Trump Inauguration Day 2025: Highlights and analysis

Trump brings a showman’s flair to everything he does, but this was a new one. After his speech at Capital One Arena ended, Trump made his way to a small desk with the presidential seal on it, where he sat down and signed several executive orders.

The crowd cheered loudly for many of the executive actions — including, oddly, a requirement that federal workers fully return to working in person. That might be the only time ever that a lot of people have cheered a return-to-office mandate.

Some of the actions are more symbolic than anything else. The U.S. withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement is bad, but mostly because it also signals all the ways in which the Trump administration will not even try to meet climate change goals.

Claire McCaskill speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

The lesson for Democrats after today is that we have to quit paying attention to what Trump says and pay attention to what he does. Democrats need to point out to the country that in his speech, Trump laid out the largest big government takeover in the history of this country. 

The conservative movement, and all those people who showed up for the Tea Party and Trump’s rallies, think the government is the enemy and it’s too big. So what is Trump doing? In his inaugural speech, he said the federal government will take over the curriculum at your local schools. He wants the federal government to take over local police departments.

This is unbelievably big government at work and that’s not what the people who voted for him want — not even the hardcore supporters who are all in Trump. They’re not envisioning a big government takeover. 

So the Democrats have to show he’s not going to bring down prescription drug costs. He’s not going to lower taxes. He’s going to play around with the benefits you’ve earned. And in the process, he’s doing a big government takeover of things that you should be able to control locally or even things in your own home.

If the Democrats have some discipline about that, I think they’ll have some success in the next midterms.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Over the weekend, MSNBC’s Katie Phang smartly compared Trump’s promised pardons for Jan. 6 rioters to President Andrew Johnson’s issuance of what ended up being thousands of pardons to secessionists who faced off against the Union during the Civil War. Trump has earned comparisons to the 17th president for several years, and I think the pardon comparisons are useful as we reckon with the reality of normalized political violence.

The Equal Justice Initiative’s Documenting Reconstruction Violence project details some of the violence that occurred in the U.S. after Johnson’s pardons — and serves as a warning of what nations can expect when insurrectionists are allowed to roam free and become insulated from full accountability. You can read more here.

Let’s be clear: This entire event is about the “big lie.”

While Trump is rescinding some Biden-era executive orders and speakers have touched on topics such as peace in the Middle East, the subject that Trump returned to again and again in his unscripted remarks was the 2020 presidential election.

“The second election was rigged,” he said at one point.

He also spoke several times about how one of the first things he would do is pardon people who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Here are the executive actions Trump just signed on stage at the Capital One Arena:

• The recision of 78 Biden-era executive actions, executive orders and presidential memoranda
• A temporary regulatory freeze preventing bureaucrats from issuing any more regulations
• A temporary freeze on all federal hiring, except in military and other designated groups
• A requirement that federal workers return to full-time, in-person work immediately
• A directive to every department and agency in the federal government to address the cost of living crisis
• Withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty
• A letter to the United Nations explaining the U.S.' withdrawal from the Paris climate treaty
• A directive to the federal government ordering "the restoration of freedom of speech and preventing government censorship of free speech"
• A directive to the federal government "ending the weaponization of government"

Here's a full list of the presidential actions Trump has issued so far today.

The Senate just voted 99-0 to confirm Rubio to become America’s next top diplomat. It marks the end stage of his transformation from one-time Trump to the person charged with winning over allies and adversaries around the world in his name. As is often the case for senators tapped for cabinet roles, there was little sense that his nomination wouldn’t be confirmed as the overwhelming vote proved. 

(Fun fact: As the head of the oldest and most senior cabinet department, Rubio now finds himself fifth in line for the presidency, behind the vice president, speaker of the House, and Senate president pro tempore.)

Trump mostly stuck to the written script for the inaugural address, but he’s now back to his signature meandering style. The president calls this “the weave,” in which he cycles through various topics before supposedly tying it all together in the end.

The speech at Capital One Arena is the straight stuff, with Trump talking about pardoning Jan. 6 defendants, attacking former special counsel Jack Smith, going off on a tangent about wind power, comparing himself to infamous gangster Al Capone, criticizing Biden and talking about ice hockey, among other topics.

Trump’s youngest son, Barron, was mostly out of the public eye during Trump’s first term, as he was still pretty young. But the 18-year-old just had a little moment during Trump’s rally at Capital One Arena, as the president praised each of his family members.

As Trump spoke about his son’s help with the youth vote — by suggesting things like going on Joe Rogan’s podcast — the New York University student stood and waved to the crowd.

But he didn’t just wave. He ran through a greatest hits selection of Trump’s signature moves — from the fist pump, to the pointing at a random person, to the thumbs-up, to the jokingly putting your hand to your ear like you can’t hear the applause.

Some of Trump’s rhetoric at the Capital One Arena is straight out of his campaign rally stump speeches. He even reprised one of his bits about how wind power supposedly means you can’t watch TV if the wind is blowing. (Note: That’s not how it works.)

But the difference now is that some of Trump's vows will actually happen tonight through executive actions he's set to issue, like withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement and rolling back other environmental initiatives.

For his big speech at the Capital One Arena, Trump picked his special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, to introduce him.

A real estate magnate and one of Trump’s golfing partners, Witkoff has one of the more serious and thankless jobs, as he’ll be trying to keep a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on track in the coming months.

Only a couple of moments from his speech seemed to connect with the red-hat-wearing Trump supporters: when Witkoff said that Trump would cut foreign aid to countries not willing to spend their own money on development and when he introduced families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.

The families then joined Trump on stage, standing behind him as he addressed the arena.

"Tonight, I’m going to be signing on the J6 hostages' pardons to get them out," Trump just told the crowd at the Capital One Arena, appearing to refer to Jan. 6, 2021, attack defendants. "And as soon as I leave, I’m going to the Oval Office, and we’ll be signing pardons for a lot of people, a lot of people."

The crowd applauded Trump's promise, which he had floated throughout his time on the 2024 campaign trail.

Last to perform at Trump’s indoor parade was the Mississippi Valley State University band. MVSU is a historically Black university, and the university’s marching band garnered local backlash over its decision to accept the invitation to perform.

The reasons for that backlash seem obvious. Trump’s movement has crusaded against diversity programs and various aspects of Black history being taught in schools. Trump has also said he intends to prioritize addressing a “definite anti-white feeling” in the U.S. as president.

Now that Trump has officially transmitted his nominations to the Senate, we’re starting to see the first committee votes for those who’ve already had their confirmation hearings. Defense secretary nominee Pete Hegseth is one of the first to make its way out of committee and to the full Senate floor.

Meanwhile, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has unanimously voted to approve Marco Rubio as secretary of state, while the Senate Intelligence Committee voted 14-3 to send Trump’s CIA nominee, John Ratcliffe, to the floor. The full Senate may wind up voting on some of these nominations later tonight.

In 1989, President George H.W. Bush proposed sending American astronauts to Mars. His son, President George W. Bush, would pitch the idea 15 years later. And today, Trump went one step further and added it to his inaugural address.

But there are a lot of reasons why this proposal will probably not be happening, like the earlier ones.

