JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Monday, February 3, 2025

Supporters celebrate at raucous MAGA rally

by

14 days ago
20250120

Sup­port­ers filled most of the 20,000-plus-seat Cap­i­tal One Are­na to hear a per­for­mance by Kid Rock, who per­formed All Sum­mer Long de­spite a cold mix of rain and snow falling out­side.

Oth­ers tak­ing the stage in­clud­ed bil­lion­aire Elon Musk and Lee Green­wood, whose God Bless the USA was the an­them of Trump’s re-elec­tion cam­paign.

“Our hero. A man who nev­er gave up on the Amer­i­can peo­ple, and we the peo­ple nev­er gave up on him,” ac­tor Jon Voight told the crowd.

Stephen Miller, Trump’s pick to be deputy chief of staff and a key ar­chi­tect of the ad­min­is­tra­tion’s promised hard-line im­mi­gra­tion poli­cies, vowed that “jus­tice is com­ing.”

“We are about to get our coun­try back and our democ­ra­cy back,” Miller said, adding “Don­ald J Trump is about to save this coun­try.”

Trump, who has promised to sign a se­ries of ex­ec­u­tive ac­tions, in­clud­ing on US-Mex­i­co bor­der pol­i­cy, was set to speak lat­er in the evening.

Yes­ter­day gave the pres­i­dent-elect a chance to en­er­gise core sup­port­ers be­fore the of­fi­cial pomp of In­au­gu­ra­tion Day.

Trump had break­fast pri­vate­ly with Re­pub­li­can sen­a­tors at Blair House, the pres­i­dent’s of­fi­cial guest res­i­dence, across Penn­syl­va­nia Av­enue from the White House and lat­er posed for a pic­ture with the ten Re­pub­li­can fe­male sen­a­tors and his in­com­ing chief-of-staff, Susie Wiles.

Many ar­rived from around the coun­try and were decked out in their fan­ci­est clothes, in­clud­ing fur coats.

Trump sup­port­ers filled par­ties at ho­tels and restau­rants around Wash­ing­ton.

As they moved be­tween the fes­tiv­i­ties, some could be heard chant­i­ng “MA­GA” or sim­ply stat­ing it as a greet­ing to fel­low rev­ellers.

The at­mos­phere was a re­mark­able turn­around from four years ago, when Trump left the na­tion’s cap­i­tal in dis­grace and skipped the in­au­gu­ra­tion of his suc­ces­sor.

Trump blast­ed his way through the 2024 GOP pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry and won in No­vem­ber with an Elec­toral Col­lege mar­gin un­seen since Barack Oba­ma was re-elect­ed in 2012.

Yet, even with that com­fort­able vic­to­ry and his par­ty in full—al­beit nar­row—con­trol of Con­gress, the in­com­ing pres­i­dent is one of the most po­lar­is­ing fig­ures in US his­to­ry, with near­ly as many fierce de­trac­tors as ar­dent sup­port­ers.

That means it could be dif­fi­cult for Trump to ful­fil post-elec­tion pledges to pro­mote bi­par­ti­san­ship while heal­ing po­lit­i­cal dif­fer­ences.

The pres­i­dent-elect has in­sist­ed that uni­ty will be a theme of his in­au­gu­ra­tion speech to­day, along with strength and fair­ness, but he al­so spent months as a can­di­date say­ing that if elect­ed, he would seek ret­ri­bu­tion against po­lit­i­cal en­e­mies.

“Jan­u­ary 20th can­not come fast enough!,” Trump post­ed on his so­cial me­dia site. “Every­body, even those that ini­tial­ly op­posed a Vic­to­ry by Pres­i­dent Don­ald J Trump and the Trump Ad­min­is­tra­tion, just want it to hap­pen.”

With frigid tem­per­a­tures ex­pect­ed to­day, Trump di­rect­ed most of to­day’s out­door events to be moved in­doors, and of­fi­cials held a re­hearsal yes­ter­day for his swear­ing-in in the US Capi­tol’s Ro­tun­da, which holds on­ly 600 peo­ple com­pared to the 250,000-plus guests who had tick­ets to view the in­au­gu­ra­tion from around the Capi­tol grounds.

Un­like when Trump helped spark a mob of his sup­port­ers to at­tack the Capi­tol and tried to re­tain pow­er in 2021 af­ter his loss to De­mo­c­rat Joe Biden, of­fi­cials did not ex­pect mas­sive protests, un­rest or vi­o­lence. In­stead, ju­bi­lant crowds cel­e­brat­ed Trump’s sec­ond term and MA­GA’s to­tal con­trol of the Re­pub­li­can Par­ty.


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored