President Trump delivered a stinging rebuke to the Washington political establishment in his inaugural address on Friday, as establishment leaders sat all around him.
“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,” he declared. “Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed.”
As former President Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, his vanquished general election rival Hillary Clinton and other political luminaries looked on, Trump said, “we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people.”
The lines received applause from the Trump supporters who gathered to see him sworn in while many of the dignitaries on the dais sat stone-faced.
Trump’s attack reflected all the major themes of his campaign. He ran on the argument that the political establishment was enriching itself at the expense of the working class and that a wide range of government policies needed to be re-aligned with American interests.
That message resonated with voters in Rust Belt states that mostly hadn’t gone Republican in a presidential election since the 1980s. Trump won white voters without college degrees, many of them working-class citizens living near the “rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation,” by nearly 40 points.
As Trump celebrated his victory, he tried to put the spotlight back on these “forgotten” Americans.
“The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country,” he said. “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.”
Trump took office as the 45th president of the United States at noon Friday.
