Trump Self-Soothes in ‘Better Speech’ Right After First One

President Donald Trump speaks in Emancipation Hall after being sworn in at his inauguration as US First Lady Melania Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and US House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, look on in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.
Al Drago/Getty Images

Donald Trump went completely off script in a rambling rant just minutes after leaving his swearing-in ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda.

The new president’s robotic delivery for his official inaugural speech was transformed into an extraordinary off-the-cuff diatribe that was at times jokey, embittered, inaccurate, and even affectionate.

While the first 30-minute speech was almost certainly crafted by deputy chief of staff for policy Stephen Miller, the second, which was twice as long, was all Trump.

He said he’d been advised to cut some issues out of his Rotunda address and clearly relished the opportunity to raise them in the overflow room. They included praising the Jan 6 “hostages” and bemoaning Joe Biden’s pardons for family members and 33 of the “worst” murderers.

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In a stream of consciousness, he also poured scorn on an allegation that he put his hands around the neck of a Secret Service agent to try and force him to take him to the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Trump jumped around from scoring points in petty grievances to underscoring conspiracy theories to worrying about his wife’s sore feet.

While the millions listening on television may have had trouble keeping up, Trump was enjoying himself, saying: “I think this is a better speech than the one I made upstairs.”

He made the impromptu speech from the Emancipation Hall at the U.S. Capitol on the lower level of the Visitor Center to a partizan crowd of supporters, telling them that he could have given them the A, B, C, D, or F treatment, with F being, “Thank you for coming.”

“You got the A+ treatment,” he said.

Among the topics the president touched on were:

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  • Repeating a widely discredited claim that Nancy Pelosi turned down his offer to provide 10,000 troops to quell the Jan. 6 riot.

  • Calling Liz Cheney a “crying lunatic.”

  • Promising action on the Jan. 6 “hostages.”

  • Insisting he could have won California, which voted Democrat in the election.

  • Claiming the pollsters got the election forecasts wrong because the public didn’t trust them with “fake news.”

  • The tradition of the president traveling by helicopter to the inauguration rather than by “stagecoach.”

  • Worrying about Melania’s hat being so large she would fly away.

He mimicked his wife’s voice while talking about when he first discussed running a third presidential election campaign, saying in a high voice: “You’re going to do this again?”

But after saying she fully supported his campaign, he continued: “I’m going to get hell for this, but her feet are aching in those heels.”

He said he hadn’t planned to talk a second time at the Capitol but asked Melania if she could make it to the Emancipation Hall with her aching feet. “We’re going to make it no matter what,” he said she told him.

Trump said that the brim of Melania’s hat was so wide “she almost blew away. She was being elevated off the ground and she almost blew away.”

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Melania and Usha Vance were sitting down for the speech, with the vice president and House Speaker Mike Johnson flanking the president.

Trump told them that it’s going to be a great four years. Very great.