follow in parts and, yes, genuinely funny at times.
It was interesting to note that whatever he was offering the faithful in this speech, it wasn’t quite the “one really violent day” purge politics he had played to on the campaign trail. Instead, what he offered those gathered for his extra speech was himself, which is all any cult really wants. He’s always been prone to this, drifting off into little reveries about how badly treated he is — but this speech was nearly entirely that, all stemming back to the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol: the “hostages” who were arrested for their involvement, his oft-debunked lie that Nancy Pelosi turned down his offer of ten thousand troops to quell the attack, the committee that investigated Trump’s role, who are “very, very guilty of very bad crimes”. Maybe it was my own fatigue, but it felt like he circled through this stuff over and over again.
On top of that, he couldn’t stop himself from undermining the electoral system that had just delivered him a stonking victory. Had it not been for “cheating” he claimed, “I think I would have won California”. Speaker Mike Johnson nodded behind him. Later, Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who most explicitly glommed on to Trump, used his speech to twice perform a gesture that was indistinguishable from a Nazi salute.
The question remains — what will this ugly spectacle mean in concrete terms? A great deal of horror in the areas of reproductive rights, the environment and the promised mass deportations seems more or less assured.
Progressives pointing out that, say, Trump cannot simply override the US Constitution via decree, as he plans to do on day one by attempting to revoke the birthright citizenship of the children of undocumented immigrants, are missing the point. The history of the US presidency is full of figures who subverted the constitution and America’s status as a democracy, including many of the most celebrated holders of the office.
The checks on presidential power are mostly political conventions. The question is not what Trump — who for now has the House, the Senate, and the courts — is allowed to do in his role. Whether it’s in his official capacity, or the general hum of chaos he is able to foment, the question is what he is able to get away with. The fact that we are here, in 2025, discussing the first day of his second term, tells us something about just how much that might be.
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