First is cost: It’s a a half-trillion dollars by 2016 estimates, which would be on the absolute low end since the estimates are so out of date. Finding that money while also cutting taxes on the wealthy and without making extensive cuts to Medicare and Social Security is basically impossible.

Trump and his family have entered the floor of the Capital One Arena where the inaugural parade — which has largely turned into a rally of sorts — was moved inside due to cold temperatures.

The president is expected to address the crowd and sign executive orders.

One of the many legal questions we may learn the answer to soon is what will happen with the classified documents case. Technically, the DOJ’s appeal to reinstate the charges is still pending against Trump’s former co-defendants Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira (the DOJ withdrew the appeal as to Trump after he won the election).

It’s difficult to see the appeal proceeding for much longer, but how exactly will it end? Will new DOJ leadership force its withdrawal? Will Trump’s first pardons include his former co-defendants? And what will this mean for the potential public release of the volume of Jack Smith’s report related to the case? Stay tuned.

The strange thing about the inaugural ceremonies running long is that it’s keeping Trump from beginning the work of his presidency. On the first day, that looks like signing the Cabinet nominations he is sending to the Senate, which he did earlier, and putting his signature on various executive orders.

We’ve got some details about what orders he intends to issue but none of the text yet for any of them as we approach the 5 p.m. hour here on the East Coast. So it feels slightly weird to be in this holding pattern where those of us keeping a close eye on the administration are sitting around waiting to see which orders will have truly atrocious impacts and which are glorified press releases that could signal future horrors down the line.

Alicia Menendez speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

What Trump’s planned border executive actions will do is cut legal pathways to come into this country. Border crossings are at a low. More people are coming into this country legally. That’s largely because of the actions that the Biden administration took, like the Customs and Border Control (CBP) One app, which allows migrants to apply from abroad.

A video posted to X reportedly shows migrants in Mexico who were waiting for parole appointments through that app, but when Trump took office, the app was shut down and the appointments are no longer valid. So you have people who waited months to do things the right way — that’s what we hear all the time, do things the right way, get in line. 

Well, they got in line. They did things the right way. And 20 minutes before they’re finally supposed to have an appointment, all of a sudden, the app crashes. The appointment is gone.

Trump is going through the pass in review ceremony — essentially, the symbolic opportunity for a new president to review military troops before they embark on the inaugural parade. The dark cloud looming over this spectacle, of course, is that during the campaign, Trump suggested that he could use the military against fellow Americans he classified as “the enemy within.”

First lady Melania Trump’s fashion choices often inspire debate: Are they simply fashion decisions or is there some deeper reason behind her outfits? 

Was the pussy bow blouse at the 2016 debate sending some kind of secret message? Why does she often opt not to put her arms in the sleeves of overcoats? And just what did the “I really don’t care, do u?” jacket mean?

Today was no different, as the first loady wore a bespoke wide-brimmed hat from Miami-based milliner Eric Javits with a wide brim that recalled a Spanish Cordobes hat. 

The hat was praised for its stylishness but also compared on social media to something worn by the Hamburglar, Carmen Sandiego and others.

The hat also concealed her eyes for most of the day, adding to the mysteriousness for a public figure who does not seem to enjoy this particular gig. And it created an awkward moment when her husband tried to lean in for a kiss on the cheek and couldn’t quite get past the brim.

Michael Steele speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

Many of Trump’s Cabinet picks watched the president take the oath of office inside the Capitol rotunda, including Marco Rubio, Kristi Noem, Pete Hegseth, Pam Bondi, Doug Burgum and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Senators will soon place their votes for Trump’s nominees and, to tell you the truth, I don’t think any of the president’s picks are in danger of not getting confirmed.

So my question for Democrats is: With Republicans in the majority, how will you use Senate procedure to slow that process down? Are you going to put up a block and say, “No, sorry. We could be here next year. This nominee ain’t happening.”

Democrats need to be prepared to draw the political line and stand on it. Right now, they are not prepared to use the Senate procedure the way McConnell used it against Democrats.

This is why Merrick Garland didn’t get a judicial seat. Republicans are not going to come to this dance and help you. Democrats are relying on someone else to do something they already have the power to do. 

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Look, I get it. It’s hard to be the pro-democracy party if you’re going to pitch a fit and boycott any of the events that get thrown in honor of the person who won. But watching congressional Democrats take part in the traditional luncheon at the Capitol has been a master class in the disconnect between the pre-election rhetoric and the rush to pretend things are normal in Washington.

Nothing has changed to make Trump less of a threat to democracy today than he was before the ballots were counted. He hasn’t made any moves to shore up his commitments to civil rights or the rule of law. Seeing the smiles on elected Democrats' faces at today’s events and hearing the at best gently chiding tone of their speeches feels out of place on what should be a somber day for them.

Kash Patel, Trump’s pick to lead the FBI, kicked off his speech at Capital One Arena by saying, “We have been given a gift by God today, to usher in a new dynasty, because we just inaugurated Donald J. Trump as our 47th president and we just inaugurated JD Vance as our vice president of the United States.”

Disturbing deification from Patel, the staunch Trump loyalist who has compiled a conspiratorial list of public figures — portrayed as Trump nemeses — whom he could target if given executive power.

After springing onto the stage like a particularly energetic candidate at a rally, billionaire Elon Musk made perhaps the most over-the-top praise of Trump on a day that was not lacking for it.

Calling Trump’s win “a fork in the road” for human civilization, he said that the president’s second term will lead to “safe cities,” “secure borders” and “sensible spending.” 

“It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured,” Musk told the gathered Trump supporters.

Then Musk elaborated on what seemed to be his favorite promise from the inaugural address. “We’re going to take DOGE to Mars!” he shouted to cheers.

Musk drew raucous applause from the crowd of Trump supporters as he took the stage at the Capital One Arena, where Trump's inaugural parade is being held.

"I just want to say thank you for making it happen. Thank you," Musk told the crowd, before smacking his right hand over his heart and then immediately extending his arm outward.

Many users on X, the social media platform Musk owns, suggested the gesture looked like the Nazi salute known as the Sieg Heil salute.Others chalked it up to Musk just being awkward, or that perhaps he was attempting to mime throwing his heart to the crowd.

Watch the moment here.

Among the orders that Trump is expected to sign today are two declarations of “national emergencies” that he will use to put some of his policies into place quickly.

The first is an emergency on the southern border, which he previously declared in his first term to channel funding to his border wall. This time around, it’s being done to resume construction on the wall and “allow the Defense Department to deploy the U.S. military and the National Guard to the border,” NBC News reported. 

More curious is the “national energy emergency” that he intends to declare to speed up the drilling for oil and natural gas in the country. I still need to see the language of that order to say more, but what’s striking is the overbroad power that Congress has ceded to the presidency in order to declare emergencies. It’s something that should have been dealt with by now but certainly won’t be in a GOP-led Congress that will be more than happy to let Trump act as he pleases regardless of what the actual National Emergencies Act says.

