The promise and peril of Trump’s inaugural address

Donald Trump, who returned to power on a wave of dissatisfaction with the status quo voters, promised a new “golden age” for America in his inaugural speech.

The speech was a mix of promises — and contradictions — that highlighted some of the opportunities and challenges the new president will face during his second term in office.

He paid particular attention to immigration and the economy, the issues that polls showed American voters were most interested in last year. He also pledged to end government-promoted diversity programs and noted that official US policy would recognize only two genders, male and female.

That last line drew enthusiasm from the Capitol and a standing ovation from the crowd of fans gathered in the nearby sports arena. It’s a sign that cultural issues — where he contrasted most sharply with Democrats in last year’s election — will continue to be one of Trump’s most powerful ways to connect the new president with his base.

But before outlining what this new age would entail, Trump painted a bleak picture of the current American political climate.

As his predecessor, Joe Biden, and other Democrats sat stone-faced to one side, Trump said the government was facing a “crisis of confidence.” He condemned the “vicious, violent and unjust use of weapons” by the US Department of Justice, which was investigating and trying to prosecute him for challenging the results of the 2020 election.

He demanded an end to the “heinous betrayals” and lashed out at a “radical and corrupt establishment” that he said was extracting power and wealth from American citizens.

It was the kind of populist, anti-elitist rhetoric that has been a staple of Trump’s speeches for a decade. However, unlike when Trump first began his ascent to the heights of US political power in 2015, Trump represents the current evolving establishment as much as anyone. And behind him on the podium sat some of the richest and most influential corporate leaders in the world.

On his inauguration day, Trump has the spotlight — and the initiative. His aides have promised hundreds of executive decisions — on a range of issues including immigration, energy, trade, education and pressing cultural issues.

He detailed several of them in his inaugural address. He has promised to declare a national emergency on energy and immigration that would allow him to put the US military on the border, sharply limit the rights of asylum seekers and reopen large swaths of federal land to energy. He repeated his promise to change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America” ​​and to restore the Panama Canal.

He made an unsubstantiated claim that China controls a key waterway and said that US ships, including naval vessels, pay too high transit fees – perhaps a hint at the real goal in the upcoming negotiations with the Panamanian government.

“The United States will again consider itself a nation on the rise,” he said, promising to increase American wealth and expand “our territory.”

The latter could catch the ear of US allies, who were already worried about Trump’s interest in buying Greenland and the truth about making Canada the 51st US state.

During the campaign and in this speech, Trump made a number of big promises. Now that he has become president, he will have to deliver – and show what the “golden age” he proclaims really means.