Trump’s inauguration was a glimpse of what is to come | Sidney Blumenthal

The most sacred ceremony conducted at the Trump inauguration undoubtedly for Donald Trump personally, with its mystical meaning elevating him to his greatest height as an emperor.

Father Frank Mann , a retired priest from Brooklyn , offered a blessing to the ruthless real estate operator who bankrolled his son’s pilgrimage over the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan to blow a half-billion dollars through six bankruptcies and the financial collapse of the Taj Mahal Hotel and Trump Castle casino.

Julian Zelizer : Trump 's inaugural address was a grab-bag of transparent lies, demagogic distractions and contrived irrelevancies.

Zelizer says the Justice Department under Merrick Garland did not pursue Trump for his crimes leading to January 6th for nearly a year and a half .

He could easily have been indicted him for his role in his fake electors scheme and his attempted effort to coerce into his conspiracy his attorney general, William Barr , at a meeting where Barr refused to become complicit in the nakedly criminal plot and was forced to resign.

In one swoop he issued pardons and commutations for nearly 1,600 of his followers convicted of crimes in the January 6th insurrection.

Trump declared his order “ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people” His second term will be a campaign against his enemies within, inhabiting the “ Deep State ,” who had thwarted him in his first administration.