The Empty Inauguration
Tomorrow, on January 20, 2025, Donald Trump, the forty-fifth President of the United States, will once again place his hand on the Bible and become the forty-seventh. He will do it, however, not in front of the masses who propelled him to power, who traveled thousands of miles to see him. He will be inside the Capitol, feted by the elites he claims to scorn. Meanwhile, his red-hatted faithful will be out in the literal cold (well, except for the fraction of them lucky enough to score a ticket to the indoor rally). The spectacle of his second inauguration will reveal, yet again, the enduring truth of Trumpism: it was never about them. It was all about the bottomless vanity of one small man and the elites who would exploit it.
Trump has always been a vehicle, a tool wielded by those far more strategic and cunning than he is. In his first term, billionaires got themselves tax cuts, a Supreme Court stacked with deferential justices, and sweeping deregulation. They understood that, in the Trump era, chaos was opportunity. So long as they flattered Trump’s self-regard and allowed him to take credit, they could largely do what they wanted. While Trump flailed from crisis to crisis, the people savvy enough to ingratiate themselves with him got busy carving up the country, enriching themselves under the cover of his perpetual spectacle. He handed the government to the billionaires – his true constituents – while the disaffected middle Americans Trump claimed to champion, distracted by the show, failed to notice that they were being fleeced.
The billionaires are back for Trump 2.0, this time inside the ancient halls of our democracy, because they know everything is for sale. Contrary to prevailing narratives, they are mainly motivated not by fear, but by greed. They thrive in the chaos he creates. Trump’s inability to focus, his lack of vision, his fundamental disinterest in governing — these are not flaws to the oligarchs who surround him. They are features. Sure he has his vanity projects, his personal vendettas, but those can be managed, they think. While Trump rants and raves, while he soaks up the attention and the adulation, those with real power quietly make their moves.
The inauguration is the perfect encapsulation of this bait and switch: The elites get the heat, the comfort, the access. His supporters? They get frostbite. They get empty slogans and useless digital tokens, a continued promise of a battle against elites that ends with them locked outside and the wealthy inside. Once the ceremony is over, Trump will attend a single arena rally, before vanishing into Washington’s most exclusive venues for no fewer than three inaugural balls. There will be no grand populist ball for the working-class. Everyone will go home. Well, except the billionaires: they will set up camp in Washington, if not in the West Wing itself. The con will begin anew.
It's all so depressing. Tales me back to the Reagan years...that feeling of impending doom. This is worse, of course. I try to soak up the wisdom of the freedom/democracy writers as much as possible in search of hope. Yours was a good article and I appreciate it. Thank you.
No. We have to come to terms with the fact that we Dems, we elites, completely ignored the plight of the working class/middle class as it was financially eviscerated by 40+ years of neoliberal trickle-down economics. It’s not that they didn’t listen to us, it’s the opposite. We didn’t listen to them.