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“Have a good life. We will see you soon.”
President Trump joined four early United States presidents in refusing to attend his successor’s inauguration. While President Washington attended his former vice president’s inauguration, John Adams did not pretend that the incredibly ugly 1800 campaign was normal. He refused to dignify Thomas Jefferson’s inauguration. The two men, formerly friends, were bitter enemies until they reconciled in a long correspondence, years after both returned to private life. Adams’ son, John Quincy Adams, did not attend the inauguration of the founder of the Democratic Party, Andrew Jackson. Yet, J.Q. Adams had a long second political life as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.* You may recall that President Trump chose to feature Andrew Jackson’s portrait in the Oval Office. Martin Van Buren, Andrew Jackson’s vice president, did not attend the Whig Party candidate, William Harrison’s inauguration.** Andrew Johnson, a Democrat elected on a war unity ticket with Lincoln, refused to attend U.S. Grant’s inauguration after the Radical Republicans impeached but failed to convict Johnson.
President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump gave one last address from the runway apron at Andrews Air Force Base before flying home to Florida. Like farewell addresses by previous presidents, the remarks included thanks to family and those who worked with them, along with both a list of accomplishments and notes of caution about the direction the new administration was likely to take.
President Trump, like almost all* presidents, exercised the constitutional power of the pardon. In his last hours in his first term of office, President Trump pardoned 73 people and commuted the sentences of another 70. Most of the cases involved drug offenses now treated less harshly, while some rang of government misconduct and ax grinding by the feds. Two rappers made headlines: Lil Wayne and Kodak Black. The former mayor of Detroit, Kwame Malik Kilpatrick, got a break from a very long sentence. No, President Trump did not pardon terrorists, like certain prior occupants of the office. Here is the official release (emphasis added), followed by linked official clemency records for all presidents since Nixon.
President Trump issued an annual proclamation, declaring January 16 Religious Freedom Day, 2021. It could not be more timely, given what is about to unfold in our nation’s capital and across the world. Set this one aside for reference over the coming months, as Americans are forced to choose between faith and laws/edicts.**
I do not know what really happened in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021 . . . and neither do you. First reports are seldom conclusive, often confused, sometimes flat wrong. We live in an environment where people have learned to spin and twist every institution and form of media, seeking to shape our society through our ever more intrusive politics. Not only is history written by the victors, so is the entire current narrative, especially as supposed conservatives have joined the left in enabled a handful of billionaires to use the commanding communications high ground to silence and even drive out of business any effective dissent.
The FDA appeared to be forced off of its 
President Trump signed a necessarily lengthy yet eloquent proclamation on an event from 850 years ago that is sadly just as likely today. That event was the 
Vote for your life. Vote Trump and every Republican below him on your ballot if you care for safety and the lives of your fellow Americans. That message came through again the last weekend of this momentous election. The contrast is stark between the risk President Trump is willing to take on our behalf and the self-serving risk deferment of Biden and his party, going back to President Clinton or perhaps Carter. They are who we thought they were; will we let them win anyway?
Are leftist “blue check” verified Twitter users really that ignorant or arrogantly gaslighting all the rest of us? I am prepared to embrace the power of “and,” but the overnight reaction to President Trump calling out Biden and the Democrats on illegal immigration reinforces the evidence of two Americas in one country. Indeed, there may be many for whom 
