Trump’s Horrific Day One Speech in Front of the C.I.A. Wall of Stars

Horrors and embarrassments from Trump’s first term to remind us why he should never be president again

The Memorial Wall is on the north wall of the Original Headquarters Building lobby. This wall of 103 stars stands as a silent, simple memorial to those CIA officers who have made the ultimate sacrifice. This image is in the public domain.

Barely 24 hours had passed since Donald J. Trump was sworn in as the nation’s 45th President when he and his entourage of traveling claqueurs stopped in Langley, Virginia. It was a cloudy-grey Saturday afternoon: January 21, 2017. The destination was C.I.A. headquarters, where the Trump administration had planned his first post-inaugural speech. It was held here, in large part, to attempt some semblance of damage control in the wake of Trump’s own reckless rhetoric.

Tension was already high; for several weeks Trump had been publicly at odds with the Intelligence Community assessment stating that Russian interference in the 2016 election had helped him secure the presidency. By the time he took the oath of office, Trump had already spent months making numerous disparaging remarks about the U.S. Intelligence Community in general — on Fox News or anywhere he could get an interview, through campaign statements, and especially on Twitter.