I hope so Donald Trump The joy of his presidential victory was dashed Monday morning, when the newly sworn-in president followed his inaugural address with a second — and slightly longer — speech airing old grievances and taking aim at old enemies.
The second speech, delivered to a hall packed with supporters who had missed the actual inauguration, began with an apparent attempt at calm. “I don’t want to have all these big people up there,” Trump said of the business leaders in attendance, addressing the crowd: “You’re stronger than them, you look better than them, and I love you.” He also praised his colleague, the Vice President J.D. Vance– but he admitted it was a “very difficult first week” for Vance – and he gave it a try Mike Johnsonwhich Trump noted “had a negative vote a few weeks ago,” referring to Johnson’s narrow re-election as Speaker of the House.
Finally, Donald Trump continued a well-known rhetorical move: reciting a conversation with someone whose enthusiasm he seeks to suppress. In this case, it was the tag team of Vance and his wife Melania Trumpwhich – still wearing Which The hat – was sitting to Trump’s right. “Please sir,” he claimed they said. “It’s a beautiful, unified speech. Please don’t say those things.”
Naturally, Trump went on to say these very things in a long, rambling speech (“weave“It was not in effect.” He spoke in defense of the “J6 hostages,” referring to the violent 2021 insurrection at the Capitol. “You will see a lot of events regarding the J6 hostages,” he said to applause. He also mentioned the beneficiaries of the then-President Joe BidenEarlier Monday, Trump pardoned people whom Trump described as “people guilty of very bad crimes,” before descending into a morass of false claims and misinformation about a violent attack on democracy. In one line of attack, Trump specifically accused his opponents of crying, including… Liz Cheney (“Crying crazy”) and Adam Kinzinger (“He is a great crier.”)
Other targets included California with Trump A baseless allegation That “missing ballots” cast doubt on his loss of the state. And his wounds from losing the 2020 election have yet to heal, as he falsely declared that “by the way, that 2020 election was completely rigged.” Trump went into 2016 saying that Hillary Clintonhis then-presidential rival, “didn’t look very happy today.” While we were on the subject of people who seemed unhappy today, Trump turned back to Melania for more sarcasm. “I shouldn’t have said that. I’m going to feel hell saying this, but her feet hurt so bad,” the president said before addressing her hood. “With the hat she’s got on, she almost exploded,” Trump said. “We almost lost her. It was rising from the ground. “It almost exploded.”
“That speech was better than the one I gave upstairs,” Trump concluded, a reminder that the president far prefers these unscripted verbal jam sessions to the rare times he delivers prepared remarks. As he embarks on a second term in which inner circle reaction appears much less likely, it is safe to assume that Trump’s liberal rhetorical style will be the rule, not the exception.