WASHINGTON – President Trump promised an inaugural address that would focus on “unity,” but what he delivered was more of a formal-suited campaign speech — full of promises and anger toward opponents, few gestures toward national reconciliation.
“For American citizens, January 20, 2025, is liberation day,” he said — meaning liberation from a Democratic government that (in his words) “has stripped power and wealth from our citizens while breaking the pillars of our society.” were.”
“From this moment on, American decline is over,” he promised.
And he darkly hinted at what lay behind his prosecutions and two assassination attempts. “Those who want to stop our cause have tried to take away my freedom and even my life.”
Parts of Trump's speech were reminiscent of his 2017 inaugural address – the speech that talked about “American carnage.”
To be fair, the new president also offered a hopeful vision – embodied in the promises he made during his campaign.
“America’s golden age is beginning right now,” he said. And for voters already convinced that Trump would make America great again, it was an inspiring list. He promised not only to stop inflation but also to lower prices; create more manufacturing jobs and bring automobile production to record levels; and end illegal immigration quickly and completely.
And to give his administration a dramatic start, he said he would sign dozens of executive orders, including decrees to ban migrants from seeking asylum, eliminate the “birthright to citizenship,” open up more federal lands and waters for oil and gas drilling open and declare that the federal government will recognize “only two genders – male and female” – on official documents.
He also promised – officially this time – to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.”
Some of the orders will certainly be challenged in court. Others will be largely symbolic. But they seemed to convey an image of unstoppable momentum.
Between his inauguration and a second speech at the Capitol — in which he called one critic a “howling maniac” and another “guilty as hell” — the first day of his second term confirmed that there is no Trump 2.0.
But there may be a Trump 1.5 that is more organized than the chaotic Trump of his first term.
As it turns out, by “unity,” Trump didn’t mean bipartisanship, but rather unified support for the policies and goals he championed.
“My recent election is a mandate,” he said. “As our victory demonstrated, the entire nation is quickly rallying behind our agenda.”
But that's just a hopeful piece of salesmanship. Yes, he won the popular vote despite polling just under 50%. But a series of public opinion polls have shown that public support for Trump's policies — the normal meaning of “mandate” — are not as strong as he claimed.
An Associated Press poll this month found that while 8 in 10 American adults support Trump's goal of deporting undocumented immigrants guilty of violent crimes, fewer than half support deporting others. Only 3 in 10 agree with Trump's proposal to abolish citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment.
The poll also found that only three in 10 respondents support his plan to open federal lands to oil and gas drilling.
There is another problem with the mandate the president claims.
Voters' top priorities are lower prices and a stronger border, polls have shown. Trump has set the bar for his performance, which seems incredibly high.
He said he would instruct his Cabinet to “rapidly reduce costs and prices.”
Thanks to his border policy, he promised to “immediately stop any illegal entry.”
And — in his most utopian moment — he promised that restored U.S. military power “will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent and utterly unpredictable.”
“My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier,” he said.
These are admirable goals, and if Trump can achieve them, he will rightly be celebrated as a peacemaker and unifier.
But it is one thing to propose lofty goals and another to achieve them.
Just ask Joe Biden.