10 Weird Moments From The Trump Inauguration
10 Weird Moments of The Trump Inauguration
1.'Draw me like one of your French girls': Trump is mocked mercilessly for posting picture of himself writing his 'inaugural address' at 'receptionist's' desk
Donald Trump has been mercilessly trolled after posting a picture of what he claimed was him hard at work writing his inaugural address from the 'Winter White House.'
The picture shows the president-elect sat behind a dark wood desk, with his pen poised over a blank notepad.
'Writing my inaugural address at the Winter White House, Mar-a-Lago, three weeks ago,' Trump tweeted. 'Looking forward to Friday. #Inauguration.'
But people on Twitter were quick to point out that his 'desk' appeared to be a receptionist's table in the public hallway of the Mar-a-Lago club.
'I see no reason Trump wouldn't write his inaugural address at reception desk. #ManOfThePeople,' one Twitter wrote sarcastically along with a picture of Trump at his desk, and another picture of a receptionist apparently sitting at the same table.
Others mocked the 'staged' photo claiming Trump was writing his inauguration speech with a black Sharpie.
One Twitter user even photo-shopped the picture so Trump appeared with a pack of crayons.
Another tweet imagined Trump was sketching a live model in the style of Leo DiCaprio drawing Kate Winslet in Titanic.
'Draw me like one of your French girls,' the caption read.
Several others mocked the content of the speech.
One posted a picture of the notepad which simply said: 'Don's speech' - with 'speech' originally misspelled - and a squiggle underneath.
Another posted a 'live look at Trump writing his inaugural address' with just an elaborately decorated word 'The'.
While some suggested that the real estate mogul was doodling half naked pictures of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Another suggested Trump was writing a 'thank you' letter to Putin after the allegations of Russian hacking.
On Tweet imagined that Trump was drawing stick figures of himself and the 'suckers' who voted for him.
While some suggested that Trump's stern expression in the picture, reflected his own concern about his inauguration.
'Oh god what have I done?' one Tweet suggested.
Senior Trump officials told CNN yesterday that Trump had written a draft of his inaugural speech.
And while we would never suggest that Trump did not, as he claimed, wrote the speech in the public hallway of the Mar-a-Lago club with a black Sharpie, the president-elect has hopefully learned a lesson from his wife Melania's 'plagiarized' speech and kept it original.
2. D.C. Weed Group Has Rolled 5,500 Free Joints for the Inauguration
Everyone prepares for the inauguration in their own special way. President-elect Donald Trump is writing his inaugural address. The Rockettes are practicing their dance moves. Women's March protesters are painting their signs. And DCMJ is rolling joints.
The D.C.-based marijuana advocacy group that successfully lobbied for weed legalization in the district has already rolled more than 5,500 joints to hand out for free before the inauguration. DCMJ says the marijuana hand-out is not necessarily an anti-Trump protest, since both revelers and protesters are invited to partake. Instead, says DCMJ co-founder Nikolas Schiller, the event is supposed to be for anybody who supports cannabis reform.
"We said we would call it off if Trump said anything about cannabis reform," Schiller said. Since the President-elect has been silent on the issue, Schiller is instructing participants to pick up a joint around 8:00 am on the west side of Dupont Circle, then head to the National Mall and light up exactly 4 minutes and 20 seconds into Trump's speech. While marijuana possession is legal in Washington D.C. and Schiller and his friends aren't breaking the law by distributing free weed in public, toking on federal property is still illegal.
"The act of nonviolent civil disobedience is to break a law that they wish to change," he explains. "The smell can go around and people can know ‘oh those people are demonstrating the importance of cannabis legalization.'"
Schiller and his fellow DCMJ members are behind this effort from seed to smell. DCMJ successfully lobbied for marijuana legalization in the district, but a congressional budget trick prevented any regulatory spending to legally sell and tax weed, which is why you don't see any dispensaries in Washington D.C. But growing and possessing marijuana is still legal, so the DCMJ organized a free seed-sharing program so that D.C. residents could grow their own pot at home. Residents are allowed to grow up to six plants per individual (12 for a couple) and possess up to two ounces of weed, but not buy or sell it. So DCMJ gave out over 20,000 free cannabis seeds to D.C. residents.
