the great story of his inauguration

A new era

He launched it on November 6, the day after the election, at Mar-a-Lago, where he took refuge surrounded by his family, in a sometimes delirious atmosphere. According to Jennifer Jacobs, a well-connected CBS News reporter, he was “euphoric.” He who, a few months earlier, was drowning in trials and seemed destined for prison. Around Donald, it’s the circus, like the Great Gatsby. Money flows freely, the parking lot is filled with Rolls and Ferraris, the guests sometimes wear extravagant outfits, like this sports coach with a crocodile tattoo and dressed in a suit with red feathers.

There we can meet Sylvester Stallone, one of the three future ambassadors appointed by Trump to “right Hollywood” [peuple de « gauchistes » qu’il déteste, NDLR]quietly queuing at the buffet to fill his plate. The price of joining the Mar-a-Lago club has increased tenfold since the first election in 2016: to become a member, you now have to pay more than a million dollars, and there is a list of ‘waiting. People come there to network, an art that allowed Trump to conquer Manhattan in the 1980s. Every evening, hundreds of people arrive in the hope of joining the future administration. If the king is in a good mood, he says yes: this happened to a Florida sheriff about whom Pam Bondi, from that state and future Minister of Justice, spoke well. But the next day Trump changed his mind and the poor man learned that the job had passed him by. There were a lot of disappointments at Mar-a-Lago. Like financier Duke Buchan, who raised tens of millions of dollars to finance the campaign, without being rewarded with office. However, he had pushed like hell. The members of the president-elect’s staff had to make him understand that he needed to calm down.

Elon Musk electrifies the crowd

​Obviously, the star is Elon Musk. As soon as he appears, we hear “Oh my god!” » on the fly. He does not need to wear a pin to be identified by security agents as a VIP. On the evening of the formalization of the Doge, the famous department of Government Efficiency which he is responsible for steering to reduce the federal state budget by a third, we see him at the Mar-a-Lago bar with his accomplice, former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Elon Musk is now a regular here: he stays there, attends Trump’s phone calls with foreign heads of state and gives his opinion on everything. He has already made one victim: Steve Bannon, who opposed him on a technical subject, that of H-1B visas issued to high-potential foreign talents, who bring Silicon Valley to life. Musk is all for it and the president agreed with him. Bannon is completely against it and he was absent from the inauguration.

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For Trump, this transition smacks of revenge. All the high-tech billionaires came to congratulate him at his table at Mar-a-Lago – then at his inauguration speech. Starting with Mark Zuckerberg, who banned him from Facebook after the insurrection of January 6, 2021; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon and owner of the “Washington Post”, a left-wing daily that he is trying – with difficulty – to refocus, and Bill Gates, an openly Democratic philanthropist, absent from the inauguration, but represented by the P- CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella. The whole of Silicon Valley, once won over to the Democrats, now bows at his feet. And the old world too: on December 12, “Time” presented him with the “man of the year” prize, for the second time since his victory in 2016. Surrounded by his entire family and part of his future government, Donald Trump celebrates the event at the New York Stock Exchange by ringing the bell. “It’s always an honor to receive this distinction,” he says, “but I think this time, it’s even more pleasant than in 2016.” And added: “At the time, when I arrived in Washington, I didn’t know anything or anyone. But I learned quickly! »

The first quality required? Loyalty to the boss

Trump is indeed convinced that his first term was hampered by “old school” Republicans whom he appointed to his cabinet, then unceremoniously fired after they tried to restrain him. All these ex-allies had turned into slayers. He thus managed his victory differently: we were not treated to the parade of personalities in the lobby of the Trump Tower. The candidates for the new administration were discreetly selected in a building located about twenty minutes from Mar-a-Lago, in West Palm Beach. The interviews were conducted by activist influencers like Charlie Kirk, a close friend of Donald Trump Jr., or by entrepreneurs like Elon Musk or Marc Andreessen, an investor who fought against the regulations imposed by Joe Biden in the sector of cryptocurrencies. Some of these “tech bros” say they took sabbaticals for “patriotic reasons.”

Even the mother of Tesla CEO Maye Musk, a 76-year-old model and supporter of the cause, took part in some meetings. The first quality required? Loyalty to the boss. According to the “New York Times”, certain candidates were tested on their position regarding the “stolen victory” – according to Trump – of Joe Biden in 2020. The unwary who responded that the Democrat had won according to the rules were not retained. “The Trump administration works about sixteen hours a day, six days a week,” tweeted Shaun Maguire, a friend of Elon Musk, at the end of November, who immediately corrected him: “Seven days a week. » Activism has paid off: according to a CNN poll, 55% of Americans approve of the way Trump has managed this transition period. ​

Those who believed that the president would fall into line are in for a loss. His inauguration speech was relatively tempered, except for the part on the Panama Canal, which he called for, and the change of name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. “America’s new golden age is beginning,” he said in the preamble. Which was still more moderate – and positive – than the formula he used in 2016 (“the American carnage ends here and now”). During this time, we saw Biden smiling without applauding, looking elsewhere, Bill and Hillary Clinton laughing quietly with George W. Bush slumped in his chair. Barack Obama, who came without Michelle, straight as an I.

Pardon for the “January 6 hostages”

As if he knew the worst was yet to come. He wasn’t wrong. The same evening, the Republican brought together his activists for a parade organized in the Capital One Arena. There, we found the Trump campaign. He made Kamala Harris whistle and imitate, for example, Joe Biden by speaking like a senile. On the stage, the master of the White House installed this small table decorated with the presidential seal on which he used to sign presidential decrees in front of the cameras. In front of his activists, he signed several, one of which recorded the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris agreement on climate change, which had great success with the applause. He then threw his Sharpie felt-tip pens used for signing into the crowd. The fans were fighting to catch them. Then, back at the White House, he signed 200 more, largely focused on illegal immigration. One of them formalized his pardon for 1,500 “January 6 hostages”, these insurgents who were heavily condemned for having besieged the Capitol in 2021. The Trumpian restoration is underway.