RUSH: Well, Obama’s gone now. Can Republicans go back to listening to me? That’s true. They never stopped. … Well, there’s so much to review. I’ve basically treated you already to my immediate post-inaugural address analysis. What’s gonna be fun now is to look at some of what the Drive-Bys are saying. Did you hear what Bob Schieffer said on CBS? Bob Schieffer — and, by the way, this is patently obvious. I mean, we were sitting here watching this during Trump’s speech, and it was just crystal clear what was happening.

Bob Schieffer’s description: “He basically took the hide off everybody on that platform.” Now, I think that it is important here to once again say what I think many in the establishment who still to this moment… Well, now they might finally have to come to grips with it. But I mean even this morning on the early morning news shows and all morning during the setup, whenever I tuned in and listened, the overall tone of the commentary was that Trump’s transformation into “presidential” would occur today.

They all were of the opinion that Trump finally would reveal that he’s going to become one of them today. He was gonna do a standard, ordinary inaugural address that could be compared to previous inaugural addresses and that Trump was going to basically vacate the campaign persona today, and if not become an actual practicing, functioning establishmentarian, he was going to at least make a step in that direction. And I think, as they were sitting there listening to his speech, they just probably were stunned and shocked and couldn’t believe what they were hearing.

I think it goes it is not just for the people that were up there on that stage and near the podium but also some in the Drive-By Media. Because I think, folks, it can’t be said enough: The people analyzing Trump, the people in the establishment of both parties and the media, they still have not come to grips with what’s happened here. They haven’t come to grips because they are not capable of addressing reality. Now, this is primarily the leftists. I think some Republicans, more and more of them are on board and understand it, whether they like it or not.

But the Democrats are clearly still off the reservation and don’t have the slightest idea what’s happened to them. And I think it’s evidenced by that Politico story I mentioned yesterday. They know how bad a shape they’re in, but they’re not admitting to themselves yet why. They have not admitted that they were rejected, that their ideas were rejected, that Obama’s agenda was repudiated. That hasn’t crossed their minds. They still believe that something strange happened, such as hackery, WikiLeaks, Russians. Maybe their polling betrayed them.

Some of them are starting to acknowledge what a lousy candidate Hillary was. But they still haven’t yet acknowledged to themselves why they lost. That’s good for us, by the way. The longer they remain in the dark about it, the longer it’s gonna be before they make any substantive changes. But I don’t think they can make any substantive changes. At some point in the last 10 years, the Democrat Party decided to abandon their base that has been there for decades, and that is the white, unionized working middle class.

They decided to jettison that group and instead go after and pursue political victory with a coalition of oddball minority groups that were really not unified by anything other than hatred of the same thing. And you heard Chuck Schumer essentially call out to ’em. The Democrat Party basically looks at America and sees ethnic divisions, sexual orientation divisions, gender identity divisions, racial divisions. But they’ve ignored the economic divisions, and they have decided that their path forward is somehow putting together a coalition of all these disparate minority groups.

And Schumer gave ’em a shout-out in the remarks that he made today, and I think that’s what has been reclaimed by the Trump victory and by all of the ceremonies that began last night and carried through to the inaugural address today. The omnipresence of God, the acknowledgment of the existence of God, the prayer after prayer after prayer, the requests of God for strength and guidance. These are things that make the Democrat Party coalition really angry and really nervous.

The acknowledgment that we’re one people, that we all have similar objectives and dreams, that the things that differentiate us are not that important. The way Trump addressed that was to say, “Whether we’re black, brown, or white, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable, and together we will make America great again. Together, we will make America strong again.” Those words, I guarantee you, Hollywood cringes, the American left cringes, the Democrat Party cringes. That’s not their language. That’s…

To them, those are fighting words. “Together we’ll make America great again. When America is united…” They don’t want any unity! They’re looking for the various minority groups that they’re trying to coalesce into a working majority — they want that group of people — in anger, lashing out, fighting back, and defeating that other America, which is the America of our founding. And that’s what the Democrat Party now sponsors. And Trump just threw it back in their face.

Of course, the great irony here is that while the Democrats seek the votes of all of these disparate minority groups, once they have their votes they ignore them. Their lives never improve. Their economic circumstances never improve. The people that donate to Democrats’ lives improve, and the people that raise funds for Democrat lives improve, but the rank and file do not. They never have under the Democrat Party and they never will. And so Trump firing both barrels today in what, to me, is a clear effort to reclaim America’s birthright, has got them shell-shocked in much of Washington.