For DCMJ at least, they reaped what they sowed. Once they decided to organize a mass marijuana demonstration at the inauguration, they put out the call for weed donations, and they were overwhelmed at the response. The group has collectively rolled more than 5,500 joints, many of them rolled on TIME magazines "to keep the cannabis off the tablecloth." Schiller himself has rolled 200 of those, at 55 seconds apiece.
They say the demonstration is all about cannabis reform and not about politics. DCMJ has repeatedly demonstrated outside the White House for Obama to re-schedule marijuana out of Schedule I, but they never made much progress. The group hopes Trump's presidency might be a chance for a new start.
After seven marijuana initiatives passed around the country in November (in Massachusetts, Nevada, Maine and California, among others,) some drug reform advocates hope that reforms on the state level might trigger a federal shift. With 29 states legalizing medical marijuana and eight legalizing recreational use, some hope the federal government won't be far behind. But Trump's Attorney General pick Jeff Sessions has been loudly opposed to marijuana legalization, and Mike Pence is skeptical about cannabis reform. Trump himself has expressed support for medical marijuana use, but has said the rest should be decided "state by state."
" We really believed that Obama would do something while he had the power to do something, and he never did," Schiller says. "So now we really hope Trump will do what Obama didn’t."
3. White House website promotes Melania Trump’s modeling and jewelry line
From The Post’s Kelsey Snell:
Visitors to the newly revamped White House website get more than a simple rundown of first lady Melania Trump’s charitable works and interests — they also get a list of her magazine cover appearances and details on her jewelry line at QVC.
Melania Trump’s biography starts with traditional details such as her date of birth in her native country of Slovenia and information about her background as a model. That’s when the brief backgrounder takes a promotional turn. The website includes a lengthy list of brands that hired her as a model and several of the magazines in which she appeared, including the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
It is not uncommon for the White House to note the accomplishments of the first lady in her official biography, but Trump’s decision to include a detailed list of her media appearances is unusual.
The site also lists the brand names of Trump’s jewelry lines sold on QVC, at a time when questions have been raised by critics about the ethical implications of the family’s business entanglements.
4. Donald Trump, wife Melania walk out to Rolling Stones’ ‘Heart of Stone’ at Lincoln Memorial before inauguration
Mick Jagger — or a recording of the legendary singer — greeted Donald Trump and his wife Melania as they entered at the Lincoln Memorial Thursday afternoon.
The President-elect and future First Lady arrived at the inaugural concert to the Rolling Stones’ “Heart of Stone,” a choice that was immediately questioned.
The 1965 hit opens “There's been so many girls that I've known/I've made so many cry, and still I wonder why/Here comes a little girl/I see her walking down the street.”
During his campaign, at least a dozen women accused Trump of sexual assault, which he denied.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has also promised to defund Planned Parenthood as part of the repeal of Obamacare.
“Trump entering this dumb Inauguration concert to 'Heart of Stone' because he's a monster who keeps saying “I'm a monster, get it?’” comedian Paul F. Tompkins tweeted.
The Rolling Stones issued a statement in May telling the then-candidate that he didn’t have permission to use their music.
Trump ignored the request and continued using the set list, including “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” at the end of his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention and after his victory speech in the early mornings of Nov. 9.
5. ‘Don’s Johns’ portable toilet co. angry at Trump inauguration cover up
The cover up is likely to have something to do with the company’s name: “Don’s Johns.”
Workers for the Virginia company were surprised to find that someone was putting blue tape over the name every morning, according to the New York Daily News. An employee of the company explained, “We knew they were being covered up, because we’re delivering them there every night and they saw it. We wondered who was doing it. Now we know.”
Apparently someone doesn’t want the name “Don’s Johns” to be associated with the president-elect’s name, Donald. The presidential transition team did respond to a request asking if they were behind the cover up.
The CEO of the company, Rob Weghorst, is unhappy about the whole deal and is telling his employees to rip the tape off, saying, “We like to have our names on our units.”
The inauguration is set for Friday, January 20th, and many protesters are expected to attend in addition to the thousands of well-wishers. It’s very likely many of them will find themselves having to utilize the “Don’s Johns,” whether they can see the logo or not.
6. Rudy Giuliani tells sex-filled 'locker room' joke about 9/11 during lunch celebrating Trump's inauguration
Rudy Giuliani — who once appeared to forget that 9/11 ever happened — took a swanky Thursday luncheon as a golden opportunity to tell a sex-filled “locker room” anecdote about the worst terror attack in U.S. history, a recording has revealed.
