#That a post-campaign Hawke who stood by him after everything | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

naromoreau · 6 years

Note

From the writing prompts. ‘ sit still and let me take a look! ’ For your choice!

Thank you so much for this! This one is my first John Seed/ F!Dep ficlet that turned out into idk what seriously. lol

Thank you so much to @seedsplease for allow me to use her OC, Levi the peggie in this fic! ____________________________________________

It’d been a bad idea now that she ran her train of thoughts backwards. Attacking Seed Ranch under the moonlight, half-wasted and maybe a bit bliss-highed, under the blurry daydream that everything was just an extension of her Metal Gear Solid campaign was stupid. And it wasn’t even a pivotal stratagem because as far as she knew, the younger Seedling was still tucked away in his harrowing dungeon at the Bunker.

But she needed to prove a point. To herself. She needed to know she wasn’t afraid of coming back and jump head first into the free-for-all clusterfuck in Hope County. She unconsciously dragged her fingertips over her scarred chest while memories of her close encounter with the self proclaimed Baptist harred through her mind. No, she wasn’t afraid of John. But fuck, the injury still hurt her pride. And she’ll well damn return the favor, snatching his own house from under his very nose.

In a haze, her hand closed around the trigger of her sniper rifle and aimed. If only her targets would stop wobbling. Really, drinking while working. These peggies had no shame. She took the shot, but the bullet collided against a flammable cylinder next to the porch, exploding in a magnificent fire Sharky would definitely have approved.

“Oops.”

The flames licked the balustrade, now spreading to the stairs and she revelled with a devilish grin in the bewilderment and panic painted in the faces of the peggies.

“Put that fire down, and someone explain to me how this happened!” A man in a leather trench coat, probably the one in charge, moved hurriedly among the crowd that had gone haywire. “Brother John is going to be furious!”

She stifled a laugh biting the flap of her flannel, and adjusted her scope, drawing a bead on yet another red cylinder. Unfortunately the alcohol had damped her reflexes significantly and she tripped with the root of a nearby tree.

“You hear that?” A nearby man, dressed in the unfashionable peggie-mayonnaise craned his neck to where she was hiding, and slowly trod in her direction.

Oh fuck. She drew her pistol and turnt up as she was her shots missed the peggie’s head by good five inches hitting him in the shoulder. Mayhem unleashed at the first blast throwing to the trash bin her stealthy maneuvers.

“Sinners!”

The outside of the house crawled within seconds with a heavily armed crew, as bullets snickered in the air, rippling the silence around her. She rolled to a side, as her previous spot was soon overrun by overzealous goons looking for her blindly. She took one, two, three guards down, before dodging enemy gazes behind a bush at the very front of the house, choking with the smell of gunsmoke.

“There! Behind those bushes!”

Shit was getting problematic. Her attention snapped at the shouted words, her ears ringing by the bullets landing closer and closer to her, and before she could veer off course, two projectiles shredded the skin of her arm and abdomen.

She yelped loudly. It hurt like a motherfucker.

“Stop the fire!”

She paled to her lips. Damn. She knew that voice; that cloying tone still sending shivers down her spine. Fighting through the agonizing pain, she lifted her eyes and her ragged breath caught in her throat. Apparently her intel was wrong. Fucking Dutch. John Seed stood at the threshold, slowly descending the partly charred stairs with that smug walk of his that she found equally magnetizing and loathsome.

Everyone froze in place as he closed the distance to where she was hunched down, soaked in her own blood, drawing breath after breath to quell her…fear?

“Take her inside,” he said signaling to a burly man that stood with his head bowed next to him. The darkness and the loss of blood made everything seem bleary, so she wasn’t sure if his words really carried streaks of concern or was just her heart thundering in her ears. His blue eyes could’ve carved her soul, etching deeper than his needle.

“Fuck off John. I rather take a bullet to the head than spent a minute with you alone, again.” She hawked blood and saliva at his feet, glaring at him. She knew it was futile, like the pathetic little roars of a kitten trapped in a dark alley.

A gamut of emotions flickered on his face and she could’ve sworn pain waved back at her for a fleeting second, before disappearing behind a self-satisfied grin.

“Don’t tempt me my dear.”

She huffed and kicked hopelessly when his subordinate carried her bridal style into the house but her legs felt shaky and weak, and the effort puffed all the air out of her lungs. She shot a final glance behind her where another peggie picked up her forgotten rifle and pistol, dragging them away from her. She grunted.

Once they were inside, she chewed down a malicious comment. So much for humbleness. John Seed’s Ranch was lush and elegant, looking more like a luxurious lodge than a battle post.

“Put her in the couch,” John said standing at the center of the living room.

She untangled her arms of the unfairly broad shoulders of the peggie as he placed her down carefully. He gave her a final mistrustful gaze, and stood next to the door.

