The Inauguration Newsnight

Donald Trump has been saying that he will run

for President as a Republican, which is surprising

since I just assumed he was running as a joke.

Donald Trump, just last week, he confirmed to the National

Review that he is again considering a run in 2016.

I will personally write you a campaign cheque now,

on behalf of this country, which does not want

you to be President but which badly wants you to run.

And which Republican candidate has the best chance of winning

I Donald John Trump do solemnly swear...

There's not going to be a President Donald Trump.

That I will faithfully execute the office of President

He's not going to be President of the United States.

And will to the best of my ability...

Donald Trump will never be elected President of the United States.

Preserve, protect and defend the Constitution

The election that brought him to power was ten long weeks ago.

Yet the moment - when it finally came - still felt unreal.

It was perhaps the boldest act of democracy this

A man who professes to hate politics and Washington became

And his inaugural address was entirely consistent with his brand.

This was not an appeal to the better angels of our nature,

nor less a reassurance on fearing fear itself.

This was a stump speech carried past the winning post -

a speech for those who helped him to victory, not those

In place of unity, there was talk of nationalism.

In place of hope, there was talk of pride.

In place of the rest of the world, a pledge to put America first,

with all the connotations that history bestows upon it.

Tonight, we explore the new reality of President Trump's America

and speak to his core advisor on foreign affairs.

But we start with a flavour from the streets of America's capital -

those who abhor him and those who adore him.

Inauguration Day dawns in Washington, DC,

Next time those suckers take over a crosswalk, let's lay down!

He's here to interrupt the cavalcade of Bikers For Trump,

the flag-wavers on two wheels who've come to celebrate

What do you think Trump is going to do to Washington?

What's he going to do Washington, or for Washington?

Round the corner, on a genteel street they call Embassy Row,

they're handing out free marijuana to anyone who's of age.

We're here to give a message to President-elect Trump,

that we want to legalise marijuana for the entire country,

and that we hope that he'll make that happen.

I'd heard about the euphoria of Inauguration Day celebrations,

but never before put it down to something quite this simple.

And to greet the flashlights of foreign media, protesters

All the pussy-grabbing comments really got to me,

and so I felt like we really needed to take a stand and say that we're

That's quite a scary pussy you've got there.

Yeah, I was trying to make it fierce!

These are, of course, the fringe elements of a day that

Along Constitution Avenue we meet the crowds.

Not as record as the President-elect forecast, but steady nonetheless.

Why have you come, why does it mean so much today?

He'll bring a change of jobs and prosperity and a feeling

First time I ever went to something like this.

My friend asked me to come, so I'm here.

Now, every four years since the age of Thomas Jefferson,

this town has embraced the pomp and the pageantry, the history

Donald Trump brings to it his own brand of political anarchy that

worked so successfully on the campaign trail.

He appealed to people, don't forget, who hate Washington

That's what makes today slightly more complicated.

Is the hood not having any jobs not an issue?

Which is why I didn't vote for Trump.

And then, at noon, the shouting stops and the rousing chorus begins.

Then it's time for Donald Trump to address the nation,

not in characters, but in words, and words that will go down

in history as his very first spoken to the nation as president.

We are transferring power from Washington DC, and giving it

It was the speech of someone who's won, but still feels

It echoed the isolationist rhetoric of the 1930s.

It dismissed the global stage on which America precariously sets.

From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land.

From this day forward, it's going to be only America

It was a speech that told the people who had voted for him,

He promised today to determine the course of America

and the world for many, many years to come.

Now everyone's suddenly wondering, what that might mean.

Joining me now, Michelle Malkin, a post Danielle Allen, professor of

political theory who has campaigned with Obama. Michelle, I will start

with you. This was familiar Trump territory. He appealed to the people

who had voted for him and put him in power. I wonder if you were

expecting more from an inaugural address? No, he has been transparent

all along. One of his things is this idea that he expressed about

patriotism being a unifying factor, that leaves no room for prejudice,

and I think one of the most exciting things, as somebody who is perceived

as, quote unquote, a person of colour, is that he gave space that

was very liberating to people of colour who don't feel inflamed by

liberal ideology. And I think that a lot of people in the left-wing media

could not get their heads around the idea that people like me exist.

Enslaved by liberal ideology? I would respectfully disagree with

what he did in the speech, he began talking about how we are all

Americans, but then he went to describe this America as everybody

who voted for him, which is a limited subset of America, not even

a majority. So there is a tension between the circus of acclaim,

speaking to every American, and an invocation of the people supported

him. You have to recognise it was a minority. This was a strong speech,

wasn't it? You inhabit the ideological saves space of identity

politics and you listen to a man who you disagree with when it comes to

the fundamental idea that one can embrace American sovereignty and not

be xenophobic, racist or discriminatory. You are going to

hear what you want to hear. The fact is that there were so many

independents that voted for Donald Trump that were black, white,

yellow, brown... Hillary won popular vote, the Democrats didn't get a

shout out at all. This was the time to bring on board the people who

lost. He didn't just talk to Republicans or Conservatives. He

talked to people who identified themselves as citizens of America.

There is a way to talk about all Americans. Liberty and justice for

all. Patrick isn't is a good thing, Democrats get behind that as well.

-- patriotism. But he didn't reach out and open up the everybody. Let's

talk about the policy. We all know he is trying to value arise that...

I find that to be. Using it to provoke. It is a transcendent idea

that all Americans should put Americans first, Americans first,

and the problem with the progressive left is they do not accept the idea

that America is exceptional. There is a special place because we are

indivisible. He is coming with rhetoric. When he invokes a slogan

like America first, he is stirring up his face, like you, and provoking

his adversarial survey will overreact. You think it is stirring

up the -based talk about the idea of Law and order and sovereignty? To

talk about putting America first in trade? It was used first in the

1930s for the kind of American isolationism in the face of Nazi

Germany. You accept that as rhetoric that your president is using? So you

are calling him a Nazi? She is not. Yes, she is. There is clinging to

the idea that, since people in the 1930s used it, but using that phrase

now in 2017 to establish American exceptionalism... He's cunning with

his rhetoric, because we know that he will hold his face together and

provoke his adversarial. When he provokes his adversarial, they will

overreact. People should recognise how cunning he is. Could I ask you

to step back for one second? He has been called a bad winner. He has the

victory, he has the presidency. Wasn't this a time to talk about

unity? Why don't you hold Chuck Schumer to that standard? He was a

sore loser. He took nasty passive aggressive barbs. If you are going

to preach Ealing, practice it. I will give credit today for having

expressed a message of unity to both sides of the aisle. He set a model

that I wish other people that followed. Democrats would have

condemned all of the criminal behaviour and anarchy on the

streets, because they can't tolerate that they lost.

Donald Trump was bold in his promises - yes, even on day one -

pledging to eradicate Islamic terror.

He took the threat to Isis so familiar on the campaign trail

We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world,

but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations

We do not seek to impose our way of life upon anyone, but rather,

We will shine for everyone to follow.

We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones, and unite

the civilised world against radical Islamic terrorism,

which we will eradicate completely from the face

Mark Urban, our diplomatic editor, joins me. Essentially, this was his

foreign policy that he laid out. Absolutely, in five statements.

National interest first, protectionism and all of it, not

seeking to impose our system on others, rejection of the George W

Bush doctrine in Iraq and elsewhere, but also comforting words for Russia

and China potentially. Then you have got him saying, reinforce old

alliances, little words of comfort for Nato, I think, and work to

establish new ones, who knows, maybe with Russia. And then the strong

statement about eradicating militant Islamic terrorism around the world.

And we have learned more about what he is doing in office. Yes, some

changes on the US president website, mentions of climate change removed,

mentions of the US department of defence, the penchant of the pipe on

their money being removed, which was put there by Republicans to hamper

President Obama. A lot more money going into defence. New missile

defence plans also announced tonight. Just before we came on air,

general Mac is confirmed, as secretary defence, one down, 659

Trump officials requiring Senate confirmation to go. They really

aren't ready. They may have the ideas and the big, bold Steve Bannon

policy platform that we heard on the day, but they don't yet have people

in place to deliver it. ... We can hear the marching bands behind us

and the helicopters the silence. You have been on the streets this

evening. Is the mood is to mark -- give us a sense of the mood. One of

the Trump supporters yelled, we did it, but not that infused by the

content of the speech. There are lots of people on the streets who

are also opposed, black bloc anarchists, people like that who

have been damaging property during the day. The police say around 100

people were arrested, so the scale of it is limited, but it has caused

a sharp change in the apathy of the city. From tomorrow, the question

will be, what is this new administration going to look like,

what shape will it take and how will it govern?