The former New York City mayor went on the cringeworthy screed while speaking to a group of Republican lawyers at a $350-per-plate lunch in Washington, D.C., celebrating Trump’s inauguration, according to a recording obtained by The Intercept.
The incident, Giuliani told the audience, occurred on Sept. 14, 2001 when he rode in the same car as former President George W. Bush to the ruins of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan.
“In the same car with me was my fire commissioner, Tom Van Essen, and Tom had lost what turned out to be 343 firefighters,” said Giuliani, who was recently tapped as Trump’s cybersecurity adviser. “And President Bush recognized him from seeing him on television the prior two days. And he leaned over to Tom, grabbed his arm and said to him, ‘Tom, I’m so sorry. How are things going?’ Tom looked at him and said, ‘Much better now. My wife came home last night and I got lucky.’”
The thrice-married attorney then defended his remarks as “locker room talk” — a term used by Trump in October after his boasts about being able to grab women “by the p---y” because he’s “a star” came to light.
Giuliani then delved deeper into the lewdness.
“President Bush remembered that so well that when he saw Tom three weeks later at a fire house dinner, he came up to him and said, ‘Tom, are you still getting lucky?’ And Tom said, ‘No, it’s worn out,’” Giuliani said to loud guffaws from the audience.
Giuliani, who was given the nickname “America’s mayor” after the Twin Tower attacks, has made questionable comments pertinent to 9/11 before.
As one of Trump’s top surrogates on the campaign trail, the former mayor appeared to forget about the attacks altogether while stumping for the President-elect at an August campaign rally in Ohio.
“Before Obama came along, we didn’t have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack inside the United States,” Giuliani told the rally crowd, seemingly forgetting about the tragedy that left nearly 3,000 people dead in his own city. “They all started when Clinton and Obama got into office.”
One day after making those remarks, Giuliani blamed the gaffe on “abbreviated language,” telling the Daily News that, “When you’re giving a speech, you only have five minutes, you can’t give an encyclopedic explanation.”
7. In His Inaugural Address, Donald Trump Embraced Anti-Semites’ Slogan
During Donald Trump’s campaign for president, the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry, asked him to stop using the phrase “America First” to describe his foreign policy views. As the ADL explained, the slogan was used by people who warned, ahead of World War II, that Jewish Americans were pushing the U.S. to enter the war because they put their own interests ahead of the country’s.
But Trump never stopped using the slogan. And on Friday, he made it a key part of his inaugural address. “From this day forward,” he proclaimed, “A new vision will govern our land. From this moment on, it’s going to be America First.”
The crowd went wild.
People who aren’t Jewish or familiar with the history may not realize this, but “America First” makes many people deeply uncomfortable. In 1941, as members of the America First movement campaigned against U.S. involvement in World War II and expressed sympathy for the Nazis, plenty of people already knew that Jews were being persecuted in Hitler’s Germany. Even Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator who led the America First movement, knew it.
“It is not difficult to understand why Jewish people desire the overthrow of Nazi Germany,” Lindbergh said in Des Moines, Iowa, in September 1941. “The persecution they suffered in Germany would be sufficient to make bitter enemies of any race.”
But Lindbergh blamed Jewish Americans for pushing the country towards war, and warned that tolerance of Jews in America could not “survive” war with Germany. The greatest danger to the U.S., he argued, came not from the Axis powers but in what he saw as Jewish “ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.”
This is dark stuff ― so dark it’s even inspired literature. Philip Roth, perhaps the most famous Jewish American writer, published The Plot Against America in 2004. The novel imagines an alternate U.S. history in which America First’s Lindbergh won the presidential election in 1940, defeating Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Things don’t go too well for the Jews after that.
“How can people like these be in charge of our country? If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d think I was having a hallucination,” Roth’s father says in the book.
In real life, Lindbergh ― a celebrity who was at least as famous as Trump at a time when public anti-Semitism was far more acceptable than it is today ― actually faced some backlash for his speech, as The New Yorker’s Louisa Thomas noted in July:
“To me, America First is a brand-new modern term,” he told The New York Times’ David Sanger in July. “I never related it to the past.”
But the past has a way of catching up to you. David Duke, the Holocaust denier and former KKK leader who endorsed Trump and celebrated his ascension to power, has long been happy with the slogan (he used it in his campaign for U.S. Senate), and can hear the dog whistle loud and clear.
