Donald Trump began his presidency as he ran his campaign \u2013 with blunt, searing talk about a crippled nation in dire need of bold, immediate action. His inaugural address broke with those that came before it. This, he made clear in case anyone had not yet gotten it, will be a very different presidency.
Standing on a platform with much of the Washington establishment, he tore into the people who have run the country. He spurned the poetry and grandeur of most inaugural speeches and instead delivered a rallying cry, remniscent of his stream-of-consciousness campaign talks, brimming with brash bravado about his intention to bring massive change: \u201cThis American carnage stops right here and stops right now.\u201d
\u201cThis was pure Trump, just a declaration of war against the Washington establishment and President Obama,\u201d said Craig Shirley, author of books on Ronald Reagan and a Republican political consultant. \u201cIt was not the usual call for togetherness; it was Trumpism, the speech of a businessman \u2013 problems and solutions, very utilitarian.\u201d
After a quick nod to his predecessors, Trump launched immediately into a fiery recitation of the ills of a nation that he has long described in apocalyptic terms \u2013 a crippled, hollowed nation in need of immediate, intensive care.
Trump portrayed the source of the country\u2019s problems as the government he now leads. \u201cFor too long, a small group in our nation\u2019s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost,\u201d he said. \u201cPoliticians prospered \u2013 but the jobs left, and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country.\u201d
Trump had promised for nearly a year that when the time came, he would pivot to a style he called \u201cpresidential.\u201d But his speech made clear that he intends to govern as he campaigned, in direct communion with his followers, bypassing the usual niceties and channels of power.
\u201cThis was a campaign speech,\u201d said Elvin Lim, a political scientist at the National University of Singapore who has written extensively on inaugural addresses. \u201cThis is a big break from the inaugural tradition: where others have emphasized continuity, he stressed that this is a sharp break with everything that has come before.\u201d
Trump said in recent days that he was inspired by the inaugural addresses of John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. But there were few echoes of their poetic, uniting rhetoric in Trump\u2019s address.
Instead, Trump paid tribute to Franklin Roosevelt\u2019s Depression-era homage to the \u201cforgotten man,\u201d tapped into a bit of Reagan\u2019s language of optimism about American energy and resolve, and included a line that almost directly shadowed Kennedy, promising that at \u201cthe birth of a new millennium,\u201d the nation is \u201cready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries and technologies of tomorrow.\u201d
But this was no occasion for eloquence or abstract ambition, Trump made clear. Rather, this was, as Lim said, \u201ca defiant speech. The inaugural is generally the time to say the campaign is over, but Trump is proving to his supporters that he\u2019s still the same man as he was in the campaign. This is not the usual defense of the Constitution, but a speech about him and the people, that special personal relationship he has built with his supporters.\u201d
Trump has never been a traditional or eloquent orator, and he sometimes scoffed at those who crafted their speeches with artisanal care. He boasted about writing his books on the fly, talking them through with his ghostwriters, believing that plain, punchy language and simple ideas were the best way to build his brand and connect with his audience.
He has always considered himself as much a showman as a businessman, and he inherited his mother\u2019s passion for pageantry and pomp. He believes that straight, plain talk is the best way to cut through popular skepticism about authority and institutions in a troubled era.
Trump made no reference to his party, Congress, or any other means by which he expects to accomplish the sweeping change he promised. Instead, he once again promised that he personally will deliver a national restoration: \u201cI will fight for you with every breath in my body \u2013 and I will never, ever let you down,\u201d he said. \u201cAmerica will start winning again, winning like never before.\u201d
\u201cThere weren\u2019t any memorable, bumper sticker lines,\u201d Shirley said. \u201cEloquence and statesmanship were not what he was going for. This is a break with the past, including with the Republican party and its ideals.\u201d
Trump had said he was modeling his address after his favorites: Kennedy\u2019s short, stirring call in 1961 for Americans to join in common pursuit to \u201cexplore the stars, conquer the deserts . and encourage the arts and commerce,\u201d and Reagan\u2019s gracious but blunt 1981 speech, perhaps the first inaugural oration to include a moving anecdote about an ordinary American.
Kennedy reached in nearly every paragraph for poetry and posterity. He hit time-honored themes of unity (\u201cDivided, there is little we can do\u201d) and change (\u201cthe torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans,\u201d) but he also went big from the start, challenging the nation to confront the horrifying prospect of nuclear annihilation and to contemplate the possibility of eliminating human poverty.
Reagan\u2019s first inaugural is remembered mainly for its tone-setting catchphrase, \u201cgovernment is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.\u201d But Reagan\u2019s full speech was a masterful blend of velvet and hammer: A frank critique of the nation\u2019s malaise, \u201can economic affliction of great proportions\u201d but also a warning that \u201cprogress may be slow \u2013 measured in inches and feet, not miles.\u201d
Trump offered no such cautions. He promised to \u201ceradicate completely from the face of the earth. . radical Islamic terrorism,\u201d and he repeatedly swore allegiance to Charles Lindbergh\u2019s \u201cAmerica First\u201d theme, stating that he will \u201cfollow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American.\u201d
\u201cThis was a speech dedicated almost only to people who voted for him,\u201d Lim said. \u201cThe inaugural is generally used to heal wounds, but he barely went there.\u201d
Trump did say that \u201cWhen America is united, America is totally unstoppable.\u201d
His central message for his presidency was a near-perfect copy of the core of his campaign, a resolute belief that America is severely damaged and only Trump can fix it. \u201cThe time for empty talk is over,\u201d he said. \u201cNow arrives the hour of action.\u201d
Were you interviewed for this story? If so, please fill out our accuracy form
Send questions\/comments to the editors.<\/p>\n

\n

\nSimilarity rank: 19\n<\/div>\n

Sentiment rank: 2.5<\/div>\n

\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n