Politics
Dems promise to 'stand up to' Trump but laud 'peaceful transfer of power' after speech
Congressional Democrats are balancing efforts to stand tough against President Trump while also pledging to work with him where possible after the Republican commander in chief took office.
It comes as moderate Democrats and Democrats in vulnerable seats have made overtures toward Republicans in areas like border security and transgender youth after the GOP’s commanding victories in the 2024 elections – which the right has widely interpreted as a mandate for a more conservative America.
“My job is to fight to make life better for Texas families, and I will work with anyone, Democrat or Republican, who is interested in lowering costs, securing our border, and keeping our communities safe,” freshman Rep. Julie Johnson, D-Texas, who attended the inauguration, said in a statement.
“But make no mistake, I will always stand up to President Trump, his administration, division, and far-right extremism when any of those individuals or entities threaten our way of life.”
DONALD TRUMP SWORN IN AS 47TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., who ran tight races in 2016 and 2022 and is expected to do so again in 2028, said in a statement, “I look forward to working with the incoming administration to lower prices, create jobs, and keep our communities safe. But make no mistake, if President Trump uses his position to hurt hardworking Nevadans, I will always stand strong to protect them.”
Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., took a similar conciliatory tone.
“There is progress to be made on housing, environmental stewardship, public safety, immigration reform, national security, and more. I will work with anybody and any administration to pursue areas of agreement and aggressively deliver for the people I serve,” he said.
“I also firmly believe that our diversity is our strength and our unity is the power to endure and succeed no matter the many challenges that we face. Law-abiding immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community, women, and families recovering from devastating natural disasters are understandably worried by the rhetoric from the campaign trail and potential policies from the Trump Administration.”
Other Democrats were more guarded in their statements, like Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., who said on X, “Today, and always, I root hard for this country of ours, and I wish [President Trump] well as he takes on the responsibility of leading America.”
TRUMP TO TAKE MORE THAN 200 EXECUTIVE ACTIONS ON DAY ONE
Progressive Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., however, made clear that she would take a more hard-line approach against Trump.
“Day 1 under Trump. We must face these challenges and attacks with courage and clarity. I’m ready for the work ahead to defend our Constitution and will be working tirelessly to address the urgent needs of Vermonters and working people across America,” she wrote on X.
Trump was sworn into office for his second term in an inauguration ceremony inside the U.S. Capitol.
Politics
Trump’s Family Stands by His Side at His Inauguration
The inauguration of Donald J. Trump is not just a restoration of power for the former president. It’s a return for his family, as well.
They left Washington four years ago, alienated from many of their former friends and acquaintances in New York City because of their work in the administration. They return to Washington with more political and cultural support — and a far better understanding of how to wield their soft power.
Of course, everyone is a little older. Barron Trump, who was in elementary school when Mr. Trump entered office in 2017, is now a college freshman at New York University. He towered behind Mr. Trump’s shoulder on Monday during the inauguration ceremony, seated next to his mother, Melania.
The incoming first lady was both visible and inscrutable, wearing a sharply tailored navy suit and a large boater hat that concealed her eyes. Mrs. Trump, who largely retreated from public view after leaving the White House, plans to join her husband in Washington, D.C., and participate in an Amazon documentary.
“This time, I have everything, I have the plans,” Mrs. Trump said in an interview on Fox News last week. “I already packed. I already selected the furniture that needs to go in. It’s a very different transition this time around.”
The family ties extend to Mr. Trump’s in-laws. Mr. Trump chose Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner, to serve as the next U.S. ambassador to France. He named Massad Boulos, whose son is married to Mr. Trump’s daughter Tiffany, as a Middle East adviser.
Not everyone is more visible than they were four years ago. As Mr. Trump was sworn in, his four children — Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka and Tiffany — gathered around him to celebrate his victory.
Donald Jr., who has emerged as a key conduit to his father’s base, appears poised to continue his role as the keeper of Mr. Trump’s political flame. Earlier this month, he traveled to Greenland in what appeared to be an effort to support his father’s threat to buy the nation.
Eric will continue his role running the family business, as executive vice president of the Trump Organization. His wife, Lara, recently stepped down as co-chair of the Republican National Convention.
Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, were key advisers during Mr. Trump’s first term, with offices in the West Wing. This time, the couple plans to remain in their lavish Miami mansion, where they retreated after Mr. Trump lost in 2020. Politics, Ivanka Trump said in a recent podcast interview, is a “very dark, negative business.”
The couple won’t escape the spotlight entirely. Mr. Kushner now runs a $3 billion private equity fund financed by the governments of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as by Terry Gou, the Taiwanese billionaire and founder of Foxconn, the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer. His ties are likely to prompt a steady stream of questions about whether the couple is getting special treatment from foreign governments, given their closeness to the president.
“Obviously the world is different for us over the next four years if her father is president,” Mr. Kushner said in October. “But, you know, either way, our life will just continue to move forward.”
Politics
Column: Donald Trump is president again. Did you feel the vibe shift?
As a second Trump administration dawns — or, for his opponents, descends — on America, an interesting and unusual discussion has emerged over the broader meaning of Trump’s victory. One thing that makes it unusual is that there’s more consensus than disagreement about the fundamental point: There’s been a significant “vibe shift” in American politics.
That’s not the way things typically work. Every victorious party claims a “new era” of some kind, but the losing side usually dissents. That’s because, historically, ideologues and activists are sufficiently confident (and invested) in their views to insist any mere electoral defeat was a fluke or one-off — flawed candidates, flawed campaigns, economic conditions, whatever. “Our ideas aren’t the problem, we just nominated the wrong candidate” has long been the traditional ideological, psychological and political safe harbor for losers.
It’s not that the 2024 election doesn’t offer plenty of fodder for such interpretations. Trump’s win was modest. His electoral college margin ranks 44th out of 60 contests. He won the popular vote by 1.5 points. This was no landslide. Kamala Harris, far from an ideal candidate, had little time to put together a campaign. Joe Biden was enduringly unpopular and physically inadequate to the job. Inflation is political cancer for any incumbent. And we heard all that during the traditional recriminations phase right after the election.
But the vibe-shift conversation is about something more fundamental than finger-pointing. Trump’s “cultural victory” feels “tectonic,” in the words of New York Times columnist Ezra Klein. He suggests four factors for why this might be: The right has the upper hand on social media, corporations are looking for an opportunity to swing back to the middle after lurching left, Trump benefits from a bro backlash against allegedly feminized culture and Joe Biden allowed Trump to stay the center of attention during his own presidency.
I don’t fundamentally object to any of these as partial explanations, but they don’t fully capture what’s happening or why progressives are willing to agree that something more fundamental has changed. For instance, another important factor is that MAGA is part of a larger global phenomenon. Populism and nationalism have been on the rise in Europe, Latin America and India. History is often punctuated by such moments (for example, student protest movements erupted around the world in the 1960s). The trends that have shaped American politics — the global financial crisis, mass immigration, COVID, inflation — were not contained within our borders.
But I think the most important driver of the vibe shift is that Trump and Trumpism have shattered a near metaphysical consensus about politics, on the right and left.
Pre-Trump American conservatism was dedicated to a few fundamental propositions: limited government, cultural traditionalism, antiabortion politics, fiscal rectitude and free market economics. Now, I’m the first to concede the right often fell short of its ideals, but showing rhetorical fealty to the ideals was the binding firmament of conservatism. Those commitments still get some lip-service, but there’s no denying that on all of these fronts, loyalty to Trump is the more pressing litmus test. This has freed up Trump to move leftward on abortion, entitlements and economic policy generally.
As damaging as I think this has been to conservatism, Trump’s victory may prove to be more damaging to the left. Because Trump didn’t merely shatter the consensus on the right, he shattered the political consensus generally. Or maybe social media and those other trends were the battering rams and Trump merely benefited from the new landscape.
Either way, the fact remains that the bedrock assumptions about how politics “works” and the rules for what a politician can or can’t do, no longer seem operative. We’re all familiar with how his behavior has demonstrated that, but it’s also illuminated that the electorate itself is just different today. The FDR coalition is gone, the white working class is now operationally conservative, and the Latino and Black working classes are now seen as gettable by Republicans. The assumption that they are “natural Democrats” was obliterated in this election. Republicans have figured out how to talk to those constituencies.