8. Donald Trump Inauguration Address Compared to Batman Villain Bane’s Speech
The line in question?
“We give it back to you… the people.”
Trump was referring to the transfer of power that occurs during the inauguration.
“Today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.”
He added, “Washington flourished but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs and while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land. That all changes starting right here and right now because this moment is your moment. It belongs to you.”
Bane, on the other hand was referring to the fictional city of Gotham, which he proclaims himself to be taking back from “the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity, and we give it back to you… the people. Gotham is yours.”
The messages are actually pretty similar, minus the fact that one was delivered by a supergenius villain raised in prison and the other by the newly-inaugurated leader of the free world.
9. What Was In That Giant, Stupid Tiffany's Box Melania Gave Michelle?
Well, it happened. As the end of good things began, President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle—a First Lady we never deserved but who served us and loved us nonetheless—welcomed an unqualified white man and his Jackie O impersonator wife to succeed them.
The Jackie O impersonator thanked the Obamas for their Christ-like civility with a gift. Now, this is not strange. Michelle Obama also brought Laura Bush a gift before the 2009 inauguration. However, as is often the difference between these two couples, when Michelle brought a gift, it was decidedly less tacky.
The Jackie O impersonator opted to give Michelle a very large Tiffany’s box because, the working class man, common folk, etc etc.
If absolutely nothing else, the gift gave us some very good internet.
So now the question remains: What the hell is in that dumb box?
Whatever it is, we know Michelle handed it off to Barack, who then handed it off some aide. My dream is that she never even bothers to open it, but Michelle is too gracious for that. From the size alone, it could be an expensive picture frame, perhaps with an iconic image from the Obama presidency. But that would be too thoughtful for these people.
Here are some other guesses:
10. Donald Trump's Presidential Twitter Account Has a Header Picture From Obama's Inauguration In 2009
Attendance at Donald Trump’s swearing in ceremony appeared to be historically low. That may be the reason why someone used a photo from a much more popular inauguration to spice up his new Presidential Twitter account.
1.'Draw me like one of your French girls': Trump is mocked mercilessly for posting picture of himself writing his 'inaugural address' at 'receptionist's' desk
 |
The picture shows the president-elect sat behind a dark wood desk, with his pen poised over a blank notepad.
'Writing my inaugural address at the Winter White House, Mar-a-Lago, three weeks ago,' Trump tweeted. 'Looking forward to Friday. #Inauguration.'
But people on Twitter were quick to point out that his 'desk' appeared to be a receptionist's table in the public hallway of the Mar-a-Lago club.
'I see no reason Trump wouldn't write his inaugural address at reception desk. #ManOfThePeople,' one Twitter wrote sarcastically along with a picture of Trump at his desk, and another picture of a receptionist apparently sitting at the same table.
Others mocked the 'staged' photo claiming Trump was writing his inauguration speech with a black Sharpie.
One Twitter user even photo-shopped the picture so Trump appeared with a pack of crayons.
Another tweet imagined Trump was sketching a live model in the style of Leo DiCaprio drawing Kate Winslet in Titanic.
'Draw me like one of your French girls,' the caption read.
Several others mocked the content of the speech.
One posted a picture of the notepad which simply said: 'Don's speech' - with 'speech' originally misspelled - and a squiggle underneath.
Another posted a 'live look at Trump writing his inaugural address' with just an elaborately decorated word 'The'.
While some suggested that the real estate mogul was doodling half naked pictures of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Another suggested Trump was writing a 'thank you' letter to Putin after the allegations of Russian hacking.
On Tweet imagined that Trump was drawing stick figures of himself and the 'suckers' who voted for him.
While some suggested that Trump's stern expression in the picture, reflected his own concern about his inauguration.
'Oh god what have I done?' one Tweet suggested.
Senior Trump officials told CNN yesterday that Trump had written a draft of his inaugural speech.
And while we would never suggest that Trump did not, as he claimed, wrote the speech in the public hallway of the Mar-a-Lago club with a black Sharpie, the president-elect has hopefully learned a lesson from his wife Melania's 'plagiarized' speech and kept it original.