One of the several executive orders that Trump will sign today will be placing his “Remain in Mexico” policy back in place. The Biden administration spent years trying to revoke the policy, which requires migrants seeking political asylum in the U.S. to stay in Mexico while awaiting an immigration court hearing on their status. It’s a rule that will put already vulnerable people at further risk in unsafe areas while the line to process their status grows longer and longer. Rather than being a “common sense” policy, it’s meant to serve as a further deterrent from people seeking a legal way into the country as they flee violence and persecution at home.

Symone Sanders-Townsend speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

This morning, Trump’s team held a background call for the White House press corps, talking about the various executive orders, memorandums and proclamations that the president will issue today. The difference seems like it’s just semantics, but actually matters. 

Executive orders direct government agencies to do things. They are legally binding. Proclamations deal with the actions of private individuals. So as we see the president sign some of these, we need to pay attention to what is an order and what is a proclamation. That matters. 

Oftentimes, we talk about the first 100 days but what a president does on the first day is really indicative. It sets the tone for the entire agenda. On Biden’s first day, he issued an executive order instituting equity into everything we do in the federal government. And now, on Trump’s first day back in office, he is doing essentially the exact opposite. 

So while we’re seeing the pomp and circumstance, in the background the people in the federal government are getting to work and that’s an important thing to remember.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Trump, Vance and their wives are now attending an inaugural luncheon hosted by the the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Following the meal, Trump and Vance will review military troops on the Capitol steps before the presidential parade kicks off in the Capital One Arena.

But first, here's what's on the menu at the luncheon, as described in a press release from the inaugural ceremonies committee:

First course:

Chesapeake Crab Cake with tomato tartar, bay sauce, pickled vegetables, romanesco, dill, and chive oil

Chardonnay, Veritas Vineyards ‘Reserve,’ Monticello, Virginia

Second course:

Greater Omaha Angus Ribeye Steak with Thumbelina carrots, broccoli rabe, carrot top herb sauce, red wine truffle jus, and potato gratin

Cabernet Sauvignon, Mount Veeder, Napa Valley, California

Third course:

Minnesota Apple Ice Box Terrine with sour cream ice cream and salted caramel

Korbel Russian River Valley Natural, Sonoma County, California

Stephanie Ruhle speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

During Trump’s speech at Emancipation Hall, I just kept thinking: All of those tech magnets that were right behind him during the inauguration — closer than his incoming potential Cabinet secretaries — I wonder what they are thinking now?

These CEOs aren’t just the richest people in the world. They’re not just typical CEOs running Halliburton, Exxon or Walmart. These are the people who run the biggest communications outlets in the world. That is who Trump is choosing to have closest to him.

So what I’m thinking is: What are we actually going to see? What are we going to hear in the next four years? Something like artificial intelligence is going to change almost every element of our daily lives in the next five to 10 years. Trump hasn’t had a real position on it. And now these people, who have huge interests in it, are going to have a direct line to the president.

Let’s also remember that Tuesday marks 15 years since the Citizens United decision. What we need to pay attention to in the next four years is whose interests is this administration working for — is it the American people?

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

According to NBC News, Trump just signed five executive actions during the signing ceremony outside the Senate Chamber:

1. 22 cabinet-level appointments
2. 47 subcabinet-level appointments
3. 31 acting designations and appointments to effectively take control of the government
4. 15 commission chair and acting chair appointments
5. Proclamation ordering flags to be flown at full-staff for all future inauguration days, including this Inauguration Day

It does not appear as though any of these actions were part of the major executive orders — on immigration, energy, DEI and other topics — that he's expected to sign later today.

Rachel Maddow and Jacob Soboroff just mentioned this morning’s report that the incoming Trump administration has already ended the availability of an app known as CBP One, used by Customs and Border Protection to process immigration requests during the Biden administration. 

CBP One was the subject of right-wing disinformation — spread by Trump, Elon Musk, and others — falsely alleging the app can be used to circumvent legal immigration laws and aid cartels. 

I wrote about those conspiracy theories — and some complaints immigrants and immigrant rights activists have also made about CBP One — last October. 

Read more below.

The documents that Trump just signed in the President’s Room outside of the Senate Chamber are part of a tradition that goes back to the 1980s Here’s how the Joint Congressional Committee on Inauguration Ceremonies, whose members stood around the table as Trump put felt pen to paper, describes it: 

After the departure of the former President and First Lady, the new President gathers there with aides and Members of Congress to sign nominations and sometimes memorandums, proclamations, or executive orders. This tradition began in 1981, with President Ronald Reagan. Prior to that time, nominations were often submitted to the Senate on Inauguration Day without ceremony.

Jen Psaki speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

Before departing Washington, Biden spoke to his staff at Joint Base Andrews. These are some of the people who have been surrounding Biden not just for the last four years but, for some of them, for 20 years or 30 years. 

When Obama left office, I was there at Joint Base Andrews. You have a bunch of people who, just a couple of hours ago, were in charge of essentially the free world, in a variety of ways, at different levels. Then they’re all there, many of them wearing jeans and sweatshirts.

They’re there because of gratitude for their time and service but also gratitude for the person who brought them there. 

Biden is not perfect. I don’t think he would say he is, both as a president and as a person. But he has a deep love for the country and for public service. For a lot of the people there, who knows when they will see him next. For them, this moment is a release of time, energy, love and passion.

Biden is there to honor the people who served for him and thank them. It tells you a lot about who he is as a person.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

In unscripted remarks at the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall after the swearing-in, Trump bashed Biden for several pardons after saying his wife and vice president had told him not to include the criticism in his inaugural address.

He began by pledging vaguely to pardon Jan. 6 participants, whom he called “hostages,” before pivoting to criticize Biden for pardoning members of the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, saying they were “very, very guilty of very bad crimes” and calling them “political thugs.”

He then specifically attacked former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, who had served as Republican members on the Jan. 6 committee, as well as retired Gen. Mark Milley, who also received a pardon.

“Why are we trying to help a guy like Milley?” Trump said. “Terrible what he said.”

Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Trump a “fascist to the core” and “the most dangerous person to this country” in an interview with legendary journalist Bob Woodward.

After being sworn in as the 47th president of the United States on Monday, delivered a roughly 30-minute speech that outlined some of his policy goals. He promised an immigration crackdown and targeted diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, among other things.

Read the transcript below.

Yes, things may feel weird and out of control now that Trump is president again. But, as I argue in my newest essay, nothing that happens from here on out is inevitable. Trump may try to transform the presidency into a kingship, but it doesn’t have to be easy:

Read more below.

In Trump’s rambling remarks just now from Emancipation Hall at the Capitol, his remarks to Mike Johnson stood out.

“We gave him a [House] majority of almost nothing, and then I said — to make it tougher on him — let me take two or three of the people,” Trump said, referring to the fact that he picked several sitting House members to serve in his administration. Trump told Johnson that some of the stress caused by the appointments will be diminished when the new members of Congress are in place, claiming it’ll feel like “hitting your head on a wall” until then. 

Some words of inspiration from the Republican Party’s leader.

Jen Psaki speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

I know we’re not living in normal times, but I think it’s important to remind everybody that, in normal times, the inaugural address is actually not political at all.

I mean, it’s the result of something political, the outcome of an election, but it is typically a president of either party discussing where the country is now and where it needs to go moving forward. 

