Trump's second coming: some observations

It was a provocative speech Donald Trump delivered at his inaugural on Monday. It brought back memories of his first inaugural address in January 2017, when he surprisingly employed such terms as 'American carnage' before the crowd gathered to see him take over from Barack Obama. Within days of his first inaugural as President, Trump went into a campaign to convince people that the crowds at his swearing-in on 20 January 2017 were larger than those of the crowds which had gathered before the Capitol to hear President Obama in 2009. Trump's crowd figures for his 2017 inauguration were not credible.
On Monday, President Trump's speech following the oath-taking ceremony, sounded more like a State of the Union address which American Presidents usually deliver in January every year. Presidential inaugural addresses have traditionally been inspirational, laying out a vision for the four years on which a new President expects to work. Besides, every new President begins speaking before the crowd through expressing his thanks to his predecessor before embarking on the outline of what he means to achieve for America. On Monday, such a convention or vision was noticeable by its absence.
It has been the rule in modern American politics that incoming Presidents, given that outgoing Presidents are present at their inaugurals, are careful about ensuring that no phrase or word is uttered that may be considered disrespectful of their successors. On Monday, though, Donald Trump began by informing his partisan supporters that America's golden age had begun. He did not make it clear what exactly he meant by 'golden age' or where he thought America had faltered under his predecessors, of whom Joe Biden was only one. That is not the way a new President begins his first day in office.
But Trump, despite people's expectations that his second stint in the White House would begin on a note different from that of his first, left many disappointed. His speech left observers of diplomacy mystified, for he made his intention known that the Gulf of Mexico would henceforth be known as the Gulf of America. How he would make that possible was not spelt out, especially when Claudia Sheinbaum, the new Mexican President, has made it clear she does not agree with Trump on the issue of a renaming of the gulf. Of course, Trump's animus regarding illegal immigration from Mexico was also revealed in his address when he let the crowd know that he was imposing a national emergency at the US-Mexican border.
Trump also laid himself open to another controversy, something he had repeatedly referred to during his campaign for a return to power. He made it known that the Panama Canal, which under a deal between President Jimmy Carter and the Panamanian strongman Omar Torrijos in 1977 was transferred to Panamanian sovereignty in 1999, would be recovered by the United States (US). That again was an act of provocation, indeed a threat to the Panamanians. In other words, any move by the Trump administration to take back the Panama Canal would mean ripping up the agreement which Carter signed with Omar Torrijos. Trump did not speak of Carter, whose funeral he had attended only days ago. He made no mention of how the canal would be seized from Panama. Would diplomacy be applied? Would military force be deployed? And what guarantee was there that the Panamanian leadership would acquiesce in his demand?
In broad outline, Trump's second inaugural address was a clear assault not only on the Biden administration but on everything else that had gone on before. His remarks on the Gulf of Mexico drew laughter from Hillary Clinton, who was present in the audience with Bill Clinton. His comments on making America great again had all those distinguished guests, among whom were the Clintons, the George W. Bushes and Barack Obama, listening to him in disbelief.
As the camera panned out across the hall (the bitter cold weather had prevented an outdoor ceremony this year), one could sense the shock visible on their features. Biden sat in a despondent mood. Kamala Harris, who could make a second run for presidential office in 2028, simply watched, apparently unable to take it all in. It only made people who observed her imagine the very different kind of speech she would have made had it been her inaugural as President on Monday.
Watching Trump on Monday, indeed listening to him speak, one could not but be drawn to past American Presidents speak at their inaugurals. Abraham Lincoln, particularly with his Second Inaugural address, came to mind. Franklin D Roosevelt's inspirational words at his 1933 inaugural rang in our ears. John F Kennedy and Bill Clinton and Barack Obama's speeches in 1961, 1993 and 2009 were brilliant in their poetry and in the dreams of the future they sketched. When Richard Nixon spoke at his first inaugural in 1969, the world knew that an individual experienced in politics and foreign affairs had arrived as the 37th President of the United States.
On Monday, much exaggeration was on display at and after Trump's swearing-in. When the new President spoke of his ambition to have the Stars and Stripes (the American flag) planted on the surface of Mars, Elon Musk was thrilled. Following the formal swearing-in ceremonies, Vice President JD Vance described Trump as the greatest President in US history. Kash Patel, Trump's nominee for FBI director, went a step further. Donald Trump, he said, was the greatest President in the history of the world.
On Monday, the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th American President did not inspire people around the world. The slew of executive orders he signed soon after entering the White House is a pointer to a tough, unpredictable four years ahead for Americans and for the world. He has abandoned the Paris climate accord. He has taken the US out of the World Health Organisation (WHO). He has pardoned nearly 1,600 of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on his behalf on January 6, 2021.
And, yes, it was rather sad watching Joe Biden, now a former President, fly home on Air Force One for the last time. His was an unfinished presidency, as were the presidencies of John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George HW Bush. Had they each been able to serve for eight years in the White House, politics would have been an enlightened affair for Americans. But enlightenment is not what the world expects from Donald Trump's second term in power.

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