Meanwhile, progressives who grew up knowing only the language of FDR-era class politics or post-civil rights-era racial and feminist discourse have found large numbers of voters — their voters — don’t want to hear it anymore. That disorienting feeling, that sense that history or demography or the “moral arc of the universe” might not be bending in your direction anymore, is what some call a “vibe shift.”
@JonahDispatch
Politics
Inauguration Draws Leaders From Europe’s Right
Mainstream conservative lawmakers and politicians from Europe are planning to attend President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inauguration. But the European contingent is also expected to include leaders of some parties that are on the right-wing fringes in their own countries or have only recently begun to gain greater acceptance at home.
Many of the European politicians who have flocked to Washington share Mr. Trump’s anti-immigrant fervor.
Headlining the European attendees is Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, according to her official agenda. Ms. Meloni, a conservative, was one of the first leaders to visit Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago after his election, on Jan. 4.
Ms. Meloni, who is trying to stop the flows of migrants to her country, is considered one of Europe’s strongest leaders, and her supporters hope that she will emerge as a privileged ally of Mr. Trump in Europe.
The most notable absence is Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, one of Mr. Trump’s most fervent fans in Europe. Despite being widely admired by many American conservatives as an ideological beacon and praised by Mr. Trump as “fantastic,” Hungary’s proudly illiberal leader was not invited to attend, according to a Facebook post by Zoltan Kovacs, Hungary’s secretary of state for international communications.
“To be crystal clear: Viktor Orbán will not participate in the event. President Trump’s team — in accordance with tradition — did not invite any foreign heads of state or government,” Mr. Kovacs said.
That is clearly not true. Mr. Trump has made a point of breaking with tradition and inviting foreign leaders to attend, including Xi Jinping of China. (Mr. Xi is sending the country’s vice-president.)
Here are some of the Europeans who plan to make an appearance
Éric Zemmour, who has been convicted in France of inciting racial hatred, has announced he was invited to attend the inauguration. Mr. Zemmour has written best sellers denouncing the supposed decline of a nation whose Christian roots were being undermined by Muslim immigrants and their descendants.
The former television pundit, whose 2022 run for the French presidency was inspired by Mr. Trump’s campaign, wrote on X, “The wind of freedom blowing through the United States will soon be blowing through France.”
Mr. Zemmour won only 7 percent of the vote in the 2022 presidential election, and his party has only one lawmaker at the E.U. level — Sarah Knafo, Mr. Zemmour’s partner, who is planning to attend the inauguration with him.
France’s much more powerful nationalist, anti-immigrant party, the National Rally, said it was sending a delegation, but neither Marine Le Pen, the party’s longtime leader, nor Jordan Bardella, its current president, will attend.
While Mr. Trump’s anti-immigrant message resonates with the National Rally, which is considered far-right in France, his wrecking-ball approach to politics runs counter to the party’s yearslong, and increasingly successful, efforts to shed a more extreme image.
Mr. Bardella told CNews television last week that he did not understand the “fad” of racing “to get your picture taken in front of Donald Trump during his inauguration speech.”
The contingent of Germans planning to attend the event includes a representative from the mainstream conservative party — Jürgen Hardt of the CDU/CSU, which leads in the polls for Germany’s coming election. But a member of the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, parts of which are classified as right-extremist by the German government, is also expected to be there.
The AfD representative will be Tino Chrupalla, its co-leader, rather than Alice Weidel, its chancellor candidate in the February election. Elon Musk, Mr. Trump’s billionaire ally, recently hosted a friendly interview with Ms. Weidel on his X social network, giving the AfD a platform that German media and politicians have long denied it. Mr. Musk has endorsed Ms. Weidel in the election.
Among the expected high-profile British guests are former Prime Minister Liz Truss, who resigned after less than two months in office over a budget plan that rattled financial markets, and Nigel Farage, who leads the country’s insurgent, populist and anti-immigrant party, Reform U.K.
Mr. Farage is a longtime ally of the president-elect, and backed his campaigns for the White House in 2016 and 2020 as well as last year.
While in Washington, Mr. Farage may have the chance to try to repair his ties with Mr. Musk, who had been a supporter but recently turned on Mr. Farage. The spat started over Mr. Farage’s refusal to echo Mr. Musk’s demand that a far-right agitator with multiple criminal convictions be released from prison.
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