Us politics

Monday

Rob Crilly

Welcome to the era of ‘alternative facts’

From our UK edition

Now we have confirmation. The official language of Donald Trump’s White House really is doublespeak. This is how absurd the row over crowd numbers at the inauguration has become. It started with an extraordinary speech delivered by Trump at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where he appeared to speak off the cuff for about 15 minutes during his first national security speech. He railed against the media - 'among the most dishonest human beings on earth' - boasted about his appearances on the cover of Time magazine, and displayed his thin skin by exaggerating the size of his inauguration audience - 'it looked like a million, million and a half people'. Nonsense, of course.

Saturday

Violet Hudson

In defence of Melania Trump

From our UK edition

We all love Michelle Obama. Of course we do. For the last eight years she has been ‘mom in chief’ of America – and the world. She has personified grace, courtesy, warmth, humour and, not incidentally, shown us what a good marriage looks like. Tirelessly supportive of her husband, but successful in her own right, she has become a symbol of what a modern woman can be. She rose from a working-class background to attend Princeton and Harvard. She overcame racism and sexism to become a hugely successful lawyer. As First Lady, she was endlessly elegant and engaged, working to promote healthy eating, educational opportunity and women’s rights.

Rob Crilly

Only the right kind of women are invited to march against Donald Trump

From our UK edition

The Women’s March on Washington is going to be big. Officials say 1,800 buses have been registered to park in the city today. The subway will open at 5 a.m. (it usually starts running at 7 a.m. at weekends) to accommodate the numbers. In all, 250,000 people are expected to join the rally to show their disapproval of Donald Trump, dwarfing the numbers that attended his inauguration and parade a day earlier. It is fitting that women are taking the lead. Trump’s misogynist language and disregard for half the population has been one of the most shocking parts of his aggressive campaign.

James Forsyth

What does President Trump do to Brexit?

From our UK edition

With Theresa May expected to head to Washington next week to see President Trump, I have a look at what the Trump presidency might mean for Brexit in my Sun column this morning. Despite his protectionist rhetoric, on full show again yesterday, Donald Trump is keen on a US / UK trade agreement. He has told people that he would like to get personally involved in negotiating the deal. I understand that his transition team has done more work on it than they have for any other agreement. Squaring the circle between Trump’s protectionist rhetoric and his enthusiasm for a US / UK deal isn’t as hard as it first looks. The UK is not one of the low wage economies that Trump rails against the US doing deals with.

Friday

Matt Purple

Could Trump be the progressive leader Obama never managed to be?

From our UK edition

Washington, D.C. is a police state even in good times. Unique in the land of the free, only there do you find officers casually toting assault rifles outside of Union Station as though Amtrak has just staged a coup within, or vast swaths of road abruptly shut down because the secretary of agriculture has decided he wants a deep tissue massage on the other side of town. And during presidential inaugurations, the tight security becomes Orwellian. Even without the deluge of visitors that Barack Obama attracted in 2009 (only to discover that being witnesses to history meant watching it on a Jumbotron two miles away), there will still be enough hassles during Donald Trump’s swearing-in to make it best observed on our incoming president’s most natural medium: television.

James Forsyth

Trump’s trade war could cause global economic carnage

From our UK edition

The most striking thing about Donald Trump’s inaugural address was how little it tried to reach out to those who had not voted for him. On election night, Trump made a deliberate effort to strike a graceful note. He said that America owed Hillary Clinton a ‘major debt of gratitude for her service to our country’.  To those who hadn’t voted for him, he said, ‘I'm reaching out to you for your guidance and your help’. But today, after thanking the Obamas for their help in the transition, his message was aimed squarely at his base. He talked about an ‘American carnage’ that he was going to stop and repeatedly pledged to put ‘America First’.

Freddy Gray

Donald Trump: the most radical US president for centuries

From our UK edition

He could be the greatest disaster ever to befall America. He could go down as the man that Made America Great Again. What's certain is that Donald Trump is the most radical US president for centuries. Trump's inaugural speech was predictable -- in the sense that we have heard Trump say it all before. In terms of rhetorical brilliance, Obama outdid him dramatically at Andrews Air Base 45 minutes later.  Nonetheless Trump was mind-blowing in the sense that the new president of the United States, a billionaire eccentric, was standing in front of Capitol Hill and attacking 'the establishment' for having ripped off the American people. 'Capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost,' he said.

