On Inauguration Eve, a Look Back at a Story That Changed Everything
Butterfly effects on Blocked and Reported
Good morning everyone, especially to new subscribers! I’m still on that Jayden Daniels high after last night in Detroit — did two hours on Fox with Mary Katharine, Katie Pavlich, and Griff from outside on a rooftop overlooking the White House and went downstairs just in time to see Terry McLaurin go to the house and that beautiful pick six. We’ll be back on air tonight before day-long coverage on Inauguration Day from Capitol Hill.
But before today’s games get going and the whole inaugural craziness begins, I hope you’ll take the time to listen to one of my favorite podcasts, Blocked and Reported. Katie Herzog invited me to join her this week, and we took the time to dive into one of the signature moments in the history of the online right: the Andrew Breitbart/Anthony Weiner incident, which ultimately led to the crazy result of Steve Bannon in the White House — at least for a moment. You’ll find the episode here:
Inauguration Moves Inside to Skip the Chill
Monday's proceedings will now take place in the Capitol rotunda — an extremely limited space — meaning many lawmakers will likely not be able to attend.
When Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in the rotunda in 1985, only 96 people were invited, according to contemporaneous reports.
That's significantly fewer than the 435 House members and 100 senators — not to mention Trump's family members, Cabinet and staff appointees, Supreme Court justices and other invited VIPs.
Trump wrote in a post on his social media app Truth Social that there is an "Arctic blast sweeping the Country" that "could take temperatures into severe record lows" in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 20.
"Therefore, I have ordered the Inauguration Address, in addition to prayers and other speeches, to be delivered in the United States Capitol Rotunda," he said.
The Capital One Arena, a downtown D.C. stadium with a capacity of 20,000, will screen the swearing-in live and host the presidential parade, Trump said.
Washington sees muted protests, nothing like 2017.
How Real Are Trump’s Imperial Ambitions?
“The mission of the United States is one of benevolent assimilation,” said William McKinley, America’s 25th commander-in-chief, who happens to be one of Donald Trump’s favorite presidents. Trump, who barely dodged a bullet in 2024, shares a number of traits with McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901: Scottish blood, ferocious work ethic, an affinity with the super-rich that somehow appeals to the working classes, a faith in tariffs as a means of safeguarding industry, and a willingness to expand America’s empire to boost future prosperity.
“I’m talking about protecting the free world,” said Trump last week, as he announced his intention to annex Canada and Greenland, to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and to reassert American sovereignty over the Panama Canal. “You don’t even need binoculars. You look outside, you have China ships all over the place. You have Russian ships all over the place. We’re not letting that happen.”
The same day, the President-elect had dispatched his eldest son to Greenland aboard his Boeing 757, aka Trump Force One, to greet the locals. Don Junior, the princeling, came in peace. “We’re going to treat you well,” he told the Inuits, as 3,000 miles away, in the warmer climes of Mar-a-Lago, his father refused to rule out using military force to acquire their land.
Most of the world reacted to the Trump clan’s imperial ambitions with a mixture of amusement and disbelief. The political and diplomatic classes assume that his expansionist rhetoric is a madman ploy, a bluff to advance the Trump 2.0 tariff agenda and push his more sincere demands that Nato countries spend up to 5 percent of their budgets on defense. Speak to MAGA insiders, however, and the message is clear: he is deadly serious. “I keep speaking to Europeans and British embassy people and telling them he really means this stuff,” says one. “And they are like, ‘No, no, it’s just a negotiating tactic.’ I just think, are you guys never going to get it?”
Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist, says the President-elect’s “geo-strategic vision” is “the new ‘Great Game,’ bro.” It is global power politics for the manosphere and a natural extension of America First chauvinism: Make America Greater and Safer — by adding vast swaths of land where necessary. Trump’s first inaugural speech, in January 2017, was an inward-looking diatribe against “American carnage.” His second, eight years later, is expected to convey a greater sense of international urgency, including perhaps a direct warning about the threat of China.
“If you want Fortress America,” says Bannon, “Trump’s giving you Fortress America, all the way from Panama up through Greenland. Can he pull any of this off? Hey, it’s Donald Trump.”
If anyone doubts Trump’s ability to bend reality to his will, his allies point towards the fact that, at the same press conference, he promised “all hell will break loose” should Hamas not return its Israeli hostages before he returns to the White House on Monday. Sure enough, Hamas appears to have agreed to give back the hostages as part of a peace deal. Such diplomatic breakthroughs make it difficult for any fair-minded observer to gainsay the method in Trump’s madness…
Greenland is rich in minerals and the rare-earth elements which make semiconductors work and drive our technological age. The territory is also likely to be an increasingly important asset when it comes to intercontinental trade, as improved ice-breaking technology and, perhaps, climate change open up the frozen North Sea passages. US military chiefs have long been sensitive to China and Russia’s maneuvers in the Arctic Circle.
According to some Trumpworld voices, America’s annexation of Greenland is part of a broader strategy to counter Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative. “An alternative US Belt and Road type scenario is very possible,” says one soon-to-be member of the Trump administration. “The feeling here is that we’ve been asleep at the wheel for too long. China’s tentacles are everywhere.”