Out of capitalism's cauldron of success and excess comes a man

who, his backers say, embodies New York.

Brash, outspoken, self-proclaimed Master of the Deal, the president

America has chosen to send from this mecca of can-do to the political

And what might we expect from this administration

Well, central to the answers in all those cases is the business

culture of this place and Trump's projection of his image,

that he is the man who can get the best deal for America

To deliver success, Trump has turned to people like Texas

On the shortlist for a Cabinet job, his contact with the transition team

convinced him they were more interested in delivery

They are really interested in looking outside the box

and getting business people in there, people that might

It's not so much about being a conservative as being pragmatic.

They want people that can identify the problem and fix it.

The process of auditioning Cabinet picks went on for weeks.

Even some who'd been bitterly critical rode the golden lift up

Not exactly, thinks one "never-Trump Republican" on an alleged

One theory is that he actually doesn't care if you oppose him

Second theory is that he enjoys humiliating people, and of course

most of those visits were done very publicly.

Third possibility is that he was actually casting for a reality

television show called The American Presidency.

As for Trump's business reputation, is it overblown?

In Atlantic City, the Taj Mahal casino was launched

with a characteristic jackpot of Trump hyperbole.

He called it the eighth wonder of the world, and focused

You see a tale of two cities, in a lot of ways.

You see glamour on the Boardwalk in certain sections of town but,

if you go to other parts of the city, you see

The Taj Mahal closed down a few months ago

He'll draw the line of where he cares and doesn't care...

In 2005, as part of an attempt to turn things round,

he sent Randal Pinkett, the winner of his reality show

I believe he left Atlantic City worse than he found it,

and that to me is another pattern we see with Donald.

Look at other properties in Mexico, in Florida, where he's made

promises to others that were not delivered upon.

There is a long line of individuals who followed Donald's name

and followed Donald's word and never got what they bargained

So what's happened now Trump's chosen cabinet

The questions have come thick and fast in Senate

Billionaire Betsy DeVos, chosen as Education Secretary,

was quizzed about tax returns, ethics committee filings,

holdings in companies providing education services,

and her basic suitability for the job.

You can't say definitively today that guns shouldn't be in schools?

Well, I will refer back to Senator Enzi and the school

that he was talking about in Wapiti, Wyoming.

I think probably there, I would imagine that there's

probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies.

But, because Trump has so far sent forward only a fraction

of the people required to face scrutiny, Republican senators

we spoke to want to push on, in this case, with a nominee who's

made substantial campaign donations to 20 of them.

I can say that it certainly is not troubling to me either way.

There have been Obama administration officials who have been large

donors to Democratic causes, so I certainly don't see that

A lot of the Democrats are very wealthy, too.

The fact is, are we going to foreclose opportunities to serve

in this government because a person has been successful in life?

We ought to be helping a lot more of them come out of the woodwork

and help us to get this country out of the mess it's in.

No sooner have Trump's doer and disruptor nominees stepped

in to the Washington swamp, than the political bindweed has

begun to wrap itself around their ankles,

with questions multiplying about tax returns, shareholdings,

possible conflicts of interest, and questions also about just how

quickly key Trump policies, like the repeal of Obamacare,

All tough challenges, when Trump voters expect results.

In the corridors of Senate buildings, people have come to lobby

Obviously, he's a different candidate than we've ever seen

before, so I think he's going to use that to his advantage.

He's going to make America great again.

This is Washington politics as usual, with its checks and balances.

How, then, with a trickle of nominees and their hearings

slowing down, will Team Trump maintain momentum?

The transition is going to be a little rough.

We're going to have to do some things that's going to be a little

displeasing to get our foothold back on the global stage,

especially when it comes to trade, but in the long term I am really

I think this is the most exciting time in my lifetime.

This president has the potential to be the best

Some nominees, in defence and foreign policy, have

differed significantly with the new president, but real

power resides in the White House, and the way Trump himself behaves

I believe, on the things he cares about - his image,

his brand, his celebrity - he cares about them passionately

and will call, e-mail, tweet, defend himself until 3am.

