Trump's American Vision

The new President reverses course on a century of U.S. leadership.

- David Von Drehle

THE INAUGURATION OF A NEW President is always a balance between the national legacy and the promise of a fresh start. It is common for the speaker to try to set himself apart. Nevertheless, when Donald John Trump stood for the first time as the 45th President of the United States in a light rain to deliver his address, he went where no President had gone in more than a century. Trump’s message was not on the order of John F. Kennedy’s torch passing or Ronald Reagan’s declaration that government was the problem. It was not even a 21st century version of Andrew Jackson’s attack on corrupt and incompetent Washington. In 16 mostly harsh, mostly confrontational minutes, Trump laid out a view of America’s destiny and place in the world that would alienate his predecessors dating back to Theodore Roosevelt and beyond.

It may go down as one of the most consequential—or one of the most misleading—speeches in the history of presidential Inaugurations. Newly sworn into office, Trump announced a U-turn in the foreign policy that has defined America’s place in the world for more than 70 years. And while he was at it, he savaged the record and the motives of a large number of the men and women seated around him on the West Front of the Capitol. For all his reputation as a builder, he entered office as a wrecking ball. His choice for Vice President, Mike Pence, and his Cabinet appointments have been sharply conservative, but President Trump’s first message to the world was as radical as they come, and as populist as a pitchfork. If he truly means what he said (always a pertinent question for a fellow who once said he enjoys being compared to P.T. Barnum), Washington is about to become even more rancorous. And the world is in for some very big— and entirely unpredictable—changes.