Donald Trump’s pledge-filled speech made him sound like a candidate trying to run up the score.
Donald Trump spent much of the last two years promising that catastrophe would befall the nation if he were to lose the presidential election: World War III. An economic “blood bath.” America practically ceasing to exist.
He opened his second term with the inverse promise that a “golden age” — one that only he can deliver — has begun simply by virtue of his return.
In his 29-minute Inaugural Address, Trump promised to defeat inflation and to “end the chronic disease epidemic.” He promised national power so great that it could “stop all wars,” and expand the nation’s territory. He even promised to “restore American promise.”
He did not actually promise the moon. But he did promise to plant an American flag on Mars.
It was a speech by a lifelong marketer who has long seen sweeping promises as his political bread and butter, well aware of their power to fire up his base whether or not he fulfilled them — and well aware that his supporters don’t always expect him to. His first-term promise to build a wall paid for by Mexico, for example, defined him politically and changed the terms of the nation’s immigration debate, even though it never came to pass.
“After all we have been through together,” he said on Monday, “we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history.”
Trump is a man who has been running for president almost constantly since 2015. And in a way, his pledge-filled speech on Monday made him sound a lot like a candidate still trying to run up the score. He accused the Biden administration of defending foreign nations and failing to manage crises at home, while his die-hard supporters watched from a downtown Washington arena set up exactly like a campaign rally.