All posts tagged "Inauguration"

Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and owner of The Washington Post, has perplexed D.C. insiders with his dramatic transformation from civic-minded entrepreneur to MAGA faithful, according to a new piece in Politico.

Bezos was famously pictured alongside fellow tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk at Trump's second-term inauguration, cementing what Politico columnist Michael Schaffer wrote was an image that looked "more self-serving than selfless."

"The man who once praised democracy’s guardrails has begun to look like he’s just another rich guy trying to curry favor with a transactional president," Schaffer wrote....

A Catholic priest told CNN that he takes issue with President Donald Trump's claim that God saved him from an assassin's bullet so he could help "make America great again."

Father Edward Beck, chaplain at Manhattan University and CNN contributor on religious and spiritual matters, told host Kate Bolduan on Tuesday that Trump's inaugural comments on a day that happened to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, amounted to "hubris."

Bolduan played a clip of Trump saying Monday, "Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin's bullet ripped through my ear. But I felt then, and believe even more so now, that my life was saved for a reason. I was saved by God to make America great again." ...

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) ripped President Donald Trump for lying about the investigation into the Jan. 6 riots when he spoke to supporters in Emancipation Hall following his inauguration on Monday.

Trump spoke "off the cuff" to those who gathered but couldn't attend his speech in the Capitol Rotunda. He told supporters there were many things he wanted to say in that speech but was advised against it.

"I was going to talk about the J6 hostages. But, you'll be happy, because, you know, it's action, not words that count. And you're going to see a lot of action on the J6 hostages," Trump said about the Capitol rioters he has pledged to pardon or whose sentences he wants to commute....

When President Donald Trump took the oath of office on Monday, he didn't appear to place his hand on the Bible, as is expected during a "swearing-in" ceremony.

Former RNC Chair Michael Steele posted a photo of Trump taking the oath of office at the Capitol on Monday. As First Lady Melania Trump held not one, but two Bibles, Trump's left hand can clearly be seen dangling by his side, instead of resting atop the word of God.

"Trump did not place his hand on the Bible," Steele wrote. ...

The dais at the inauguration of President Donald Trump can now be referred to as billionaire's row, after the rich and famous were spotted sitting in far better seats for the event than members of Congress or even Trump's cabinet picks.

One GOP lawmaker complained to The Daily Beast's Juliegrace Brufke, who posted to X, "'Charlie Kirk has better seats than every member of Congress. Tells you how little Trump team thinks of Congress,' one GOP lawmaker tells me."

Kirk is a MAGA zealot and organizer of far-right youth movement Turning Point USA. According to Ali Breland with The Atlantic, called Kirk a "kingmaker" and "the most important person" in MAGA next to Trump himself, because he's able to influence young people....

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough seemed gobsmacked when he learned the list of big-name tech CEOs attending church with the first family Monday morning.

On Morning Joe, Mika Brzezinski set the stage saying, "This is quite a day in history. Amid a flurry of last minute pardons put out by President Biden, we are getting ready for President-elect Donald Trump to take over again in his second term as president."

"So, John Lemire, why don't you get us up to date with the church service?" Joe Scarborough added. "Also, the pardons, who we've heard from those pardons, and also the news, there has been some contradiction earlier about whether you had to accept the pardons or not. Get us up to date on all of that."...