This is one picture that says a thousand words and it tells you everything you need to know about both Trumps: they are both cast in roles for which they are both completely out of place. They don’t have the instinctive bearing for a position like this and God knows neither one of them has any breeding. That’s been evident since the beginning. Donald Trump takes pride in being the iconoclast and smashing as many norms as he can.
Today he was truly on a roll as he mentioned God at least three times in his Inaugural speech but then didn’t even put his hand on either Bible — and there were two, the so-called “family Bible” — which if I had to guess was grabbed out of a Motel 6 by a family member when the need for such a thing was mentioned — and the 1816 Bible upon which Abraham Lincoln swore his oaths of office in 1860 and 1864.
For reasons known only to Trump, he couldn’t muster the conformity to even move his hand and put it on a couple of books. No, he had to say fuck you to tradition and to be perfectly honest, there are people now saying (and I’m one of them) that Trump was saying fuck you to God. I sincerely believe that. Because Trump is in no holds barred mode right now. He’s got what he wants, he isn’t beholden to anyone (in his mind) he owes no gratitude to anyone and the sheer irony of that, is that Trump’s “success” is all luck of the draw based. If anybody has benefited by an accident of birth, the “Grace of God” it is Trump, hands down.
If he hadn’t been born to immense wealth and then built an imaginary TV character upon his well known personality as an asshole in the New York real estate world and that massive inherited wealth, he would not be where he is today. Or where he was from 2017 to 2021. He’s a conman who squandered the fortune he inherited and now he’s got his stubby fingers on the levers of power of (what used to be) the most powerful nation on the planet. I don’t know if that title is going to hold for too long.
Already the disrespect begins. First the disrespect with the Bibles, then the disrespect of removing General Mark Milley’s portrait from the Pentagon. Trump is flipping everybody the bird today. He’s flipping off the Democrats, obviously. He made that clear in his Inaugural speech, complaining about the previous administration allowing “people from mental institutions” to enter the country, “weaponizing” the Justice Department, all that.
But Trump’s also flipping off MAGA as he erodes the institutions and norms of this country. He’s lessening this country and lying to them most of all. He’s leaving their children worse off than before along with ours. This is one country, as much as people want it to be two.
The rest of us heard his lies and understood them. MAGA is in its own dreamworld waiting for Daddy (which is what Rep. Byron Donalds called Trump on Fox News on Friday) to fix it all and make it right. To make it wonderful, in fact, the “Golden Age.” It would be laughable if it wasn’t so utterly pathetic.
As to pathetic, don’t ask me why Melania wore a hat hiding her face to this event. That question is swirling around in cyberspace and I certainly have no answer. I would think that on this day of all days she would want to have her face seen because of all the photographs taken but I guess there’s some other agenda.
And if you haven’t heard this yet, Usha Vance eclipsed Melania with her attire today. I give Usha all credit for wearing a stunning, stylish coat and boots. She’s clearly got some fashion sense whereas Melania has never had any. She just hangs costumes on her limbs and calls that style. I mention it because Usha is getting massive amounts of praise for her good taste and you know that’s driving Melania up the wall. Good. Let them fight.
I give Usha credit for being a well educated woman, a Yale-educated lawyer and at least she doesn’t lie about speaking six languages. Usha’s got some substance and Melania’s substance stops at her last Botox injection. So you know Melania’s pissed that she, the “supermodel,” just got shown up publicly by some lawyer — whose husband has nowhere near the Trump billions! That’s the hilarity of this. It’s not about money. Melania could have purchased the same outfit, she doesn’t have the eye for it. Fashion sense is like class, you’ve either got it or you don’t.
But believe this: after today, Melania’s “consultants” are going to get one hell of a thrashing and I’ll bet somebody starts following Usha Vance around to see where she shops. And now on to Ivanka.
Do you love it? Straight out of The Handmaid’s Tale. Ivanka’s like Melania, maybe that’s why they can’t stand each other, no sense of style.