“Should I post guards at the door, Brother John?”

John fidgeted with a pocket knife before closing it, placing it on the coffee table, a lopsided grin tugging his lips. “No, Levi. She’s barely a threat at this point.”

His comment lit the fire in her blood. “Maybe you should listen to Levi, John.” She cocked an eyebrow, stomping down a wince, as her side and arm throbbed in pain.

“Leave us,” John said to the peggie, ignoring her completely.

Her heart was thumping so hard, she could feel it under every inch of her skin, whatever amount of blood left in her system pooling in her cheeks.

“Relax my dear,” he said sauntering towards her, his boots tapping against the wooden floor as the tickle of a doomsday clock, drawing closer and closer. “I’m not going to hurt you, trust me.” He sat at the edge of the couch, face relaxed and attentive.

“Ah- kinda hard to believe man,” she said, brows furrowed, trying to scoot backwards and away from him, “last time you were very determined to do some very hard damage.”

John drew a hand forward, as if he intended to touch her and she shivered. He heaved a sigh, pulling back. “I think you need medical attention first, Deputy.”

“Yeah, so ah- could you let me go?” she asked as he stood up, fumbling between the things of a near cabinet.

“So you can bleed out on your way to wherever is you’re going?” His voice came muffled as he was half stuck into the mahogany furniture.

Sweat beads fell down her forehead, flyaway strands of hair sticking to her temples. “You said so yourself, I need medical attention,” she bit back, fighting back a grimace.

He made his way back to her, holding a first aid kit. Oh great.

“And that’s what you’re getting,” he said sitting again next to her. “Now sit still and let me take a look.”

He took gauze and clean cloth along with a peroxide bottle and some antiseptic gel out of the box. She bit her lower lip. There wasn’t much she could do in her position, and who was she to look the gift horse in the mouth. If he was offering his help, she could well accept it to ebb away the ache in her body. After all, she didn’t want to see wrath flooding him as she’d seen in the bunker.

So she held her arm in front of him.

“This is just a scrap, you’ll be fine,” he said brushing gently the red burned flesh, grabbing her wrist with a merciful grip, almost kind. Almost tender.

What the hell was going on?

“That’s a relief.” The irreality of the situation was kicking her in the gut. Only three weeks ago this same man had thrown her into hell, alive and breathing, searing in her mind memories too gruesome to forget.

“Now, darling, where is the other?” he said, throwing the bloodied cloth on a trash bin and preparing a new one.

She flushed beet red. Modesty wasn’t something she particularly enforced, especially not under duress but there was something about John that rattled her walls, whether she wanted to admit it or not. “Ah…”

“We don’t have all day my dear Deputy.” He looked at her with a tinge of exasperation.

Her breath was shallow but she managed to control it. “Okay, fine, fine, hold on.” She pulled off her torn shirt, placing it in the floor and twisted her upper body so he could see the wound at the side of her abdomen.

There was a slight delay in his answer she didn’t fail to notice. “It looks- uh, it looks nastier than the other one,” John said, flicking out his tongue in an unconscious gesture, barely grazing her skin with shaky fingers in a place Rook didn’t feel any pain at all.

“Uh, John?” she side eyed him, watching him struggle to keep his charming, nonchalant facade.

He inhaled deeply and the air let out his lungs in a short blow. “I’m sorry my dear, I’ll clean this right away.”

He started working on her skin with the precision of a surgeon, shushing her when the pain of the chemics burned her skin and she cried out.

“Can I ask you something?” She said with a low moan as the pain began to subside, her head buried in her arms, as he kept working.

“I doubt a ‘no’ would deter you of doing so, darling.” He shot her a sincere smile and something tumbled in her stomach.

Pathetic.

“Am I leaving your Ranch in a coffin?” she spluttered, brushing aside the flurry of emotions galloping inside her.

“Don’t be absurd. If I wanted you dead I would’ve done so before you torched half my property and killed half my guards,” he said casually, as he spread the gauze, dressing her wound. “No, Deputy. I don’t want you dead. I want you saved.”

And there he was again. The John she knew, but severely toned down, the maniacal edges that flickered to life during their last encounter, subdued.

“Thanks?” She offered. “I don’t understand, last time was so-”

“Rough?” He cut her off, chuckling. “I know, and I should apologize.”

Her face shifted from curiosity to certified wariness. “Excuse me?”

He finished his handiwork and leveled his gaze with hers. Christ in Heaven, those blue eyes. Sometimes cold as lakes in the winter, yet other times filled with warm, sparkling life as it was the case right now.

“After you left, Joseph spoke to me, and he, eh, he showed me my ways were wrong, that I wouldn’t get what I–,” he stopped and cleared his throat, “what the Project wants from you out of fear.”

“And what’s that?”

“That you truly accept us in your heart.”

