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America United


Joe Biden fosters unity in an inauguration address singularly focused on America United.

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AP

Franklin Delano Roosevelt coined the phrase "First 100 Days" after ascending the presidency in 1933 when he laid out 13 major laws designed to address the Great Depression. “I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require,” said Roosevelt in his inaugural address. Today, we measure the early success of a president by the benchmark of their First 100 Days.

The Biden Blitz


Joseph R. Biden, Jr. took the oath of office on Wednesday, assuming the mantle of the 46th President of the United States of America with the new motto “America United.” Inheriting over 400,000 COVID-19 related deaths, Biden has drafted a $1.9 trillion virus relief bill designed to reopen schools and businesses, expand virus testing and vaccination sites, expand eligibility to all seniors and those with pre-existing conditions, and initiates a mask-wearing mandate on all federal properties and along interstate travel.

President Biden will rescind the travel ban on several predominantly Muslim countries, rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement, extend a pause on pandemic-related evictions and student loan payments, suspend the building of wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and order all children separated from parents at the border to be reunited. Mr. Biden also plans to send a sweeping immigration bill to Congress that will provide a pathway to citizenship for 11 million immigrants and their children known as DREAMers.

President Biden’s Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said “We’ll engage the world not as it was, but as it is. A world of rising nationalism, receding democracy, growing rivalry with China, Russia, and other authoritarian states, mounting threats to a stable and open international system, and a technological revolution that is reshaping every aspect of human existence.”

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US News and World Report

Celebrating America


The presidential inauguration is typically a day of parades, balls and ceremonies attended by massive crowed and public officials. Due to security concerns around the pandemic, and the 2021 Siege on the U.S. Capitol, the inauguration committee encouraged Americans not to travel to Washington for the 59th Inaugural. Nevertheless, the stars were out and shinning.

Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, and Garth Brooks all sang at the swearing-in ceremony, after which a 90-minute special celebrating a new era of American history unfolded with artists including Bruce Springsteen, Justin Timberlake, Demi Lovato, John Legend and Ant Clemons. Katy Perry’s “Fireworks” was performed against perhaps the single most spectacular fireworks display in the history of Washington D.C.

Celebrating America shined a light on just some of the American heroes including — teachers, essential workers, health professionals, and medical responders — and was designed to highlight the confluence of many different cultures now coexisting in the fabric of America.

Trump Legacy


Donald Trump was the 4rd President in American history to willfully skip the inauguration of his successor, instead mounting Air Force One at 8:00am as the U.S. President with the lowest approval rating in American history. According to Gallup Poll, he left office on Wednesday with a 29% approval rating somehow descending even deeper into the bowels of disapproval than Richard Nixon. Frank Sinatra’s “I Did It My Way” played to the crowds below as the president’s last official flight carried Donald and Melania Trump home.

He'll be remembered for tax cuts and trade tariffs and twitter, of course. He’ll be remembered for putting three conservative justices on the High Court, fast tracking over 200 federal judges, and for leaving the United States judiciary more conservative. The economy expanded faster than it had under his predecessor, and unemployment had reached new lows, offset by a hemorrhaging national debt which expanded to a record $7 trillion.

He’ll also be remembered for his response to the Coronavirus Pandemic, the 2021 Siege on the U.S. Capitol, and as the only President in United States history to be impeached twice.

He’ll be remembered for erecting 400 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. It was less than half of the 1000 miles he promised, none of which Mexico paid for, and did in fact reduce illegal immigration. He’ll be remembered for converting U.S.-China Foreign relations into a veritable Cold War, but at the same time taming an increasingly repressive, powerful, and assertive saber into a more sober position. He’ll be remembered for brokering historic accords between Israel and four once-hostile Arab neighbors, and he’ll be remembered for reducing U.S. military forces in conflict zones — Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria — to all-time lows in a doctrinal disdain for what he referred to as “Americas endless wars.”

Trump championed the white rural and working-class resentment into 74.2 million votes whilst the remaining 260 million Americans were getting their footing in the American dream. He'll return to private life in Palm Beach Florida to confront federal and civil lawsuits, and to contend with a legacy that left the nation more divided, polarized and divisive than at any time since the Civil War.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, referring to utility companies that took advantage of the American people, once said, “My friends judge me by the enemies I have made.” Still relatively new to Twitter, the now defunct @realdonaldtrump once tweeted that line himself.

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