Fraser Nelson

Trump has just created a vacancy for a world leader in free trade. Step forward, Theresa May

From our UK edition

Rather than seek to inspire or unite a country, Donald Trump’s inaugural address was a long vindictive swipe at his enemies mixed with a whinge about free trade and how America has been the loser from it. Nothing about only fearing fear itself, nothing about asking what you can do for your country rather than vice versa. Instead, a story about "carnage" caused by that big bad world. It has gotten a little too scary for America, so it's time to retreat. “For many decades, we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry,” he said. “We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon. One by one, the factories have left our shores.

Freddy Gray

There was nothing peaceful about Washington’s anti-Trump protests

From our UK edition

Washington, D.C. I just witnessed an anti-Donald Trump protest, and it was nasty. About an hour ago, I looked out the window on the corner of 13th and Massachusetts Avenue and saw a crowd of roughly 300 people  -- most of them dressed in black and wearing bandanas and hoods -- moving quickly through the street. There were loud chants of 'Fuck Donald Trump'. I walked out onto 13th Massachusetts Avenue and followed the noise down 13th towards Franklin Square. Suddenly it was chaos. There were some loud bangs. People and policemen were running in all directions. I could see lots of smoke which turned out to be tear gas. The bangs, I discovered, were caused by hoodies throwing bricks and rocks at windows.

Steerpike

BBC’s Michelle Obama gaffe

From our UK edition

Although Donald Trump has suggested that he is unhappy with the BBC's coverage of him, it's the corporation's reporting of Michelle Obama at today's inauguration ceremony that has landed the BBC in trouble. As Katty Kay, the BBC reporter, led the coverage on the news channel, she offered a running commentary of the movements of various White House figures. However, when a black woman left the building, she felt the need to clarify to viewers that this woman was not in fact Michelle Obama: 'That is not Michelle Obama, just somebody coming out and checking everything is ready I imagine.' Still, on the bright-side, Mr S suspects Michelle will be too preoccupied with today's events to give the gaffe a second thought.

Steerpike

Friday caption contest: Trump’s inauguration – smile!

From our UK edition

As Donald Trump is sworn in today as the 45th US president, not everyone at the ceremony appears thrilled to be there. In fact, both Hillary Clinton and the departing first lady -- Michelle Obama -- look as though they would like to be anywhere but the White House: Mr S welcomes your caption suggestions on this historic day.

Brendan O’Neill

Trump! How did this happen?

From our UK edition

It happened because you banned super-size sodas. And smoking in parks. And offensive ideas on campus. Because you branded people who oppose gay marriage 'homophobic', and people unsure about immigration 'racist'. Because you treated owning a gun and never having eaten quinoa as signifiers of fascism. Because you thought correcting people's attitudes was more important than finding them jobs. Because you turned 'white man' from a description into an insult. Because you used slurs like 'denier' and 'dangerous' against anyone who doesn't share your eco-pieties. Because you treated dissent as hate speech and criticism of Obama as extremism. Because you talked more about gender-neutral toilets than about home repossessions. Because you beatified Caitlyn Jenner.

Freddy Gray

Meet the real deplorables – and no, it’s not Farage and his champagne populists

From our UK edition

Washington, D.C. Nigel Farage's 2016 celebration of Nigel Farage's 2016 is a party that might never stop. And it is a jolly affair. Yesterday, at the Hay-Adams Hotel, in Washington, DC, Nigel and his pals -- let's call them the champagne populists -- had a US election bash. Nigel stood up to do his usual routine about how this year would be remembered in a hundred years as the glorious moment when nation state democracy reasserted itself, and everybody cheered.  The champagne populists raised lots of glasses to themselves and talked about how they got Donald J Trump elected to the White House.

Mark McGinness

What would Alistair Cooke have made of Trump’s inauguration?