2. D.C. Weed Group Has Rolled 5,500 Free Joints for the Inauguration
 |
| Getty Images |
The D.C.-based marijuana advocacy group that successfully lobbied for weed legalization in the district has already rolled more than 5,500 joints to hand out for free before the inauguration. DCMJ says the marijuana hand-out is not necessarily an anti-Trump protest, since both revelers and protesters are invited to partake. Instead, says DCMJ co-founder Nikolas Schiller, the event is supposed to be for anybody who supports cannabis reform.
"We said we would call it off if Trump said anything about cannabis reform," Schiller said. Since the President-elect has been silent on the issue, Schiller is instructing participants to pick up a joint around 8:00 am on the west side of Dupont Circle, then head to the National Mall and light up exactly 4 minutes and 20 seconds into Trump's speech. While marijuana possession is legal in Washington D.C. and Schiller and his friends aren't breaking the law by distributing free weed in public, toking on federal property is still illegal.
"The act of nonviolent civil disobedience is to break a law that they wish to change," he explains. "The smell can go around and people can know ‘oh those people are demonstrating the importance of cannabis legalization.'"
Schiller and his fellow DCMJ members are behind this effort from seed to smell. DCMJ successfully lobbied for marijuana legalization in the district, but a congressional budget trick prevented any regulatory spending to legally sell and tax weed, which is why you don't see any dispensaries in Washington D.C. But growing and possessing marijuana is still legal, so the DCMJ organized a free seed-sharing program so that D.C. residents could grow their own pot at home. Residents are allowed to grow up to six plants per individual (12 for a couple) and possess up to two ounces of weed, but not buy or sell it. So DCMJ gave out over 20,000 free cannabis seeds to D.C. residents.
For DCMJ at least, they reaped what they sowed. Once they decided to organize a mass marijuana demonstration at the inauguration, they put out the call for weed donations, and they were overwhelmed at the response. The group has collectively rolled more than 5,500 joints, many of them rolled on TIME magazines "to keep the cannabis off the tablecloth." Schiller himself has rolled 200 of those, at 55 seconds apiece.
They say the demonstration is all about cannabis reform and not about politics. DCMJ has repeatedly demonstrated outside the White House for Obama to re-schedule marijuana out of Schedule I, but they never made much progress. The group hopes Trump's presidency might be a chance for a new start.
After seven marijuana initiatives passed around the country in November (in Massachusetts, Nevada, Maine and California, among others,) some drug reform advocates hope that reforms on the state level might trigger a federal shift. With 29 states legalizing medical marijuana and eight legalizing recreational use, some hope the federal government won't be far behind. But Trump's Attorney General pick Jeff Sessions has been loudly opposed to marijuana legalization, and Mike Pence is skeptical about cannabis reform. Trump himself has expressed support for medical marijuana use, but has said the rest should be decided "state by state."
" We really believed that Obama would do something while he had the power to do something, and he never did," Schiller says. "So now we really hope Trump will do what Obama didn’t."
3. White House website promotes Melania Trump’s modeling and jewelry line
 |
| Getty Images |
Visitors to the newly revamped White House website get more than a simple rundown of first lady Melania Trump’s charitable works and interests — they also get a list of her magazine cover appearances and details on her jewelry line at QVC.
Melania Trump’s biography starts with traditional details such as her date of birth in her native country of Slovenia and information about her background as a model. That’s when the brief backgrounder takes a promotional turn. The website includes a lengthy list of brands that hired her as a model and several of the magazines in which she appeared, including the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
It is not uncommon for the White House to note the accomplishments of the first lady in her official biography, but Trump’s decision to include a detailed list of her media appearances is unusual.
The site also lists the brand names of Trump’s jewelry lines sold on QVC, at a time when questions have been raised by critics about the ethical implications of the family’s business entanglements.
4. Donald Trump, wife Melania walk out to Rolling Stones’ ‘Heart of Stone’ at Lincoln Memorial before inauguration
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| Getty Images |
The President-elect and future First Lady arrived at the inaugural concert to the Rolling Stones’ “Heart of Stone,” a choice that was immediately questioned.
The 1965 hit opens “There's been so many girls that I've known/I've made so many cry, and still I wonder why/Here comes a little girl/I see her walking down the street.”
During his campaign, at least a dozen women accused Trump of sexual assault, which he denied.
House Speaker Paul Ryan has also promised to defund Planned Parenthood as part of the repeal of Obamacare.
“Trump entering this dumb Inauguration concert to 'Heart of Stone' because he's a monster who keeps saying “I'm a monster, get it?’” comedian Paul F. Tompkins tweeted.
