Trump’s inauguration: Show-stopping yet nonsensical

Donald Trump’s inauguration as 47th President of the United States was set to be a victory for the working American, seeing the vanquishing of the global elites with Trump coming to power in front of thousands of his MAGA faithful. However, in typical Trump fashion, he almost completely flipped his promise on its head, with an indoor event closed to the public and but boasting an array of exclusive guests including the the first, second, fourth and fifth richest men in the world – two of whom aren’t American.

The lavish hypocrisy of the inauguration was matched only by the glee of the extremely sparse (and extremely cold) crowd of Trump’s supporters who hadn’t been driven away by the weather. These people saw the inauguration of a man guilty on dozens of federal crimes and responsible for the pardoning of several people guilty of assaulting police officers and firing live ammunition outside the capital building. These shivering lickspittles watched a man found liable for sexual abuse in a civil trial, and cheered.

Trump’s greatest strength has always been to be completely unapologetic despite his own contradictions

This unnecessary spectacle serves only as the latest attempt by Trump to sweep his past wrongs under the rug – the rugs in Mar-A-Lago must be very lumpy indeed. The performative event was almost as ridiculous and unnecessary as the executive order to rename the Gulf of Mexico – you will note that I call it the ‘Gulf of Mexico’ and not the ‘Gulf of America,’ and a federal hit squad is yet to kick down my door.

As Trump boldly ventured to within a metre of his wife, I watched and saw politics and absurd wealth look uncomfortably similar. American politics as well as the politics of pretty much everywhere else has always contained a commercial element, but this gives the words ‘display of wealth’ a whole new meaning. One is left shocked at the open hypocrisy of it all. Trump’s greatest strength has always been to be completely unapologetic despite his own contradictions – he rails against global elites even with all his inherited wealth and status. This inauguration is the best way of showing that he hasn’t lost a step in his field of openly denying the undeniable.

Trump’s response to the criticism of the inauguration will come from the same grey area as most of his public rhetoric. He will simply rage through debate and toss around wild accusations until his clear crimes and wrongs have become murky. Trump has no need for evidence, reason or right. He has something far more valuable and reliable: the faith of others.

Trump has distracted everyone worth distracting from the looming danger of his second presidency

The 47th President will deploy the same tactics of denial and gas-lighting that has got him as far as he’s already come. Trump says nothing to something he can’t refute. One only need watch his mumbled “it was a bad service” after playing Thatcher to Reverend Diane Budde’s Geoffry Howe to see him put this tactic to work.

This subversion is by no means exclusive to the MAGA faithful – those on the comparative left of American politics are also far too busy chewing their nails over Trump’s refusal to rule out invading Greenland or seizing the Panama Canal by force. Trump has distracted everyone worth distracting from the looming danger of his second presidency, the looming anger which is made all too obvious by watching his inauguration. Even to people who have bothered to watch the inauguration are lured away from the terrifying realities of the next four years by the pageantry and grandeur of the event.

The47th presidential inauguration is not a consecration of Trumps political power – political power is something Trump wields regardless of election results. The inauguration is to Trump what much of presidential convention is: a useful golden sham.