A clear laughter rang in her ears. Her own laughter. The sound so unfamiliar, it cracked a shudder on her body.

“And how do you intend to do that?,” she asked, certainly curious.

He stood up and placed the first aid kit away and her body complained silently and unwittingly for his absence. “I want to show you that pain is not the only thing I–,” he sighed, shaking his head, “that we can offer you. I want to show you that is love what opens the Gates, and you should embrace it.”

Her mouth had gone dry, and she was barely able to resist as John came back and effortlessly swooped her in his arms. Solid, muscular arms, that lifted her as if she was light as a feather. The minty spice of his scent flared up her nose, eliciting a sigh she was determined to attribute to her dog-tired state. This wasn’t happening. Maybe she was stuck in one of Faith’s fucking Bliss crops, dozing off and any minute now Sharky was going to wake her up setting her on fire by accident. As a hundred times before.

He carried her up the stairs to an empty room with a full size bed, and placed her on top.

“This will be your home for a while,” he said sitting next to her and tucking auburn strands of hair behind her ears and everything she could do was look at him, astonished and rattled. “Don’t think about leaving, my darling, because everything you need is here.”

He placed a chaste kiss on her forehead and walked away. As she saw him disappearing from her sight the thought that haunted her the most was that to her dismay, leaving, was the last thing on her mind.

#Far cry 5 #fanfiction #john seed x deputy #I seriously don't know what's this #BUT HEY I USED LEVI #seigephoenix

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light-the-stars · 7 years

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The Lesson (”The Visit” Pt. 2)

“The Visit” (Pt. 1) / “The Quest” (Pt. 3) / “The Confrontation” (Pt. 4)

Ao3 Link

Author’s Note: Here is the second installment to my previous fanfic, “The Visit”. I hope you like it. I’ll be posting the third one soon.

Aelin Ashryver Galathynius was out in a beautiful meadow, the wind in her hair, and her father and Rowan arguing behind her.

“You can NOT threaten to bite her because she does not have the ability to shift on command. She is only a child,” her father yelled.

“I can damn well do as I please,” Rowan yelled back.

“Have you ever trained a child? Has that ever occurred in your long existence?” Rhoe asked.

Aelin huffed from the rock she was perched on. She looked at the two men, the father that she loved dearly and the fae warrior she didn’t know anything about. The confession that she overheard Gavriel say last night made a lot of sense in the light of the day, but she still didn’t know how to get through to him. She was only seven and a little girl, he was centuries old and quite a bit intimidating for her to handle.

“Aelin,” Rhoe called. Her head snapped up from her daydreaming state. She looked at the both of them. From their expressions, they had been trying to get her attention for a while.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly and unfurled from the rock and strode toward them.

Her father looked concerned, but Rowan was again stone faced.

“Let’s get back to it,” he said and stalked to the middle of the field.

Aelin let out a long breath and followed after him and left her father at the outer rim of the meadow.

“Let’s try a different way since threatening isn’t the way to go.” He said the last bit sarcastically. Aelin snorted in agreement.

Rowan looked at her as if to say, watch the tone, Princess.

Aelin only rolled her eyes. I’ll watch mine if you watch yours.

“Alright, Princess,” he said. “What scares you the most?” He crouched in front of her so they were on the same eye level.

She thought for a minute. “Not being in control of my magic, and hurting the people I love with it,” she said. He looked shock at the omission, not expecting that answer.

He gave her a small smile, “Maybe try something a little more tangible.”

“Drowning, not being able to breathe.” She looked up at him from lowered brows, and something on his face told her that what was to happen next was not going to be pleasant. The next thing she knew, the air had been knocked out of her lungs and she was on her knees, clawing at her throat for air. Tears began to stream down her face. She heard a muffled cry coming from the other side of the meadow and a thunder of footsteps.

Her father tackled Rowan to the ground, letting the air back into Aelin’s lungs and two of them were fighting again. Only this time they were using fists and feet and not words. Aelin was gasping for air, her lungs and throat burning from the inside, only to feel a sharp pain in her mouth and from her ears. She lifted her hands to touch her ears. They were pointy, and her sense of smell was sharper, her hearing too.

Rowan and her father stopped fighting when the hears a crunch of dry leaves from under her boots. She stood up to look around the field, nostrils flaring to smell the air around them. Despite the tang of blood in the air, this kingdom smelled wonderful, sweet and salty.

Rowan stalked up next to her, “How do you feel, princess?”

She looked up at him. “It’s a bit painful. But, everything is so much clearer.”

“Remember this feeling. Remember the pain and keen sharpness. Hone it and keep it. Practice it and you will be able to do it at will. You will no longer need to feel scared or angry and the power won’t be forced upon you, you’ll be able to call on it.”

“She’s done,” Rhoe interjected. “She is not to train with you any longer. We’re leaving this god’s damned kingdom first thing tomorrow morning.” Rhoe hauled Aelin into his arms and began carrying her back to the palace.

