“From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first,” President Trump declared in a forceful 16-minute Inaugural Address, not making an attempt to reach out to the 54% of voters that did not vote for him.
Reported by the New York Times :
“One of the most radical inaugural speeches we’ve ever heard,” marveled Jake Tapper of CNN.
“It felt as if he almost was insulting every living president that was sitting next to him in very personal ways,” said Chuck Todd on NBC.
“He basically took the hide off everybody,” said Bob Schieffer on CBS.
Even Brit Hume, one of Fox News’s stalwart conservatives, ventured a measured account. “Not poetic, but quite strong,” Mr. Hume said. “Very much Trump.”
So this was not a normal hand-over of power. (Then, is anything ‘normal’ any more in today’s world?). Some 200 people were arrested in Washington DC (by comparison during President George W. Bush’s somewhat controversial start to his presidency in 2001, 9 protesters were arrested).
Attendance to the inauguration was light. The New York Times reports that attendance numbers were not immediately available, but Washington’s transit system released ridership numbers. As of 11 a.m., Metro logged 193,000. Four years ago, there were 317,000 at the same point on Inauguration Day. At Mr. Obama’s first inauguration, the number was 513,000.
