Trumpism invaded Washington this Sunday. The city woke up to kilometer-long lines that wrapped around the armored Capital One Arena for several blocks. There, in the Washington Wizards’ indoor stadium, Trump took a final mass bath before assuming power this Monday at noon as the 47th president of the United States. Trump celebrated his triumphant return with a rally almost identical to those he gave during his campaign, but which began with the proclamation of the obvious: “We won.” The president-elect continues to make an apocalyptic description of the United States that does not correspond to reality, but he assures that everything will change with him in the White House: “Tomorrow we are going to recover our country,” he proclaimed to the delirium of more than 15,000 followers who They endured hours of cold and rain to access the premises.
“Tomorrow, at noon, the curtain comes down on our four long years of American decline, and we begin a new day of American strength and prosperity, American dignity and pride, taking it all back once and for all,” Trump said at the beginning of his long speech. . “We are going to end the reign of a establishment failed and corrupt politician in Washington, a failed Administration. We’re not going to take it anymore. Let’s stop the invasion of our borders. We are going to recover our wealth. Let’s release the liquid gold that is under our feet. We are going to return law and order to our cities. Let’s restore patriotism in our schools. “We are going to get radical leftist ideologies out of our military and our government, and we are going to make America great again,” he said, enunciating his slogan for the first time in the afternoon.
Trump arrived in Washington on Saturday and was greeted with fireworks at his golf club on the outskirts of the city. On Sunday he visited Arlington National Cemetery for a ceremony before addressing the rally with his faithful. The opening acts were some of his family members, actor Jon Voight and his advisor Stephen Miller. Trump also invited his biggest donor and ally, Elon Musk, to take the stage, who appeared with his son, “little X,” he called him. The richest man in the world demonstrated once again that he has not been blessed with the gift of oratory and did not say anything relevant. Vice President-elect JD Vance, who was announced as one of the speakers, did not intervene.
WILL OLIVER (EFE)
The president-elect gave one of his messy speeches full of hoaxes and exaggerations in which he mixes bitcoin (he has just amassed tens of billions with the launch of a memecoina cryptocurrency without any assets to back it), the recovery of TikTok and the promise to immediately make public the secret files on the assassination of John Fiztgerald Kennedy.
Videos were put on the screens to ridicule diversity in the army and criminalize immigrants. Nothing new in the Trump universe. The president-elect assured that he will put an end to diversity, equity and inclusion efforts throughout the Administration, so that the country returns to the “merit system,” he said of the first. “Tomorrow night the invasion of our borders will come to an end,” he noted regarding the second.
Trump promised to start strong: “The American people have given us their trust and, in return, we are going to give them the best first day, the greatest first week and the most extraordinary first 100 days of any presidency in the history of the United States,” he said. .
Among the first decrees, in addition to the extension for the closure of TikTok, will be measures to close the border to illegal immigration, begin mass deportations, reverse protections for minorities granted by Biden and relax environmental requirements for oil extraction, among many others. Trump assured that he will repeal multiple Biden decrees “in a matter of hours.”
It remains to be seen if it also immediately begins to impose tariffs on imports, but there was only a passing and untimely allusion to this at the rally. Other promises, such as tax cuts, depend on Congress. Republicans dominate both the Senate and the House of Representatives, just as they did when Trump took office in 2017. They now have a narrower majority, but Trump has greater authority over them.
Pardons for the assault on the Capitol
Trump will also prioritize pardons for those convicted and prosecuted for the assault on the Capitol. “Tomorrow, everyone in this great stadium will be very happy with my decision regarding the hostages on January 6. I would say around 99.9% of this beautiful stadium,” he said, perhaps alluding to the fact that there will not be a general pardon. His rally this Sunday was, in fact, the first he had given before his followers since January 6, 2021 on the Ellipse, the esplanade next to the White House from which the mob went to the headquarters of Congress to try to prevent the certification of Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.
He did not expand on foreign policy, but reiterated his America First policy that he already proclaimed at the beginning of the new presidency. “We will build in the United States, we will buy in the United States and we will hire in the United States,” he said, before assuring: “I will end the war in Ukraine. I will stop the chaos in the Middle East and prevent World War III from happening. And they have no idea how close we are.”
In addition to signing orders and decrees in a kind of show of force, Trump plans to travel to Los Angeles on Friday to visit areas affected by the fires. He will also visit areas of North Carolina damaged by the hurricane Helene.
The Republican assured that he had spoken with Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, and that he had assured him that the company was going to announce a multimillion-dollar investment in the United States that did not materialize.