“Aren’t you over-reacting a bit? You’re here to have her train, to have her learn all she can about magic. Why not take advantage of it?” Rowan walked, more like prowled, alongside Rhoe.

“Because,” Rhoe snapped, “because I don’t want her to hurt or feel pain when she’s training. There’s already too much of it in the world, she doesn’t need to know it just yet.” Rowan stared at her father. Aelin stared at him too, not quite understanding what was going on.

~~~~

Rowan couldn’t get the image of Aelin in her fae form out of his head. Or when she said that her greatest fear was for her not being in control of her magic. She was a child, yes, but she seemed wise beyond her years. He has seen many princes or princesses over the years, spoiled and only caring about themselves. But this little princess, this fireheart, not only feared for her wellbeing but for others as well.

Rowan was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t see the figure in the alcove until a hand grabbed his arm and pulled him inside. He was slammed up against the wall, Gavriel snarling in his face.

“What the rutting hell is wrong with you? You nearly killed the poor girl today.”

“She was fine,” Rowan said. “Was only trying a new tactic, that all.”

“Really, that’s all? You snuff the air out of her lungs in hopes that she is terrified enough to shift? That really took some nerve on your part, Rowan.”

“It worked though, didn’t it? And, don’t pretend that you care, Gavriel. The only reason you’re invested in that little family at all is because Aelin’s mother looks identical to your dead lover.”

Shock was strewn all over Gavriel’s face. “I care,” he said through clenched teeth, “because she is a little girl, a princess, who will one day be queen and she doesn’t need this kind of shit from you.” Gavriel pushed off the wall and stalked down the hall until he was out of sight. Rowan slid down the wall and sat in the alcove, feeling guilty as hell.

~~~~

Aelin was sitting in bed, reading one of her favorite books when there was a tentative knock on her bedroom door and then a golden head poked her head in the room.

“Aelin, you have a visitor,” her mother said, coming into her room with Rowan following close behind. Aelin sat up straighter in the bed. “Well, I’ll leave you two to it then.” Evalin walked back out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Rowan looked uncomfortable in the room. He stuffed he hands into his pockets and walked around the room until he got to the side of her bed. “What do you have there?” he asked.

“A book,” she said hesitantly. Why was he here? He never came around unless it was to take her to training. “It’s one of my favorites.” He nodded.

He was silent for a couple minutes. She couldn’t stand the silence any longer so she finally said, “I know why you’re here.” His eyes shot to hers. “I know you’re here to apologize but you don’t do it often so you’re trying to find the words to do so.” He came closer and sat on the edge of her bed. She shrugged. “I forgave you when you asked me how I was.”

“How can you forgive that easily?”

“Like you told my father, I’m here to train and will do what needs to be done,” she said. She looked at him. His eyes seem softer than they had the other day in the throne room. They were pale green, they reminded her of the rolling hills outside the palace in Orynth.

Rowan gave a small laugh. “You are something else, Princess.” Aelin giggled.

They were silent once more, but it was a comfortable silence. She climbed out from underneath the covers and sat next to him. She put her small arms around his waist, trying the be comforting. At first he stiffened, but then relaxed and out an arm around her. She felt strangely at peace sitting next to him like this.

~~~~

They didn’t leave the next day like her father threatened. They stayed for another two weeks and they worked on her shifting. They didn’t touch her fire, and her shifting was still spotty. But, he father got used to the Rowan and they didn’t argue as much when training only because he wasn’t as cruel and his training wasn’t as demanding. But when they did leave, Rowan was at the docks to say his farewell.

“Will you write to me?” She asked the warrior.

“Possibly,” he said. She glowered at him and poked him in the chest. He laughed quietly. “You have been a thorn in my side, Princess. But, yes, I will write when it is possible.”

She beamed at him and threw her arms around him. He looked over the little princess’s shoulder to her parents a few feet away. Rhoe met his eyes and nodded to him. They had worked out a tentative truce. He might not trust Maeve, but he was beginning to trust him, at least where Aelin come in.

Aelin surprised Rowan and gave him a small peck on the cheek and ran to her parents. When she turned around, she had a smirk on her face and her eyes held mischief. They bounded up the steps to the ship. Her small form waving at him from the deck. He waved back.

As the ship departed, he shifted into his hawk and flew overhead. Aelin reached out a hand and the tip of his wing touched the tip of her finger.

“Bye Rowan. I’ll miss you!” she called out to him. She was on her way home.

~~~~

Over the next year and a half, Rowan and Aelin sent each other letters. She would tell him about the books she was reading and the training she was getting. In one letter she said, “the trainers here a lot nicer in their teachings, but it’s not as much fun.” His letters are quite a bit shorter since he can’t tell her about the campaigns he goes on for Maeve. She’s too young to understand what goes on there. Plus, it’s not something a young girl will want to hear about.

