It was dangerously cold outside on Monday, which necessitated that Donald Trump's inauguration ceremony be held inside the Capitol Rotunda. Four years ago on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump’s MAGA followers attacked the Capitol with the goal of keeping him in office and nullifying the results of the 2020 election. They carried the Confederate Battle Flag. During the Civil War, that symbol of white supremacy and treason never flew inside of the Capitol. Four years later, Trump would stand in the Capitol building and take his oath of office as the country’s first elected autocrat who has promised to rule as a dictator on “day one.”
One of Trump's first official acts on Monday was to either pardon or commute the sentences of nearly all the MAGA followers (approximately 1,600 people in total) who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 in his name. They will likely be his most zealous foot soldiers and enforcers. At The American Prospect, Ryan Cooper summarizes: "This has two immediate effects. The first is to set loose a large number of dangerous insurrectionists who may well form the core of a Sturmabteilung-style paramilitary force. The second is a signal that federal law enforcement will almost certainly not hold anyone who commits crimes or violence on behalf of Trump accountable so long as he is president." In addition to freeing his Jan. 6 MAGA people, Trump would sign many dozens of Executive Orders as part of his shock and awe campaign to destroy President Biden's legacy (and multiracial pluralistic democracy more broadly) and then build the foundations for his autocratic rule as the country's first elected de facto dictator.