On the things he doesn't care about, say, the inner details

of running the country, he may delegate that or assign

He will not change his behaviour patterns.

And so I think there's a good chance we'll get kind of wilful, dangerous

Now, I think the institutions will help contain it.

His immediate staff, I believe, will not.

I think they'll feed it and foster it,

Few expect the coming weeks to be easy.

Trump has sold himself as a disruptor who will shake this

But he's not the first president to promise radical change.

And Washington ground the others down.

Walid Phares, President Trump's advisor on the Middle East,

Nice to have you here. Help us make sense of what Donald Trump's policy

is now. The talk today about wiping out Islamic terrorism from the face

of the year. What does that mean in terms of his policy for the Middle

East. Does he want to join Putin? It doesn't mean he will join Putin in

Yalta and dividing the world. What it means is that he will think

deeper and more strategically, to have the right coalition with Arab

moderates to go after Isis, to make sure that it is not replaced by a

second version of Isis or Al-Qaeda version three. So whoever comes into

power is managed by moderates. There will be interaction with President

Putin. Because if there is an area of coordination over terrorism with

America and Russia, that will work. Does he want to take American values

to the Middle East? He said today in his speech and previous speeches, we

will show our values, show by example. If these societies want to

follow, we will be happy. He showed example of millions of immigrants

wanting to come here. He knows that our values are theirs. He talked of

America having protected for too long the borders of others and not

its own. If there was the kind of invasion we saw in Kuwait, for

example, would America ride to the rescue under Donald Trump? He also

said we would not abandon our allies. He doesn't just mean Israel,

he means the Arab Gulf, maybe countries in Eastern Europe if there

is a problem. He will stick with these alliances. He said we will

stick with our alliances and build new alliances based on common values

and common ground is. Do you think he's fundamentally a businessman in

the role of president? Is he essentially trying to get whatever

the pragmatic business interests are for America first and foreign policy

fits into that? He is formed out of two components. I have my own

experience of meeting with him when he started his career as a

candidate, a politician. But he was a brilliant CEO of a major

corporation. I think he will go between being a brilliant CEO with a

new kind of presidency in the United States. What does that mean in the

old rules of diplomacy. He spoke to tie one first. He actually accepted

the call of Taiwan. They rang him. At the same time, while this was

happening, he had and visors in China talking to the Chinese. What

was he trying to do, send a message to China, or was that a mistake? He

has many cards in his hand. He was saying, why should I do what China

once before negotiating with the Taiwanese what we want. Should

America's allies be worried about the new America that is surfacing?

They have seen what he has said about Nato in the past. He has said

he will not run to the rescue if Russia invades one of the former

Soviet satellite states. What can they expect from America? I spent a

whole year as one of his foreign policy advisers in the campaign.

Mostly I was talking to diplomats, governments, international media,

very concerned about a Trump presidency. We explained to them he

doesn't want to dismantle Nato, he wants to reorganise it. Many

Europeans, especially in East Europe, are worried by the democracy

in Brussels. And Europe has been hit by jihadists. We need to have some

resources in the Middle East and bring in moderates. There is a

difference between getting rid of bureaucracy. Everybody talks about

getting rid of bureaucracy and saying, if you get invaded by Putin,

sorry, this isn't our problem any more. That's where the difference

lies. Where is he? He made statements also about shutting down

immigration from Muslim countries. He made many statements during the

campaign but spent many months after that mould the statements into

political and foreign policy documents that are very important.

He doesn't want to abandon allies, he wants to sit down with them and

make sure this alliance is working. That sounds like what you are

explaining to us, he says one thing in the campaign and then understands

it better and says something else. Is that how it works? His

predecessor Obama said so meetings on the campaign trail and said a few

days ago before he left, we couldn't do so much. We have been very much

educated by being in government. That's the experience trouble also

have. When he says he will eradicate Islamic terrorism from the face of

the earth, do you believe him when he says that? I believe he has the

intention of going after jihadists. Everyone would have the intention.

Do you think he has the capability town wisdom and understanding to go

about the foreign policy in a way that will make sense? Why not? He

has shown in his foreign policy that he could launch a strategic foreign

policy flat -- platform. Will the Europeans come together with him?

The bigger challenge, could we have an Arab alliance working with us? On

the ground in the Middle East, they will be the ones to help us. What do

you think we will come to understand by Trumpism in foreign policy terms?

