Yesterday was largely the spectacle we expected. Trump took the oath of office, though he conspicuously did not place his hand on the Bible. He looked much older than eight years ago. While last time he was inaugurated, the event was outside before an unenthusiastic crowd, this time he chose the climate-controlled comfort of the Capitol and the company of supplicant billionaires.
Moments before the swearing-in, Joe Biden executed two final sets of pardons. The first covered a conspicuously incomplete group of people who Trump could target for political revenge. The second, coming in the final minutes of his presidency, provided sweeping immunity for five members of his immediate family. A presidency focused on the importance of norms ended with pardons that were anything but normal.
Trump’s inaugural address was a dark and pedestrian repackaging of the one he gave in 2017. It lacked the soaring rhetoric of traditional addresses given by other presidents and had none of the spontaneity and energy of a typical Trump rally.
What it lacked in style it made up for in lies. Among them, Trump claimed to want to “restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.” Yet, once the festivities were done, Trump set about signing executive orders and pardons that undermine fair, equal and impartial justice.
To fully understand Trump, one must accept that he is not just a prolific liar, but a performative one. While most people lie to conceal something, Trump lies to reveal his true feelings. He wants his audience to know that he is lying to them. His bond with them is based on his supporters believing that they are in on something special.
When Trump says he will not seek retribution or persecute his political opponents, everyone — especially his more fervent supporters — knows it’s a lie. That is how he communicates that it is important.
In her seminal work, The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt described this complex system of signaling:
