Page 10A
NATION
East Oregonian
Friday, January 20, 2017
Cheers, fireworks: Trump sweeps in for his big day
WASHINGTON (AP) —
With fireworks heralding his
big moment, Donald Trump
swept into Washington
Thursday on the eve of his
presidential
inauguration
and pledged to unify a nation
sorely divided and clamoring
for change. The capital
braced for an onslaught of
crowds and demonstrators —
with all the attendant hoopla
and hand-wringing.
“It’s a movement like
we’ve never seen anywhere
in the world,” the pres-
ident-elect declared at a
celebratory evening concert
Thursday night with the
majestic Lincoln Memorial
for a backdrop. To the
unwavering supporters who
were with him from the start,
he promised: “You’re not
forgotten any more. You’re
not forgotten any more.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow,”
he called out, and then
fireworks exploded into the
evening sky.
Trump began taking on
more trappings of the presi-
dency during the day, giving
a salute to the Air Force
officer who welcomed him
as he stepped off a military
jet with wife Melania at
Joint Base Andrews just
outside Washington. Later,
he placed a ceremonial
wreath at Arlington National
Cemetery.
At a luncheon in a ball-
room at his own hotel, he
gave a shout-out to Repub-
lican congressional leaders,
declaring: “I just want to let
the world know we’re doing
very well together.” House
Speaker Paul Ryan, he said,
will finally have someone
to sign legislation into law.
Then Trump veered into the
territory of the unknowable
to boast his Cabinet selec-
tions had “by far the highest
IQ of any Cabinet ever.”
Just blocks away, the
White House was quickly
emptying out. President
Barack Obama had his final
weekly lunch with Vice Pres-
ident Joe Biden and got in a
few final official acts, cutting
the sentences of 330 inmates
and placing a call to German
Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Vice President-elect Mike
Pence, in a tweet, called Inau-
guration Eve “a momentous
Inauguration
timeline
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Fireworks light the sky at a pre-Inaugural “Make America Great Again! Welcome Celebration” at the Lincoln
Memorial in Washington on Thursday.
day before a historic day,”
as security barricades and
blockades went up around
Washington in preparation
for Friday’s swearing-in at
the Capitol.
“We are all ready to go to
work,” Pence said. “In fact,
we can’t wait to get to work
for the American people to
make it great again.”
Outgoing
Homeland
Security
Secretary
Jeh
Johnson said he’d be putting
on his “favorite DHS jacket”
and taking to the streets to
inspect security preparations
for the inaugural festivities.
He
told
MSNBC’s
“Morning Joe” that areas
where inaugural crowds will
congregate will be “extra
fortified this year with dump
trucks, heavily armored
vehicles to prevent anybody
who’s not authorized from
being in the area from driving
something in there.” He
said there was “no specific
credible threat” related to the
inauguration.
Trump’s public schedule for
the inaugural celebration began
at Arlington, where he and
Pence stood at attention as a
bugler played taps at the Tomb
of the Unknowns. Trump’s
wife, children and grandchil-
dren silently looked on.
From there, Trump shut-
tled to a celebratory welcome
concert on the steps of
Lincoln Memorial that ended
with fireworks filling the sky.
The concert, open to the
public, offered headliners
including country star Toby
Keith, soul’s Sam Moore and
rockers 3 Doors Down. But
not singer Jennifer Holliday:
She backed out after an
outcry from Trump critics.
“This is some day, dear
friends,” actor Jon Voight
told the crowd, casting
Trump’s impending inaugu-
ration as evidence of divine
intervention after “a parade
of propaganda that left us all
breathless with anticipation,
not knowing if God could
reverse all the negative lies
against Mr. Trump.”
The crowd sent up a
cheer when the giant screens
flashed video of Trump
singing along as Lee Green-
wood delivered his signature
“God Bless the U.S. A.”
Trump declared such a
concert had a never been done
before. In fact, a number of
past presidents have staged
inaugural concerts among the
monuments.
Tom Barrack, the chief
architect of Trump’s inau-
gural festivities, said Trump
would show the world that
“we can argue, we can fight
and we can debate,” but then
the nation unites behind one
president.
Trump, though, still had
an urge to rehearse particu-
lars of the long, 18-month
campaign, from its early
days when he claimed “a
lot of people didn’t give us
much of a chance” to the
final weeks when his rallies
took him to “state after state
after state.”
Spokesman Sean Spicer
said the president-elect
was still making “edits and
additions” to the inaugural
address he’ll deliver at
Friday’s swearing-in.
Never
mind
about
Trump’s gilded private plane:
He made his Washington
entrance on a Boeing 757
that is part of the fleet of
military planes that become
Will Trump call on our better angels?
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Tradition suggests it’s time
for Donald Trump to set aside
the say-anything speaking
style and rise to the inaugural
moment.
But bucking tradition or
ignoring it altogether, is what
got Donald Trump to his
inaugural moment.
When Trump stands on
the west front of the Capitol
on Friday and delivers his
inaugural address, all sides
will be waiting to see whether
he comes bearing a unifying
message for a divided nation
or decides to play up his
persona as a disrupter of the
established order.
