SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:57 P.M. ET:

IT IS DONE – Donald Trump is now President Trump.  The day went remarkably well.  There were some demonstrations in Washington, but fewer than we'd feared.  The ceremony was smooth.  Nothing was disrupted, and the various speakers were appropriately forgettable.  Even the media, from the sampling I took, tried to be reasonably respectful.  That will change, but at least they controlled themselves for a day and night. 

The inaugural balls were done with taste and class, and the Trump family came through in style. 

As we noted earlier, the inaugural address was perhaps the only discordant note.  It was Trump being Trump, without apology, and was written more as a war chant against everything Trump wants to defeat rather than an inclusive, inspirational poem.  I would have preferred a bit more of the latter, and some needed reassurance to our allies, but the policies will be more important than the words. The media did not dwell on the address.  Trump's first State of the Union message will be more important.

WINNIE – FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER:   President Trump has returned a bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to the Oval Office, which had been removed by his predecessor in 2009.  Reporters first noticed that the bust had been placed back in the room on Friday, just as Trump was signing a series of executive orders at the Resolute desk.  Obama had moved the bust to the White House residence during his first few days in office and later installed separate busts of Martin Luther King Jr. and President Lincoln in its place.  A spokesperson for British Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed last week that Trump had personally asked if England would loan the bust of Churchill to the U.S. once he took office.  Winston deserves his place in that office.  A very flawed man who was perfect at one critical moment.

FOX WAY UP – FROM THE HILL:   Fox News had a huge night on the eve of President Trump's inauguration, scoring its highest ratings since the night after the 2016 election.  On Thursday night, Fox delivered an average of 4.818 million viewers in primetime between 8:00 pm and 11:00 pm, easily beating second-place MSNBC (1.58 million) and third-place CNN (1.462 million).  Fox also bested its competition in the key 25-54 demographic that advertisers covet most. The 21st Century-owned channel averaged 1.079 million viewers compared to 486,000 for CNN and 310,000 for MSNBC.   Trump has been a ratings boon for all the cable news networks. In 2016, all three cable news networks enjoyed record ratings, with CNN having its best year since 1995 and MSNBC capturing its largest audience ever for the year.  Fox News finished 2016 as the most-watched basic cable network for the first time in its 20-year history, beating even non-cable stations like ESPN and TBS.  Like Trump, the founders of Fox News detected something in the American people and responded to it.  What they detected was a wish that news organizations would report the stories of their lives and values, not just the perceptions originating in Washington and New York. 

January 20, 2017