It's Tuesday, January 21, 2025.

I'm Albert Mueller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

Donald Trump yesterday became the 47th president of the United States.

He began his second term, and of course it began with all the

formality of the inaugural ceremonies for an American president. Except, of course, this year,

the ceremonies were moved inside the Capitol Rotunda, simply because of prohibitive cold

outside. And inside the Capitol, there were some very interesting ceremonial scenes.

There were also some very awkward political scenes. In terms of the awkwardness, you had people

from both sides of America's political divide sitting in very close proximity. And furthermore,

you had an official inaugural committee made up about Democrats and Republicans,

and there was a sense of forced formality and forced intimacy, at least forced or feigned

friendliness in the entire affair. But that's not entirely wrong. In other words,

that's not the worst thing that can happen in a constitutional republic.

The formality of this kind of ceremony greatly assists the peaceful transfer of power.

It is, of course, very awkward, and there were awkward scenes at so many points in the ceremony.

For one thing, this was not a transfer of power between just two presidents, but between two

parties. And not just between two parties, but between deeply antagonistic rivals. And not just

that, but the vice president of the United States was the candidate of the opposing party.

And, of course, President Trump, as candidate, said a good many incredibly critical things about Kamala Harris as vice president and about her presidential candidacy.

When it comes to former President Biden, when he was on the stage entering the room as President Biden, everyone knew that he was passing from the scene in a political sense.

He knew that. He regretted that in

some sense, even in terms of his own comments coming from also his own family. He resents that,

...