How Trump tends to that
balancing act, in both style
and content, will be a telling
launch for his presidency.
“The inaugural is an
address that is meant for the
ages,” said Kathleen Hall
Jamieson, a communications
professor and director of the
Annenberg Public Policy
Center at the University of
Pennsylvania. “In particular,
it’s important when you’ve
had a divisive election. You
need to become president of
all of the people, including
those who vehemently
opposed your election.”
Trump seems to get that.
He’s spoken admiringly
in recent weeks about the
speeches of past presidents
Ronald Reagan and John F.
Kennedy, and is said to be
deeply involved in preparing
his address.
“This is something very
personal to him,” spokesman
Sean Spicer said Wednesday,
estimating the speech will
run about 20 minutes. “He
wants to talk about his vision,
where he sees this country
and where we are right now.”
Trump told Fox on
Tuesday that he’ll start his
address with words of thanks
to “everybody,” including
President Barack Obama and
his wife, Michelle, for being
“so gracious.”
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President-elect Donald Trump, left, and his wife Me-
lania Trump arrive to the “Make America Great Again
Welcome Concert” at the Lincoln Memorial on Thurs-
day in Washington.
The
president-elect
showed he can deliver a
straight-forward, prepared
address at the Republican
convention, where he largely
stuck to a script and shut
down anti-Hillary Clinton
chants of “lock her up” from
the crowd of GOP loyalists.
But that address was strik-
ingly dark in tone, sketching
a portrait of an America in
crisis, and he later embraced
that chant from supporters at
his freewheeling campaign
rallies.
The inaugural address,
by contrast, needs to be
“an inherently aspirational
speech,”
said
Michael
Gerson, who wrote speeches
for President George W.
Bush and is a frequent Trump
critic. “It has to be about
the future and about your
vision.”
Abraham Lincoln ended
his first inaugural address
with a call for unity after
some Southern states had
formed the Confederacy,
saying “every living heart
and hearthstone all over this
broad land, will yet swell the
chorus of the Union, when
again touched, as surely they
will be, by the better angels
of our nature.”
Veteran
speechwriters
have plenty of other advice
for Trump and his chief
wordsmith, Stephen Miller.
Keep it short. Don’t overdo
the gravitas. Don’t gloat,
the victory tour is over. No
deviations from script.
Oh, and don’t undo a
successful inaugural address
with an intemperate tweet
— or two or three — a few
hours later.
While Trump used his
victory speech on election
night to sound a call to
“come together as one united
people,” his tweets since then
have featured name calling,
score settling and petulance.
Wayne Fields, a Wash-
ington University expert on
presidential rhetoric, said
Trump is in an awkward
situation, going into his
inaugural address as a man
who seems to regard precise
language with contempt
“rather than respect.”
After all, this is a candi-
date who reveled in taking
juvenile potshots during the
campaign, labeling his rivals
“stupid,” ‘’dumb” and “bad.”
“I know words,” he
declared at one rally. “I have
the best words. But there’s
no better word than stupid,
right?”
Even if Trump delivers
a statesmanlike speech that
hits all the right notes, Fields
said, “nobody would know
how to receive it or who it
was coming from or how
seriously to take it. It’s a huge
challenge.”
Any reframing of Trump’s
tone for the presidency — if
he wanted to do that —
would require a consistent,
longer-term shift, Fields said.
Trump does go into the
speech with the benefit of low
expectations: His off-the-cuff
and often inflammatory style
has long been a big part of his
appeal. The soaring rhetoric
of Obama, for example,
simply wouldn’t ring true.
“Because of the high
level of attention and the low
expectations, he’s far more
likely to exceed expecta-
tions,” Jamieson said.
At the same time, Gerson
cautions, Trump faces an
extra hurdle in his inaugural
address because he won
the election by dividing the
country.
“The method that he won
creates the initial challenge
of his presidency, which is to
rally people broadly around
his agenda and vision,” he
said.
Trump
also
knows
his audience will include
plenty of supporters who
elected him to challenge the
status quo. An address that
doesn’t offer any flavor of
Trump-the-disruptor could
disappoint those eager for
a sea change in the ways of
Washington.
Beyond Friday, there
is the larger question of
how Trump will adjust his
speaking style over the next
four years. His past pledges
to “act more presidential”
when the time is right are
coming due.
“Any president is going
to have to learn how to make
use of good speeches,” said
Gerson, noting that presi-
dents may have to speak at
three public events in a given
day. “That may be different
from anything he’s ever
experienced before, because
the campaign rewarded
spontaneity and being extem-
poraneous. There are huge
portions of the presidency
where that can’t be the case.”
Air Force One whenever
the president is aboard. The
president-elect, who came
to Washington without any
press on his plane, was joined
on the trip by a gaggle of chil-
dren, grandchildren and other
members of his extended
family. Also spotted: bags of
dresses and formalwear for
the coming days’ festivities.
At the luncheon, Trump
made sure to work in a
plug for his hotel, saying,
“This is a gorgeous room.