There’s an old expression, “I wouldn’t watch dogs fuck, dressed like that.” But hey, this is Trump’s Inauguration and that’s about as disgusting as watching dogs fuck, so maybe Ivanka is on to something here. Ivanka’s outfit might also be appropriate if you wanted to go out to the city dump and shoot rats, but other than that I can’t think of much.
Usha Vance is trumping (pardon the expression) them all. This should get comical and fast. I suppose we should start a countdown clock. 1,459 days to go. This is Day One of the Golden Age. It’s off to a swell start.
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The Golden Age for oligarchs.
If anything, a President or anyone else being sworn in should place their left hand on a leather bound copy of the CONSTITUTION. A document which lest forget explicitly states there shall be no religious test/requirement to hold public office in the United States.
When I read about this this afternoon my first thought was what would all those preachy assed so-called Christians, you know those Evangelicals that ignore the actual teachings of Christ think. The second was that this might not have been Trump stumbling through a “senior moment” but making a point to all those MAGA goobers who think he’s more than the second coming of Christ but the new God Almighty – the point being “If you aren’t a tech bro and or worth hundreds of billions and willing to give me gobs of what I want whenever I demand it then fuck off. I don’t NEED you anymore. Or your Jeebus.”
It will be interesting to see if there’s a reaction in the Evangelical community and also the WH trying to spin this. I’ll close with this: Past Presidents have taken the oath without using a bible. Not many but some and for different reasons. Most if not all were men of faith, unlike Trump who doesn’t believe in God any more than he believes in compassion for those in need. At least he didn’t defile the Lincoln Bible by placing his hand on it!
Thank you for noting the missing hand on the Bible. Not every news outlet bothered to mention it. The question is whether it was arrogance (I’m not subject to any god) or fear that he might get struck by lightning if he touched it while he swore to things he had no intention of doing.
It IS, however, a question that should asked of EVERY so-called Evangelical Christian as to why they would support a man who REFUSED to place his hand on the Bible when taking the oath of office.
They (and the other far-right nutjobs) lost it when Keith Ellison used an English translation of the Qur’an to be sworn into the House of Representatives but they don’t care that *their* man can’t put his hand ON the Bible (either one of them) while being sworn in?
“Now does his title hang loose about him, like a giant’s robe upon a dwarfish thief.” Macbeth
Precisely. I wish the Bard were here. Even he wouldn’t believe Trump and he knew human nature inside out.
Ivanka looks more like she’s going for a military look.
It used to be easy to find such things on the internet but a side-by-side comparison of an outfit Melania wore at a function that was almost identical to that worn by women in the Russian military in WWII seems to have been scrubbed. Hell, for some time now I’ve gone looking for images I’ve seen in the past, things Trump doesn’t want people to be able to see (or his tech bros know he wouldn’t like) that no longer pop up in a batch of images you get with a general inquiry of a search engine. Even when you did into articles that supposedly would contain what you’re looking for certain things I KNOW I once saw aren’t there anymore. I feel like I need to head to the kitchen and make a tinfoil hat!
I know exactly the photo you’re looking for. It’s here in an article. The photo might be in my photo base which is different from yours.
I hope no one mentions to him what the Crusaders did when they conquered Jerusalem in July 1099. They massacred some thirty thousands Jews and Muslims. The blood was said to have come up to the knees of their horses. As a conquering hero, he may want to prove how tough he his by piling up bodies. You never know how evil will turn. Really, I guess 30k is nothing compared to the 1,000,000+ he’s already taken out. That doesn’t even count the dead to come, since he encouraged his cult NOT to get shots, wear masks, yada yada yada. So over 30% of our country allowed the virus to mutate in tens of millions of us…now to do so indefinitely. That being said…blood up to the horses’ knees…that is some impressive fruit hanging on the cross of Yeshua,(his likely real name since the letter ‘J’ didn’t exist in Christ’s time). Another pesky fact to be ignored…you guys don’t even know his name. BLASPHEMY! OFF WITH HIS HEAD BY EXECUTIVE ORDER #1,075!!!