He has been criticised as either an isolationist or interventionist. I

think he's neither of them. He's a functionalist. It's in the function

of the American interest and the interest of our allies. Thank you

for joining us. In his speech, Donald Trump talked

about American carnage, And the crime, and the gangs,

and the drugs, that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country

of so much unrealised potential. This American carnage stops right

here, and stops right now. To all Americans, in every city near

and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from Ocean to

Ocean, hear these words. You will never be ignored again. Your voice,

your hopes and your dreams will define our American destiny, and

your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.

Together, we will make America stronger again we will make America

wealthy again, we will make America proud again, we will make America

safe again and, yes, together, we will make America great again. Thank

you, God bless you and God bless America. Thank you.

That was the end of the speech. Joining us now, Ben Smith, editor in

chief of Buzzfeed, Politico's Susan Glasser and Michael Wolff. Many

people thought they heard echoes of Steve Bannon through this speech.

Did it have is an print on him? I think I'm looking for a word more

than a thumb print. It was Bannon all in. This was what Steve Bannon

has been doing during the campaign. He joined it from August on and this

is the point of view he has been expressing to me, to anyone that's

talk to him, and also to Trump again and again. This is all Steve Bannon.

How much of the heavy lifting do you think that Trump himself will be

doing? How would you divide the work that is going on? Lely, Steve

Bannon's paw prints are all over this, but it echoed his convention

speech, which wasn't quite as tight but which was dark, combative, about

the carnage in America and a nationalist vision. I think it's

also Donald Trump, and I think he is going to be president of the United

States and he is going to be making the key decisions, and there is a

lot of uncertainty about those. When John Kasich was originally asked to

be the vice president, and Trump's son was reported to have said to

him, you will have domestic policy, you will have home policy, and John

Kasich said, what will Donald Trump do? And the sunset, he's going to

make America great again. Do you think he will start metering it out,

some two Ivanka, Sumter Jared? The American government is very complex.

But Donald Trump will be president, he will be the one making the

important decisions. I don't think anybody knows what they are going to

be yet. Worthy Democrats right to stay awake today? We understand up

to a third of them didn't show up to the house, and the lone figure of

Hillary Clinton Rob Lee could have used their support. I think the

Democrats who counted, the ones who mattered, the leadership, even

people who really disagreed, not only with Hillary Clinton but also

Donald Trump, did show up, and I think that was an important

statement. We Americans are very good at forcing our politicians when

they lose in two forms of ritual humiliation. Al Gore, as president

of the Senate, had to sit there and oversee the disputed counting of the

electoral votes. This is not unprecedented, but certainly I think

it was a colourful spectacle to many Americans today to see Hillary

Clinton in her white suit that one expected she would wear in a

different context showing up today, in her capacity not as the defeated

presidential candidate but as the former First Lady. So many questions

now for all of us about how to interpret the narrative about what

happened over the next four years. Bob Woodward, the investigative

journalist, told me yesterday, you've got to be so neutral you

can't stand it. I wonder how you approach it now. It sounds like he's

not liberal. Because what? Lee because you say you have to be so

neutral you can't stand it. The point neutrality is that is where

you should be. Did you think about being neutral when Buzzfeed

published the dossier that everybody had chosen not to? We were certainly

been neutral. There was no question that we wouldn't have published it

if it was about the Democrats. The question of new territory is going

to be -- the question of neutrality. I don't think they would have

published it. You say that with no evidence. It will be interesting to

see who angles for access. Weekend to get into these stale debates

about the meaning of objectivity, who is in... The thing as

journalists that should concern everyone, of your personal

preferences, is, where is the role of journalism and independent

reporting any more in our society? What concerns me, as somebody who

has spent the last two and a half decades as an independent

journalist, that doesn't mean I don't have opinions but I try hard

to cover both parties. In this campaign, the role of facts seemed

to be overwhelmed by a my asthma of misinformation, disregard for the

kind of reporting that up until now... Is there anyway that Donald

Trump will act in terms of how the reporting goes about? I think one of

the things that Donald Trump does is he plays to the media, or he plays

the media in a way that the media falls into this trap every time.

Effectively, and I have never seen this in all my long years, in this

business, the media is the opposition, the media is the

political resistance. Because the Democrats aren't? Democrats are

famous for their internal divisions. Republicans have a lot of them, too.

