For starters, a grim inaugural address

Trump’s populism is aimed at some, not all people.

President Donald Trump, moments after delivering a dark, jarring inaugural address, clasped the hand of his predecessor.

“Good job,” former president Barack Obama said, obviously not meaning it. We have a new world order and it looks much different than the vision of Obama and the decades of presidents that came before him.

Trump’s historic address wasn’t much of a shift from his standard campaign stump speech, and that’s what has the world on alert.

Trump took 70 years of American precedent and abdicated our place in the world.

Instead of working with our allies to promote democracy worldwide, it’s now America First — the same nationalist, isolationist theme supported by men like Charles Lindbergh pre-World War II. It was a failure then, yet we’re resurrecting it in an era when technology makes world unity — not isolationism — the best path forward.

Trump’s inaugural address had Steve Bannon, the nationalistic Breitbart News executive turned Trump chief strategist, splattered all over it.

“We will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world, but we do so with understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first,” Trump said.

“We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example.”

For progressive Americans, his entire speech was a turnoff. He didn’t seek to unify or extend an olive branch to the 60-plus percent of the nation that views him unfavorably.

Instead, he gave an address that would have made bomb-tossing president Andrew Jackson proud.

“For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have bore the cost,” he said. “Washington flourished, but the people did not share its wealth. Politicians prospered but the jobs left and the factories closed.”

Never mind that Trump also prospered in that system, but his defiant message was clear and aimed, once again, at the white working class that propelled him to the presidency.

Obama and the Clintons grimaced when Trump gave one of his darkest lines of the day.

“The crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential — this American carnage stops right here and stops right now,” he warned.

If you were looking for an uplifting inaugural address, you needed to dust off the history books.

Populism, which Trump has embraced, is powerful when used for the common good. Teddy Roosevelt was a populist, bringing about change that busted up big business monopolies, regulated food and medicine and protected the environment. He also encouraged immigration and inclusivity.

Trump’s populism is much different. Aside from one line of his speech addressing togetherness — “whether we are black or brown or white, we all bleed from the same red blood of patriots” — he didn’t welcome outsiders. He didn’t touch on human rights or the many minority groups that fear him. The moment he was sworn in to office, the White House website eliminated references to climate change.

His party is already trying to slash health care to tens of millions of Americans without a legitimate plan to cover them. He didn’t alleviate any of those fears in his address. He’s claimed in recent weeks that all Americans will have health care, but unless he bucks his own party, it’s an impossible promise.

Trump’s populism is aimed at some, not all people. And his inaugural address was aimed at those people. If you’re a Trump supporter, you loved the tone.

Stunned Democratic politicians in attendance bare some of the blame. They should’ve been the populist party. They should’ve been speaking to downtrodden Americans — an approach Bernie Sanders attempted.

Democrats went to the other extreme, believing they could win by appealing solely to urban Americans. It almost worked — and any other Democratic candidate besides Hillary Clinton likely would’ve won the election — but the new Trump wing of the GOP ran away with the populist message. Unfortunately, it’s a dark, pessimistic brand of populism when the country is mostly heading in the right direction. It threatens to divide us, instead of unite us.

Trump, who portrays himself as the ultimate winner, has made a great gamble trying to reshape America’s values and standing in the world.

He’ll soon learn that it’s much easier to fight the establishment than create a new one.