A total genius must have
built this place.” Reporters
covering Trump’s remark
were removed from the room
before the president-elect
finished speaking.
Ebullient Trump fans
were ready for a three-day
party.
“We’re hoping for good
weather and hoping for some
unity,” said Jon-Paul Oldham,
a firefighter who came from
Thomaston, Connecticut. He
said everyone should want
Trump to succeed.
“Wanting him to fail
is like wanting the plane
to crash but you’re on the
plane,” Oldham said.
BEFORE
THE
CEREMONY
5:30 a.m. (PST) :
Donald and Melania
Trump attend service at
St. John’s Church
6:40 a.m.: President
Barack Obama and first
lady Michelle Obama
welcome the Trumps to
the White House
6:45 a.m.: Obamas
host a coffee and tea
reception for the Trumps.
7:30 a.m.: Trumps,
Obamas leave White
House for U.S. Capitol
AT THE CAPITOL
8:16
a.m.:
Sen.
Roy Blunt, Inaugural
Committee
Chairman,
delivers opening remarks
8:21 a.m.: Timothy
Michael
Cardinal
Dolan, Rev. Dr. Samuel
Rodriguez and Pastor
Paula White-Cain deliver
invocations
8:30 a.m.: Senate
Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer delivers remarks
8:35 a.m.: Vice Pres-
idential oath is adminis-
tered by Associate Justice
Clarence Thomas
8:47 a.m.: Presidential
oath is administered
by Chief Justice John
Roberts
8:51 a.m.: President
Donald Trump delivers
inaugural address
9:12 a.m.: Rabbi
Marvin Hier, Rev. Franklin
Graham and Bishop
Wayne T. Jackson deliver
benedictions
9:18 a.m.: Jackie
Evancho performs the
National Anthem
AFTER
THE
CEREMONY
9:30 a.m.: Obama
departs by helicopter from
East Front
9:54 a.m.: President’s
Room signing ceremony
10:08 a.m.: Luncheon
11:35 a.m.: Review of
the troops
Noon: Parade from
the Capitol to the White
House
4 p.m.: Inaugural balls
get underway
As Trump takes oath, many
voters still can’t believe it
WASHINGTON (AP)
— On the morning 19
months ago when Donald
Trump descended the esca-
lator in his glitzy Manhattan
tower, waving to onlookers
who lined the rails, many
Americans knew little about
him beyond that he was
very rich and had a thing
for firing people on a reality
television show.
No one can plausibly
say they knew that the man
who launched his candidacy
that day would be elected
the nation’s 45th president.
As Trump prepares to take
the oath of office Friday,
many Americans
still
can’t quite believe that a
presidency that still seems
almost bizarrely improbable
becomes a reality on Friday.
“I thought it was a joke.
He’d run, he’d lose early
and he’d be out,” said
Christopher Thoms-Bauer,
20, a bookkeeper and college
student from Bayonne, New
Jersey, who originally backed
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s
Republican candidacy.
Then,
Thoms-Bauer
recalled, came the night in
November when he joined
friends in a diner after a
New Jersey Devils hockey
game and watched, stunned,
as Trump eked out wins in
key states.
“Having this realization
that he was really going to
become president was really
just a surreal moment,” said
Thoms-Bauer, who gave
his write-in vote to Evan
McMullin, a former CIA
agent who ran as a conser-
vative alternative to Trump.
“It still doesn’t make sense.”
For all the country’s
political divisions, plenty of
people on both sides of the
aisle share that disbelief.
“I thought there was no
way he could win,” said
Crissy Bayless, a Rhode
Island photographer who
on Thursday tweeted a
picture of the Statue of
Liberty holding her face in
her hands, despairing over
Trump’s imminent inaugu-
ration.
“How am I feeling?
Wow.. disgusted. nauseous
and honestly like I’m in a
nightmare,” Bayless, 38,
wrote in a conversation via
email.
When Barack Obama
won the White House in
2008, the election of the
nation’s first black presi-
dent felt to many like one
of the most improbable
moments in the nation’s
political history. The idea
of the election of a white
billionaire born of privilege
feels implausible to many in
very different ways — and
that may say as much about
the country as it does about
Trump.
When Trump announced
his
candidacy,
Kayla
Coursey recognized him as
the developer who had tried
and failed to build a golf
course she’d opposed in her
hometown of Charlottes-
ville, Virginia.
She recalled him as
stubborn and resistant to
pressure from local resi-
dents and officials. That, she
said made his candidacy for
president feel like a joke.
Trump’s election felt down-
right surreal, she said.
In the weeks since,
“there was always the hope
that things will somehow
magically become better.
However, now we know
(Friday) at noon we’re
going to be welcoming
President Trump, which is
surreal in and of itself,” said
Coursey, a college student
in Roanoke, Virginia.
Tyler
Wilcox,
a
23-year-old musician in
Riverton, Utah, has been
dreading
inauguration
day. He lists his location
on Twitter as “Not My
President” and is planning
to avoid all coverage of the
ceremonies.
“I just feel like it’s, I
guess you can say, the
beginning of the end,” he
said.