From our UK edition

Margaret Thatcher’s Lord Chancellor, Quintin Hailsham, himself half-American, once observed that the US system of government was 'an elective monarchy with a king who rules . . . but does not reign'. The British system was 'a republic with a hereditary life president who . . . reigns but does not rule'. And so, perhaps, it is unsurprising that the ceremony marking the beginning of the American king's rule is more coronation than induction. Who better than an Englishman to view this peculiarly American spectacle and pomp? Until his death in 2004, Alistair Cooke, the veteran reporter and legendary voice of the long-running radio broadcast, Letter From America, had followed every presidential election since 1936 and most of the inaugurations that followed.

Rob Crilly

Washington’s lobbyists are starting to panic

From our UK edition

Things are changing in Washington… and not just at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Political newbies watched the fireworks at the Lincoln Memorial on Thursday night. Elderly women prepared for their first inauguration. One family had brought their daughter to Washington to witness the moment that Donald Trump was sworn in.   And Washington regulars - the politicos, party hacks and think tankers who are here all year round - are feeling unsettled. In part this is the natural response to a change of party at the top. But it is also the result of Trump’s extraordinary style of politics, which is sowing fear among lobbyists who must try to navigate his impetuous manner and Twitter rants.

Alex Massie

No, Donald Trump isn’t a ‘massive, magnificent gift’ for Britain

From our UK edition

There are certain traditional ceremonies without which the inauguration of a new American president cannot take place. Chief among them, at least on this side of the atlantic, is the opportunity such a moment provides for pondering anew the health and well-being of the 'special relationship'. A remarkable amount of tripe must be talked on these occasions. You will recall how Bill Clinton's supposedly-unhappy time at Oxford prejudiced him against this country and you will recall, of course, that Barack Obama's Kenyan heritage left him temperamentally ill-disposed towards this sceptr'd isle. Obama, of course, confirmed this by removing the now famous Churchill bust from the Oval Office, an act of unpardonable impertinence.

Thursday

The Spectator

Barometer | 19 January 2017

From our UK edition

Starting cold Why is US Presidential Inauguration Day always on 20 January? — The date was moved from 4 March in the 20th amendment to the US constitution, passed on 23 January 1933, but it is hard to find any significance to the date. The change was made in an attempt to reduce the lame-duck period of an outgoing president, though it did increase the risk of a repeat of what happened in 1841 when William Henry Harrison was sworn in. Choosing not to wear a coat, hat or gloves, he made the longest inaugural speech of any president, at two hours. Three weeks later he was reported to be suffering from a cold, which developed into pneumonia and then pleurisy, leading to his death on 4 April — although some doubt the connection with inauguration day.

Rob Crilly

Surprisingly, Donald Trump’s inauguration will be relatively low-key

From our UK edition

Who would have thought it? The man who declared his presidential ambitions after arriving down a gilded escalator and whose private apartment has been derided as over-the-top dictator chic, is having a low-key inauguration. Once Donald Trump, showman extraordinaire, has been sworn in as the 45th president of the United States he will depart down Pennsylvania Avenue for a procession that will last 90 minutes at most. That makes it one of the shortest on record. Four hours is not unusual. He plans to grace three inaugural balls. Bill Clinton, the ultimate schmoozer, managed to fit in 14. Even Barack Obama managed 10 and spread the festivities over five days. Trump has three days of events. The word used by organisers this time around is 'workmanlike'.

Nick Hilton

The Spectator podcast: You’re fired!

From our UK edition

On this week’s episode, we discuss the winners and losers as Trump moves into the White House, where Theresa May’s Brexit strategy is headed, and whether you can wear fur so long as the animal died in a snowstorm. First, the world's media is currently congregated in Washington for the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States. But what will happen when Trump swears the oath of office, and what will it mean for the UK and the rest of Europe?

Wednesday

Gavin Mortimer

Unlike Merkel, Trump understands the Islamist threat to the West

From our UK edition

The reaction in Europe to Donald Trump's recent remarks critical of the continent was all too predictable. It was an echo of the response when, following the Islamic terror attacks in November 2015 that left 130 Parisians dead, Trump said: 'Paris is no longer the same city it was....they have sections in Paris that are radicalised, where the police refuse to go there. They're petrified.' On that occasion the liberal media and the French Establishment reacted with outrage, rejecting the idea that the Republic had lost control of parts of Paris. The mayor, Anne Hidalgo, even threatened legal action against Fox News when they repeated Trump's assertion. Now it's Angela Merkel who is up in arms.