More than 48km of anti-scale fencing were erected all over the US capital. Surveillance drones flooded the skies. But if Washington looks like a war zone again, it does not necessarily feel that way. Unlike the last time Donald Trump took the oath of office eight years ago, the bristling tension and angry defiance have given way to accommodation and submission. The Resistance of 2017 has faded into the Resignation of 2025.
Much of the world, it seems, is bowing down to Trump. Over the past weeks, tech moguls have rushed to Mar-a-Lago. Billionaires have signed seven-figure cheques for the inaugural ceremony. Some corporations have pre-emptively dropped climate and diversity programmes to curry favour.
Some Democrats are talking about working with the newly restored Republican president on discrete issues. Some news groups are perceived to be reorienting to show more deference. The grass roots opposition that put hundreds of thousands of people in the streets of Washington to protest Trump just a day after he was sworn in back in 2017 generated a fraction of that in their sequel on Saturday. “Hashtag-resistance has turned into hashtag-capitulation,” said David Urban, a Republican strategist. “Pink-pussy hats are gone, and they are replaced by MAGA hats.”
For both the progressive left and the Never Trump right, this second inauguration has upended all the assumptions after 8 years of fighting Trump. Their strategies failed to keep him out of office. And many of them have grown drained and demoralised. “It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but it’s not the end. We shall rebuild,” said Donna Brazile, an ex-Democratic National Committee chairwoman.
For the Trump team, on the other hand, it is a moment of triumph and celebration. And this time, Trump arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue not as a fluke Electoral College winner. He took oath Monday with a burst of momentum propelled by a victory in the popular vote.
Some of the deference being shown to Trump now stems from a broader sense that perhaps popular opinion is more on Trump’s side than they had assumed. A new NYT-Ipsos survey found that even many Americans who dislike Trump agree with some of his diagnosis of the country’s problems and some of his prescriptions, including mass deportation of undocumented immigrants. And so dispirited opponents face a period of introspection before they return to the arena.