And I think members of both parties, but primarily the Democrats and the left.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now, audio sound bites. Let’s start with George Stephanopoulos and Jonathan Karl. This is after Trump’s inaugural address.

STEPHANOPOULOS: He began with thank-you for everybody behind him that was from the capitol, senators, Republicans, Democrats, former presidents. But then a direct attack on all of them for failing America.

KARL: That was something else, George, to hear him say that this is a transfer of power not just from one party to another party, but from Washington, D.C., to the American people. This was an attack on the politicians in both parties that were surrounding him. After that rather blistering attack on everybody around him, he did return to that theme of unity, a broader theme of unity, and I thought the line that we’ll hear a lot, uhhh, was when he said, “Whether we are black, brown, or white, we all bleed the red blood of patriots.”

RUSH: No, the one acknowledgment that we have very many different types of Americans. Notice what they think, “Yeah, that’s what everybody’s gonna focus on.” No, no, no. That’s not gonna be what everybody’s focusing on. They continue to misread it. By the way, right, Trump is signing what looks like some ceremonial executive orders right now. And the reason I say it’s ceremonial is because Nancy Pelosi’s there trying to horn in on it, and she’s smiling. So if Trump was actually doing something meaningful today, Pelosi wouldn’t be there smiling.

So obviously the — being members of Congress, you know what happened when the president signs something, he signs one letter with a pen and then gets somebody the pen, then grabs a pen, signs another letter of his name — and in some cases, part of a letter. You can use sometimes twenty pens signing your name as president and everybody gets a pen that you used, and Pelosi’s in there trying to get in on the action. Let’s see, we got Paul Ryan there, Barron Trump and Mr. and Mrs. Pence, Roy Blunt. Mitch McConnell there on camera left, the Trump Familia in the back.

In this camera shot. Correct me if I’m wrong, the only Democrat in there is Pelosi, in the camera shot, I real… I don’t see Schumer. I’m looking for a bald guy. Oh, he was standing up… (interruption) Well, yeah, there he is, next to Mitch. Just came in next to Mitch McConnell. Okay, here’s the next series of bites. This is Trump, one of the moments calling out Washington politicians sitting right behind him, sound bite number 23.

THE PRESIDENT: For too long a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth.

RUSH: Right, right, right.

THE PRESIDENT: Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs.

RUSH: They’re sitting right behind him!

THE PRESIDENT: And while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

RUSH: They’re sitting right behind him! He’s talking about the very people sitting right behind him! And they knew it! And they knew it! I mean, it was incredible. You know, Trump had a line. What was the line? He said something about the… “When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.” (repeats) “When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.” It’s an interesting thought experiment. Anyway, so Trump has just “ripped their hide off,” as Bob Schieffer said. Now, let’s listen to F. Chuck Todd and Tom Brokaw describe this…

TODD: I have to say (dramatic pause), it was surprisingly divisive for an inaugural address. He went with populism, and I think that it’s gonna play well with his folks. But that wasn’t the type of inaugural address that was intended to bring this country together.

LESTER HOLT: Playing well with the crowd.

TODD: There was a point there, Lester, where it felt as if he almost was insulting every living president that was sitting next to him be, very personal ways.

BROKAW: He was also insulting all the Republican congressmen and senators who were on that stage.

TODD: Yes.

BROKAW: He has a majority, but he went after politicians point-blank!

RUSH: See? I’m telling you, these are establishment people themselves, and they were thinking that today was gonna be the day that Trump was gonna take the first step to joining them on their side of whatever aisle. And Trump doubled down and basically echoed his campaign themes in an inaugural address! You know, he did this last night in the event at the Lincoln Memorial, he gave a prelude to this speech. It was a very short set of comments last night, but it was basically a repetition of many of the campaign themes like this was.

And they went to pundits at Fox. “Oh, we’re very, very disappointed — very, very disappointed in this speech tonight. It’s too short, way too short, more like a campaign rally. This did not have presidential timbre,” was the reaction last night on Fox. And I think they were expecting Trump to be somebody that he’s not. Because, remember, in their world, everybody becomes who they are in order to advance in their world.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH:  You know, if there’s any arrogance or condescending here, it’s Chuck Todd like in the sound bite we just played. (impression) “I have to say, this was surprisingly divisive for an inaugural address! He went with populism! I think, uh, it’s gonna play well with his people but it wasn’t the inaugural address that was intended to bring the country together.”  Yes, it was! You know, it’s… Chuck, you don’t figure it out? The American people not with you Chuck.  The American people elected Donald Trump, not you! In spite of you Chuck.

