Rob Crilly

It is of course nonsense to describe Donald Trump as a fascist or a dictator, as his opponents like to do. And yet… well, he does sometimes rather invite it.  There was his inaugural address in which he dusted off the 'America first doctrine' - as used by the isolationist, anti-Semitic group that urged the US to appease Nazi Germany. Then there is his interventionist strong-arming of companies to keep jobs in America. And on Saturday he stood at the CIA headquarters, in front of a wall commemorating the organisation’s fallen heroes, and boasted of the number of times he has appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Now comes a proclamation declaring the day of his inauguration as 'National Day of Patriotic Devotion'.

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.

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.

We were told Donald Trump would be displaying his “philosophical” side in his inaugural address. To me, sitting beneath a grey Washington sky, it looked pretty much the same as the bombastic side that we saw so much of during the campaign. In short he stood on the steps of the United States Capitol, symbol of American democracy, surrounded by past presidents, senators and representatives, waved to the crowd and then promised to blow it all up. He painted a bleak picture of America – all drug-addled families and shuttered factories – just as he had at the convention last year. This time he added a new chapter. “This American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” he said. “We are one nation, and their pain is our pain.

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'.

I have a confession to make. I go to Trump Tower in New York a lot. It's an easy jaunt for a New York-based hack: where better to chat with Trump supporters than in its golden lobby or with opponents outside its golden doors? Maybe you'll spot a celebrity like Kanye West or, if you are really lucky, Nigel Farage. And occasionally the place becomes the story itself, whether it's about the expense of the secret service renting an entire floor to provide security for the next president, or this week when a sniffy restaurant review – headlined 'Trump Grill could be the worst restaurant in America' - prompted a miffed president-elect to unload his umbrage on Twitter. 'Has anyone looked at the really poor numbers of @VanityFair Magazine. Way down, big trouble, dead!

Donald Trump has a method for making his Cabinet picks. Parade the contenders in and out of Trump Tower and its waiting TV cameras. Leak and Tweet their performance ratings ('very good meeting'). And then, once the suspense has reached something approaching a reality TV show, announce the hire on social media. And as the administration of the president-elect takes shape, it is also abundantly clear that Trump has a type. Let's call them the G-men. Because they are mostly men, and mostly Goldman, generals and gazillionaires, as one arch critic put it. On Tuesday, Rex Tillerson was named as Trump's pick for Secretary of State, the latest super-wealthy businessman to join the ranks.