The 45th president of the United States will put America first, will make it strong again, wealthy again, proud again, safe again, great again .... Donald Trump, President Trump, promised in his inaugural address to “rebuild our country ... for all our people” and that the day was seeing a “transferring of power from Washington DC and giving it back to you the people.”
Above all, again and again, it was “America First”. “From this day forward a new vision will govern our land,” Trump said. “From this day forward it’s going to be only America First,” a slogan, it must be remembered, of those who fought against US entry to the second World War, later the name of an isolationist party in the ’40s, then a slogan of far-right politicians like Pat Buchanan, until embraced by Trump repeatedly in his campaign. Central to his philosophy: “Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families.”
Not so much an aggressive isolationism as many fear, but a commitment to engagement only as a form of protectionism. “Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength.” Obama and Clinton may have seen US foreign policy, or at least said they did, as a means of exporting US values like democracy. For Trump it’s about exporting widgets. “We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American.”
And he laid at the door of past foreign engagements all the problems facing America: “We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs ... For many decades we have enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidised the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military.
“We have defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own and spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. We have made other countries rich while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon.”
Comments that worryingly echo not only his longstanding objections to international trade deals, but will alarm US allies in Europe and Asia with their implict threats to military alliances like Nato which lean heavily on US power. Vladimir Putin will be delighted .
Do we know any more than we did before this rehashing, with some embellishment, of the standard stomp speech? Not really. It was well delivered – and perhaps that was the remarkable innovation, evidence that the new president can stick to a script . But it was a speech of generalities without specifics. What happens tomorrow? We have no idea. But, apparently, “The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.”