Donald Trump takes the Oath of Office as his wife holds the Bible and his youngest son looks on. (Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Michelle Obama, Melania Trump, Donald Trump, Barack Obama at 58th presidential inauguration, January 20, the Capitol, Washington, D.C. (Jimmy Watson/AFP/Getty Images)

President Donald J. Trump’s Inauguration

I have just watched the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump. His address was ambivalent. After thanking attending former Presidents, he stated that as of 20 January 2017, it would be a new America. It was as though no one came before him.

President Abraham Lincoln and President John F. Kennedy were assassinated, but he did not name them. He did not mention Franklin Delano Roosevelt nor did he mention Mrs. Clinton, whom he defeated. He didn’t say that when President Obama took office, the United States had to pay a huge debt accrued during wars waged in the Middle East. America had been great in an undefined and somewhat mythical past and he would make it great again because power would not be in the hands of politicians in Washington. He was giving it to the people.

He did not address the larger issues: the climate, the oceans, the rainforest, peace in the Middle East. However, he will crush terrorism. Although America renews itself with each administration, it has a past and it must keep up with the times. President Obama has left the United States in much better condition than it was in 1908, and the Affordable Care Act was a landmark.

Mr Trump said that the carnage was over. Yet he was endorsed by the National Rifle Association, who oppose gun-control, and the Ku Klux Klan, who peddle hate.

Seal of the President of the United States

I will always remember President Obama inviting all former living Presidents of the United States to the White House. The United States had moments one wishes to forget and also to remember. Not so long ago, on 9/11, the United States was attacked. Back in 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked, which is when the United States entered World War II. Young men died on the beaches and cliffs of Normandy and troops then travelled north to liberate Europe and take out of various concentration camps the few who had survived Hitler’s demented “final solution.”

Yet, while I bemoan President Trump’s indictment of all the leaders who preceded him and his messianic discourse, I  don’t think he meant to trivialize the four former Presidents who attended the inauguration. He escorted the Obamas to their helicopter quite cordially and then took Melania’s hand and walked her back to the stairs. They  turned and stood until the helicopter departed.

Love to everyone ♥

© Micheline Walker
20 January 2017
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