The Trump Presidency
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Trump fumes over inaugural crowd size
“Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn't these people vote? Celebs hurt cause badly,” Donald Trump tweeted
President Donald Trump and his team are still fuming over evidence of a relatively small crowd for his inauguration, with his chief of staff claiming the reports are an effort to “de-legitimize” Trump and another senior adviser explaining that the administration is offering “alternative facts.”
It has been an extraordinary start for the newly sworn-in president, in which Trump and his advisers have fixated on the inaugural crowd size and the well-attended protests, while also taking actions to freeze federal regulations and gut Obamacare.
Early Sunday, Trump took to Twitter to lash out at the millions of protesters worldwide who came out for the Women’s March on Washington — before sending a much more conciliatory tweet later in the morning.
BITTERNESS AND RESENTMENT AT TRUMP’S INAUGURATION
A couple of hours before Barack Obama became a former President, he was walking along the White House colonnade. A reporter called out to him, “Any final words for the American people?” He had just two. “Thank you,” he said, without breaking his stride. Donald and Melania Trump were expected for coffee, and he had run out of time. There were no more speeches to deliver, no more warnings that he could issue. In language, deed, and demeanor, Obama had done his part to make the transfer of power an orderly one. It might have been reasonable for him to hope that, at least for the next few hours, the progression of Inaugural rituals would provide some semblance of civic grace to what had been a notably unsettling time of transition in America. The causes included the talk of Russian hacking and the antic appointment to many of the most important Cabinet posts of dubious executives, men and women who are tragically unfit, from ideological extremists to unschooled plutocrats. There was the matter, too, of financial conflicts and nepotism, an autonomic reflex of aspiring authoritarians. At a pre-Inaugural black-tie dinner, Trump said to his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, “If you can’t produce peace in the Middle East, nobody can.”
When the Trumps arrived at the White House, Michelle Obama, wearing a dark-red dress, hugged Melania, in impeccable powder blue. Michelle, a practiced performer, smiled warmly. Still, then and later in the day, there were moments when her expression lost focus, as if she had finally exhausted her supply of forced cheer. The two women rode to the Capitol together; their husbands were in a separate car, as were the incoming and outgoing Vice-Presidents. Already seated on the Capitol steps were all of the living former Presidents and First Ladies except for George H. W. and Barbara Bush, who were too ill to travel. George W. Bush appeared to supply a stream of wisecracks. Jimmy Carter, who is ninety-two, and his wife, Rosalynn, had arrived the day before, on a commercial flight, on which he shook the hand of every passenger. When Bill and Hillary Clinton gamely walked down the steps to join them, someone could be heard to say, “We’re here for you.” Hillary’s presence was, by many measures, an act of civic courage.
Once everyone was in place, the ceremony moved quickly. Justice Clarence Thomas administered the oath of office to Vice-President Mike Pence. After an interlude of song from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, John Roberts, the Chief Justice, swore in the new President, and got the words right—he hadn’t in 2009, the first time he swore in Obama. Melania, who had been holding Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and one given to her husband when he was a child, sat down to listen to him speak. As he began his oration, she lifted an umbrella. It had started to rain.
Donald Trump inauguration: Booing speaks poorly of those in crowd, says Democrat Chuck Schumer
The most senior Democrat in the Senate has condemned supporters of Donald Trump who booed at his inauguration speech in which he called for an inclusive America.
Chuck Schumer was among those who spoke during Friday’s inauguration ceremony, and his slot was scheduled just minutes before Donald Trump took the oath of office.
“We Americans have always been a forward-looking, problem-solving, optimistic, patriotic and decent people,” said Mr Schumer, the only Democrat to address the crowds.
Donald Trump’s Inauguration Draws 18% Fewer Viewers Than Barack Obama’s in 2009
Television coverage of Donald Trump's presidential inauguration reached an average total of 30.6 million viewers across the 12 broadcast and cable news networks that provided live updates throughout the day, about 18% down from the viewers who tuned in when Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009.
About 38 million people watched coverage of the 2009 inauguration, far more than for Trump's swearing-in ceremony. Throughout his campaign, Trump bragged about his ability to get high TV ratings.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Fox News Channel led the networks in coverage, and was the only network that saw an increase in viewers from 2009. NBC News came in second.
Two million protest against Trump's inauguration worldwide
Hope appeared to emerge from fear among Donald Trump’s opponents at the weekend as up to two million people around the world, mostly women, staged protests against the new US president and proclaimed the birth of a new political movement.
In raucous but peaceful scenes, more than half a million joined the Women’s March on Washington DC in what was thought to be the largest ever inauguration protest, dwarfing the 60,000 who protested against the Vietnam war before Richard Nixon re-took office in 1973. "Welcome to your first day, we will not go away!” they chanted in the direction of the White House.
More than 600 “sister marches” took place across the US and around the globe with 250,000 reported to have gathered in Chicago, and around 100,000 each in Los Angeles and Boston. In New York, 400,000 anti-Trump activists marched past Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, according to the office of the Democrat mayor, Bill De Blasio. Around 100,000 people also mobilised in London, with other smaller marches in countries including Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, Hungary, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Canada.
Inauguration Day in the United States
Inauguration Day occurs in the USA once every four years on January 20. It occurs in the year after presidential elections have been held
The head of state of the USA has been a president since 1789. In that year, George Washington was elected and inaugurated as president of the United States of America. He was inaugurated for the first time on April 30, 1789, and for the second time on March 4, 1793. Subsequent inaugurations were held on March 4 until the second inauguration of President Franklin Roosevelt on January 20, 1937. Since then Inauguration Day has been held on January 20 and the term of office officially starts at 12:00 noon on that date.
Usually, the vice-president is sworn in first and the president at exactly 12:00 noon. After they have been sworn in, the president and vice-president are given four ruffles and flourishes. The ruffles are played on drums and the flourishes on bugles, which are simple brass instruments with no valves. The ruffles and flourishes form a fanfare before a performance of the president's anthem, "Hail to the Chief", and the vice-president's anthem, "Hail, Columbia". There is then a 21-gun salute from the howitzers of the military district of Washington.
After the ceremony, the president and vice-president are guests of honor at a luncheon given by the United States Congress. Later in the day, they parade down Pennsylvania Avenue and walk part of the way from the Capitol to the White House. If Inauguration Day falls on is a Sunday, the presidential oath is usually administered in a private ceremony on that day and a public ceremony and celebrations are held on the following day.
On January 20, 2009, Barack Obama was be the first African-American president to be inaugurated. He is succeded by Republican Donald John Trump, who won the 2016 elections where he was up against Hillary Clinton.
