Bret Baier: Inauguration Day highlights America’s enduring promise

MAGA Garbage Trucks Join Trump Inaugural Parade
Loadmaster VP Andrew Brisson shares details about the garbage truck featured in President-elect Donald Trump’s viral campaign moment and its appearance on Fox & Friends ) role in the inaugural parade.
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At noon on January 20, 2025, Donald J. Trump will be sworn in as the 47th President of the United States. He would be the second president to serve a non-reelection term, Grover Cleveland being the first. Cleveland’s fate was the result of public buyer’s remorse. First elected in 1884, he was defeated in 1888 by Benjamin Harrison, whose economic policies turned out to be a disaster. Harrison was so weak that Cleveland saw an opportunity to regain the White House. In 1892 he was re-elected.
On Monday, Trump will repeat a rare move by Cleveland and hold his inauguration on one of the coldest days of the year in Washington, D.C. Up to 20,000 people. Although more than 200,000 people have tickets to the inauguration, most of them will be watching on screens along with the rest of the country. Only on rare occasions has a ceremony been held indoors due to bad weather, most recently Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration in 1985, when the midday temperature was 7 degrees.
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Inauguration Day is the performance of a constitutional ceremony that is how we deliver on the promise of our democracy every four years. Its tradition was largely apolitical, and the Bible was popular with everyone who came into contact with it. Once every four years, this occasion is a celebration of what brings us together. Americans have mostly put aside their differences to focus on our enduring democracy. The election may bring with it some hard feelings, but the inaugural celebration transcends those divisions, even if it’s just for a day.
John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address included a memorable quote as President-elect Trump prepared to take the oath of office for a second time.
The ceremony began in the late morning, when the outgoing president and his spouse traditionally hosted the outgoing president and his spouse for tea at the White House. The Biden family will host the Trump family on January 20. The Trumps skipped the process entirely in 2021, but photos of the various transformations show plenty of frozen smiles. Everyone studies body language clues in photos, but the bottom line is it happens all the time. Americans like to see leaders of different parties getting along, even on the surface. Note that Trump and Obama smiled and chatted at Jimmy Carter’s funeral, prompting an explosive reaction from the media and social media.
It is also tradition for the outgoing president and the incoming president to ride to the Capitol together. On Trump’s first inauguration day in 2017, Trump and Obama drove together. It is unknown whether Biden and Trump will share a car this time.
The inauguration itself will follow tradition, with all four living presidents — Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden — in attendance. Some of the new faces at the event will be honored alongside Cabinet appointees and senior guests, including some of America’s most powerful tech leaders, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Tim ·Cook and TikTok CEO Yu Ziche.
Everyone is looking forward to the inaugural address that will set the tone for the new government. Over the centuries, signature lines have become memorable, long after presidents have entered and left office. This sentence is unforgettable because it well reflects the immortal spirit of America. Thomas Jefferson, for example, declared that “every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.” Or Abraham Lincoln extending this extraordinary olive branch in 1865 as the Civil War entered its final, bloodiest days: “Male to none, kindness to all, kindness to justice Unwavering, as God has given us to see justice, let us strive to finish the work we are doing, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for those who will fight and for his widows and orphans, to do all we can to achieve and cherish justice and lasting peace among us and among all nations.
Standing before a nation shattered by the Great Depression, Franklin Roosevelt tried to instill new resolve with these words: “So, first, let me firmly believe that The only thing we have to fear is fear itself –Nameless, irrational, and unreasonable terror paralyzes the efforts needed to turn retreat into advancement. What, rather ask you what your country can do for you.

Tech leaders including Elon Musk, Shouzi Zhou, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg will attend Trump’s inauguration on Monday. (Etienne Laurentbey Ismomarc Ralston Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In Reagan’s first inaugural address, he laid out the guiding principle for America’s greatness in the world: “Above all, we must recognize that there is no arsenal or any weapon in the world’s arsenal that is greater than that of the United States. Will and moral courage are stronger.
Reports from the Trump transition say Trump will set an optimistic tone for his second term in office, and if he does, he will receive a positive response from the public. On this holy day, Americans like their leaders to talk about what correct with the United States.
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The ceremony will be followed by a parade, which also moves to Capital One Stadium. A fixture since the founding, the inaugural parade is an opportunity to combine celebration with a showcase for the good things American life has to offer, with marching bands, floats and exhibits representing each state. Military units, police and fire departments will demonstrate American sacrifice and courage.
This year’s march will also include first responders from Butler County, Pennsylvania, the site of an assassination attempt on Donald Trump in July. They will pay tribute to Buffalo Township Fire Chief Corey Competore, who was shot and killed that day.
Finally, as is customary, the outgoing president slips a personal note to his successor in a desk drawer in the Oval Office. The tradition began with Ronald Reagan, who left a personal note for George H.W. Bush. Bush later did the same for Bill Clinton, writing: “Your success now is our country’s success. You have my full support.”
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As President Trump entered his first term in the White House, he discovered a note written by Barack Obama: “Millions of people have placed their hope in you, and all of us, regardless of party, should hope. Expand prosperity and security on your watch.
Trump left a note for Joe Biden in 2021, which Biden called “a very generous letter.” Now Joe Biden will leave a note for Trump. The great cycle of American life continues.
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