January 20, 2025 - 10:30am
Washington, DC
Itâs mostly forgotten now, but Washington burned the day Donald Trump was first sworn in eight years ago. Businesses were smashed downtown. Cars were set on fire. Some 200 people were arrested and pepper spray wafted through the business district. At least one journalist was sent to the emergency room after being struck unconscious by anti-fascist rioters.
The capital is still littered with fading âFUCK TRUMPâ graffiti tagged onto buildings years ago, when the new president first arrived in the White House, but the mood ahead of todayâs ceremony is very different. A âgolden age is upon usâ, according to one hungover Republican staffer on Sunday morning.
Amongst the blur of parties in the days preceding the inauguration can be found people who would never have been associated with Trumpâs first term. His new militia of crypto enthusiasts gathered at the âBitcoin Ballâ on Friday night, where Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross and the Winklevoss twins mingled with Beltway operatives. Itâs a far cry from Joe Biden, who spent his final days in office warning of a tech-industrial complex, reflecting on the “robber barons” of yore.
âWhat I found to be the most interesting thing is that a lot of people werenât DC people,â a GOP source said, âand the big thing is that these people would have never come to a Trump inauguration in 2017.â This person would know: having worked in the first Trump administration, they endured the discomforts of life in DC as MAGA diehard from 2016 until 2021. In the following years, Iâd wince every time a Midwestern tourist walked by in Trump gear, knowing they were likely to encounter hostility from DC locals. The Womenâs March ahead of Trumpâs first inauguration was so big the demonstration bled into every corner of the city.
This weekend, though, youâd hardly know there were protests unless you were actually attending them. Instead, everywhere you looked there was someone in a Dark MAGA hat, someone driving a âMAGA mobileâ, someone with a rhinestone Trump purse. A couple of bike racks had signs taped to them that read: âNo racistsâ and âNo transphobes.â But the âresistanceâ was muted.
âThis weekend is the pinnacle of Republican popularity. Trump is head of the cool kids table, and everyone is looking for a seat,â said one senior congressional source. âUnmatched in the modern era of Republican politics.â This marks a significant change from 2016, when establishment Republicans as well as Democrats rejected Trumpâs first entrance into Washington.
Another House of Representatives veteran put it this way: âConservative populism was treated as an anomaly in the first term. Now itâs clear that it is â as it always has been â the only path for victory, and the normal everyday people wandering DC and greeting police enthusiastically while wearing MAGA hats are the evidence.â
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SubscribeGood for you America. The Far Left are in retreat.
God help UK.
We don’t have a Trump or a Musk.
Can you imagine a politician saying Make England Great Again?
We are so lost it could not be said.
Starmer’s ‘fixing the foundations’ looks a distinctly modest objective compared with Presidents Trump’s and Xi’s. Matched, oddly, with his confidence in the 100-year pact with Ukraine.
In any case, how could a ‘community of communities’ be made great again when it never was in the first place? England could say’ ‘we’re back!’ if Scotland and the others were shed to join the EU in their quest for ‘independence’.
English people don’t have to apologise for being English. That is the Far Left’s brainwashing.
Remove the brainwashing and all young people, native English or recently arrived, could be taught English culture and history, and be proud to be part of it.
Iâm pretty sure that after Trump finishes his second term in the US he would be allowed (in the UK constitution) to come over here, stand for Parliament and be the UK prime minister âŠ. That would be great fun đ
As a British citizen (mother born UK) Trump could do! Wouldn’t that be a sock in the eye for Sir Fear Smarmer & Co?
Thank God for America. Thank God for Trump.
The traitorous scum that rule the Uk, despise our country and its indigenous people will double down. Itâs enough to make you weep.
In 2016 , after Trump won, people started wearing safety-pins to signal their , well, I don’t know, they were just signalling.
It has taken 8 years for people to see just how insane these people were!
We are so far down the Far Left rabbit hole that if an MP said Make England Great Again, they would be universally condemned as Racist.
The first battle here is to reclaim the words which the Far Left has stolen and perverted.
And we will need Free Speech to do that.
The Left know that. They will hold on tight to their non-crime and hate-crime.
Free Unherd!
The reply button is back!
Is it?
I think so.
Enjoy today. It’s as much chimera as Brexit, unless you are a Billionaire at which point it’s Happy days unless you upset daddy.
I ordered extra 55-gallon drums for all the Prog tears. Thanks for your donation!
Save the drums and watch careful what happens when they have to Vote in March to avoid another Govt shutdown, and then watch whether the first draft of the Reconciliation Bill includes the Billionaire’s tax cuts. They are of course relying on the red meat working to throw you and others off the scent. Not a Progressives issue (whoever they may be). It’s a MAGA issue – is he about them or the exceptionally rich? Watch carefully.
Watching footage of Trump’s pre-Inauguration celebrations made me again consider what makes people fortunate and others not so. The obligatory cremation defying dental work and manicured fingers pointing recognition could not disguise the freak show on display. It was led by the head freak disguised as an Emperor with bronze makeup. A few Red Indians and gays lip synced to tired old songs. Every princeling no matter how mad or grovelling had his minute of fame. Be fortunate as I was if you did not make the cut. The excluded mob roaring approbation outside will turn in time. All that will be left are the teeth. Glistening in the ashes of madness given power.
Are you saying they’re indentured?
Haha. My wisdom is wasted in the dentist’s chair.
Seems youâre feeling very dramatic this morning Josef.
I’d give you a đ were it possible on Unherd. It was a silly post.
Hallelujah, the US has been un-Bidened by what has been!
Nice đ , and wasnât Kamala Harrisâs face an absolute picture during Trumpâs speech.
Democracy/Republic in action. A peaceful transfer of power in a time that could have been much, much different. There is a new vibe in the country, the fascists are really the Dems and their sociopathic leadership and they have been shown the door for at least four years.
But there is an optimistic atmosphere. Numerous polls (of course) were conducted, and surprise, Gen Z was the most optimistic by 70-30 percent in one of them. The atmosphere is freedom and if Trump doesn’t screw it up the Dems (Fascists) will be looking in for a long, long time. It is a beautiful morning in America!
Everything these people do is based on popularity and being “cool”. In 2016 Trump lost the popular vote, so they could convince themselves that they were actually in the majority and they were “the good guys” because most people they met agreed with them. This is because these individuals are inherently insecure and need external validation, Kazynski has some good insights into this.
In 2024 Trump won the popular vote so now they don’t know they have the popular backing. It also happened to coincide with the tech companies making major layoffs, primarily in the DEI departments so that might’ve had something to do with it.
I’m glad to see Joe Biden go. His out-the-door acts just showed the lack of class and panache that characterized his four-decade career of mediocrity in office. His presidency was a disaster, and only George W. Bush in my lifetime did worse.
But I’ve soured on Joe Biden’s successor, Donald Trump. He seems old and tired somehow, even though on the surface he seems as full of action as ever. People like Elon Musk, Bobby Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard, Pete Hegseth. These are not serious appointments, like Marco Rubio (already confirmed 99-0) and Pam Bondi.
You expected serious appointments from a moron like Trump? Good luck with that!
anti-fascist rioters..
please, Antifa are communist nihilists who arent âanti-fascistâ, but instead pro crime, pro anarchists
“Itâs mostly forgotten now, but Washington burned the day Donald Trump was first sworn in eight years ago. Businesses were smashed downtown. Cars were set on fire.”
The reason we in the UK have ‘forgotten’ this political violence is because it was hardly reported, if at all, by the media here. Left-wing fascists staging violent protests? Heaven forbid! Can’t allow such images to tarnish the BBC brain-washing!