President-elect Donald Trump went nose-to-nose Wednesday with a press corps itching to cross-examine him after more than five months at arm’s length, while his top nominees faced off with senators during a strategic crush of confirmation hearings.
The raucous 48 hours, beginning on Capitol Hill early Tuesday, represented an unofficial inauguration of the 45th president – a whirlwind welcome to Trump’s Washington, a chaotic and contentious place where graying norms seem destined to clash relentlessly with an idiosyncratic administration.
By Thursday morning, after a Senate vote-a-rama effectively paved the way for GOP efforts to dismember Obamacare, new information had emerged and old suspicions were affirmed, as the final countdown to the historic transition neared its end.
Here are seven lessons – and the moments that defined them – from the past two days: