Beneath a veneer of calm, Trump's inauguration holds warning signs for US democracy

All the living former presidents were there and the outgoing president amicably greeted his successor, who gave a speech about the country's bright future and who left to the blare of a brass band.

At first glance, President Donald Trump's second inauguration seemed like a continuation of the country's nearly 250-year-long tradition of peaceful transfers of power, essential to its democracy. And there was much to celebrate: Trump won a free and fair election last fall, and his supporters hope he will be able to fix problems at the border, end the war in Ukraine and get inflation under control.

Still, on Monday, the warning signs were clear.

Due to frigid temperatures, Trump's swearing-in was held in the Capitol Rotunda, where rioters seeking to keep him in power the last time roamed during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack. Trump walked into the space from the hall leading to the building's west front tunnel, where some of the worst hand-to-hand combat between Trump supporters and police occurred that day.

After giving a speech pledging that ''never again'' would the government ''persecute political opponents,'' Trump then gave a second, impromptu address to a crowd of supporters. The president lamented that his inaugural address had been sanitized, said he would shortly pardon the Jan. 6 rioters and fumed at last-minute preemptive pardons issued by outgoing President Joe Biden to the members of the congressional committee that investigated the attack.

''I did have a couple of things to say that were extremely controversial,'' Trump told the crowd in the Capitol's Emancipation Hall. It was the same space that had filled with rows of National Guard troops sleeping on the hard floors for weeks in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack.

Hours later, Trump followed through on a campaign promise to pardon those involved in the attack — some 1,500 of his supporters, including ones who had assaulted police officers. That came after an extraordinary pardon issued by Biden — announced by the White House as he greeted Trump at the inaugural ceremony — for several members of Biden's extended family. The 11th hour Biden pardons were a response to Trump's continual threats to carry out a campaign of retribution against his political opponents.

''The form is normal,'' Rick Hasen, a University of California, Los Angeles law professor, said of Trump's inaugural. ''The substance is not.''

Hasen said the pardons of those who tried to violently overturn the results of the 2020 election were particularly worrying.

''It's harder to imagine a greater affront to the rule of law than to give pardons to those who tried to overthrow the government,'' he said.

Andy Craig, a fellow at the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University, was aghast that Trump received the full, respectful pomp and circumstance of a peaceful transition that he tried to deny Biden. ''This is a surreal situation in a lot of ways and I get there is no rulebook to follow, but I think people are frustrated, rightly so, with a tone deaf ‘everything is normal' approach,'' Craig said.

Even after regaining the highest office in the land, Trump continued to lie about his 2020 election loss. He didn't mention it in his formal address, but in his impromptu, second speech, Trump falsely contended it was only due to voter fraud and that if votes were counted accurately he would win California, a state he lost by more than 3.2 million votes.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar kicked off the speeches because she chairs the joint congressional inaugural committee. She pronounced that the theme was ''our enduring democracy.'' It was a fairly anodyne line and in other circumstances would be a fairly routine speech, but had a stark implication given the setting.

Klobuchar spoke about how ''in other countries'' the festivities might be in a presidential palace, but the United States holds them at ''the people's house,'' the Capitol complex. She concluded by recognizing the firefighters battling blazes in Southern California.

''Our democracy's strength and grit must match theirs,'' Klobuchar said.

The day began with a reminder of the unprecedented dynamic that Trump's return has created. Biden preemptively pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Gen. Mark Milley — a vocal Trump critic whom the new president has suggested should be executed — and the congressional Jan. 6 committee members, staff and officers who provided them testimony.

Among them was former Rep. Liz Cheney, one of the few Republicans to challenge Trump and who had been targeted for prosecution by her former Republican colleagues in the U.S. House. During his second speech, Trump again dug at Cheney, calling her ''a crying lunatic.''

Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who lost consciousness and suffered a heart attack after a rioter shocked him with a stun gun, was one of the officers who received a last-minute Biden pardon because he testified before the Jan. 6 committee.

Fanone said he learned about the pardon from a Washington Post reporter who called him Monday morning.

''I haven't digested it,'' he later told The Associated Press. ''I just can't believe that this is my country.''

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