Trump's 'coronation' ceremony intended to subdue GOP lawmakers: Morning Joe panel

Donald Trump's post-inaugural rally was intended to project "royal" authority to keep Republican lawmakers in line, according to MSNBC's Joe Scarborough.

Bitterly cold temperatures forced his swearing-in ceremony indoors at the Capitol rotunda, and he held a celebration afterward at the Capital One Arena, where thousands gathered to hear the new president speak and sign executive orders while surrounded by law enforcement groups and marching bands.

"I couldn't help but look at last night's event at the Capital One [Arena] and not say that that was not only focused on his supporters across America, but he also wanted Republicans on Capitol Hill to see this quasi-royal entrance, complete with with trumpets, long trumpets blaring and the family coming in like royalty," said the "Morning Joe" host. "There was a purpose for it, and the purpose was to show his strength, that 'I alone can fix it, I am your retribution' – sort of a Louis XIV, 'I am the state,' and to show Republicans on Capitol Hill just how popular he is with their base."

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Republicans hardly need that reminder, said MSNBC's Ali Vitali, but Trump still took the opportunity to project his feeling of strength.

"This is the way that he's going to be able to continue to leverage control over any lawmaker that might think about stepping out of line, whether it comes later down the road on reconciliation and pushing packages on taxes or immigration," Vitali said. "But it also comes in the immediate term, as we watch these confirmation battles for cabinet nominees continue to tick down these reminders of, and I think 'coronation' is the right word, these reminders of whatever mandate Trump and Republicans want to talk about, they all serve to underscore the stronghold that he has on Washington, D.C., on the levers of power, on the way that government functions."

"I do think it's really incumbent upon us, as the media watchers and the reporters, to take him literally listen to the fact that on Day One, a lot of the promises, if not many of the promises that he made on the campaign trail were immediately translated into executive actions, however sloppy and however held up in court they will be, and that some of them are clean cut and dry," Vitali said. "Pardoning the Jan. 6 insurrectionists is chief on that list, the fact that that can just be done with the stroke of a pen. I think it all served to underscore for Republicans on the Hill, for Democrats on the Hill, for everyone in Washington and beyond, support him or not, but this is how it is now."

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