The Rolling Stones issued a statement in May telling the then-candidate that he didn’t have permission to use their music.
Trump ignored the request and continued using the set list, including “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” at the end of his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention and after his victory speech in the early mornings of Nov. 9.
5. ‘Don’s Johns’ portable toilet co. angry at Trump inauguration cover up
 |
| Getty Images |
Workers for the Virginia company were surprised to find that someone was putting blue tape over the name every morning, according to the New York Daily News. An employee of the company explained, “We knew they were being covered up, because we’re delivering them there every night and they saw it. We wondered who was doing it. Now we know.”
Apparently someone doesn’t want the name “Don’s Johns” to be associated with the president-elect’s name, Donald. The presidential transition team did respond to a request asking if they were behind the cover up.
The CEO of the company, Rob Weghorst, is unhappy about the whole deal and is telling his employees to rip the tape off, saying, “We like to have our names on our units.”
The inauguration is set for Friday, January 20th, and many protesters are expected to attend in addition to the thousands of well-wishers. It’s very likely many of them will find themselves having to utilize the “Don’s Johns,” whether they can see the logo or not.
6. Rudy Giuliani tells sex-filled 'locker room' joke about 9/11 during lunch celebrating Trump's inauguration
 |
| Getty Images |
The former New York City mayor went on the cringeworthy screed while speaking to a group of Republican lawyers at a $350-per-plate lunch in Washington, D.C., celebrating Trump’s inauguration, according to a recording obtained by The Intercept.
The incident, Giuliani told the audience, occurred on Sept. 14, 2001 when he rode in the same car as former President George W. Bush to the ruins of the World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan.
“In the same car with me was my fire commissioner, Tom Van Essen, and Tom had lost what turned out to be 343 firefighters,” said Giuliani, who was recently tapped as Trump’s cybersecurity adviser. “And President Bush recognized him from seeing him on television the prior two days. And he leaned over to Tom, grabbed his arm and said to him, ‘Tom, I’m so sorry. How are things going?’ Tom looked at him and said, ‘Much better now. My wife came home last night and I got lucky.’”
The thrice-married attorney then defended his remarks as “locker room talk” — a term used by Trump in October after his boasts about being able to grab women “by the p---y” because he’s “a star” came to light.
Giuliani then delved deeper into the lewdness.
“President Bush remembered that so well that when he saw Tom three weeks later at a fire house dinner, he came up to him and said, ‘Tom, are you still getting lucky?’ And Tom said, ‘No, it’s worn out,’” Giuliani said to loud guffaws from the audience.
Giuliani, who was given the nickname “America’s mayor” after the Twin Tower attacks, has made questionable comments pertinent to 9/11 before.
As one of Trump’s top surrogates on the campaign trail, the former mayor appeared to forget about the attacks altogether while stumping for the President-elect at an August campaign rally in Ohio.
“Before Obama came along, we didn’t have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attack inside the United States,” Giuliani told the rally crowd, seemingly forgetting about the tragedy that left nearly 3,000 people dead in his own city. “They all started when Clinton and Obama got into office.”
One day after making those remarks, Giuliani blamed the gaffe on “abbreviated language,” telling the Daily News that, “When you’re giving a speech, you only have five minutes, you can’t give an encyclopedic explanation.”
7. In His Inaugural Address, Donald Trump Embraced Anti-Semites’ Slogan
During Donald Trump’s campaign for president, the Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit dedicated to fighting anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry, asked him to stop using the phrase “America First” to describe his foreign policy views. As the ADL explained, the slogan was used by people who warned, ahead of World War II, that Jewish Americans were pushing the U.S. to enter the war because they put their own interests ahead of the country’s.
But Trump never stopped using the slogan. And on Friday, he made it a key part of his inaugural address. “From this day forward,” he proclaimed, “A new vision will govern our land. From this moment on, it’s going to be America First.”
The crowd went wild.
People who aren’t Jewish or familiar with the history may not realize this, but “America First” makes many people deeply uncomfortable. In 1941, as members of the America First movement campaigned against U.S. involvement in World War II and expressed sympathy for the Nazis, plenty of people already knew that Jews were being persecuted in Hitler’s Germany. Even Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator who led the America First movement, knew it.
