Donald Trump took over as US president on Friday in the same way he conducted his upstart campaign, with a mixture of blustery salesmanship and naked contempt for the established political order.
In doing so, he sent a clear signal to the country and the world: He plans to govern as he campaigned, refusing to align himself even with his own Republican Party and taking his message directly to the American people. He did nothing to dispel concerns that he would bring the cult of personality he built over the election campaign into the White House, and he offered little in the way of olive branches to the tens of millions of Americans who did not vote for him in the most divisive election in modern U.S. history.
A former reality TV star, Trump offered an apocalyptic vision of reality: an America besieged by crime, immigration, terrorism and unfair trade deals. “The American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” he pledged, as he presented himself as a champion of the ordinary American. The gloomy picture Mr Trump sketched of the nation flies in the face of evidence that the economy is in healthy shape, crime is down and the nation is relatively safe and secure.
After warning the public on the extent of the problems, Mr Trump suggested, as he did during his campaign, that he and his “movement” are the only solution. He did not mention the Republicans in Congress with whom he will partner to govern and certainly not the Democrats who have fiercely opposed him. Mr Trump’s inaugural speech promised ‘America first’ policy, but offered no specifics about America’s place in the world. Mr Trump — the first president who had never held political office or high military rank — promised to stir a “new national pride” and protect America from the “ravages” of countries he says have stolen the US jobs.
Perhaps no country was watching the speech more closely than Mexico. Mr Trump has made disparaging remarks about immigrants who come to the United States illegally and sought to pressure companies not to set up shop in Mexico by threatening a border tariff on goods manufactured there and exported to the United States. So Trump's talk of “protect(ing) our borders,” “America first” and “buy American and hire American” had particular resonance in America’s southern neighbour.
Similarly, people in Pakistan expressed concern that Mr Trump would target the Islamic world, particularly Pakistan, because of his campaign rhetoric about Muslims as well as his inaugural speech in which he promised to eradicate Islamic terrorism worldwide. Indians, too, are fretting about the immigration prospects. Among dozens of young, urban Indians who watched Trump's inauguration, a 27-year-old Jigar Gorasia said getting work visas for professionals and green cards will become a problem.
What all he said at the inauguration
- We will make America great again
- ‘National pride’ will help ‘heal our divisions’
- Buy American and hire American
- America subsidising ‘armies of other countries’
- Presidency will set course for America, world ‘for many years’
- We are transferring power from Washington to the people
- Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families
- We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones, and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth
