President Trump takes office, and insiders are out

The United States has always been an awkward blend of tradition and transformation, and never — not once in the 228 years that it has been ruled under the Constitution — has that mixture been more evident, more evocative, more stunning, than in the fevered days of transformation that began Friday with the inauguration of an insurgent who, with a mere 35 words, became the ultimate insider.

Indeed, in an extraordinary instant, the old insiders became outsiders and, more astonishing still, the old outsiders became insiders.

Donald John Trump is the 45th president, and different from all who preceded him, just as his inaugural address, one of the sturdy set-pieces of American civic life, was different from all that preceded his clarion call to “think big and dream even bigger.”

Some inaugural addresses reside in favored positions in rhetorical history, and some recede to anonymity assured by their presence, along with 57 others, in the anthology of such remarks. And though Trump may have introduced no new jewels into the oratorical crown of this ancient ritual, the scene, and the symbolism, of this inauguration will retain its power for decades, perhaps for generations.

For this was not merely a departure — most inaugurals involving changes in party occupation of the White House are — but it amounted to a remarkable rhetorical repudiation of the president sitting only feet from him and of the established power centers of the capital that he both dominates and derides.

“A small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government, while the people have borne the cost,” Trump, surrounded by that very small group, said in a poignant example of how his flourishes have the capacity to ruffle.

Friday’s ceremony bore both the imprimatur of history and the impulses of the nation’s newest occupant of its most cherished office.

Trump approached the podium with his trademark swagger — Americans have grown familiar with his bulky profile — and he paused for a kiss for Michelle Obama and the sort of half-hug for Obama that men share when they feel they must. When he finished, he shook his fist — perhaps in triumph, perhaps in determination. It was a gesture that none of his predecessors dared make.

In a millisecond, power passed from the hand of a community activist and constitutional law professor to a businessman with global real-estate holdings.

Moments later Trump launched into perhaps the most populist inaugural address of all time.

Presidents at moments like these often speak of the rule of the people, but Trump spoke of “transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the American people.”

Trump enters office with strong opposition.

Indeed, the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed that 38 percent of Americans support the new president, versus 48 percent who oppose him.

“We have to remember who we are, what we have accomplished and what we stand for,” David McCullough, the biographer of John Adams and Harry Truman, said in an interview.

“It’s important that we stand by these values. We can’t sit on the sidelines and say, ‘Oh, well.’ There are checks and balances in our system, but we are part of the checks and the balances, all of us.”

Thus begins a new era in the most American tradition of all: change. It is the great national continuity.