What struck me about Trump’s address was it was not just politicized, it was very personal. Trump said he’s been tested and challenged “more than any president in our 250-year history.” He said he was “saved by God to make America great again.” He pledged that “never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents — something I know something about.”

Typically, a president is not discussing themselves. Even though they won the election and the country elected them, they are discussing the country they are about to govern.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Biden has left the Capitol grounds, departing via the presidential helicopter. If he had ridden in the helicopter just yesterday, it would have been called Marine One, but that name is reserved for the sitting president.

Four years ago, Trump also flew away in the presidential helicopter, leaving from the White House since he refused to participate in Biden’s inauguration, so it’s a bit of a twist of fate that Trump and walked him to the helicopter to bid goodbye.

The helicopter flight is one of those modern traditions we take for granted, a little courtesy to the newly former president. 

The quick departure dates back to 1909, when the outgoing president, Teddy Roosevelt, left the Capitol after the swearing-in for nearby Union Station, where he took a train home to New York.

Everything else aside, Trump is just a fascinating guy to write about. Here are some of stranger moments from his inaugural address:

• He spent a lot of time on his criminal cases, bringing them up multiple times without a clear reason why. Presidents typically avoid talking about themselves in an inaugural, much less airing their personal grievances.
• As I noted before, the speech repeatedly used words like “annihilated” and “vicious” that are much more graphic and ominous than the typically hopeful and sunny rhetoric of past ceremonial speeches.
• He claimed, falsely, that North Carolina hurricane victims were “treated so badly.”
• He lamented the Los Angeles wildfires by noting that they affected “some of the wealthiest” Americans and then noted that some of those Americans “are sitting here right now.” It was an unusual moment for a president who has spent a lot of time talking about populism.
• He used language like “drill, baby, drill,” classic campaign rally rhetoric but weird to hear at such a serious event.
• He called his own inauguration “Liberation Day.” That’s the language of revolution, not a celebration of the peaceful transition of power.  
• As I noted before, he bragged about the size of his win — perhaps typical for Trump but very out of place in the Capitol Rotunda on a formal occasion.
• He took credit for the release of hostages in Gaza even as he accurately noted that it happened before he became president.
• His whole obsession with renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali is a picayune aside in what is supposed to be a sweeping message to the nation.

The Rev. Lorenzo Sewell, a Trump-supporting pastor who appeared at the Republican National Convention and hosted Trump at a widely criticized campaign event in Detroit, was tapped to deliver the benediction today. And he gave what was essentially a rip-off of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, deploying King’s call to “let freedom ring” in what, at times, sounded like a theatrical Black preacher affect.

Whether or not comedy is what Sewell was after, that’s how his performance seemed to be interpreted in the room: Alphabet CEO Sundar Picha and pro-Trump investor Howard Lutnick were seen laughing in the background, with X owner Elon Musk attempting to suppress laughter as well.

A president’s first inaugural address and the second one (if there is a second) are typically very different. In the first, a new president is promising to make things better. In the second, they are bragging about what they’ve done and vowing to finish the job.

As only the second president to serve a second term not directly after the first, Trump was in an unusual position. And he essentially used it to repeat his first address.

But it creates a weird rhetorical problem: Trump was describing a corrupt establishment destroying the lives of everyday Americans, yet he was president for four years not that long ago. So, either Trump didn’t fix anything the first time, or somehow the establishment returned after he left office. A more skillful speechwriter might have tried to reconcile that logical problem, but Trump’s just powered through it. 

Trump didn’t brag about anything he did in his first term. He just repeated his pledge from eight years ago to fix everything.

After Trump ended his roughly 30-minute remarks, country star Carrie Underwood sang "America the Beautiful" but not before a brief pause due to what appeared to be a technical difficulty.

News that Underwood, who won the fourth season of "American Idol” in 2005, would perform today was a shock to some fans.

There are a lot of reasons why Trump would focus on reclaiming control of the Panama Canal for America, but the simplest one is at once the most likely and also the most ridiculous. It was during Trump’s peak in the 1980s that the conservative movement was furious over control of the canal reverting back to the Panamanians. Many of other issues that were prominent then — including America losing out to overseas manufacturers in Japan and violent crime in cities — remain stuck in the forefront of Trump’s brain.

Many presidents have begun their inaugural addresses by talking about their goals and agenda for their coming term, so it’s not surprising that Trump would do the same.

But it’s worth noting that Trump talked mostly about things that he intends to do by executive order and very little about laws he would pass through Congress. 

This fits with Trump’s idea of the presidency, but also with the recent conservative movement to push the “unitary executive” who has complete power over the executive branch.

Some of Trump’s loftier goals — going to Mars, for instance — will need some congressional buy-in, but then it’s not clear that he really has extensive plans for them anyway.

Trump knows something about the importance of branding in politics. He’s clearly playing on American jingoism in his promise to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” But he’s also promising to re-rename Denali, the largest mountain in North America, reverting it to “Mount McKinley.” The name was shifted in 2015 to use the name the indigenous people of Alaska have long used, but it makes total sense that Trump — who has recently been infatuated with President William McKinley — would rather see a white person’s name slapped back onto the peak.

Yikes. Trump tried his best attempt at racial reconciliation (or revisionism) with his latest comments about Black and Latino people, in which he thanked them for their “tremendous outpouring of love and trust.” And he claimed that he will make the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream “a reality.”

Trump did perform well among Latinos compared with the 2020 election — particularly among Latino men. As for Black voters, I wrote on the media-borne exaggeration of Trump’s Black support in November’s election — check out my piece here.

The essence of Trump’s claim here — that he is a reliable steward of MLK’s dream — is obviously laughable. One of his most prominent allies — Charlie Kirk — has openly railed against King and denounced the Civil Rights Act that King helped bring to fruition. And Trump has said a goal of his administration will be to address “a definite anti-white feeling” in the United States.

“Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents,” Trump said, adding with a smirk, “Something I know something about.”

“We will not allow that to happen,” he continued. “It will not happen again under my leadership. We will restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.”

Given his promises to use the Justice Department to enact political retribution on the people who tried to hold him accountable, I somehow doubt that he’ll make good on that pledge.

Trump has been promising since the campaign to invoke a centuries-old law, the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, as a vehicle for his mass deportation plans. The problem, as my colleague Jordan Rubin explained last year, is that the law has never been used in the way he’s talking about, likely prompting a legal battle over its usage:

NBC News' Vaughn Hillyard reports that around 50 members of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys are marching outside Capitol One Arena, where the presidential parade will be held later this afternoon.

Perhaps the Trumpiest moment in a very Trumpy speech is the president bragging about his November victory.

He said he hopes the election will be remembered “as the greatest and most consequential election in the history of our country” (sorry, Jefferson and Lincoln).

Then he bragged about how he got “dramatic increases in support” from “young and old, men and women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, urban, suburban, rural.”

And then, in a moment that any other president would have deemed too gauche for an inaugural address, he added: “We had a powerful win in all seven swing states and the popular vote.”

Trump’s final tally in November’s election was 49.8% to 48.3%, or about 2.2 million votes.

