Being caught up in last week’s Trump Inauguration – with a ringside seat – was electrifying. The atmosphere, the intensity, the historic occasion, and a sense of apprehension and dread will stay with me forever.
Four historic US presidents have solid Tyrone ancestry: Buchanan, Wilson, Truman and of course Ulysses S Grant. Oval Office occupants are proud of their Irish and global links.
But Donald Trump couldn’t be more different. With him, it’s America first. And it’s not just a slogan.
I was surrounded by the never-ending sea of ‘Red Hats’ – the MAGA brigade – as they descended en masse upon the US capital.
From all walks of life and from across the 50 States, uncountable thousands gathered to mark their triumph across ‘DC’. On the streets, in the bars, restaurants, cafeterias, they struggled to navigate the Washington Metro subway trains system. Like the new US electoral college map, red was everywhere.
But in true ‘You Only Live Once’ form, I just had to get close to the man himself. This would require some fancy footwork, and a serious work-out from St Jude. An hour later, I was just feet away from Donald Trump. Miraculously it was not a hopeless case after all.
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Inside the ice hockey stadium, full to the brim with 20,000 roaring supporters, Trump ascended the stage. With some deft manoeuvres, I got next to the podium to soak in the atmosphere and capture the world’s most powerful man and event on camera. As up close and personal as the venue – and the hyper-intense US Secret Service – would allow.
Right in front of Trump in the VIP seating was Elon Musk with his son, ‘Little X’. Another glance revealed Robert Kennedy in the elite seats. And was that Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook I spotted? Did I just see Jeff Bezos of Amazon, too? It was all quite dizzying.
The bombastic rhetoric would then begin. Trump’s rousing condemnations of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the ‘American carnage’ they’d left behind. All to rapturous roars from the crowd. Videos mocked the outgoing president, party and policies with exaggerated effect. But not to worry – Trump would fix it all.
What a dramatic contrast to the Democratic National Convention that I attended last August in Chicago.
Washington outside resembled a security siege. Covered in snow in bitter, minus 16 degrees temperatures. Miles of steel fencing divided streets and intersections, guarded by machine-gun-toting police. Subway stations were closed. Small scale tanks on most street corners, with Homeland Security soldiers manning them. The military were out in force. NYPD police drafted in from the Big Apple roamed the capital’s transport hubs, bewildered when asked directions around Washington.
The ‘Golden Age of America’ – according to the man on stage – has begun. In six weeks time, Tyrone’s own First Minister and Deputy will be with Donald Trump in the White House. Ireland’s leaders’ exodus for America for St Patrick’s Day will usher in a new era as we navigate this transformed USA for the promotion of peace and continued prosperity back home.
The thaw will have hopefully begun by then, from this sub-zero start. But how unforgettable to be there at its birth.
You only live once.
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