By The Ghost of HST
January 20, 2025
While D.C. polished its podiums and power ties, something quieter—and far more human—was playing out in the Middle East. As part of a fragile ceasefire deal, Hamas released three Israeli women hostages: Romi Gonen, Doron Steinbrecher, and Emily Damari. In return, Israel let go of 90 Palestinian detainees—69 women and 21 teenage boys, many held without trial or formal charges.
There were no parades. No anthems. Just a cold exchange of lives across barbed wire and checkpoints, wrapped in the kind of weary calculation that defines a world too used to conflict. Meanwhile, America prepared to welcome back the man who calls that conflict “not our problem.”
At 12:01 PM, Donald John Trump placed his hand on the Bible and returned to the throne. The crowd—smaller than 2017 but louder—cheered like it meant something. The brass band played like it had no choice.
It felt less like a swearing-in and more like a reboot, the kind a streaming service greenlights out of desperation. Flags waved. Pundits pontificated. And somewhere deep behind the stagecraft, power shifted back into familiar, vengeful hands.
But the real action wasn’t on the steps of the Capitol—it was in the VIP boxes, the afterparties, and the strategic brunches humming just outside camera range.
The Broligarchy was out in force: tech moguls, crypto billionaires, hedge fund patriots in tactical fleece. Peter Thiel grinned like a man who’d just won a custody battle with the Enlightenment. Elon Musk showed up in a tuxedo T-shirt, high on Martian destiny. Mark Zuckerberg, reportedly, couldn’t stop staring at Lauren Sánchez—as if Jeff Bezos’s fiancée’s breasts contained the launch codes to the future.
These weren’t spectators. These were the new Praetorian class—half-nerd, half-oligarch, all-in on shaping this next chapter with their checkbooks, satellite networks, and policy ghosts.
By 3 PM, the paper blitz began.
Trump signed over a dozen executive orders within hours of taking office—each one a bullet point in the manifesto of his long grievance tour:
- “Ending the Weaponization of the Federal Government” – targeting civil service protections, media regulators, and inspectors general.
- “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” – a coded greenlight for de-regulating platforms and attacking perceived “deep state” narratives.
- “Unleashing American Energy” – fast-tracking fossil fuel permits, gutting climate rules, and greenlighting Keystone 3.0.
- “Protecting The American People Against Invasion” – expanding border patrol authority and reviving mass deportation task forces.
It was a legal carpet bombing, signed with a smirk and sold with slogans.
Day One ends.
The sun sets on a capital that feels eerily calm—too calm. The flags are folded. The champagne’s gone flat. Nobody’s screamed “martial law” quite yet, but you can feel the tension about what’s to come in the air, like the sky is holding its breath.
