This was the second coming. Their messiah was back. At just a few minutes after noon local time, Donald Trump was declared the 47th president of the united states of America and the 20,000-strong crowd of disciples inside the Capital One Arena hollered and whooped and rose to their feet and pumped the air with their fists. Donald Trump, survivor of assassins’ bullets and the attempts by any number of enforcement agencies to incarcerate him, had truly risen from beyond the political grave.

Inside the arena, which normally hosts ice hockey and basketball games and rock concerts, Donald Trump’s fanatical supporters cheered for their hero. They had hoped to be on the Mall, watching the inauguration happening in front of them, albeit from an almighty distance. Instead, they gathered under one roof inside the arena and watched it on the huge screens that drop down from its cavernous ceiling.