I may have spoken too soon. He’s starting to seem warmed up and rolling as he begins talking about his pending executive orders and going slightly off script as he starts to get to the audience’s applause lines.

As he did in his first inaugural address, Trump is both selling his presidency as a new beginning for the country while using darkly negative language about the country as it is.

Trump described his criminal cases as “vicious, violent and unfair weaponization,” said the country’s problems will be “annihilated,” and spoke of how the “radical and corrupt establishment” has left the country “in complete disrepair.” 

He argued that the government — essentially the Biden administration, but not by name — could not manage “even a simple crisis” and “refuses to defend American borders.”

Said Trump: “My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal.”

“Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history, and I’ve learned a lot along the way,” Trump said. “The journey to reclaim our republic has not been an easy one, that I can tell you. Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and indeed to take my life. Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear, but I felt, then and believe, even more so now that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again.”

It’s striking that he mentions the attempt to “take his freedom,” a thinly veiled reference to the prosecutions and consequences he’s managed to avoid, in the same breath he talked about the failed assassination attempt during the summer.

Trump, 78, is definitely lower-energy than he was during his first inaugural address in 2017. That speech, known as the “American carnage” speech, was all doom and gloom and featured a fired-up and defiant Trump. This time around, his age is definitely showing as he attempts to be restrained and stick to the script as he declares “from this moment on, America’s decline is over.”

Ominous remarks from Trump just now: “The scales of justice will be rebalanced,” he said, claiming what he calls “the vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and our government will end.”

This is coming from the man who has vowed to prosecute his political enemies.

The opening lines of Trump’s second inaugural address promised that “the golden age of America begins right now. From this day on, our country will flourish. … We will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer.”

In reality, what we’re about to see feels much more like the rise of a new Gilded Age, as the distressing amount of wealth gathered on the dais behind Trump would indicate.

Minutes ago, Trump swore to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” There wasn’t as much reason to focus on that specific wording when he took office for the first time in 2017. But this time it’s more notable. That's because he argued that he technically never swore to “support” the Constitution during litigation over his ballot eligibility in the 2024 election.  

While the Supreme Court kept Trump on the ballot, the ruling wasn’t based on that lawyerly distinction. Still, Trump has the Roberts Court to thank, in part — not only for his eligibility but for granting him broad criminal immunity that both helped him avoid a trial in the federal election interference case and gave him a roadmap for avoiding criminal consequences this time.

Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., just made some notable remarks in her praise of Trump’s electoral victory:

The Republican Party has spent the past four years lionizing violent insurrectionists who tried to overturn the 2020 election, and Trump has vowed to pardon some of them at the start of his second term. And we’ve seen conservative lawmakers nationwide back voter suppression laws that disenfranchise marginalized groups, such as Black voters.

Clearly, Republicans are reveling in the fact Trump won more votes than Kamala Harris in November. But the GOP is not the pro-democracy party Fischer seemed to suggest it is.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota used a little Midwest nice to subtly troll Trump during her speech at the inauguration.

Klobuchar, the chair of the bipartisan joint congressional committee on the inauguration, mostly ran through bromides about the importance of democracy.

But given the circumstances, the lines just don’t sound the same. 

Standing in the Capitol Rotunda that was trashed by rioters attempting to stall the certification of Trump’s loss four years ago, she said U.S. leaders need to face “the hot mess of division." She said there’s a reason the ceremony is held at the Capitol.

“In other countries, it might be in a presidential palace or a gilded executive office building,” she said. “Here, it is traditionally held at the Capitol, the people’s house. It is a fitting reminder of the system of checks and balances that is the very foundation of our government.”

Of course, several of the richest people in the world have been given prominent seating at Trump's inauguration ceremony today.

Donald Trump, the 45th president, has now been sworn in as the 47th president as Joe Biden's single-term presidency comes to an end.

Trump did not appear to have his hand on the Bible during the oath of office.

JD Vance was sworn in at noon:

"I, James David Vance, do solemnly swear that I support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic."

The National Poetry Foundation seems to be feeling a little salty today.

For its “Poem of the Day” today, the nonprofit put out Maggie Smith’s “Good Bones,” which describes how the narrator tries to hide how the world is “at least fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative estimate” from their children. 

The ending, which I can’t publish entirely here because kids might be reading, describes the narrator trying to sell their children the world, like “any decent realtor” walking you through a, shall we say, particularly ugly house, chirping on “about good bones.”

“This place could be beautiful, / right? You could make this place beautiful,” the poem ends.

Biden issued an overarching pardon for five members of his extended family on his way out the door today:

• James Biden, his brother.

• Valerie Biden Owens, his sister.

• Francis W. Biden, his other brother.

• Sara Jones Biden, James’ wife.

• John T. Owens, Valerie’s husband.

The date the pardon covers extends from Jan. 1, 2014, until Jan. 19, 2025, and is likely meant to safeguard them against any probes or investigations that Trump may launch in retaliation against Biden himself.

Christopher Macchio helped welcome guests into the Capitol Rotunda with an operatic version of the song “O America.” 

Macchio, who will also sing the national anthem later, is a Long Island native sang at a White House memorial service for Trump’s brother in 2020. He also performed at the Republican National Convention in July, in addition to the Trump rallies in Butler, Pennsylvania, and at Madison Square Garden in New York.

The ceremony is running a bit behind schedule (not terribly surprising given all the moving parts of this major event), but the president-elect has now entered the Rotunda ahead of his swearing-in.

Applause and cheers could be heard among the roughly 800 spectators inside the Rotunda. Trump greeted his wife with what appeared to be an air kiss.

We’re running about 25 minutes behind as of approximately 11:30 am ET. That could be an issue for the timing of the only important part of this whole ceremony: The Biden administration officially ends as of noon, meaning Trump needs to be sworn in before then or we have a situation where there’s no acting president.

Vice President-elect JD Vance hasn’t been sworn in yet, which technically means it would then fall to House Speaker Mike Johnson for at least a brief period of time. It seems likely we might get a full “The Princess Bride”-esque scene where they cut out some of the program’s events and we skip ahead to the most important bit at the end.

There’s video of conservative politicians yukking it up with Argentinian President Javier Milei, which seems like ominous foreshadowing. Milei is one of multiple foreign leaders invited to Trump’s inauguration, a move as unnerving as it is unprecedented. But Milei is unique in his far-right stardom because Argentina is also a model for the fiscal policies that conservatives — like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy — want to institute in the U.S. That explains why Business Insider reported Milei has been given a “hero’s welcome” from conservatives in Washington in recent days. 

Milei’s deep cuts to Argentina’s budget have led to widespread poverty, with the poverty rate soaring above 50% within the first six months of his presidency. The Republican Party’s plans for steep budget cuts and the tariffs Trump has threatened to impose on various countries could send the U.S. down a similar path if they’re implemented.

Presidential pardons only cover federal crimes, a fact that could be relevant to potential targets of GOP retaliation. To that end, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis reportedly told NBC News after Biden’s last-minute pre-emptive pardons: “What he did with Fauci and Milley is unacceptable. It’s another abuse of his office. Those pardons can only go so far, but I think you’re going to see states step up and look at some of these things.” 