Trump entered the scene with Lee Greenwood playing God bless the USA, as usual at his rallies. The party ended with the Village People singing their song live. YMCA, become another of the anthems on the soundtrack of Trumpism. The president-elect ended his speech the same way he closes all his rallies, with his string of the same phrase with a change of adjective: we will make America powerful-rich-healthy-strong-proud-safe-great again.
Before, through Truth, his social network, he showed with his intervention to reactivate TikTok, that he is willing to break the law when it interests him. It is a first sign that he returns to office without complexes, with experience and surrounded by loyalists to exercise his power from the first minute. Starting this Monday, he will approve more than a hundred measures to open his second term and bury part of Joe Biden’s legacy.
Massive influx
Monday’s inauguration ceremony will be held inside the Capitol due to the polar cold wave that is hitting Washington. That will leave many of those who have come to the capital without being able to witness it live, which gave more value to this Sunday’s rally. Thousands of people were left unable to enter after hours in line.
The doors of the Capital One Arena opened at 1 p.m. The end of the wait has arrived for Shah Mahdi, 40, from Prentice (Wisconsin), who had secured first place by defying the elements since Friday at 10 in the morning. “Trump made promises in 2015 and fulfilled them between 2016 and 2020 and he is going to do the same now,” he explained before entering. “He said he was going to build the wall and he did. [en realidad no lo logró]he said he was going to fix the economy and he fixed it [en realidad heredó una economía pujante y la dejó en crisis por la pandemia]”He said there would be no wars and there weren’t, he said he would be a president for the people and he was, that there would be security and there was,” he adds. Shah, a truck driver of Indian origin, claims to have attended 93 or 94 Trump rallies.
“We are the MAGA of Maple Syrup. We come from Canada, from Ontario,” said a few posts further back David Speicher, 44, who does not give importance to the president’s words about annexing his country: “I think Trump knows that the traditional media takes whatever he says. “It’s just stirring things up.” Speicher, a doctor in virology and researcher at the University of Guelph, explains why he supports Trump: “There have been a lot of things wrong in the last four years, like the covid vaccines. I don’t support the guy himself, but his entire team, like RFK Jr [Robert F. Kennedy Jr, conocido por su postura antivacunas]. It is the entire group that can make things change.”
Also in the group of Canadians was Brian, 59 years old. “We have come to witness a historic moment. This is an event that only happens once in a lifetime. We fervently support Donald Trump. We were part of the truckers convoy movement for freedom in Canada [el grupo que desafió los mandatos de vacunación y restricciones sanitarias en el país]”. Brian also doesn’t take Trump’s words about Canada very seriously: “It’s funny to me, I don’t give it any importance, but I wouldn’t be totally opposed to it because then we would have access to a warmer climate and that would be nice. I think it’s part of their agenda to tease [Justin] Trudeau, but it’s amazing that there are so many Canadians who are so opposed to the United States taking over. “I find it funny,” he says. “People talk about tariffs, but all Trump is asking for is to stop illegal immigration and drugs. It’s a pretty simple thing, why wouldn’t I as a Canadian support that? But the media doesn’t tell that,” he adds.
“We are here because we love Trump and we are excited to see what he will do with our country, closing the border, lowering inflation and everything else that he has to undo from the last four years,” said Erin, 37, who arrived from Maryland at five in the morning with his mother Christine, 64, who doesn’t mind that the inauguration is held inside the Capitol. “We weren’t planning to go to the inauguration, we were planning to watch it from home. “We just want Trump to be safe.”
“We came to see the inauguration, but since they canceled, we are here,” explained Jennifer, 29, who arrived from Los Angeles, where she was born, although she is of Guatemalan origin. He believes that one of the reasons for the increase in support for Trump among Latinos was “to preserve the family.” “With the president who is in place right now, all that is disappearing and in the Hispanic community it is something we have always believed in. There is a house, a fundamental home, a dad and a mom and the way they want to change everything is not how we grew up. “We want to preserve what a family is.” “A man and a woman,” emphasizes her husband Anthony, also 29 years old, with a Guatemalan mother and a Salvadoran father, but also born in Los Angeles.
Trump only achieved 6% of the votes in the federal capital in the November 5 elections, a city where he even lost the Republican primary to Nikki Haley. This Sunday, however, tens of thousands of followers accompanied him. Trump will return to the same stage this Monday to greet his followers, but now as president. He may even sign his first decrees there. His second term will have begun.