After coming back from a campaign from a far away kingdom, one of Aelin’s letters was laying on his desk. She wrote, “Dear Rowan, My fire is scaring me. I almost hurt the King of Ardalan with it while he was visiting. Mother and Father are taking me to our house out in the country for some peace. I hope with the quiet, my fire will calm down. Please write soon, I miss my friend. Aelin.”

She had been worried about her fire hurting someone, and now it almost did. His thoughts were interrupted by Gavriel and Fenrys barging into his room.

Rowan looked into the male’s eyes and knew something was horribly wrong. “What is it?”

“It’s the Galathynius family. They’re all dead - murdered,” Gavriel breathed.

Fenrys added, “Orlon was found in his bed in Orynth, Evalin and Rhoe in their country home on the River Florine.”

He looked at his two companions, horror in their eyes. He had a feeling the look was mirrored on his own. “And Aelin?” Fenrys open his mouth then closed it. Gavriel looked away. “Somebody had better gods damn tell!” Rowan screamed.

“Aelin,” Fenrys began, trying to find the words. “Aelin’s body was never found, but there are claims that she drowned in the river.”

Rowan didn’t have any words for what he was feeling. First Lyria and now Aelin. She was just a little girl, a princess never to be queen. The day, early on, she had said that she feared drowning and not being able to breathe.

Rowan, still holding the letter from Aelin, crumbled it into a ball and threw it into the fire. Without looking at his companions, his friends, stalked out of his room, out of the palace. He shift pence he got past the gates. He was going to find the little Princess of Terrasen. Rowan Whitethorn took to the skies and didn't look back.

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saxafimedianetwork · 8 years

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Trump’s swearing-in will give Republicans control of both the White House and Congress.

By David A. Fahrenthold, Robert Costa and John Wagner

Donald John Trump was sworn in Friday as the 45th president of the United States, after which he delivered a dark but ambitious speech promising to throw out entrenched Washington elites, end “American carnage” in cities and restore jobs lost to shuttered factories.

“Today, we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people,” Trump said.

He spoke on a day that featured less ceremony than usual, and crowds that seemed to be smaller than the ones that attended President Barack Obama’s inaugurations in 2009 and 2013. Trump’s parade rolled down Pennsylvania Avenue, passing crowds that often stood just two people deep. Elsewhere in downtown Washington, columns of peaceful protesters marched with anti-Trump signs, and small groups of black-clad anarchists clashed with police and set fire to trash cans and a limousine.

In his speech, Trump seemed to promise not just the obvious transition from Obama’s Democratic administration to full Republican control of Washington — but to a new style of politics, in which Trump will seek to be a new kind of independent power center.

Trump, 70, was administered the oath by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., using two Bibles — one from President Lincoln’s inauguration, and another that Trump’s mother gave him in 1955. His wife Melania Trump stood at his side.

Then, as rain began to fall, Trump gave an inaugural address that — while short in duration — made a major break with presidential precedent. Most presidents use this moment to acknowledge the opponent they defeated, to praise America’s promise and to call upon both parties to work together.

Trump, by contrast, used his speech to make a wide-ranging condemnation of America’s current state — talking about “American carnage” caused by urban crime, and saying that “wealth, strength and confidence has dissipated” because of jobs lost overseas.

Trump charged that both major political parties have lost their way, serving the needs of an elite rather than the needs of the public. In grandiose language, Trump sought to cast this day as a kind of restart for American politics, with everything before — Republican and Democrat — cast aside.

“The United States of America is your country,” he said.

With now former president Obama and three previous presidents watching from behind him, Trump seemed to condemn them as unfaithful to the popular will, saying that his inauguration signaled that “the people” would rule the country again.

“For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost,” Trump said. “Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed.”

It was a speech that closely matched the tone of Trump’s presidential campaign, which he cast as a populist insurgency against GOP orthodoxies.

But it was not as close a match with the way Trump has acted since the election — a time when he has chosen some of his Cabinet picks and top staffers from Washington and Wall Street’s existing elites. His choices have included the head of ExxonMobil, three retired generals, several top members of Goldman Sachs and several sitting GOP legislators.

“We assembled here today are issuing a new decree . . . From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first. America first!” Trump said. This two-word slogan, used heavily in Trump’s campaign, became infamous in U.S. history as the slogan of isolationist forces opposed to American entry in World War II. Trump has used it as an economic message.

“Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American factories,” Trump said.

Trump’s speech clocked in at less than 17 minutes, making it unusually short among recent inaugural addresses. It concluded with the signature promise of his stunningly successful presidential campaign, to “make America great again.”

