“America’s golden age begins”: Donald Trump, jubilant, sure of his political power, started his second term on the right, in a nationalist and revanchist tone.
Even messianic.
“God saved me so that I could make America great again,” declared Monday the 45th (2017-2021) and now 47th President of the United States, in reference to an assassination attempt against him this summer.
“The decline of America is over,” assured the Republican, after taking the oath under the dome of the Capitol where the ceremony, which is usually held outside, had been repatriated due to the freezing cold.
Becoming at 78 the oldest American president ever inaugurated, he promised to attack a “corrupt and radical elite”.
– Black felt –
Before unleashing a whirlwind of first measures, all spectacular, sometimes imprecise, often difficult to implement.
The Republican tribune signed the first decrees in front of excited supporters gathered in a room in Washington.
Then he continued in the more cozy setting of the Oval Office, which he returned to with delight.
“What a great feeling,” he said before grabbing one of his favorite black markers and putting his thick signature on the documents handed to him by an advisor.
All while answering questions from the few journalists present for almost fifty minutes, almost as if he had never left the place.
Keeping a promise loaded with political meaning, he pardoned 1,500 people convicted of having attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an attempt to prevent the certification of the victory of his predecessor Joe Biden.
– “Rigged” election –
He once again described these rioters as “hostages”, whom he had inflamed at the time by assuring that the election had been “rigged” – of which he remains convinced, without being able to prove it.
-He took decisions on Monday that were as resounding on the domestic level as they were radical on the diplomatic level.
Donald Trump has suspended the ban on TikTok, decided by Congress in the name of national security. Slammed the door on the Paris climate agreement and the World Health Organization. Declared a state of emergency allowing the army to be mobilized at the border with Mexico, and called into question land law, to fight against illegal immigration.
He affirmed that the United States would no longer recognize “two sexes, male and female” defined at birth, and removed federal aid to strengthen diversity.
Donald Trump, who had mistreated the traditional alliances of the leading world power during his first stint in the White House, took an openly nationalist, and even imperialist, direction.
Invoking the old concept of “manifest destiny”, according to which America would have a natural right to territorial expansion, he promised in his inauguration speech to “plant (the American flag) on the planet Mars”. He also vowed to “take back” the Panama Canal.
– Imperialist –
During his impromptu press conference at the White House, he assured that Denmark was going to “get used to the idea” of abandoning Greenland to the United States, and promised customs duties of 25% for February 1 against Canada and Mexico.
Repeating that he intended to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin soon, he assured that the latter was “destroying” his country by refusing to seal a peace agreement with Ukraine.
His inauguration completes an extraordinary “comeback” which saw the billionaire, in four years, completely gain ascendancy over the Republican Party.
He won uncontested on November 5 against Democrat Kamala Harris, at the end of a campaign of staggering rhetorical violence. The first president convicted of criminal charges, he played on the image of an outlaw to further mobilize his base: his first official photo bears a striking resemblance to his “mugshot”, his famous legal ID photo taken last summer.
His inauguration marked the spectacular rallying of tech multi-billionaires – Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and of course the essential Elon Musk. Everyone attended, in a prominent place, the swearing-in and even a religious service which preceded it.
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