The big day is here at last! This is the day we’ve been waiting for since November 5th—in fact, since the 2021 inauguration of Joe Biden, whom we thought would be bad—but boy, howdy, we didn’t know just how bad a presidency could be until we experienced the Biden-Harris disaster.
We can post-mortem the Biden presidency later. This is a big day; recriminations can wait. For now, let’s welcome back the 47th President of the United States, who is also the returning 45th President of the United States, Donald John Trump.
As of this writing, he is preparing to take the oath in the Capitol Rotunda.
When President-elect Donald Trump takes the oath of office on Monday inside a tightly packed Capitol Rotunda, he will be surrounded by a very different Washington than he was eight years ago.
Then, when Trump gave a speech about “American carnage” on the inaugural stage in the rain, many congressional Republicans were silently prepared to push back on the most radical elements of his agenda and investigate his background.
Today, they are almost unanimously backing him. World leaders and corporate CEOs who once balked at Trump were scheduled to attend the ceremony, prepared to brave the bitter cold to publicly show their support before events were moved inside.
Yeah, we’ve come a long way from 2017. President Trump’s first term wasn’t all it might have been; he depended too much on the established order. Many of his cabinet were Washington regulars. Then came COVID, the 45th President was pulled one way and pushed another, some bad policies were foisted on him, and in 2020… Well, we all know what happened.
But as it turns out, 2020 may have been the best thing to happen to President Trump. The 47th President of the United States is showing up ready for a brawl, with a cabinet of outsiders and a new, young, vital vice president who couldn’t be more different than the bland and uninspiring Mike Pence. He’s coming back with an agenda to put America right, and he’s clearly not going to be deterred.
See Related: Donald Trump Is Ready to Fight. So Are We.
Look at all they threw at him over the last four years: The lawfare, the negative reporting, the endless hostility of the legacy media. They even tried to kill him. Instead, the country was treated to the most powerful political image since Ronald Reagan, standing at the Brandenburg Gate, called out to Mikhail Gorbachev to “…tear down this wall!”
President Trump may have won the election at that moment. I have and always will remember that day; my wife and I were seated at our regular Saturday lunch at the lodge when someone called out, “…they tried to kill the president!” Someone called out, “Biden?” The reply came quickly: “No, Trump!” The TV came on just in time to see the then-former President Trump rise, fist raised, to shout at the crowd, “Fight! Fight! Fight!”
A tourist from Pennsylvania, who was seated at the next table, looked at me and said, “Well, Trump just won the election.”
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and Donald Trump emerged from those four years in the wilderness stronger, more focused, and best, more experienced in the ways of Washington.
Donald Trump has big plans and not much time; he can count on a friendly Congress for two years, and after that, who knows? He has our energy policy to repair, and boy, as an Alaskan, I’m waiting to see that happen – and he’s picked the right man for the job, Chris Wright, an energy entrepreneur about whom the worst the left can find to say is that he had “no experience in government.” Great! That’s just what we need.
Trump has our military to rebuild, and he has Pete Hegseth, a young, vital man who still has dust on his boots, smoke in his hair, and blood in his eye, who intends to take charge at the Pentagon and replace a bunch of saggy armchair generals with warfighters.
And, of course, as my colleague Teri Christophe reports, there’s the scabrous mess that is our border, which President Trump intends to set to rights.
See Related: CONFIRMED: Trump Will Sign EOs Today Sending Military to the Border and Ending Birthright Citizenship
This is a historic day.
Later today, the rubber will meet the road. President Trump has a big pile of executive orders to sign to start the process of setting things right. He will be leaning on his appointees to get their own houses in order. He will be leaning on Congress to get cracking fixing the things that it takes the Legislative branch to fix. And, we should note, that Donald Trump may be nominating one or two more Supreme Court justices.
But for now, let’s just enjoy the moment. The Biden debacle is over. President Trump is back.
John Sebastian said it best:
And what could ever lead you,
(What could ever lead you)
Back here where we need you,
(Back here where we need you)
Yeah, we tease him a lot, ’cause we got him on the spot,
Welcome back. Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.