During the Covid crisis, it is said, Trump became depressed at the vulnerability of America’s economy when it came to global supply routes. He is also understood to have been alarmed at the more recent Houthi attacks on international shipping lanes in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. Trump’s secretary of state Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and the under-secretary of defense Elbridge Colby are all similarly exercised about China’s naval build-up and determined to re-establish that America rules the waves.
More from The National Interest on how to shop for Greenland. And: Making the Monroe Doctrine great again?
How MAGA is Taking Back the Culture
WSJ on the oddity of this moment.
Across many facets of society—in sports, entertainment, the classroom and the workplace—there are signs that MAGA isn’t just retaking the White House. It is gaining a firmer foothold in the broader culture.
Instead of taking a knee to call for social justice, NFL players are doing the “Trump dance” in the end zone at football games. Mainstream entertainers, among them the country singer Carrie Underwood and the rapper Snoop Dogg, agreed to perform at events celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration, something music stars largely shunned eight years ago.
A new generation of Trump-friendly comedians and wellness influencers is populating YouTube and other social media, while a snippet of audio featuring Barron and Melania Trump has become one of the hottest online memes, with celebrities such as Paris Hilton and brands including Frontier Airlines using it in their TikTok and Instagram posts…
To be sure, a number of values associated with liberals have become more popular in recent years. Same-sex marriage is widely accepted, though not universally, and more than half of states have liberalized marijuana laws. After the Supreme Court ended a constitutional right to abortion, Wall Street Journal-NORC polling found support for abortion access was at one of the highest levels on record since NORC began tracking the issue in the 1970s.
Yet, Gallup found an uptick in Americans calling themselves socially conservative, with the share reaching a 10-year high. Some 38% identified as conservative, and 29% as liberal.
Moreover, social conservatives are making gains in their long battle to reverse what they believe has been a liberal takeover of Hollywood, academia and the hiring and investment policies at big businesses.
Businesses are rolling back diversity efforts that gained urgency after the murder of George Floyd by police in 2020 led to a focus on racial inequities. Universities are adapting to the Supreme Court’s ban on considering race in admissions, and programs designed to help minority students are under legal attack, facing claims that they discriminate based on race. In some Republican-led states, officials feel newly empowered to press for Christian-theme curricula in the classroom.
Conservatives have long complained that free speech was censored on social media. This month Meta Platforms announced the end of fact-checking and restrictions on certain types of speech across Facebook and Instagram…
Trump’s inauguration on Monday will present a tableau of corporate chiefs eager to honor him, some of whom have started to unwind the climate-change and diversity-promotion policies that the MAGA movement has targeted. Some of these businesses have millions of customers and are skittish about taking political stances. An appearance with Trump signals comfort that he is broadly acceptable to the public…
Coca-Cola, which markets to an especially broad consumer base, recently unveiled a commemorative Donald Trump Diet Coke bottle to mark the inauguration. While the company has made similar bottles for the prior five inaugurations, it couldn’t cite another time that its chief executive presented the bottle personally to the incoming president before this year.
The commemorative bottle, which isn’t for sale, is notable given that the company sharply criticized Trump over his immigration policy in 2017 and called the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol “an offense to the ideals of American democracy.’’
Many political analysts have said Americans are becoming more open to conservative ideas because of fatigue with a “cancel culture’’ that some found stifling and overly sensitive to gender and racial identity. The rise of social media is another important factor. By appearing on YouTube, Instagram or other platforms, content creators avoid the gatekeepers of legacy media and can build like-minded audiences.
Damien Reilly has more on corporate America abandoning the culture war.
Feature
Items of Interest
Foreign
Gaza cease fire begins after last minute delay.
Hostage families anxiously await reunion.
How China dominates global shipbuilding.
What can Trump do about Mexico’s cartel war?
Handicapping Trump’s foreign policy team.
AFD on track to win a third of Germany.
Domestic
Trump arrives in Washington for inauguration celebrations.
Antle: A second chance at the White House, lessons learned.
America braces for an avalanche of day one Trump executive orders.
What will large scale deportations look like?
Trump hires Fed firing mastermind James Sherk.
Shellenberger: LAFD whistleblowers blame corruption, budget for fire response.
300 million dollars worth of Malibu homes turned to ash.
Douglas Murray: In LA, DEI went up in smoke.
Trump plans to visit California to view fire damage.
Jon Husted, Ashley Moody chosen to replace Vance, Rubio in Senate.
Blue New Yorkers brace for Trump’s return.
Mike Johnson shares concerning Biden anecdote with Bari Weiss.
Trump taps Sean Curran for Secret Service director.
Judge Cannon has one more shot at Jack Smith.
Media
CBS owner discusses settling Trump suit, with merger review incoming.
David Brooks responds to Biden: Most billionaires are Democrats.
Here’s the total amount of CNN’s coverage of their defamation verdict.
Tech
The hill wants a TikTok ban deal.
TikTok shuts down before ban goes into place.
Sam Altman responds to Democrats’ letter about Trump donation.
Ephemera
An appreciation of the late David Lynch.
Wildfires could hasten film, TV production leaving Los Angeles.
Kennedy: Rise of the child free influencers.
Quote
“Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word, lose your self-respect, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light.”
— Marcus Aurelius