By Earl Bousquet

But the world viewed instead a choreographed spectacle featuring classic elements of the duopoly of bipartisan hegemony in American politics.

In his second coming, President Trump basked in the glory of delivering on his major campaign promises, going over-the-top to re-establish his leadership and ownership brand as the sole decider of all the republican Party says and does.

Established Order

As per established transitional order, the outgoing and incoming presidents spent their last and first days in office riding in the same limousine, sharing coffee at an official presidential tea house across from the White House and exchange goodbyes at every stop before ex-president Joe Biden boarded the presidential helicopter to fly into his sunset.

The Trump brand was stamped over all the inauguration ceremonies, from the swearing-in to a thank-you rally and the three presidential balls he attended.

He also promised at each that it was the first day of a new dawn for America, ditching all protocol to show he remained the eternal leader of the Republican Party.

Remarkable Return

It was a remarkable return to the Oval Office by one who left Washington in shame four years earlier.

His overwhelming electoral victory now had all Trump’s biggest critics silenced, the heads of most of the world’s top IT companies (including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and X’s Elon Musk) in attendance.

The likes of the US-based Fox News served champagne headlines while CNN complained Trump still hasn’t let the presidency’s mores define him.

Screen-playing the choreography, CNN’s vaunted commentators and news analysts went overboard to underline how two sworn political enemies can simply shake hands and smile, even with knives dug deep into each other’s backs.

Seamless Transition?

Trump and Biden never had anything good to say about each other during and after the presidential campaign and the two months and two weeks of a supposedly seamless transition that was all-but.

Biden broke his four-year-old promise not to pardon ‘friends and family’ and early pardoned his son, then later his family and political friends -and so did Trump, who pardoned the ‘Proud Boys’ and ‘Oath-Keepers’, among the many tried and jailed for violently attacking police officers at The Capitol on January 6, 2021 to prevent Biden from taking office.

But Trump has also quickly adjusted to reality, now giving himself 100 Days to bring peace to Ukraine, instead of his earlier promise of ending the fighting in one day.

Magic Wand

Trump didn’t sign Executive Orders to takeover Greenland, make Canada a 51st US state, renaming the Gulf of Mexico, or ‘taking back’ the Panama Canal.

But like every leader of a new government, he promised simply wave his invisible magic wand to make America so great again it won’t even recognize itself.

Presidential One-upmanship

Monday’s inauguration, like Biden’s in 2021, coincided with America’s annual celebration of Martin Luther King Day.

But while the African American preacher scripted MLK’s immortal ‘I Have A Dream’ speech into his sermon, there was still much darkness about Reparations for Slavery -and not-a-word about Biden’s last-minute ‘pardon’ of Jamaican and Caribbean hero Marcus Garvey.

The Garvey pardon, like Biden’s removal of Cuba from the list of ‘State Sponsors of Terrorism’, was welcomed, but both came in the context of presidential one-upmanship in the last days of an unusual transition.

Interesting factors

President Trump’s second inauguration also featured several other interesting factors about him and his predecessor:

•          Minutes before leaving office, Biden signed ‘pre-emptive pardons’ for his family and political friends -after Trump promised to appoint a Special Prosecutor to look into his family.

•          Biden came to Washington as the youngest senator — and left as the oldest president.

•          Trump is only the second US president ever to lose an election and return to win again.

•          Trump’s second term came after beating a second woman Democratic candidate in eight years.

•          Trump’s inauguration ceremony took place in the same building where his supporters sought to prevent Joe Biden from taking office on January 6, 2021.

•          Trump signed at least 200 presidential Executive Orders: revoking 78 by Biden, firing all Biden-appointed bureaucrats, freezing hiring of government workers, removing taxes on tips, promising to “put more dollars in American citizens’ pockets than ever before”, pulling the US out of the United Nations (UN) Climate Change treaty, assuring higher tariffs on imports will bring big cash and certifying the release of ‘January 6 hostages.

•          Trump also showed signs of aspects of his Israel policy as he hosted families of ‘hostages in Gaza’ on his platform, presented son-in-law Jared Kushner as the one “who signed the Abraham Accord” in Israel -and promising “an Iron Dome for America…”

•          The Trump Dynasty is also back, the President thanking his wife, sons, daughters and in-laws for their roles in his successful campaign, even claiming they made his second victory “too big to rig…’ -and promising that “from now, we’re just going to win, win, win…’

•          President Trump also repeated, time and again, that he’ll be “Putting the men and women of America first…” and

•          Back at the Oval Office, the new president said ‘From this moment on, America’s decline stops’ and promised: “This is the start of the New Age of American Dominance”.

American Dominance?

Promising to be “a peacemaker and unifier”, the new President Trump said at one point: “I think we need better terms between Republicans and Democrats, because it doesn’t make sense…’ to continue as is.

But the man twice unsuccessfully nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize in pursuit of his aim of being remembered as a ‘Peace President’ also promised (that same day) that “America will have the biggest army in the world” under his watch, to exercise ‘Peace Through Strength’ globally.

Apex

In all this, Trump is clearly at the apex of his political career, but showing no sign whatever, of ever thinking of leaving office again.

From all he said on Day One, the Second President Trump will surprise no one if he insists, before his term ends in November 2029, on having a right to run for the presidency a third time -and for as long as he can win…

After all, two terms -together or apart- will never be enough for him to make the America of his wildest dreams.