Inauguration beat: Trump’s ‘Incredible’ Speech
At CNN, Scott Jennings found President Trump’s inauguration speech nothing short of “incredible.” Watching Trump “indict these gangsters to their faces while they had to sit right in front of him in that intimate setting” was absolutely “remarkable. They had to sit there and take it just minutes” after President Joe “pardoned his entire family.” And listening to Trump explain “how he’s going to exercise his power today reminded me that he is absolutely ascendant” — “at the apex of his political power.” Indeed, “the promise of a new presidency is enormous.” Trump’s mandate is “simple: It’s economic relief. It’s fix the immigration crisis, steer the country away from the cultural left and restore American prestige. The speech hits several notes on that front.”
Dem pollster: Resistance Is Futile
President Trump’s (second) “first 100 days in office will be incredibly fast paced,” notes Doug Schoen at Fox News. As for legislation, “what Trump envisions, and the realities of Congress are two different things,” but “certain areas like immigration” and “national security” have “broad enough” support that “much” of his agenda will pass. That leaves Democrats “dispirited,” but will “they continue blindly opposing Trump, despite the will of the voters who decisively elected him and handed Congress to the GOP? Or, recognizing that ‘resistance at all costs’ is an exercise in futility, do Democrats adopt a policy of strategic bipartisan cooperation?” With polling showing voters trusted Trump over VP Kamala Harris by wide margins on issues like immigration, “doubling down on resistance would be a costly mistake.”
Conservative: How Team Joe Paid for Jew-Hate
“The Biden White House and Senate Democrats have touted their funding for an anti-terrorism initiative they say ‘has been critical to the security of Jewish institutions,’ ” scoffs The Washington Free Beacon’s Chuck Ross. “But the program has given hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent months to mosques whose clerics have preached anti-Semitic hate, cheered Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attacks on Israel, and been accused of raising money for terrorist groups” — mosques like the “Masjid Jamaat al Mumineen, the Islamic Society of Akron and Kent, and the Islamic Center of Bothell.” Some have “condoned the kinds of violence the grant program aims to prevent.” And “it’s not the first time the Biden administration has awarded taxpayer funds under the Nonprofit Security Grant program to extremist mosques.”
From the left: Biden’s Pardons Were ‘Corrupt’
Before exiting the White House, ex-President Biden preemptively “pardoned his brother James Biden and his wife, as well as his sister Valerie Biden Owens and her husband,” who, Paul Blumenthal & Igor Bobic grumble at the Huffington Post, aren’t “under investigation for committing crimes.” In theory, the pardons could save them years “of costly litigation for committing no crimes.” But they were still “a terrible idea.” Even “Democratic lawmakers agreed” they were a mistake.” Pardons for Biden family members are “corrupt” because “he put his personal interest above the common good.” They “may protect these individuals, but they ultimately act as more kindling for Trump’s worst impulses” — while others “may wind up paying the price.”
From the right: A Bold Vision for America
“In Trump’s inaugural speech . . . he painted a picture of America on the rise, one where working-class Americans prosper again, the nation’s borders are secure and the woke agenda of the past four years is erased,” cheers USAToday’s Nicole Russell. Ex-President Joe Biden’s “liberal agenda left many Americans feeling like they were trapped in . . . a toxic blend of political correctness, global instability and runaway inflation” they couldn’t escape. Trump said he “will liberate Americans from the chains of liberal policies,” announced “radical changes” at the border and promised that under him, “the nation would be ‘colorblind and merit-based.’ ” “Liberals, the media and some conservatives will” say the speech “was too radical and too vague.” “But it was precisely what most voters” wanted to hear.”
— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board
This story originally appeared on NYPost