Many people have said, Michael among them, that it's like there is a

third party in Washington today, the Trump party, then the Republicans

and Democrats. It isn't the political partisan resistance. He

media afflicts those in power. There is even more pressure to now get

things right and not just publish things that could be completely...

The media has always been under pressure to get things right.

Questions like, how long should you sit on a secret document that is

being fought over? We can disagree about those. But you'd do it again?

Yes, and the notion that the media... Did you have regrets? Yes,

I would. But the notion that the media, as you seem to adopt as the

political resistance, that's obviously how Donald Trump was

trying to position it, that was the aim of this press conference. His

main conflict with the media was when he said something false and the

media reported it was false. That doesn't strike me as opposition but

doing our job. He has weaponised this term fake news, right? I think

it's a phoney term and it came in at the term against him, and then it

was turned around, because he's very good at this. Again, that's another

example of where, I think, right where the fight is going to be. It's

going to be between Donald Trump and the media, partly because the media

is so unpopular, and it's going to work for him. That's not the issue.

We will come back to our panel in a short while.

In 2008, Barack Obama called slavery America's original sin.

But how much of a difference did his presidency make to the lives

And what does Donald Trump's election say about attitudes

Gabriel Gatehouse reports from Louisiana.

The Westmont rebels hold their final rehearsal. I'm really excited and

jumpy and really ready. I can barely sleep. They are one of ten high

school bands chosen to play at the inauguration to mark the transition

from Barack Obama to Donald Trump. We don't see colour, race, gender or

ethnicity. We see potential. I think there's been a lot of talk about how

we need healing, and sometimes we have to quit picking at it. Morgan

Freeman on time was quoted as saying, if you don't like racism,

stop talking about it. If there is anyone out there who still doubts

that America is a place where all things are possible, tonight is your

answer. That was the era of yes, we can,

when black America seemed poised to claim a confident, a Powell, a

parity long denied it. # In so reckless when I wear my

Jumanji dress # In sofas acid...

But America wasn't ready. For me, this is a race war will stop you

have black against white, white against black.

From the swamps of Washington to the south, beneath the surface of the

post-racial society, fear, anger. And the deep roots of a history

still unresolved. Get him out of there! Get out! Get him out of here!

If they think that we are going to go back to the old days, they've got

something else coming to them. We're not having that no more.

The final week of the Obama presidency began with the annual

commemoration for a man who gave his life for the civil rights struggle.

America has come a long way since then. In New Orleans, a mark doctor

King's memory with a show of sartorial pride. Our self-esteem has

grown from us knowing about each other, so black males see each other

is a greater image than those portrayed in media and music, those

negative images we've been told about. In this respect, the Obamas

scandal free tenure at the White House that has huge symbolic value.

How old are you? Do you know about the president is? Barack Obama. Do

you know who it was before him? See? All you've ever known was Obama. So

his life, this is normal. It is normal for him to see a black man as

the head of the free nation. Yes. A symbol is a powerful thing. The very

fact of Obama's unlikely presidency is expanded the concept of what is

possible for millions of Americans, both black and white. But, when it

comes to cold, hard statistics, the truth is that, if you are black in

America, the odds are still stacked against you. In 2013, the median net

worth of a white American household was over $140,000. For black

households, that figure was 11,000. That's 13 times less. Under Obama,

the wealth gap has widened. Travel up the Mississippi from New Orleans

and you come to Baton Rouge, one of the most divided cities in the

United States. To some kids at inner-city high schools, the

education they get on the street can seem more important than on offer in

the classroom. You can go out there tomorrow, have your pistol, should

somebody, then you end up in prison for the rest of your life. ... After

"Silky Slim" read is a former gang member turned activist whose mission

is to stop young black men following in his footsteps. It 2017 and you

are still walking around, looking and acting exactly like slaves. And

the world is looking at you as animals. Why was to mark -- why?

