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21st Jan 2017

The opening to BBC Newsnight’s inauguration special was a brilliant piece of television

Shows how much has changed in the last couple of years.

Conor Heneghan

“There’s not going to be a President Donald Trump.”

The man who said that, one George Clooney, was one of many, many people eating their words yesterday when Donald J. Trump was officially inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States.

Though we’ve known since November that it was going to happen, the official inauguration ceremony on Friday hammered home the fact that, for at least the next four years, Trump will be the most powerful man of the planet.

Trump may have his many detractors, but his journey to the White House has been nothing short of remarkable, considering that it’s not a long time since even the very thought of him of becoming president seemed faintly ridiculous.

In an inauguration special on Friday night, the opening scenes on BBC Newsnight summed up how the idea of Trump as president quickly progressed from being laughed at by celebrities on TV to the reality of him being sworn in at the Capitol Building in Washington on Friday.

A brilliant piece of television; it’s going to be an interesting four years.