Monday was a beautiful day in Washington, DC. I have never seen so many white people celebrate MLK Day this way. We are starting to come together as a nation!
After weeks of contentious confirmation hearings and four years of political rancor, this week's inauguration went off without a hitch. Due to the bitter cold, many events were held indoors. As a country trying to occupy Greenland, we really don't like cold weather.
Security was solid. There were no incidents, protests or scuffles at any of the events. This is likely because the FBI and Justice Department were not allowed in the crowd.
Hours after taking office, Trump made it abundantly clear that he would govern on his own terms. He sat resolutely at his desk in front of reporters and signed executive orders one after another. They explained clearly what each one was. And it all made sense.
He vacillated between being a showman and a politician. “When he's done, there's going to be more in their wallets,” he told the crowd at the 20,000-seat Capital One Arena. He, like President Trump, apologized for not holding the event outdoors because he believed it was not large enough to accommodate all of his supporters.
This time, Trump's most ardent supporters didn't have to break windows to invade public spaces.
Media coverage remained partisan. Fox reported as if the savior had arrived. ABC and MSNBC told viewers that President Trump threw an elderly man with Alzheimer's disease out of government housing into the freezing cold in Washington, D.C.
Media coverage of him was all over the place. He fielded more media questions in a day than Biden has answered in years. They showed him at NFL football games, but he never sings pop music or even dates Travis Kelce.
Everything President Trump signed was cheered, from closing the border to cutting back on Washington, D.C.'s bureaucracy. He said we are entering a “golden age.” The sense of optimism made this bitter campaign all worth it.
After what happened in Butler, Pennsylvania, Trump seems to have become religious now. He attended a church service where one of the most radical Anglican priests, Marianne Edgar Budde, gave a lecture on transgender people and illegal immigration. If there's one thing I've learned in my church, it's to avoid female Episcopalians with three names, short hair, and comfortable shoes.
When the priest told the congregation that something was very wrong with them, the congregation responded in unison, “So are you.”
You see, Trump figured it out once he went back to church. And I wonder why church attendance is declining in America.
One of the most controversial candidates, Pete Hegseth, appears to be on track for confirmation. It turns out that President Trump nominated a soldier who liked drinking and binge drinking and had dust on his shoes. At one point, senators (who have a slush fund to settle #MeToo allegations themselves) questioned him at length. I had no idea if they were really interrogating him or interviewing him for a guaranteed spot in Sigma Alpha Epsilon.
It's always enriching to see these fat, red-faced, hard-drinking alley-cat senators drinking in lobbyist bars for 40 years and passing judgment on others. No one on either side can claim moral superiority. At times like these Congressional hearings, I sometimes wish I hadn't contracted the coronavirus and lost my sense of smell.
Either way, Pete Hegseth should be confirmed as Secretary of Defense. It would be great for a man without dresses and pearls to be in charge of the military.
As DOGE, Elon Musk, and Trump move to reduce the federal government's footprint and regulation, permanent Washington will respond. Hopefully this time, Trump will be in a better position to fight them.
This country will not be conquered by predatory Muslims or Russian invasions. We will fail because we have a $36 trillion debt built on Washington's colossal waste. Government has become too big and unaccountable. It must be reduced.
Whether these Trump objectives are achieved in one omnibus bill or multiple bills, it will be up to Speaker Mike Johnson to pass it. Republicans know the devil is in the details, but Democrats think the devil lives at Mar-a-Lago.