Barack Obama often told black Americans they had to take

responsibility for the problems in their own community. Silky agrees up

to a point. Black lives after to black people before they matter to

the rest of the world. But there are also inequalities that are systemic

and ingrained. And you are black, you are more likely to be arrested,

likely to get a longer jail sentence and more likely to be shot dead by

police. Obama only engaged with this late in his presidency, with limited

results. Black quarterbacks on the team of white supremacy hasn't

helped us, so a black quarterback that can't help us if the law is the

law. The same for a black president. Black folks come on the whole,

politically, didn't gain anything because, at the end of the day, we

didn't ask for anything, we didn't want to put that burden on the black

man who made it the White House. If you don't ask for nothing, you don't

get nothing, so you can't be disappointed, which is why there is

no disappointment. Witch the black community gave Obama a free pass?

Absolutely, he is one of us. Looking at a demographic map of

Baton Rouge, you will see this road, Florida Street, is a stark dividing

line. Everything to the north is overwhelmingly black. Everything to

the south is mostly white. I spent time in divided cities, places like

Baghdad and Beirut, places that have had a war. There hasn't been a war

here since the 1860s when the North fought the Confederacy over the

issue of slavery. But last summer, it felt like war wasn't far off. The

killing of a Alton Sterling, the latest in a string of fatal police

shooting is caught on camera. They are shooting right now. There's an

officer down. Two days later at a black lives matter protest in

Dallas, a black gunmen opened fire on police, killing five. Not long

after that, more officers were shot dead in Baton Rouge. To me, this is

a race war. You have black against white, white against black. There

wouldn't be so many black people against white people, I think, if it

wasn't for police brutality. This woman knew Alton Sterling. She's

part of a growing movement of radical black activists. She says

tensions between the black community and the police have brought an old

enemy back out into the open. Last year the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan

nation put out flyers recruiting members. This was right after Alton

Sterling was killed. They had it on the news where they were putting

notes on people's doors and going through the neighbourhood. They rang

the number on the leaflet and it went through to a pre-recorded

message that has clearly been updated in the last couple of days.

You have reached the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.

Hail Trump! Hail our people. Hail our victory! Not long after the

election, a group of white nationalists gathered to discuss the

new political landscape. The final speaker was Richard Spencer, who

coined the term alt-right, a move associated with Donald Trump's

former campaign CEO, Steve Bannon, not President, but now one of the

most powerful men in the White House. The miracle was that until

the last generation, a white country designed for ourselves and our

posterity. This then is the context in which

Donald Trump takes office. Yes, America's new president has publicly

disavowed support from over at racists. But still, the shadow of

the plantations, the memory of Jim Crow, the legacy of America's

original sin, all seemed to loom large over this new presidency. I

look at it like the master has reclaimed his house. It's the

master's place, and I know my place come out in the field. I stay in a

field, not try to get up to the house. Even though the master allows

one of the slaves to look out for the house when he is on vacation,

it's still the same fight we've had... In all seriousness, obviously

there's a huge legacy of slavery, but you can't say that things

haven't changed since... Since the 1860s. Definitely. And since the

1960s. There is no forced free labour here with slaves. And what

America has been successful in doing is creating slums and ghettos,

putting you in these areas and making the police still oversee you

like we are still on a plantation. AMERICAN NATIONAL ANTHEM PLAYS. So

America begins a new chapter in its long book on race. Weaving in the

history of slavery, segregation, with that of Martin Luther King and

the Obama era. This 11-year-old has known no other president. For many

children, Trump was at first a frightening prospect. We were all

thinking, would he send us back to Africa? That was your first thought?

That you might not be allowed to be an American any more? Yes Sir. That

sounds like a scary thought. Yes, at first we went through withdrawal and

we thought it was going to happen, it's going to happen. But we were

talking about it one day at school and we thought, it can't happen

unless everybody said yes to it. She's ambitious, after Harvard Law

School she wants to go on to be America's first black female

president. I feel like he's going to try to make everything harder for

blacks to get into it. Everything harder for Hispanics to get into it.

Anything harder for people of colour to try to be or do something. She

has one of those teachers you remember for the rest of your life,

somebody who helps you make sense of a bewildering world. I think people

were sick of talking about race. White people or black people or

everyone? I would say... From my experience, mostly white people.

It's overwhelming, I can understand that. From a perspective when you've

never had to deal with it, you can't understand why we keep bringing it

up over and over again. I think especially, with a heightened sense

of awareness of police shootings and police brutality and the injustices

being so blatantly put in your face because of social media, white

people started to have a backlash. They started to feel like, nobody is

representing me. Everybody keeps going on about black people and it's

not about me. How can I make it somewhat about me?

And so the age of Trump began, as all presidency is usually do, with a

promise of inclusivity. To rebuild our country, and restore its promise

for all of our people. But Donald Trump's opponents fear quite the

opposite. There are those who fear that the new president is a man with

a vindictive streak who may use the power of his office to lash out at

those who oppose him. I'd like to punch him in the face, I tell you.

Many liberals, especially white liberals, see Trump is an

existential threat to the founding principles of America. But from the

black perspective, things can look a little different. He don't scare me.

I'd didn't have any issue before and with Trump, and whatever he do.

Because all of them, when they get in there, they do the same thing.

When black America contemplates the prospect of a hostile, perhaps even

oppressive state, it shrugs and asks, what else is new?

That report from Louisiana. It's still early evening here in

Washington and the Inauguration Day celebrations have a long way to go.

Behind us on Pennsylvania Avenue, just in front of the White House,

the marching bands and some of the military bands are taking to those

streets, blocked off of traffic. Donald Trump has been reviewing the

inauguration parade. We are hearing Sennett confirmations of more of

those roles, still a very long way to go. Melania Trump, and Donald

Trump, who have spent the day watching the celebration say. We are

joined once more by our panel. Going back to some of those points we saw

in that video and that we have heard today. Danielle, did it strike you

how white the crowd was for Donald Trump today Busted it's hard not to

notice, to be honest. You listen to the speech and you hear about...

African American men being incarcerated at different rates to

white Americans for the same crimes. There were forgotten people in

trouble's speech today. Michael, you heard a woman say people are sick of

talking about race. I think America is a divided country. And one of the

ways it's divided, I think, is by race. Although, having said that,

one of the things that the Trump people say, and not inaccurately, is

that they did much better with the African-American vote than anyone

thought they would do. Not to represent them, but just because

I've been involved in this discussion, and since nobody else is

going to represent them on this panel... Jump on in. I would say one

of the things that they say is that this is about jobs and African

Americans need jobs as much as any other Americans. It could be that

the Liberals have got a identity politics a bit wrong now. People

aren't interested in being identified by their race or their

parents origin. Or their gender. They want a job. African-Americans

didn't turn out against Trump in the way Democrats hoped they would. They

went as energised against him as they were for Obama. There has been

a history of American policies of people trying to put together class

-based coalitions, on the left and right at various times. There has

always been deep racial divisions. Every presidential candidate thinks

he will be the one to overcome it. What is the answer for Democrats

trying to rebuild? They haven't done it along the lines of race that they

thought they would. I think Democrats should embrace the idea of

an America indivisible. Pursue the idea of eight collective society

and. There is some truth that identity politics, as we have known

it over the last few decades isn't the right paradigms to use now. They

have sort of learned from Trump. I wouldn't say that. Not whatsoever.

From the point of view of beating -- people fighting for civil rights,

that's a huge issue. There are people from all sorts of backgrounds

fighting for equality. Can Donald Trump should unite America by

leaving aside these issues? That realistic? I think if Donald Trump

pause, as he says he will, a trillion, 2 trillion, $3 trillion

into the country, I would say that unites the country. The thing that

unite the country is... And the President... This is CEO as

president, somebody saying I will improve your wages and the country

will get happier. There is a huge missing piece and that's mass

incarceration and the criminal justice system. The Department of

Justice under Obama did great work in reducing disparities. It

continues to be a huge issue, and the war on drugs needs to be

dismantled. Donald Trump promises to double down on that war on drugs and

it will continue to divide the country on racial lines. We have run

out of time. Thank you so much. That brings us to the end of this

Newsnight Special from Washington. It was Abraham Lincoln,

a man who had the job of reuniting the country in the midst of civil

war, who offers a thought "Nearly all men can stand adversity"

he said, "but if you want to test We have four years, perhaps more,

to see how that power is used. We'll leave you with a man who,

today, had to set that power aside. OBAMA: Mr President-elect,

how are you? # That you found a girl

and you're married now. # I heard that your

dreams came true. # Guess she gave you things

I didn't give to you. # Ain't like you to hold back

or hide from the light. # I hate to turn up out

of the blue uninvited # But I couldn't stay away,

I couldn't fight it. # I had hoped you'd see my face

and that you'd be reminded