Perhaps there are a few relevant historical touchstones, but President Donald J. Trump—typing those words still feels surreal—delivered an inaugural address unlike any any other. Inaugural speeches are typically vehicles for unity and uplift. Even Abraham Lincoln, on the verge of civil war, appealed to “the better angels of our nature.” Donald J. Trump was sworn in, stepped up to the microphone, and with his very first sentence, he declared war (metaphorically) on the the Washington establishment.
“Today’s ceremony, however, has a very special meaning, because today 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,” he said. “For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have bore the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth.”
In fact, as the Internet quickly noticed, Trump’s line — and the way he delivered it — about “transferring power from Washington, D.C., and giving it back to you, the people,” echoes the Occupy Wall Street inspired villian Bane from The Dark Knight Rises. It could be accidental, but it would not surprise me if Trump and his speechwriters relish the comparison.
One can argue that the combative tone is dispiriting, but the fact is that Trump is not wrong. The four richest counties in America are suburbs of D.C., and Democrats have spent years bemoaning growing inequality without reckoning with the metastasizing federal government’s role in creating that inequality.
Trump did not shy away from painting a portrait of American suffering at the hands of elites: “Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities, rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation,” he said. Trump was explicit that the role of government, not the lack of resources, was the ultimate problem to key aspects of American life. Specifically, he decried “an education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.”
Trump further argued that America’s problems were a result of prioritizing foreign issues over domestic ones. “For many decades we’ve enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military,” he said. “We’ve defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own. And we’ve spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay.”
This was a stark contrast to Obama’s vision of America’s role in the world. The recently former president was noted for his embrace of globalism and rejection of American exceptionalism. (“I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism,” Obama once said.) Trump seems to reject Obama’s rejection of American exceptionalism, without reverting to the belief America is uniquely conceived and suited to being a model for the world. Trump’s view of America appears not to be one of exceptionalism, so much as pure, unadulterated Americanism. At least in modern times, this is an alien way of thinking about America’s international role. And we’d better get used to it.
Not only did Trump eschew lofty rhetorical conceits, he drove home the point that eight years of an allegedly mellifluous Obama had only made things worse. “The time for empty talk is over,” he said. “Now arrives the hour of action.” And Trump’s proposed actions might end up speaking a lot louder than even Trump’s giant New York mouth.
It was reported Thursday that Trump is drawing up a budget to be presented in the first 100 days that makes a whopping $10 trillion in budget cuts and eliminates entire federal agencies. Again, this is a notable contrast to Obama, who oversaw the federal workforce growing over seven percent in the midst of a financial crisis and unemployment hovering above and around double digits.
Like another Democratic president, Trump stood up today and told ordinary Americans he felt their pain. “We are one nation, and their pain is our pain,” he said. But Trump’s populism is far more aggressive and martial than merely extending his sympathy.
If Trump’s actions back his words from Friday, he aims to bring the pain to Washington.