“It is not difficult to understand why Jewish people desire the overthrow of Nazi Germany,” Lindbergh said in Des Moines, Iowa, in September 1941. “The persecution they suffered in Germany would be sufficient to make bitter enemies of any race.”
But Lindbergh blamed Jewish Americans for pushing the country towards war, and warned that tolerance of Jews in America could not “survive” war with Germany. The greatest danger to the U.S., he argued, came not from the Axis powers but in what he saw as Jewish “ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.”
This is dark stuff ― so dark it’s even inspired literature. Philip Roth, perhaps the most famous Jewish American writer, published The Plot Against America in 2004. The novel imagines an alternate U.S. history in which America First’s Lindbergh won the presidential election in 1940, defeating Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Things don’t go too well for the Jews after that.
“How can people like these be in charge of our country? If I didn’t see it with my own eyes, I’d think I was having a hallucination,” Roth’s father says in the book.
In real life, Lindbergh ― a celebrity who was at least as famous as Trump at a time when public anti-Semitism was far more acceptable than it is today ― actually faced some backlash for his speech, as The New Yorker’s Louisa Thomas noted in July:
Anti-Semitism was prevalent in Lindberg’s time; his attitudes were not fringe. He had not made a secret of his interest in eugenics, nor his racial attitudes, which today seem reprehensible. But with that 1941 speech he seemed to cross a line. He was strongly and swiftly condemned for his anti-Semitic and divisive words—not only by interventionists who were opposed to America First but by those who had lionized him. The Des Moines Register called his speech “so intemperate, so unfair, so dangerous in its implications that it cannot but turn many spadefuls in the digging of the grave of his influence in this country.” The Hearst papers, which were generally sympathetic to the non-interventionists—and open about their hatred of Franklin Roosevelt—condemned Lindbergh, calling his speech “un-American.” His home town took his name off its water tower.The new president doesn’t seem chastened.
Trump has received some similar criticism: “For many Americans, the term ‘America First’ will always be associated with and tainted by this history,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt warned last April. “In a political season that already has prompted a national conversation about civility and tolerance, choosing a call to action historically associated with incivility and intolerance seems ill-advised.”
“To me, America First is a brand-new modern term,” he told The New York Times’ David Sanger in July. “I never related it to the past.”
But the past has a way of catching up to you. David Duke, the Holocaust denier and former KKK leader who endorsed Trump and celebrated his ascension to power, has long been happy with the slogan (he used it in his campaign for U.S. Senate), and can hear the dog whistle loud and clear.
8. Donald Trump Inauguration Address Compared to Batman Villain Bane’s Speech
 |
| Getty Images |
“We give it back to you… the people.”
Trump was referring to the transfer of power that occurs during the inauguration.
“Today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.”
He added, “Washington flourished but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs and while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land. That all changes starting right here and right now because this moment is your moment. It belongs to you.”
Bane, on the other hand was referring to the fictional city of Gotham, which he proclaims himself to be taking back from “the corrupt! The rich! The oppressors of generations who have kept you down with myths of opportunity, and we give it back to you… the people. Gotham is yours.”
The messages are actually pretty similar, minus the fact that one was delivered by a supergenius villain raised in prison and the other by the newly-inaugurated leader of the free world.
9. What Was In That Giant, Stupid Tiffany's Box Melania Gave Michelle?
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The Jackie O impersonator thanked the Obamas for their Christ-like civility with a gift. Now, this is not strange. Michelle Obama also brought Laura Bush a gift before the 2009 inauguration. However, as is often the difference between these two couples, when Michelle brought a gift, it was decidedly less tacky.
The Jackie O impersonator opted to give Michelle a very large Tiffany’s box because, the working class man, common folk, etc etc.
If absolutely nothing else, the gift gave us some very good internet.
So now the question remains: What the hell is in that dumb box?
Whatever it is, we know Michelle handed it off to Barack, who then handed it off some aide. My dream is that she never even bothers to open it, but Michelle is too gracious for that. From the size alone, it could be an expensive picture frame, perhaps with an iconic image from the Obama presidency. But that would be too thoughtful for these people.
Here are some other guesses:
- A set of salad serving utensils?
- A box o’ diamonds?
- Like eight pens?
- A clock, as the joke goes, set back 300 years? AYOOOOOOO
- A fucking plate, maybe?
- These playing cards?
10. Donald Trump's Presidential Twitter Account Has a Header Picture From Obama's Inauguration In 2009
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