During the morning’s events, there were large crowds of protesters opposing Trump with signs and slogans — and some groups of black-clad anarchists who roamed District streets smashing windows of businesses and cars. Outside The Washington Post’s headquarters on K Street NW, a group of a few dozen anarchists hurled bricks and rocks at police, who responded with loud “flash-bang” grenades and streams of pepper spray.

D.C. Interim Police Chief Peter Newsham said officers have arrested more than 90 people in connection with protests that turned violent on Friday and caused “significant damage to a number of blocks in our city.”

He said a “a very small percentage” of the thousands who came to demonstrate against the inauguration resorted to violence.

“It’s disappointing that it had to happen. I’m extremely pleased how the [police] responded to this and took the folks responsible for this into custody.” Elsewhere in the city, news reports showed columns of peaceful protesters marching.

After the speech, before a traditional lunch at the Capitol, Trump signed three measures. One was a bill providing a waiver for James Mattis — a retired Marine general — to become secretary of defense, despite a law that prohibits that position going to recently retired military personnel. Trump also signed formal nominations, sending his Cabinet picks to the Senate.

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At that ceremony, Trump appeared a slightly different politician than the flame-throwing populist he had been on the inaugural stage. He was in the middle of Washington’s elite, and enjoying their company. Trump joked with Congress’s two top Democrats, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) about the prospects that his choices would be confirmed.

At one point, Trump seemed unsure of whom he was nominating for what office.

“Ah, Betsy,” Trump said, looking at one sheet he was to sign. “Education, right?”

He looked to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), seemingly for confirmation.

“Yes,” McCarthy said. It was, indeed, the nomination of Betsy DeVos to be Trump’s secretary of education.

Trump also signed a proclamation declaring a national day of patriotism, new White House spokesman Sean Spicer said in a tweet. In recent years, other presidents have declared Sept. 11 of each year “Patriot Day,” in commemoration of the 2001 terrorist attacks. It was not immediately clear whether Trump’s proclamation was a repeat of that tradition, or a new tradition on a different day.

As he entered the lunch, Trump appeared to shake the hand of his Democratic opponent, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton, whom he made no mention of in his inaugural address.

“How are you? Thank you for coming. Thank you,” Trump said.

Later, at the same luncheon, Trump asked both Hillary Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, to stand and be applauded.

As the lunch ended, the Clinton’s headed toward the exit, walking alongside the statues.

Hillary Clinton, when asked by The Post what she thought of the speech, paused, smiled and lightly tapped a reporter’s arm.

“Hi, how are you?” she said. And then she disappeared around the entrance, out and away as Trump continued to greet lawmakers.

Trump’s swearing-in now gives Republicans control of both the White House and Congress for the first time since 2006. The new president has promised to undo some of the most significant pieces of Obama’s legacy — including his signature health-care law. But Trump also enters office with a significant amount of uncertainty, since he has repeatedly contradicted other Republicans — and himself — on major questions about how immigration, taxes, health care and other issues will be handled in the new administration.

On the Internet, there were other signs of the seismic shift in power. The White House Web page — which that morning had touted Obama’s initiatives to slow climate change — now touted a promise from Trump to eliminate “harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan.”

The Trump administration’s website also promised to be more pro-police than the Obama administration, under which the Justice Department investigated misdeeds in local departments. There was also, seemingly, a nod to Trump’s open attitude toward Vladimir Putin’s Russia — whose intelligence agencies reportedly sought to intervene in the 2016 election to boost Trump��s chances.

“The world must know that we do not go abroad in search of enemies, that we are always happy when old enemies become friends, and when old friends become allies,” the White House website said.

After the speech, new White House counselor Stephen K. Bannon — the former head of the right-wing website Breitbart News — said in an interview that Trump’s speech had echoes of another long-ago American populist.

“It was an unvarnished declaration of the basic principles of his populist and kind of nationalist movement. It was given, I think, in a very powerful way. I don’t think we’ve had a speech like that since Andrew Jackson came to the White House,” Bannon said. “But you could see it was very Jacksonian. It’s got a deep, deep root of patriotism there.”

Unspoken, however, was that Trump’s speech seemed to pull the GOP away from the policy positions that had mattered deeply until Trump came onto the scene. The party of free trade had been declared the party of economic nationalism. A party of Russia hawks had been rebranded as a party open to friendship with “old enemies.”

“He keeps telling us, ‘This is who I really am.’ And people say, ‘Yeah, but who are you really?’ He goes, ‘Well, this is who I really am,’” said former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a longtime fixture in the Washington political and pundit establishment who has become and enthusiastic backer of Trump’s attack on it. “He’s so different from what you guys are used to covering.”

Gingrich was asked: How will Trump, who lost the popular vote, work with Washington’s existing power structure?

“He runs over it. I don’t think he gets cooperation,” Gingrich said. “The only way he’s going to get those goals is to go to the American people over and over. I suspect that he’ll end up by spring having to go back out and have huge rallies and try to [bring] grass-roots pressure to bear.”

