Live from the Presidential Inaugural Ceremony

The 60th Presidential Inaugural Ceremony Viewing and Parade at the Capitol One Arena was an event of juxtaposition. The piercing cold endured by those who waited for hours, in weather so frigid it forced the day’s festivities indoors, contrasted sharply with the heat and energy that filled the stadium during the celebration of their political victory.

The red carpet and the caps of the crowd blended with the blue lights above, mirroring not only the colors of the nation’s flag but also the hue of the 47th president’s inaugural tie.

The boos from the crowd as they viewed the live televised entrance of the Clintons, the Bushes, President Obama and Vice President Mike Pence into the Capitol’s rotunda were overshadowed by the cheers that followed President Trump’s second first presidential speech. The loudest exclamations came when President Trump promised to sign a series of historic executive orders, including declaring a national emergency at the southern border, issuing a mandate to “drill, baby, drill” and the declaration that “there are only two genders: male and female.”

After the inaugural screening, the pomp and circumstance made its way to the Capital One Arena. The crowd was warmed up by speakers such as Elon Musk and Kash Patel followed by swells from military brass bands as they performed in welcoming of their new commander-and-chief. To the applause of his supporters President Trump gradually made his way to sit on stage beside his family and that of the Vice President J.D Vance. Then, the parade began. Cheerleaders, firefighters, drum majors and healthcare workers marched through the carpeted basketball court to the rhythm of drums, brass, bagpipes and even more drums. 

It wasn’t all celebration, however. The parade began with a moment of silence for Corey Comperatore, the firefighter who was killed at the assassin attempt on President Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania last year, and it book-ended with a standing ovation for the families of hostages taken by Hamas on October 7.

Then he spoke. President Trump shared his gratitude for his family and supporters before explaining many of the policies that he would sign into effect in the next few days. “You’re gonna be happy reading newspapers tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day and the next day,” he said.

Moments later many of the promises made were fulfilled right then and there. President Trump made his way to the desk parked on the right side of the stage and signed several executive orders as nearly 20,000 people peered over his shoulder. These included no tax on tips, a hiring freeze of IRS agents, a withdraw from the Paris Climate Accords, and rescinding seventy-eight of President Biden’s executive orders. Following this act, he grabbed the pens he used to sign these executive orders and threw them into the roaring crowd before making his way off stage.

At the Oval Office on Monday, Trump signed pardons for some 1,500 January 6 participants, saying, “This is a big one. We hope they come out tonight.”

-Derek VanBuskirk

On our radar

SANCHEZ STEALS THE SHOW Lauren Sanchez, the well-endowed fiancée of Amazon owner Jeff Bezos, turned heads at the inauguration for her “lingerie-inspired” outfit. Google it if you dare.

FBI SHAKEUP Brian Driscoll, who has years of experience in the bureau, has been named as the FBI’s new acting director, replacing Paul Abbate, who retired on Monday.

KUDOS FROM THE KREMLIN Russian president Vladimir Putin sent congratulations to Donald Trump as he was set to be sworn-in as president.

Trump delivers inaugural address to VIP-filled crowd

President Donald Trump delivered his inaugural address to a VIP-filled crowd, including CEOs and athletes; he had a flurry of hundreds of executive orders ready to hit the ground running that dealt with border security and energy independence; he had announced plans to sign several of them in front of a raucous crowd of his supporters who waited hours at the Capital One Arena.

During his speech, Trump made it clear that he means business on hot-button issues like taking back the Panama Canal, eliminating divisive DEI programs and even renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. 

Left unmentioned in his address was crypto, but given the takeover that the industry is poised to have, and Trump’s launch of his own “memecoin,” his Bitcoin-loving backers probably aren’t concerned.

–Matthew Foldi

The Biden pardon parade marches on

President Joe Biden left office after capping off his unprecedented flurry of presidential pardons and commutations for his friends and family, setting the stage for President Donald Trump to do the same as soon as he takes office.

Biden’s pardon and clemency spree saw some of America’s most gruesome murderers spared the federal death penalty, and his immediate family members received preemptive pardons that date back a decade. Biden also preemptively pardoned Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley and members of the January 6 House select committee. 

Biden said in a statement:

The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense. Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.

Though, Ben Domenech points out at The Spectator today:

Fauci and Milley came as a surprise, especially considering that, as the Supreme Court found over a century ago, a pardon carries an imputation of guilt and an accepting the pardon represents an admission of guilt.

Regarding the pardon of his own kin, Biden said:

My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.

“Notably,” reports Fox News, “Special Counsel Jack Smith, former FBI director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland are not included in the pardon, despite speculation that they may face backlash from the incoming administration.”

Responding specifically to the January 6 committee pardoning, Senator Adam Schiff said in a statement, “I continue to believe that the grant of pardons to a committee that undertook such important work to uphold the law was unnecessary, and because of the precedent it establishes, unwise. But I certainly understand why President Biden believed he needed to take this step in light of the persistent and baseless threats issued by Donald Trump and individuals who are now some of his law enforcement nominees.”

Steve Nikoui, father of Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui, who was killed during Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, has met with Milley, and Nikoui told The Spectator that, “I really don’t agree with that [preemptive] pardon. Our generals shouldn’t be used for political weapons and then pardoned.” 

Milley was one of Bob Woodward’s sources in some of his anti-Trump books, and reportedly interfaced directly with China during the waning days of Trump’s first term.

“If you never did anything wrong, you really have nothing to fear, so it’s obvious that he had done something wrong,” Nikoui said. “I don’t know if him meeting with us was a way to get in with Trump to try and lessen whatever damage Trump might do to him in the future, but I guess at this point it doesn’t really matter because he got it from Biden.”

–The Spectator