What “step[ping] up” looks like and regarding what “things” remain to be seen, but as a legal matter the pardons that Biden issued only cover federal prosecution.

It’s worth noting that the three richest people in the world are sitting side-by-side in the Capitol Rotunda for Trump’s inauguration.

Using the Forbes real-time list of billionaires, the net worth of a single row in the audience is at least $885 billion. 

There’s Trump adviser and federal contractor Elon Musk ($433.9 billion net worth), Amazon CEO and federal contractor Jeff Bezos ($239.4 billion net worth). and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg ($211.8 billion net worth) sitting next to Google CEO Sundar Pichai (also reportedly a billionaire, but just barely).

Trump, meantime, is worth around $6.7 billion, putting him at 472 of 500 on the Forbes list.

His Cabinet is set to include Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary, Linda McMahon as education secretary, and Scott Bessent as treasury secretary.

All five of Trump’s kids have now made their way inside: Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka, Tiffany and Barron. This time around, we’re going to see less of their influence directly inside the White House with Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, keeping away from the administration. But the family members will still be making their mark externally, as Don Jr. and Eric manage the family’s business interests, including the newly launched Trump meme coin, and Tiffany’s father-in-law works as a Middle East advisor.

I have to say this is such a small thing, but it is so weird to hear the cheery and bright band marches that are accompanying the former presidents and vice presidents and Supreme Court justices in attendance. It’s giving “picnic at the town square gazebo” rather than “time of chaos and challenges to the democratic experiment.”

That scene of Supreme Court justices entering the room is breathtaking. This court — which includes three justices appointed by Trump — has arguably aided his return to office, with its July ruling on presidential immunity throwing a wrench in the federal election interference case against Trump. It also ruled against Trump’s Jan. 6-related disqualification from state ballots, opening the door for him to be elected despite his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

There are a lot of things that Trump doesn’t like about the presidency. Working with Congress to pass legislation. Being made fun of on “Saturday Night Live.” Having his proposals shut down by the Supreme Court. 

But the stuff he really seems to enjoy is the pomp and circumstance. 

Remember, this is the guy who reportedly wanted to ride with Queen Elizabeth II in a gold-plated carriage procession during his visit to London, an idea that even the royals thought was a bit too much.

This is the guy who wanted to hold a multimillion-dollar military parade with tanks lumbering through city streets and fighter jets swooping overhead. 

This is the guy who went onstage at his first convention to a WWE-style smoke machines with dramatic lighting and received a bust with his face added to Mount Rushmore during a visit to South Dakota on the Fourth of July. (He has since nominated South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem to be homeland security secretary.)

So while some politicians suffer through the ceremony so that they can get to the part where they wield power, Trump seems to actually enjoy this part the most.

The so-called Department of Government Efficiency isn’t even officially in place yet and already it’s set to lose one of its co-leaders. Billionaire and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will be stepping away from the post to plot a run for governor of Ohio, NBC News reports. His departure is interesting, given that it will leave the quasi-agency entirely in the hands of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and the shadiness of the whole endeavor. And as Politico reported over the weekend, the work DOGE is plotting to do has already begun:

So far, DOGE has been secretive, conducting most of its business over Signal, the encrypted messaging app, and inside SpaceX’s Washington offices.

A person well briefed on the inner workings of DOGE said that multiple executive orders related to its purview are expected in the first week of the Trump administration, including one that deals with government contracts and one that assigns how the DOGE workforce is embedded throughout the federal government.

Though we’ve had several confirmation hearings already for top Cabinet positions, the Senate won’t be voting on those until after Trump has officially submitted their nominations as president. But there are a number of White House staffers who will be with him from the moment he’s sworn in. Here’s some of the big names to watch for in the coming hours and days:

• Susie Wiles, White House chief of staff: The former co-chair of Trump’s campaign, Wiles is the first woman to oversee the White House staff. Given that she’s the fifth person to hold that role under Trump, she could be in for a rough ride.

• Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff and homeland security adviser: Miller has gotten a major promotion this term, putting him in place to affect multiple areas of domestic policy. But his primary focus will be on immigration and putting into place Trump’s harshest policies.

• Tom Homan, “border czar”: Homan is a former director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement who will be tasked with coordinating Miller’s vision across the federal government. He’ll likely play a large role in facilitating the mass deportations that Trump has promised to carry out.

• Steven Chueng, White House communications director: Chueng was the name associated with some of the most Trumpian statements given to the press during the campaign. Expect him to keep that same energy from the West Wing.

• Karoline Leavitt, White House press secretary: Leavitt served as the chief spokesperson for Trump’s campaign and will surely be a font of valuable information in her daily press briefings.

• Mike Waltz, national security adviser: Waltz resigned his seat in the House representing Florida’s 6th District on Monday to become Trump’s top national security staffer. A China hawk and Green Beret veteran, he has got his work cut out for him, managing issues like the war in Ukraine.

• Kevin Hassett, National Economic Council director: A returning face from the last Trump administration, Hassett is more of a typical conservative economist than you might expect to be charged with enacting some of Trump’s wilder economic plans, such as his massive tariff hike.

Rachel Maddow speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

As Trump made his way to the Capitol we saw a remarkable thing, an almost empty Washington. There were some Trump supporters who were there, but not very many.

The protests were also not visible in large numbers. We saw the People’s March this weekend in Washington, which did have thousands of people at it but not on the scale that we saw in 2017. 

Maybe this is because the inaugural festivities have been moved indoors but honestly, I expected it to be packed and it’s really not. It’s an interesting thing. It reminds me a little bit of the predictions of mass crowds for Trump at each of his indictments and court proceedings. Instead, we saw these small, little gaggles of people. Certainly, his supporters turned up but not in numbers that were any like you would think from the discourse around it.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Rachel Maddow speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

Trump will be only the second president in American history to be sworn in for a nonconsecutive second term. The first was Grover Cleveland in 1893. That second term in office for Cleveland didn’t produce much except an economic depression. But it does mean that when they released dollar coins of all the presidents in 2012, Cleveland got to be on two of them because it was separate presidencies.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

One part of Trump’s package of expected executive orders for Day 1 is poised to make everyday life for transgender Americans more difficult.

Incoming White House officials told reporters on a call this morning that Trump is expected to sign an order defining gender as consisting of only two sexes, male and female, and being based on “biological classification.”

It’s worth noting that this would affect not just transgender people but also those with Klinefelter syndrome, congenital adrenal hyperplasia and androgen insensitivity syndrome, among other conditions that contradict the claim of a strict two-gender binary.

In practical terms, this means transgender women would no longer be held in women’s federal prisons or detention facilities and would be denied hormone treatments, essentially forcibly de-transitioning them. It would establish a so-called free speech right to refuse to acknowledge someone’s preferred gender and also end the Biden administration practice of allowing transgender Americans to choose “X” as their gender on their passport.

According to the conservative outlet The Free Press, the orders will not address gender-affirming care for minors, another contentious issue that recently made its way to the Supreme Court.

