He’s right: we’ve never seen his like before
Donald Trump emerged on to the steps of the US Capitol as if he was looking for a fight and, in his mercifully short assault on liberalism and internationalism, he did not disappoint his most strident followers. There was virtually no accepted tenet of the political establishment he chose not to trash, but at least the world can be in little doubt what to expect from his administration. From “this day forth” he declared, the “new vision” will be: “Only America First”.
He used the “P” word explicitly. It is a long time since an American president rejected the benefits of free trade. Mr Trump was at his most combative as he did so. “Protection will lead to prosperity and strength” – when every experience in history suggests that it merely impoverishes all equally. Protection is a false God, a false hope and, ironically, the kind of crooked promise that the supposedly corrupt ranks of the political establishment surrounding him are supposed to offer a hopeful people. It will not in truth make America great again, even if it succeeds for a few years in protecting Americans against economic change, the very market forces that made this bustling entrepreneurial creative society the greatest economic power on earth. Mr Trump, never a man for nuance, did not seem to recognise the irony in what he was saying.
He went on and on, attacking the establishment and the elected politicians around him – the vast majority men and women devoted to public service – in unprecedented terms for an inaugural address. It was more like one of his campaign rallies, and one of the less dignified ones, too. The politicians, he told America, had “prospered” while the factories closed, the jobs disappeared and “forgotten” Americans became poorer. They were more interested in wasting trillions of dollars looking after foreigners than their own people. They were unworthy of respect, was the message, and – more dangerously – so is the system they represent.
For observers abroad, there is little to take comfort from, as protectionism is an easy partner for isolationism. This was the voice of a man who isn’t especially bothered about America defending freedom and human rights around the world. In Europe we will be asked to make more effort to defend ourselves; not an unfair request, but delivered with an unnecessary degree of threat and menace. You get the impression that Donald Trump’s America will not fight for the freedom of Estonia or Poland. And we know what that means.
Mr Trump went beyond patriotism in his speech. He freely invoked crude chauvinism and nationalism. He created scapegoats. He undermined democracy. Once again, he divided America. He is right only in one respect: we have never seen anything like him before.