Inauguration Day Takes

There is obviously a lot going on today. Trump is currently signing executive orders with all the glee of a new class president handing out hall passes. I’ll let that dust settle before I try to discuss them. Until we get there, here are some impressions of the day, especially for those who couldn’t bring themselves to watch. [If you could use a little levity, just skip down to the last two images, but do remember to come back up here!]

It started with now-former President Biden, God love him, issuing pardons. First, there were pardons for people Donald Trump has suggested may be targeted for revenge prosecutions, like Liz Cheney, Anthony S. Fauci, and retired General Mark A. Milley.

There is some debate about whether people must “accept” pardons for them to be effective. The law is not clear, but as discussed here, the suggestion is that like Hunter Biden did, they can be asserted as a defense to prosecution and that would be the point at which “acceptance” is determined. Out of an abundance of caution—concern that Trump’s DOJ could prosecute and obtain a ruling that would almost certainly have to come from the Supreme Court that the pardons are not effective unless accepted while the president who issued them is still in office or at least before prosecution commences— some people gave notice that they were in. The pardon list included Cheney’s co-chair on the January 6 committee, Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, and committee staff, as well as some of the witnesses, limited to police officers who testified.

What a pardon looks like:

Just minutes before inaugural ceremonies began, Biden also pardoned members of his family, writing, "My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me—the worst kind of partisan politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end," before pardoning his brothers James and Frances, James’ wife Sara, and his sister Valerie and her husband.

I would love to be able to link you to Biden’s pardon announcements, but I can’t. This, in a display of pettiness, is where that link now goes on the White House website.

Among those who didn’t receive pardons were Attorney General Merrick Garland and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, as well as Special Counsel Jack Smith and members of his team.

An overwhelming image from this morning: the presence, in the church service and at the inauguration, of five CEOs: Mark Zuckerberg from Meta, Jeff Bezos from Amazon, Sundar Pichai from Google, Elon Musk from SpaceX, and Tim Cook from Apple (not pictured here). TikTok’s Ceo Shou Zi Chew was there too.

It’s a jarring image for an American inauguration, which is supposed to be a celebration of unity and democracy. Instead, Trump seemed to be intent on demonstrating his ability to bring the powerful to heel. And they seemed willing to participate. So was federally indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who apparently received a 1:00 am phone call and personal invitation to attend. He promptly discarded all of his plans for Martin Luther King Day events in the city he leads, and got in the car to drive to Washington, D.C., likely with hopes of a pardon dancing in his head. Knees all bent.

Get ready for “just us,” not justice. Americans who believe Trump is fighting for them fail to understand that for Trump, politics is purely transactional, a matter of what he can extract from people in exchange for his ability to pull the levers of power on their behalf. If you have nothing to offer, then you’re only part of “us” if it benefits Trump in some way.

As for the “Big Five” CEOs who attended Trump today, it’s hard to miss the point. They control the flow of information to Americans, really, to the world. They will control what gets fact-checked and what doesn’t, what gets pushed out and what gets obscured in a world where “information” includes AI, deepfakes, and disinformation. They are the people who control the algorithms, and so, determine what many people will believe is true.

It’s 2025. It’s 1984. “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

Forget about oligarchs. It’s the broligarchy of technocrats. Musk reportedly spent at least $119 million to mobilize voters for Trump during the election (other estimates have it as high as $250 million). Amazon and Meta each donated $1 million toward the inaugural fund. Trump’s inaugural committee smashed fundraising records, taking in more than $200 million in pledges for the fund for which there is virtually no accountability. Trump can spend it as he will. But as powerful as the broliagarchs are, Trump has made it clear he’ll use all the levers of government like regulatory actions that could restrict or restrain their ability to conduct their businesses against those who defy him. He has all of the Justice Department’s civil and criminal authorities, up to and including individual prosecutions, to bring non-complaint titans of business to heel.

It’s not a great day for America, but perhaps a bit of a wake-up among sleepwalkers is coming, at least eventually.

So, have courage. Remember to make time for some fun and some joy. The most important thing you can do right now is reach out to friends and hold them close. Surround yourself with people who understand that the country is trending dangerously so you feel supported. You don’t have to engage with the “if I ignore it, it’s not happening” crowd today. Do everything you can to fight for our country in this perilous moment, but remember to find some happiness for yourself. Laughter and happiness can help to beat back anger and despair, even if we have to work hard right now to muster them.

Mother Nature weighed in:

And, we can take heart from the wisdom of the National Park Service:

As Kamala Harris reminded us after the election, “Sometimes the fight takes a while—that doesn’t mean we won’t win.” Don’t even consider giving up. Now, more than ever…

We’re in this together,

Joyce