I can’t stop thinking about this recent piece from historian Timothy Ryback that The Atlantic published recently: “How Hitler Dismantled a Democracy in 53 Days.” As Ryback notes, rather than being something that was truly inevitable the choices and circumstances that allowed the newly appointed chancellor to become a dictator all had to line up remarkably well. But the thing that struck me the hardest is the reminder that Hitler tore down the Weimar Republic without a strong mandate or majority, using the constitutional order to rip it apart from the inside.

Chris Hayes speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

I’ve been thinking about these last 20 or 30 years, in which we’ve seen accelerating inequality. People have used the term oligarchy, and generally, it’s meant in a kind of conceptual, metaphorical sense, as opposed to a literal sense.

But we haven’t seen anything like this before – such a concentration of wealth and power, particularly around the questions of who structures the information environment that Americans see and hear and who is able to capture their attention at scale.

All of that power is now concentrated in one room, where you have the heads of the largest, most powerful American corporations and the president.

And one of the things that makes this next period difficult is that it’s very hard to have a presumption of good faith with Trump about the nature of the relationships he’s having. I don’t mean to say that about all Republicans — I think there are people that actually believe things in the Republican Party — but Trump has assembled this group in a flagrantly transactional way. It's the fact that he is so transactional that has almost a contagion effect on everyone who’s around him. 

So when New York City Mayor Eric Adams is coming down to join his inauguration, when Apple’s Tim Cook is in the room and the Tiktok CEO, you cannot help but wonder: What are the conversations being had, what deals could be offered and whether you as an American citizen, are being considered in those deals.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Trump sent out a fundraising pitch to supporters this morning via text on WinRed, a fundraising platform for Republicans, and it’s typically self-obsessed.

On a day usually marked by soaring rhetoric and promises for the future, Trump’s missive begins with his indictment in Fulton County, Georgia, on charges related to his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

“I guess the fun really started when they ARRESTED ME in Fulton, County, Georgia. That was truly a dark day in American history,” the fundraising pitch reads.

It goes on to note that his mugshot went viral and that he was convicted of 34 felonies in New York (weird humblebrag for a fundraising pitch), before claiming, falsely, that he won the election in a “landslide.”

This is par for the course for Trump, but it’s worth a reminder that this would be extremely weird on any day, but especially hours before the inauguration.

Rachel Maddow speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

This Inauguration Day has been very busy already. This morning, Biden announced pardons for several people whom the incoming president had singled out as targets of his revenge, and for whom his Republican allies on Capitol Hill have expressed an appetite for punitive prosecution. 

Biden’s pardons will be extended to Gen. Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the countries in the world’s giants in public health and infectious disease, all the members of Congress who served on the Congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack, importantly, all the staff who served on that select committee investigation and lastly, and importantly, all of the U.S. Capitol police officers and DC metropolitan police officers who testified before that select committee.

So in case you needed a more bracing reminder of what this new administration intends to do to the country, consider that police officers who were beaten within an inch of their lives by this incoming president’s supporters, police officers who testified to Congress about that, now need a pardon to protect them from the threat of possible malicious prosecution by the government headed by the man who sent the people to the Capitol in the first place.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

Among Trump’s executive orders on immigration slated for today is one that would “end birthright citizenship,” White House officials told reporters on a call this morning.

This could be among the most consequential of Trump’s plan for a slew of first-day executive orders, or it could end up bogged down in court challenges.

It’s also unclear how sweeping the action would be. At this point, we don’t know if it would be retroactive, which would invalidate the citizenship of people born to undocumented immigrants inside the United States.

The concept of birthright citizenship is embedded in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, passed after the Civil War to ensure that slavery was truly over.

It's likely jarring for many Americans to see Joe Biden — who has repeatedly warned that Donald Trump is a threat to democracy — standing beside the incoming president with great big smiles on their faces today.

It was equally jarring to see Trump and former President Barack Obama — whom Trump peddled the baseless and racist birther theory about — chuckling with each other at former President Jimmy Carter's funeral earlier this month.

Biden reportedly will continue the trend that we’ve seen since 1989 of the outgoing president leaving a letter behind for his successor. Ronald Reagan first wrote a handwritten note (on a surprisingly unassuming bit of stationary) to his vice president, George H.W. Bush, who would be taking over after winning the presidency himself the previous fall. Bush then provided one for Bill Clinton four years later, and the chain has gone on ever since. We still don’t know what Trump left for Biden in his letter four years ago, but I doubt it was as gracious as the one that Barack Obama left him when he first entered the Oval Office.

As we all know by now, Trump's inauguration ceremony will be held indoors in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, which he says is due to frigid temperatures in the nation's capital today.

The Rotunda will seat 800 people — far below the more than 200,000 people who had tickets to attend the inauguration.

Biden’s pre-emptive pardon announcements this morning for officials Trump has baselessly targeted with conspiratorial attacks highlight the serious threat Trump’s presidency poses to civil rights.

It seems logical for Biden to have issued the pardons given Trump’s repeated vows to prosecute his political enemies, though I also appreciate one downside noted by MSNBC contributor Barbara McQuade, who acknowledged the pardon “omits others who are at risk.” That is, other people who may also be in danger of facing Trump’s illiberal wrath.

One potential example? Rachel Vindman, whose husband, the colonel and former national security official Alexander Vindman, was a key witness in Trump’s first impeachment for attempting to withhold aid to Ukraine for personal for political purposes. 

“Whatever happens to my family, know this: No pardons were offered or discussed,” Rachel Vindman posted on Bluesky. “I cannot begin to describe the level of betrayal and hurt I feel.”

With his worldview permanently set in the 1980s and his love of publicity, Trump has always loved being on the cover of Time magazine. 

But three Time covers by artist Tim O’Brien are being revisited today.

The first in late February of 2017, depicted Trump sitting serenely at the Resolute Desk as a rainstorm blew papers off his desk. “Nothing to See Here,” read the cover line. The story inside was about his troubled first month in office.

The next, in April of 2018, showed much the same image, only Trump was now waist-deep in waves of water as well. “Stormy,” read the cover line. The story, naturally, was about allegations that Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, had paid off adult film star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign to stay silent about an alleged extramarital affair. (Trump denies the affair.)

Joe Scarborough speaking on MSNBC moments ago:

Watching the country’s most powerful tech leaders attending church service with Trump ahead of his inauguration reminds me of the conflict that I’ve always thought was at the heart of the MAGA movement — a conflict that has erupted most dramatically between Elon Musk and Steve Bannon. 

It’s almost a scene out of a movie. The rank-and-file MAGA supporters who elected Trump, who drove all across the country at their own expense, these working-class Americans, they’re literally locked out in the cold and not going to hear the festivities because of the inclement weather there. And yet, the richest billionaires are on the inside and a part of it. 

This is the battle that Bannon and others have been waging, saying that these two very disparate parts of the MAGA base cannot hold.

These comments have been slightly edited for length and clarity.

As columnist Charlie Sykes noted last week, Trump plans a flurry of executive orders for his first day in office intended as a sort of “shock and awe” campaign to overwhelm opponents.

Estimates have ranged from 50 to 100 executive orders set to be signed today, reported NBC News. 

