Inauguration Day Approaches

Always Worth Saying, Going Postal
U.S. President Donald J. Trump and First Lady, Melania Trump.
President Donald Trump and First Lady, Melania, during the 58th Presidential Inauguration,
Staff Sgt. Marianique Santos
Public domain

Monday the 20th January 2025 sees the inauguration of Donald J Trump as the 47th President of the United States of America. Following the 78-year-old Republican’s third election victory last November 9th, Trump will be sworn in for his second term. After The Steal in late 2020 the previous ceremony was that of Democrat Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., vice president to the Kenyan-born 44th resident of the Oval Office, Barack Hussein Obama II.

Joe succeeded through widespread fraud aided by polling station and count practices that would make a third-world dictatorship blush. Added to which fraudulent electoral rolls amplified unrequested mail-in (postal) votes that were tipped into Democrat ghettos with the coronavirus pandemic being used as an excuse.

Biden’s inauguration was low-key. As per tradition, it was held on 20th January the following year in a ceremony at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. After the patriot occupation of the United States Congress building on the 6th of the same month, a boarded-up government quarter was cordoned off and deserted. National Guardsmen and other military safeguarding the streets turned their backs as the presidential limousine passed.

With a contentious election result, outgoing president Trump boycotted the day’s proceedings and attended his own event in DC before flying to his Floria home.Mary Louise Kelly of Nation Public Radio said what she saw, ‘He took one last look back at the White House, one last ride in the Marine One chopper, looking over the vista of the National Mall, one last moment of pomp with a 21-gun salute and one last speech to his supporters.’Prophetically that speech included the phrase, ‘We will see you soon.’

At noon whilst on Air Force One heading to Key Lago, he became former president Trump having spent his final hours in office awarding commutations and pardons. About 70 of each, including former aid Steve Bannon who was convicted in 2020 on a federal fraud and money laundering indictment. Also a raft of those with political connections to Trump many of whom, along with Bannon, had been found guilty on trumped-up charges motivated by partisan politics. In his final 35 minutes before he landed in Florida, he did one last pardon from the plane. That was of the former husband of Fox News personality Judge Jeanine Pirro, a strong MAGA supporter, Al Pirro having served a prison term for tax evasion.

Meanwhile, on the Capital, Biden’s ceremony adhered to traditional protocols but featured a reduced crowd composed of members of Congress, ex-presidents and other dignitaries. Masks and social distancing were observed. President Biden took the oath of office administered by Chief Justice John Roberts, placing his hand on a family Bible that has been in the Biden’s possession since 1893. In his inaugural address, Joe, without blushing, emphasised themes of unity, healing, and restoring the soul of America, calling for the nation to come together after years of division.

The event included a number of performances and speeches. Lady Gaga sang the national anthem. Jennifer Lopez performed a medley. The audience pretended to be captivated by tinged Amanda Gorman recital. Then at 21 the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history, read out cheesy drivel struggling for a rhyme entitled ‘The Hill We Climb’. Former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and unindicted sex offender Bill Clinton listened on.

Prior to his recent convincing election victory, fake media on both sides of the Atlantic made much of Donald Trump being the first convicted criminal to hold such office. They are slower to tell you that April 2001 saw the suspension of Bill Clinton’s Arkansas law licence and the imposition of a $25,000 fine. The following October, the US Supreme Court issued an order disbarring the former president from practising law before the high court. The original disbarment lawsuit originated from a professional conduct committee of the Arkansas Supreme Court in the wake of the Monica Lewinsky revelations and Mr Clinton’s admission he lied to the investigation.

The committee had also sought to disbar the ex-president for giving misleading testimony in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. Mr Clinton and Robert Ray, the Clinton/Whitewater scandal prosecutor, worked out a deal in late 2000. Mr Ray promised not to prosecute the president when he left office if Mr Clinton agreed to the suspension of his Arkansas law license for a significant period.

Although saying he is a Christian, during Obama’s inauguration in 2009, Mr Hussein-Obama refused to touch the Bible during the ceremony and held his hand above the Good Book when taking the oath administered by Chief Justice John Roberts. Forced to take it again the next day, fake media claimed a word had been used out of place. For sure Roberts made a mess of his one job, but no matter how close you examine the video clip, you won’t be convinced Obama was touching the Bible.

Sixteen years on and the next inauguration takes place this coming Monday, also a 20th of January. By tradition the American presidential inauguration takes place on that date, but this has not always been the case. The tradition was established by the 20th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1933. Before this amendment, inaugurations occurred on 4th March, a date chosen in 1788 to allow ample time for officials to travel to the capital after elections.

Historians will tell you the new date first applied to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s second term in 1937 and aimed to reduce the “lame-duck” period — the time between the election and the start of the new president’s term. Future historians will add sleepy, creepy, sleazy Joe was a lame duck from day one. If the 20th of January falls on a Sunday, the public inauguration ceremony is postponed to the following day while the president takes the oath of office in private on the 20th. This ensures adherence to constitutional requirements while respecting traditions of not holding significant public ceremonies on Sundays.

Customary but not obligatory, Trump isn’t the only outgoing not to attend a successor’s swearing-in. A few presidents have declined to participate but prior to The Donald missing Biden’s, the previous example was over 150 years ago. In 1869 Andrew Johnson refused to attend the inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant. Johnson, a Democrat, and Grant, a Republican, clashed during Johnson’s tumultuous presidency, especially over Reconstruction policies following the American Civil War.
Earlier examples include John Adams, the second president, who did not attend the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson in 1801, and John Quincy Adams, who declined to see Andrew Jackson sworn-in in 1829. Both Adamses had bitter relationships with their successors.

These absences are rare and regarded as breaches of decorum, underscoring personal or political conflicts or Steals. However, they remain exceptions to the longstanding tradition of unity exemplified by an outgoing president witnessing their successor’s oath of office, as sleepy, creepy, sleazy Joe Biden will this coming Monday.
 

© Always Worth Saying 2025