Trump returns to Capitol as vanquisher, capping unlikeliest comeback

It was either a homecoming or a heresy, depending on perspectives.

The inauguration of President Trump on Monday capped an unlikely return to power for a figure who stunned the nation with his White House win in 2016, fell from grace in a din of violence four years later and returned with a booming victory last year to mark what is perhaps the greatest political comeback in the nation’s history.

For Republicans and other Trump allies, the occasion was one of sheer joy — a validation that their attacks on former President Biden were properly placed and a vindication that their efforts to keep Trump in power four years ago merely reflected public sentiment. They wore their giddiness on their sleeves.

“Daddy’s back,” Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) said.

For Democrats and other Trump critics, it was something much different: a lamentation of their failed efforts to keep Trump from a second term and a moment to mull, not only the origins of their defeat, but also how to work with a commander in chief most of them deem unfit to serve in that seat. Many still have the Capitol attack of Jan. 6, 2021, on their minds.

“He’s the one who caused his supporters to come here, to beat Capitol police officers, to smear blood and feces,” Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) said. “I guess that’s why I wanted to be here today, to say that we’re more resilient. America and the fabric of our democracy are resilient. We’re better than that.”

That split screen of partisan tensions was on display most vividly during Trump’s speech in the Capitol, where the newly sworn-in president painted a bleak portrait of a country in decline but vowed a litany of policy changes he said would bring in “the Golden Age of America.” In tone, it was tamer than the “American carnage” speech he gave in 2017, but it featured several attacks on Biden, who sat an arm's length away with a grim expression.

“We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home,” Trump said, “while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalog of catastrophic events abroad.”

From the audience under the rotunda, Republicans gleamed their approval and Democrats sulked in opposition — a piece of theater that, in miniature, encapsulated the broader partisan divisions and cultural differences that practically define American politics in the modern era.

“Americans are celebrating because they finally have a government that will be accountable to its people — one that defends liberty, fosters opportunity and inspires the world,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said.

“He had an opportunity to unite us on costs, crime, border, and he just gave us another speech of grievances and whining,” countered Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), who helped to lead Trump’s first impeachment during his first term. “He has a chance if he wants to find Democratic friends and partners on these issues, but I think he can just never get out of his own way.”

If Trump’s return reflected a tale of two Washingtons, Monday’s ceremony left no questions about who’s in charge.

Trump, aglow in the spotlight of his political revival, had a large hand in orchestrating the event himself. With frigid weather whipping through Washington, he’d taken the rare step of moving the ceremony inside the Capitol — a shift that avoided the embarrassing optics of being sworn in on the same west-facing portico where, four years earlier, Trump’s supporters had attacked law enforcement officers in a failed effort to keep him in power.

Under the rotunda, the crowd was composed largely of friendly faces. There were the members of Trump’s family, who had fought tirelessly for his reelection; his Republican allies in Congress, who have ridden the coattails of his popularity to control all levers of power in Washington; and a small coterie of billionaire tech executives who have gravitated to Trump — some before and some after his victory on Nov. 5.

It was the last group that received the most attention, not only because their wealth has made them household names — Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Tim Cook — but because the companies they control are in positions to benefit handsomely from federal contracts on which the famously transactional Trump could have the final word.

The prominence of those tech moguls — who were seated behind Trump’s family at the center of attention — angered some Republicans, who voiced concerns about spotlighting billionaires after an election cycle in which Republicans made gains with working class-voters. The dynamic was not overlooked by Democrats, who said the VIPs on the inaugural stage formed appearances of an oligarchy in the making.

“Delivered in a room where the richest people on Earth were given special seats of honor, today’s weak and divisive inaugural address echoed the same empty campaign promises that won’t do anything to help working families struggling with rising costs,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chair of the House Democratic Caucus.

In many ways, the ceremony maintained the contours of a traditional inauguration. All of the living former presidents — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama — were on hand, as were the nine sitting justices on the U.S. Supreme Court. Former Justice Stephen Breyer, who retired from the high court in 2022, joined them.

A small handful of former Speakers were also in the audience, including Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who entered the rotunda together.

But there were also some notable absences that got plenty of attention. Some of those figures, like former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), avoided the ceremony to protest Trump, the first president to enter the White House as a convicted felon.

Several other absences were more opaque. Michelle Obama, the former first lady, and Karen Pence, the wife of Mike Pence, Trump’s first vice president, did not attend the event. Neither, however, specified their reasons.

Mychael Schnell contributed.

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