Some of the expected orders are bog standard for a Republican president: allowing more oil drilling on U.S. lands, ending Biden administration renewable energy orders, and directing federal agencies to overturn regulatory actions that increase costs. 

Other potential orders are interesting but don’t amount to much in the long run: delaying a ban on the social media app TikTok, requiring federal workers to return to the office, renaming the Gulf of Mexico and “clos[ing] the border to “all illegal aliens via proclamation,” whatever that means. 

It's undoubtedly a hard day for Vice President Kamala Harris as she prepares to leave the White House, which she hoped she would be heading today. Instead, she is watching her 2024 presidential rival assume office.

Moments ago, she greeted President-elect JD Vance and his wife, Usha Vance, at the White House. Her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, stood by her side.

Like many of the federal holidays that pepper the calendar, the one honoring Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday isn’t fixed to a particular date. It falls on the first Monday after his actual birthday (Jan. 15) which is today.

Meanwhile, the 20th Amendment to the Constitution states that the “terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January [...] and the terms of their successors shall then begin.”

It’s a fluke that the two are on the same day, but it certainly feels like narrative overkill to see Trump sworn in again today rather than seeing Vice President Kamala Harris take the oath of office as she would have been the first Black and South Asian woman to do so.

Photos from inside the church service moments ago show multiple tech executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, sitting near members of Trump's family, including the incoming president's eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump.

Ahead of Trump’s inauguration, I decided to look at some key benchmarks for how the country is doing, so that we can check back later to see how it’s faring under him:

• Inflation: 2.9%

• Unemployment: 4.1%

• Mortgage rate: 7%

• National debt: $36.2 trillion

• Global views of U.S.: 54% favorable

• U.S. satisfaction: 19%

• Freedom index: 83/100

When I posted this on social media, many reactions focused on the price of eggs and border crossings, leading me to the classic reporter’s lament:“It’s in the story!”

But for the record, a dozen eggs were $4.15 in December and there were 47,300 unauthorized border crossings in December, close to the lowest in Biden’s term.

Read the full piece below.

Trump and the incoming first lady arrived at St. John’s Church minutes ago to attend a mass service ahead of tea with the Bidens at the White House.

As I mentioned previously, the historic church, which is just steps from the White House, was the site of Trump’s infamous photo op during racial justice protests in 2020.

This morning, Trump and incoming first lady Melania Trump will attend a service at St. John’s Church near the White House — the site of Trump's infamous photo op during racial justice protests in 2020 — before joining Biden and first lady Jill Biden for tea at the White House.

The inauguration ceremony is expected to begin around 11:30 a.m. ET inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, with Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance set to be sworn in around noon. He will then deliver his inaugural address.

Trump will then sign a series of executive actions, including potentially more than 50 executive orders.

There will be an inaugural luncheon in the Capitol's Statuary Hall. Afterward, Trump and Vance will review military troops on the steps of the Capitol.

Trump’s decision to move the inauguration into the Capitol has been pretty roundly mocked given how many other presidents have delivered their addresses in colder temperatures. It’s a fair criticism, in my opinion, especially given his obsession with toughness and hypermasculinity.

But Trump does have history on his side: The first U.S. presidential inauguration was also held inside. When George Washington took the oath of office, he did so standing inside the Federal Hall building in New York City, which served as the nation’s capital at the time. He then proceeded to deliver his inaugural address directly to Congress inside the Senate’s chamber.

In issuing pardons for House Jan. 6 committee members and others to guard against potential political retribution by the Trump administration, Biden said (among other things) that accepting the pardons shouldn’t “be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense.” 

I recently explained in my “Ask Jordan” column for the Deadline: Legal Newsletter why such pardons wouldn’t necessarily constitute guilt. Read here to understand why that’s the case despite some language in Supreme Court precedent suggesting otherwise.

And for anyone wondering if pre-emptive pardons are constitutional in general, the answer is yes, as I explained here.

Trump’s first inaugural address in 2017 was notable for its dark tone. While promising to restore the country, he also described “American carnage” in a lengthy section that was notable for breaking with the usual optimism of these kinds of speeches. 

Excerpts of his second address, first reported by The Wall Street Journal and later confirmed by NBC News, seem to indicate a sunnier tone, although we’ll withhold judgment until we see the full speech:

I return to the presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country.  

///  

Today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders. With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense.  

///  

My message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigor, and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization.  

Just hours before Trump is set to be sworn in, Biden issued pre-emptive pardons for potential political targets of Trump and his allies.

As my colleague Steve Benen wrote moments ago:

With just hours remaining in his term, Biden issued pardons for:

• Ret. Gen. Mark Milley
• Dr. Anthony Fauci
• Members and staffers of the bipartisan Jan. 6 Committee
• Police officers who testified before the Jan. 6 Committee

Read more below.

There’s a famous news story called “What time is the Super Bowl?” and that headline construction still has value today for news outlets, as the top Google searches about the inauguration this morning are 25 variations on people looking up what time it will begin.

First, let’s get this out of the way: the ceremony is expected to begin at approximately 11:30 a.m. ET with Trump's swearing-in set to take place around noon. Second, if you search for that on Google, it will show fireworks over the search results: 

As many Americans reckon with the jarring imagery of a pro-insurrection movement returning to power, it’s worth noting this spectacle is not without precedent in U.S. history. 

In 1898, violent white supremacists in Wilmington, North Carolina, deposed the multiracial fusion government that rose to power after the abolition of slavery. The Wilmington coup — also known as the Wilmington massacre — is considered the first successful coup in American history.

After the pro-Trump insurrection attempt on Jan. 6, 2021, journalists and activists pointed to the 1898 incident as a precursor of sorts for the violence that erupted. Of course, unlike the insurrectionists back in 1898, Trump and his movement were unsuccessful in their first attempt to take back the White House in 2021. But just four years and one presidential election later, they control all three branches of government. 

Those expected to attend the inauguration include some of the country’s richest tech executives and far-right populist leaders from abroad.

But there will be at least a couple of notable absences as well; former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former first lady Michelle Obama have said they will not attend. Neither women — both of whom are outspoken critics of Trump — have provided reasons for their absences.

An NPR/PBS News/Marist poll released last week doesn’t bode well for Trump.

The president-elect starts underwater, with 49% holding an unfavorable view and only 44% a favorable view of him. But other questions indicate that it will likely only go down from here if he pursues his campaign promises:

• 62% disapprove of Jan. 6 pardons, and only 35% approve

• 49% support mass deportation of undocumented immigrants and 49% oppose

• 48% think tariffs will hurt the economy, while only 31% think they will help

Flags at the U.S. Capitol are flying at full-staff today for Trump’s inauguration, despite an order from Biden that they be lowered to half-staff for 30 days after the death of Jimmy Carter, as is tradition when a president dies.

Last week, Speaker Mike Johnson announced flags at the Capitol would be raised for today's ceremony. Johnson said flags would return to half-staff in memory of Carter tomorrow.

Johnson’s announcement came after Trump publicly complained about the idea of taking the oath of office under a half-staff flag. He accused Democrats of being “giddy” that the country’s “magnificent American Flag” could be at “half mast” during his inauguration.