When the obituary of planet Earth is written, there may be a prominent slot for what took place in a basketball and ice hockey arena in downtown Washington on 20 January, 2025.
It was here that, with a wry head shake and gleeful twirl of the pen, Donald Trump again withdrew the US from the Paris climate agreement, to the joy and jubilation of 20,000 spectators apparently indifferent to fate of the pale blue dot they live on.
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“We’re going to save over a trillion dollars by withdrawing from that treaty,” gushed an aide at Trump’s prompting, implying that watching the world burn is a small price to pay.
This was the moment it really hit home. Trump is back. The human wrecking ball who left a trail of chaos and division in his first four years has returned with a vengeance. America voted for this. People will get hurt.
Monday’s first batch of executive orders, contained in black folders, was also a reminder of Trump’s insatiable appetite for spectacle. His swearing in and inauguration parade had been brought indoors because of extreme cold weather. Naturally he saw an opportunity to turn it into a reality TV show.
“60th presidential inauguration” was written in red and gold on electronic screens. A red carpet covered the floor. A giant cartoon-like reviewing stand had been set up with an oversized presidential seal, a lectern and a tiny desk.
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The warm-up acts included Elon Musk, Trump ally and world’s richest man, who rounded off his speech by slapping his right hand on his chest, then lifting his right arm in an upwards diagonal, in what is politely called a Roman salute, which bore resemblance to many to a fascist salute. Musk, who grew up under the racist apartheid regime in South Africa, was addressing a mostly white crowd.
Members of the first family took their seats, followed by the vice-president, JD Vance, and his family. Then came Trump and his wife, Melania, wearing a navy boater-style hat, double-breasted coat and pencil skirt with ivory blouse, as a band played Hail to the Chief for him, just like old times.
Then the crowd chanted “Fight! Fight! Fight!” and Trump joined in, raising his fist in replay of the assassination attempt that he survived in Butler, Pennsylvania, last summer.
Fittingly, first responders from Butler were first up in the parade, a modest affair that played in a space smaller than a basketball court. There was a moment of silence for Corey Comperatore, a Trump supporter who died in the shooting.
Then came the New York Military Academy (Trump is a 1964 graduate) and police and firefighters from Palm Beach, Florida, which an announcer noted is “home to some of the most prestigious people in the world including President Donald J Trump!” They were followed by the busbies, kilts and bagpipes of the City of New York Police Department Emerald Society Pipes and Drums.
Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, introduced the families of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Wearing yellow scarves, they walked by the reviewing stand and shook Trump’s hand one by one, then stood before the crowd to applause. Some held up pictures of missing loved ones as the crowd chanted: “Bring them home, bring them home.”
It was a reminder that Trump is never averse to exploiting public grief for political gain. “We have to bring them home,” he said from the lectern, before pivoting to, “And tonight I’m going to be signing on the J6 hostages’ pardons to get them out.” In an instant he had conflated the Gaza hostages with the pro-Trump insurrectionists of January 6, 2021.
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After the relative discipline of his inaugural address, Trump was back to the weave, a jumble of disconnected ideas with all the coherence of what John Bolton, his former national security adviser, calls “a series of neuron flashes”. He boasted about his election victory and recycled false claims of past rigging.
The 45th and 47th president proceeded to introduce the first family, a group that will once again loom large over the next four years. There were shout-outs to daughter-in-law Lara Trump, who was a co-chair of the Republican National Committee, son Don Jr, daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, and daughter Tiffany, who is pregnant.
“And then I have a very tall son named Barron,” said the president. The lanky 18-year-old stood, waved and punched the air, receiving one of the biggest cheers of the night. He put a hand to his ear, wanting more, and gave a thumbs up, wearing a smirk and exuding a swagger that were somehow more Trumpy than Trump himself. Tomorrow belongs to me?
Trump said with paternal pride: “He knew the youth vote,” and falsely claimed: “You know, we won the youth vote by 36 points.”
His golfing granddaughter Kai also got a name check. But what of poor Eric? The second son was left out once again. He remained smiling on the stand even as he must have been dying inside.
The hostage families were forced to stand patiently for more than 25 minutes as Trump rambled about illegal immigration, the price of apples, “deranged” Jack Smith, no taxes on tips, and the four most beautiful words in the English language: God, religion, love and tariffs.
Not forgetting oil and gas. “We’re not going do the wind thing,” he said. “So if you’re into whales, you don’t want windmills either. They’re the most expensive form of energy that you can have by far and they’re all made in China, by the way, practically of them. And they kill your birds and ruin your beautiful landscapes.”
He zigzagged back to grievance and the January 6 insurrectionists, complaining bitterly that nothing had happened to protesters in Portland and Minneapolis (presumably a reference to the Black Lives Matter demonstrations of 2020). In what might be a mantra for Maga, he added: “No, we’re not going to put up with that crap any more.”
Trump asked: “Has anyone ever heard of Kamala?” and proceeded to offer a mocking impression of former president Joe Biden’s voice before finally taking his seat at the tiny desk. It was pure theatre as he signed each order then showed his flamboyant signature to the crowd, who roared their approval as if watching Maga’s Got Talent.
“Could you imagine Biden doing this? I don’t think so,” he said, brandishing one of the black folders. No, we couldn’t.
Trump signed a recession of 78 Biden-era orders and actions as well as directives on the cost of living, censorship and the “weaponisation of the government against the adversaries of the previous administration”. And, as he had announced minutes earlier, he withdrew from the “unfair one-sided Paris accord ripoff”.
Thanks to Trump, the US will join Iran, Libya and Yemen as the only four countries not party to the Paris agreement. Apparently, this is a great victory for the forgotten men and women of America. Once the orders were signed, the president celebrated by tossing the pens out into the crowd, setting off a scramble as if for a home run baseball.
Vance cackled and slapped his boss on the back. Trump pumped his fist and there was another chant of “USA! USA! USA!” Eight years ago he was willing to settle for American carnage. Now he and his Maga movement seem ready to set the world on fire.
