Huh? Donald Trump signs proclamation making his inauguration a “Day of Patriotic Devotion”

| 3:41 pm EST January 23, 2017
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It sounds like something out of a third world banana republic, or perhaps something which Donald Trump’s detractors might have invented in order to try to make him look bad, but this is somehow true. It’s on the federal government website, and it’s been quietly confirmed by his own press secretary. Trump has signed a proclamation making his own inauguration day into a “National Day of Patriotic Devotion.”

This story sounds like the kind of “fake news” which Donald Trump loves to whine about, right? Except it’s real, very real, and hauntingly so. Trump really did sign and unveil such a proclamation this week; it just didn’t seem to get much positive or negative attention until its impending unveiling was dug up on the federal government website. Still don’t believe it’s real? Here’s CNBC confirming it. Oh, and here’s Trump press secretary Sean Spicer casually mentioning it on Twitter the other day as well, though he forgot to mention that Trump had picked his own inauguration day as the newly designated “National “Day of Patriotic Devotion.”

To be clear, this does not turn Donald Trump’s inauguration into a “national holiday,” as some news outlets are incorrectly reporting, nor does it give any specific designation to January 20th in future years. If you’ve so much as watched the West Wing, you know that presidential proclamations are purely symbolic. So what exactly does this North Korea-style proclamation say? The government records site says the full text will be published on Tuesday. Which means he’s unveiling his new one-time fake holiday four days after it happened.