Signs of the transfer of power were on display throughout the day.

Before 9:30 a.m., TV footage showed Obama leaving the Oval Office for the last time, before he and the first lady held a pre-inauguration tea with the Trumps. Obama smiled as he walked down an exterior hallway, in view of cameras. “Any last words for the American people?” a member of the press called out. “Thank you,” Obama said.

Soon after, the Trumps arrived at the White House, greeting the Obamas and presenting them with a gift — a box wrapped in the distinctive light blue of high-end jeweler Tiffany & Co.

The meeting at the White House between Trump and Obama marked an Inauguration Day tradition, but one made more unusual this time by the two men’s history.

Trump, a real estate businessman and reality-TV star, began his rise in conservative politics by essentially calling Obama a liar and an illegitimate president: Trump insisted for years that Obama was born in Kenya. Obama was actually born in Hawaii, as Trump conceded late in the 2016 campaign. Obama, in turn, had mocked Trump at a televised White House Correspondent’s Association dinner in 2011.

Now, they met at the White House door, one going in and one going out.

On the White House steps, the bitter history between Trump and Obama went unmentioned. Obama asked Trump, “How was church?” and they turned to go inside.

The two men and their wives took a motorcade to the U.S. Capitol, through empty streets.

Around them, there were sporadic clashes between police and protesters around Washington. In several instances, news video showed black-clad protesters — some carrying symbols of “anarchist” groups — smashing shop windows and overturning newspaper boxes.

Before meeting with the Obamas, the Trumps attended a service at St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House, continuing an Inauguration Day tradition. One of the preachers was Robert Jeffress, a Southern Baptist minister who is pastor of a Dallas megachurch, and who has made inflammatory condemnations of both Mormonism and Islam in the past.

Jeffress, who grew close to Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, said on Twitter that his sermon would be entitled, “When God Chooses a Leader.” Trump left the service about 9:30 a.m. He mouthed “Thank you” to supporters as he climbed into an SUV.

Trump takes office as the least-popular new president in 40 years, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Forty percent of Americans view Trump favorably, which is 21 points lower than the rating with which Obama will leave office.

But Trump won the election and this is his day to command.

“It all begins today!,” Trump tweeted early Friday morning. “I will see you at 11:00 A.M. for the swearing-in. THE MOVEMENT CONTINUES – THE WORK BEGINS!”

Donald Trump Is Sworn In As President, Vows To End ‘American Carnage’ Trump’s swearing-in will give Republicans control of both the White House and Congress.

#Donald Trump #Inauguration Ceremony #Republican #speech #Swearing #Sworn #United States #US President #White house

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newssplashy · 6 years

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World: On staten island, candidates vie to carry mantle of trump

NEW YORK — President Donald Trump loomed over the anti-tax rally here on Staten Island, as his face circled the parking lot on a mobile billboard promoting his endorsement of the incumbent congressman, Dan Donovan.

“Bravo,” said Michael Grimm, Donovan’s rival in the Republican congressional primary on Tuesday. “That’s one way Dan Donovan can actually show up to events.” Donovan stood a few feet away.

“Where was he two years ago?” Grimm added pointedly.

Donovan was actually in Congress then. Grimm was just getting out of prison. But Grimm is undeterred by that fact, and little else, in his brash and bombastic campaign to regain the seat he had to resign after pleading guilty to tax evasion in 2014.

Grimm had not even been invited to this rally against high property taxes. “He just showed up,” said the organizer, Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis, the Republican candidate for mayor in 2017. “Michael Grimm shows up everywhere.”

As with so much of politics and everything else these days, the race has revolved around Trump, and which Republican candidate can best carry his mantle in this, the lone Republican-held seat left in New York City.

The president endorsed Donovan, warning that a Grimm victory could hand the seat to Democrats come November. But Grimm’s fans choose to look past Trump’s endorsement, to forgive Grimm’s criminal conviction, and to pay even less heed to his more moderate record in Congress.

What they see is a candidate who talks like them and fights for them, just like a certain resident of the White House.

“Michael Grimm was a Trump before Trump was a Trump,” said Joe Granello, a 75-year-old Grimm supporter at the rally on Saturday. Another 75-year-old retiree standing nearby agreed. “Put it this way,” jumped in Joseph Marro. “He was John the Baptist for Jesus.”

If the idea of a felon taking out a prosecutor-turned-congressman seems unlikely, it sounds less so to those versed in Staten Island’s chip-on-the-shoulder politics. After all, Grimm won re-election in 2014 despite being under a 20-count indictment. He had faced a swirl of investigations while in Congress, including into fundraising schemes, but ultimately pleaded guilty to using off-the-books employees — “delivery boys,” in Grimm’s parlance — to skirt taxes. He served seven months in prison.

