President Trump

At noon today (Eastern Time), Donald John Trump took the oath of office as President of the United States.  He then delivered a brief speech.

 

It was a simple speech, the sort of speech a high school student might write.  It was very like an outline, a skeleton of a speech that lacked the muscle and flesh.  There were no oratorical flourishes, no poetry to it beyond the 'Make America [insert word] Again,' whether that be safe, strong, wealthy, proud, or great.  When one considers how fond Trump is of gold-plating everything he builds, this was a log cabin of a speech.  It was oddly both inclusive - Trump used 'we' 50 times in one of the shortest Inaugural Addresses - and exclusive - Trump hammered the 'establishment' from which 'we' had wrested power.  It was a speech that continued the campaign themes of attacking the government and offered no reconciliation.  He reasserted that "Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families."  The calculus is not as simple as that line proposes but it is a good line for public consumption.  The pacing of the speech was not good.  About 3 quarters of the way through the speech, he said 'Finally' and I thought he was about done.  Nope.  It is not a bad speech but it is not uplifting.  It has some optimism to it but it is also combative.  It was in the style of Hemingway, not Shakespeare.  As such, it fits the man who gave it.