Breathtaking: There’s no other word for the sheer ambition and scope of President Donald Trump’s second inaugural address.
Trump is back, with all the confidence of a man delivered from death for a purpose.
Voters saved his political life and legacy by reelecting him in the face of every accusation and criminal charge against him.
Trump has been given a second chance — by God and the country alike — and his address left no doubt he intends to use it to transform America.
“The future is ours, and our golden age has just begun,” he promised.
Other presidents have struck optimistic notes, but Trump laid out an agenda bolder than any since the New Deal — and the very words of this inaugural address could change Washington, drawing new battle-lines and scrambling old playbooks.
John F. Kennedy pledged to take America to the moon; Trump says we will “plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.”
The president backed away from nothing he vowed on the campaign trail or in the weeks since his re-election.
He described the immigration crisis in the language supporters and opponents alike have come to expect, but probably no one guessed he’d invoke legislation from 1798 regarding “alien enemies” as his authority for a new push against the foreign gangs and criminal groups operating in our country.
And cartels ferrying drugs and human beings across our borders will now officially be designated as terrorist organizations.
There’s even an order to redefine birthright citizenship so the children of illegal immigrants won’t automatically be considered American.
Trump reiterated his belief that Panama has not lived up to its obligations to America concerning the Canal, overcharging our ships for passage and giving China too much influence over this critical strategic waterway.
Yet “fire and fury” wasn’t the theme of Trump’s address.
Quite the contrary: “My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and a unifier,” he said.
Trump’s plans for the military include expunging “radical political theories” and “social experiments” imposed on service members. He also intends to reinstate, with back pay, anyone expelled for refusing the COVID vaccine.
“Our armed forces will be free to focus on their sole mission, defeating America’s enemies,” he announced, along with an aim of rebuilding and strengthening the military.
Yet diplomacy received equal emphasis.
“We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly the wars we never get into,” Trump said.
The speech had terrific turns of phrase reflecting the turnarounds in policy and results Trump promises.
“Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax other countries to enrich our citizens,” he said, heralding the creation of an “External Revenue Service” to collect tariff revenue.
And while Republicans have long criticized gender ideology and DEI, the identity-based policies euphemistically branded as “diversity, equity and inclusion,” Trump declared full-on war against these core progressive commitments of the 21st century.
He reads the election as a referendum on the protection of women’s spaces against intrusion by biological males.
Indeed, before Trump spoke, administration officials briefed reporters on background about how the president’s executive orders would put his vision into effect.
They won’t leave any doubt about what it means to be a woman, for one thing.
For purposes of government documents, including passports and visas, and for the protection of “intimate spaces,” from now on federal agencies will recognize only two innate sexes.
Not a plethora of socially constructed genders.
And although the president didn’t use the words “affirmative action,” his address signaled the entire system of racial preferences and dogmas that identity politics depends on is up for dismantling.
Yes, the president still peppers his prepared remarks with casual asides, but there was no improvisation in the substance of the speech. Trump has a plan, and he told the nation exactly what it is — in detail.
Experience has taught him powerful lessons. Unlike in 2017, this time there will be no waiting on Congress to help set priorities.
Trump feels the wind at his back, and his enemies haven’t yet regrouped from the rout he inflicted on them in November.
The orders he signs will be contested in the courts, of course.
But they’ll also be contested in elections, and Trump seems certain his agenda will win at the ballot box, just as he has.
To be sure, some questions remain.
Like: Can Trump achieve all this with the House of Representatives barely under Republican control?
And: Will the GOP Senate give Trump the backing needed to follow through on what he sees as his popular mandate?
This, however, was the address of a man who dares everything.
Which is what Donald Trump’s supporters want and what his critics most fear.
Daniel McCarthy is the editor of Modern Age: A Conservative Review.