“To the outsider, it seems somewhat bizarre,” said Diane Savino, a Democratic state senator who has represented portions of Staten Island for more than a decade. “Everyone from outside Staten Island are assuming Staten Islanders are just stupid or Trump-loving Republicans, or there’s something wrong with them if they’re going to vote for this guy. Or maybe, just maybe, they’re making a decision on who they think is going to fight for them regardless of the other issues.”

The tax rally was a rare joint appearance for two men whose feelings for each other are not masked. “It’s gotten personal,” Donovan said.

On the picnic grounds, the square-jawed Grimm, a former Marine and FBI agent, seemed to create his own center of gravity, drawing in older women, in particular, for hugs and kisses on the cheek. Donovan offered mostly handshakes nearby.

“I love him, I love him, I love him,” Maria Sierp, 71, said to no one in particular as she pushed forward for her peck from Grimm. Asked later about his criminal record, she said, “He got railroaded.”

Grimm has tried to sell his prosecution as a result of a politicized Justice Department under President Barack Obama — echoing the “witch hunt” charges Trump has issued about the special counsel investigation.

The idea has sunk in, even among Donovan’s supporters. “He got railroaded,” said David Pascarella, a 47-year-old lawyer who is supporting Donovan, a former Staten Island district attorney.

In a brief interview, Donovan said the race presented voters with a stark choice: “Do they want the lawmaker or the lawbreaker?”

Grimm shot back. “What makes him a lawmaker?” he said. “You have to actually pass legislation to be a lawmaker.”

Grimm may have that classic politician charisma, but Donovan has as deep a well of advantages as any incumbent: the president’s endorsement, the Republican leadership in Congress, a big financial edge and the backing of nearly $1 million in independent spending on his behalf, including a $350,000 television and radio blitz from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the race’s closing days.

It can feel at times as if the entire Republican establishment is trying to carry Donovan over the finish line.

“You saw our ad. It’s Trump, Trump, Trump because we think that will work,” said Scott Reed, chief strategist for the Chamber of Commerce. It is only the third House Republican primary in the nation in which the chamber has intervened. Reed says he fears that Grimm will lose to a Democrat in November.

“We want to help elect candidates that are going to come to D.C. and govern, and not showboat and not threaten to throw reporters off balconies and not be a hot head,” he said. (Grimm once threatened to throw an NY1 reporter, Michael Scotto, off a balcony.)

Savino is not so sure temperament is the way to cut down Grimm, either. “Staten Islanders, by and large, are a passionate lot of people. We don’t get that upset people lose their temper,” she said.

As the phone interview continued, the sound of a honking car horn could be clearly heard in the background. “Green arrow means go,” she explained.

In the race’s final week, amid a national uproar over the Trump administration’s separating children from their parents at the southern border, including images and audio of shrieking children, Grimm stood by Trump’s policy.

“I can take you to any nursery and you’re going to hear the exact same things as a mother leaves to go to work,” he said, later adding, “those children haven’t been that safe in a long time.”

The two candidates have practically stumbled over each other to out-embrace the president and his most fervent supporters in the 11th Congressional District, which encompasses all of Staten Island and a slice of Brooklyn.

Donovan introduced legislation to mandate that Trump’s portrait hang in every post office in America. Then he went on “Fox and Friends First,” the 5 a.m. hour of Trump’s favorite morning television show, to hawk the legislation. At one point, he held up two glossy prints of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

“These two photographs ought to be in every post office,” Donovan said.

There have even been competing Trump surrogate events. Anthony Scaramucci, the short-lived White House communications director, headlined an event for Grimm. Rudy Giuliani, the president’s lawyer and former New York mayor, spoke at a recent rally for Donovan.

“He can’t get a job,” Giuliani said of Grimm, “or he wants a pardon or something, none of which he’s helping by what he’s doing.”

After Trump’s endorsement, Donovan’s campaign quickly printed lawn signs conjoining his logo to a version of Trump’s. “We’ve got the president’s endorsement, Rudy Giuliani’s endorsement, we’re really optimistic,” Donovan said.

But Grimm’s campaign has focused heavily on Donovan’s votes against Trump’s agenda, especially the tax-cut bill and repealing the health care law.

The race to the right has excited Democrats, who are expected to choose Max Rose, an Army veteran who more recently has worked for a health care nonprofit. Rose expressed confidence about the head start he had gotten during the Republican primary, and said he did not care who he ran against this fall.

“We are going to beat them by such a wide margin that they never run for office again,” he predicted.

However, Savino warned Democrats against overconfidence, especially against Grimm, noting he had “cheerleaders with pompoms” at the start of his campaign in the fall. “I did not have cheerleaders. Barack Obama didn’t have cheerleaders. No one has cheerleaders. People like him,” she said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/06/world-on-staten-island-candidates-vie_25.html

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newssplashy · 6 years

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