What was uppermost in the mind of Mr. Trump on the day of his swearing-in? Apparently, our new president deeply resented all those contributions he talked of making to politicians when he was campaigning. Because Mr. Trump signaled his change of tack and made his goals clear – at least at a high level – right from the beginning of his barn-burner of an inaugural address:
Today. . . we are transferring power from Washington, D.C. and giving it back to you, the people.
At fourteen hundred words, Trump’s speech was the shortest by hundreds of words since Jimmy Carter’s – and certainly the most provocative. The speech was populist in a way we haven’t seen in many years, if ever. Even that great populist Andrew Jackson spoke in far more reverent terms about upholding the existing order:
In administering the laws of Congress I shall keep steadily in view the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power trusting thereby to discharge the functions of my office without transcending its authority.
More recently, every new president has talked about renewal – it’s after all why they run for president – but few have done so in these Trumpian terms:
For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories. Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.
That all changes starting right here and right now because this moment is your moment, it belongs to you.
And, a moment later:
January 20th, 2017 will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this nation again.
And Mr. Trump doesn’t stop there. Most inaugural addresses make a point of including all Americans, and if they mention the rest of the world, it’s in general terms, about being strong and working together for peace. Trump’s take is very different. First, he draws clear nationalist lines:
We will follow two simple rules; buy American and hire American.
And second, he threatens to annihilate an entire group of people:
We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate from the face of the Earth.
As far back as I was able to check, this represents the most bellicose inaugural address ever given. Even President Roosevelt’s two addresses given during the World War Two years were more pacific:
We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace; that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of other nations far away. We have learned that we must live as men, not as ostriches, nor as dogs in the manger.
We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community.
And even President Kennedy, in the middle of the Cold War, managed to sound this note to the rest of the world:
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.
On the positive side of the ledger, Mr. Trump lays out a program of massive infrastructure spending:
We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth. And we will bring back our dreams.
We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation. We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.
How is he planning to pay for all those roads, highways, bridges, airports, tunnels and even railways? His inaugural address is at least typical in that he doesn’t provide specifics; that’s for the State of the Union address, later.
In perhaps the most incendiary rhetoric of the entire speech, Mr. Trump depicts a dark vision of America:
But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation; an education system flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge; and the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.
This American carnage stops right here and stops right now.
We are one nation and their pain is our pain.
This is extraordinarily dark rhetoric for an inaugural address, and highly consistent with the revenge story Mr. Trump spun during the campaign, as he promised to make America great again.
Yet his address is like previous presidents’ in one other way. He doesn’t forget a thank you to his predecessor:
Every four years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent. Thank you.
That was probably the gentlest moment of the talk. Overall, though, Mr. Trump’s angry, determined, and take-no-prisoners speech was astonishingly dark in tone, matching his campaign speeches – and by far the darkest inaugural of the past half-century.
In body language terms, as well, we’re seeing the same Mr. Trump. His circled finger and thumb, his open hand gestures, and his self-acknowledging sniff of approval are all vintage Trump, and highly consistent with the body language of the man on the campaign trail.
Those Americans listening and watching who voted for him, and the change he promised, at least so far cannot have been disappointed.
The rest of the country may be left wondering what will happen next. The old adage has it that politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose. This is a President who may continue to surprise with his rhetoric — and his consistency — now that he is in office.
‘Dark’ is indeed the word, Nick; very dark.
Uninspiring, unsurprising. Simply dark.
Thanks, Paul. Fasten your seatbelt; there may be turbulence.
Nick, Comparing Trump’s speech to prior Presidents’ speeches provide context we need. When you describe Trump’s hand gestures and his self-acknowledging sniff of approval, you nailed it.
Thanks, Blythe – good to hear from you. I was indeed struck (as were many others) not only by how populist and harsh Trump’s message was, but also what a departure it represented from previous presidents. Especially FDR — when the country actually was at war, for heaven’s sake!
I am glad President Trump pointed out the darkness while others sit by and say, “Everything is fine.” It’s not. Yes, President Trump could have pointed out some positives, but he has been voted in to make a change and while Washington had rather sit in the dark and reap the benefits. There is light at the end of this dark tunnel. President Trump is not an orator, but he is going to be a changing agent that we need.
Thanks, Dennis for your comment. It will be indeed interesting to see if President Trump can keep the bewildering array of campaign promises Candidate Trump made. In that, at least, he isn’t much different from every other politician.