Not personally, but you guys in the media, the American people elected Donald Trump, not you.  You do not define what’s unifying and what is divisive.  You guys are not on the ball here. (impression) “Well, this was surprisingly divisive for an…”  Divisive?  It wasn’t divisive!  It was a calling out.  It was a reclamation.  I’m telling you, that’s what this was.  This entire 24-hour period is a reclamation, a reclaiming of this country from people who wish to transform it and make it something it was never intended to be.  This country’s been rescued — and in that, there is unity.

I guarantee you, there’s be a boatload of Bernie Sanders Democrats who are probably privately (don’t want anybody to see ’em) applauding what Trump said today, in part. (interruption) No, it doesn’t concern me.  I’m just telling you: The media does not define who’s unified and who isn’t.  They don’t define unity.  The media doesn’t get to tell us what kind of country we are, and that if it isn’t the kind of the country they want and something’s wrong.  They don’t get to do that.  They may have in the past. They may have gotten away with that in the past, but not now.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: David Frum, a former speechwriter George W. Bush in the first term… Ready for this? You’d have to say, Frum is a Never Trumper. Frum is somebody still hasn’t come to grips here with what’s happened. And we have a story at TheHill.com, headline: “Ex-Bush Speechwriter: Trump Is Worse Than Slaveholding Presidents —

“A speechwriter for former President George W. Bush on Friday called President-elect Donald Trump ‘the worst human being ever to enter the presidency’ just hours before Trump’s inauguration. ‘The worst human being ever to enter the presidency, and I include all the slaveholders,’ tweeted David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter who is now a senior editor at The Atlantic. Frum this week published a piece in The Atlantic titled ‘An Inaugural Celebration That Rings Hollow,’ in which he wrote that the lesson of Trump’s inauguration ‘is that the system has failed.'”

So that’s pretty powerful statement. The worst human being ever to enter the presidency just hours before the inauguration. “The worst human being ever to enter the presidency, and I include all the slaveholders.” Wow, that’s pretty desperate. “The worst human being ever to enter the presidency, and I include all the slaveholders.” You think some people are taking this hard? (interruption) It’s despicable. It’s disgusting. It’s David Frum.

Charles Krauthammer at Fox describing Trump’s inaugural address said that it’s “the most aggressive, hyper, and hostile speech for anyone in the foreign audience — our trade partners and allies — ever given in an inaugural address.” The most aggressive, hyper, and hostile speech for anyone in a foreign audience — our trade partners and allies — ever given in an inaugural address.” To the phones! We start in Catherine in Wichita, Kansas. Welcome. It’s great to have you with us. How you doing?

CALLER: Hi. Thank you, Rush, for taking my call. It’s a thrill to talk to you.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: I have a question. Did you think President Trump has ushered in an era of winning without the establishment?

RUSH: Well, that’s the… Before I answer that, let me get exactly what you mean by that. What do you mean by “winning without the establishment”? Are you asking me if I think Trump will be able to succeed without the establishment helping?

CALLER: Well, no. What I actually meant was in the past, the Republican establishment has always said that we need to hang together,m and then here recently they said that they could win without the base.

RUSH: Oh. Oh.

CALLER: Are we now in an era where the people can win without establishment?

RUSH: Okay. Do you mean Republican establishment? Or just “the” establishment?

CALLER: The establishment.

RUSH: Well, we did. I mean, if you want to look at the presidential election as a victory without the establishment, you would have to say that’s what it was. I mean, the establishment was arrayed everywhere the establishment is against Donald Trump (chuckles) and after this speech today they’re gonna stay there. One of two things is gonna happen after today’s inaugural address, ’cause if there was any hope on the part of the establishment that Trump was gonna moderate — that all of this up to now has just been theoretical for his base voters and that now it’s time for the rubber to meet the road.

“Now that it’s time for the pedal to hit the metal. Trump is going to do what the only intelligent thing is to do, and that’s become one of us, include us and take our advice.” That is not happening. If anything, Donald Trump tripled down today on every theme of his campaign. So we’re just gonna have to wait and see. One of two things is gonna happen. The establishment is either going to, for self-preservation, do what they can to tag along or try to undermine. And, frankly, folks, I’m gonna vote for try to undermine.

And that’s not a new prediction. And it’s not the result of a new train of thought. I don’t know how often most of you had a chance to listen during the campaign. But I spent a lot of time explaining the psychology of the establishment and how they are being affected by Trump’s candidacy and the fact that he just kept winning state after state after state. He was not imploding, was not being defeated, wasn’t going away. Look, the establishement… For many of the people in the establishment… What’s the best way to describe this?

It is the existence of the establishment and membership in it that is 90% of life. What the establishment does is actually ancillary, except for those things that are oriented towards self-preservation, like a bureaucracy. The purpose of a bureaucracy is to maintain itself, and thus bureaucracies do not solve problems. And if they do, they create new ones in the process. Bureaucrats and the bureaucracy never, ever do things in such a way that people could conclude, “Well, we don’t need you anymore.” Well, it’s the same thing with the establishment. The establishment, folks, I don’t know how best to describe it.

The term “elite” is apropos, and by that the members of the establishment do think they are better people. They are a higher quality and a higher class of human being. And that is why many of them are condescending to people they consider inferior, and that’s why they hold many of the middle class in contempt. It’s just a character trait of the establishment. If you say the European Union, it’s the same thing there. The European elites. It’s the same psychology. And preserving that establishment is objective number one.

And whatever policy and ideas the establishment collectively hold are second and third in importance, and sometimes it’s difficult to separate. I mean, when you’re preserving the establishment, there are specific policies designed to do so, like throwing more and more power to the UN; surrendering more and more power, say, over the court system or climate change or what have you, to the UN. That is preserving the establishment while combining an idea or a set of ideas or policies.

But the first and foremost thing is the preservation of the establishment. I don’t… I just can’t see them letting Trump… I can’t see them abandoning that establishment (who they are) and what it means to them, to get on the Trump bandwagon. There is a fairly good analogy for this, and that would be Reagan in this sense: The establishment Republicans never really liked Reagan. They resented Reagan. In his case, it was simply because he was conservative and believed that government’s the problem.

And, of course, to the establishment, government is everything. It’s first, second, third. It’s everything. And here comes Reagan as a conservative wanting to deemphasize it. So they go into protection mode, preserve the establishment, preserve government, and they resent it. But Reagan was so popular (he won two landslides, 44 and 49 states) that during his term in office, they did everything they could to be part of it. They wanted to be on the White House staff. They wanted to be campaign staff.

They wanted to be close to it ’cause they loved being close to power and the bright lights shining on it and what they want to be seen. They also want to take the occasion of closeness to try to undermine, and they did try to undermine Reagan any number of ways and times. And when Reagan’s two terms were over, I mean, he was gone, and they put him on the plane. He went back to California and they immediately tried to erase all vestiges of Reagan. That’s probably what we can expect here.

But they can be defeated. They just have been.

And right now the Republicans in Congress are looking at years out, way beyond even if Trump’s two terms. The Republicans are set up right now, folks, to be the majority party in the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Supreme Court for 25 years if they play it right. And in that 25 years, the first eight maximum are Trump. So I think that they will do whatever they can to maximize party power.

If it means helping Trump fulfill his agenda, if Trump remains popular, they’re gonna be looking at opinion polls like you can’t believe, public approval polls. And as long as Trump’s there at 50% or hovering near it, they’re gonna be on board. Don’t worry. We’ll be here guiding you through this and helping you understand on a daily basis what is happening in regard to all of this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So Chris Matthews at PMSNBC referred to the Trump inaugural address as “Hitlerian,” or “Hitlerian,” if that helps you understand. No, I’m not kidding. Chris Matthews described the Trump inaugural address as “Hitlerian,” or “Hitlerian.” Like Hitler, for those of you in Rio Linda. I’m telling you, their heads blew. I am sure that there is blood on cameras today as Drive-Bys’ heads exploded out there listening to this.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So just got an email. “Okay, Rush, you’re on the spot. Describe the Trump inaugural address in one word.” So I thought about it and I thought about it. You know what it was? I’ve got it: “Uncompromising.” And that is what is ultimately so irritating about it to people in the establishment.