The day was rich for watching what you call in Power Cues the “two conversations”. Throughout the day my 20-year old son and I flipped back and forth between Fox News and CNN to watch their coverage of the events. It was pure entertainment.
From tone of voice to facial expressions to gestures to eyes, so much was being communicated beyond just the words. The same can be said about the crowd shots, from those who are exuberant about the new President to those who are depressed in disbelief.
Thank you for your continued emphasis in paying attention to the two conversations.
Thanks, Andy — glad you’re watching both conversations!
Hi Nick
His attack on the entire audience behind him, the former Presidents and politicians was something.
As for tone, boastful, bombastic, belittling and bullying. Dark and dangerous indeed.
Eloquence and authenticity took the helicopter and left. I left a deep sense of loss when it did.
Kindest regards
John
Thanks, John — I share your sense of loss at a President whom I believe history will judge much more favorably than the current press and the endless drumbeat of negativity from the Republican establishment would have you believe he should be judged.
For now, and as someone from the outside looking in (Toronto, Canada), in addition to someone who spends quite a bit of time in the US, I’d caution: “let the man govern!”
I was listening to SiriusXM last night and something Leon Panetta (former CIA director, former White House Chief of Staff, former Defense Secretary) said last night talking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in relation to Trump’s weekend zingers against the media in front of what Panetta described as “hallowed ground” (the 117 names affixed to the main vestibule wall at Langley) — and of course I’m paraphrasing — but Panetta says that typically there’s a “cooling off” period when the newly elected Commander-In-Chief realizes that this is no longer “Kansas” and that he has a boatload of real work to do…that the gravitas of the situation sinks in and the bluster ends.
Trump will take longer because he is not — by training — a politician. All arguments about his unsuitability to be the man in the White House are moot — he is already in there and operating.
I noticed that even here in Canada — on the 24h news channels with those bottom-third ticker tape streams, you know which kinds of outlets I’m referring to — that they’re in the habit of pillorying DJT’s words about, say, renegotiating NAFTA with his pronouncements constantly in “gag quotes,” to wit, the President said that Canada shouldn’t be “enormously worried” about what he has coming down the pike…stuff like this. I find it annoying because when our PM Zoolander — oops, Justin Trudeau, or if you’re super hip, you just call him “Justin” goes on expensive Bahamian retreats with his rich friends or grabs chopper selfies with the Aga Khan, there are no gag quotes…there are deflections and obfuscations and swift changings of the subject. The double-standards as to what garners eyeballs are staggering!
I I trust that eventually the poking fun at DJT and trying to catch him out on stylistic gaffes and making fun of how he breathes through his nose and how he loves his children and kisses them on the cheek in front of the cameras, and how he holds his hands will cease. I find the micromanagement highly distracting.
We used to have a leader up here, if you recall, Jean Chretien (http://bit.ly/2jVCmGs) — a Liberal politician and three-time PM who served for over a decade — who had a pronounced facial deformity that caused him to speak out of the corner of his mouth due to partial paralysis — the media used to take the literally mickey out of him along with his French-Canadian accented English and slightly improper grammar (I’d like to see how many anglophones can speak French without a paltry “Tim Horton’s hoser” accent, not many!) — and instead see the media focus on the sizzle and not on the steak…that he was one of the more experienced MPs on the Liberal team, that he had served in at least half a dozen ministries that helped put Canada on the map prior to ascending to the Liberal leadership — and, eventually, the Prime Ministership — and then leading Canada for all that time…
He, too, was voted in as a protest vote against years of Conservative party inertia and was swept in on a change agenda…
Same media nonsense, same zeroing in on the schmaltz and not on the substance.
I realize this is merely your analysis of his Inaugural, strictly from a craftsman’s professional perspective, comparing, contrasting, and pointing out all manner of pros and cons la di da, but truth of the matter is that the Trump victory is likely the single-most astonishing — if not out-and-out unique — outcome in American electoral politics to have hit the nation in its entire history…and now that he’s here, let’s see what the man can do. That a guy — who isn’t supposed to win, because the entire GOP and Democratic establish has it in for him, and he takes the Electoral College by storm — can become the leader of the free world…if that isn’t an American Story right there, I don’t know what it is…
But I digress…
He is your lone President now — and you must absolutely support him, because we live in terribly dangerous times…undermining his efforts only serves to undermine the future prosperity of the US and its domestic security and international reputation, and we all need America to be strong, because she is our beacon and rock, and must remain so.
::: rant and lecture over :::
Signed,
ADM
Thanks, Adam, for your call to let the man govern. Indeed, let’s hope he does — wisely and well.