Washington Is Now a Three-Party Town

Matt Purple

Politics,

America’s forty-fifth president views himself as both an embodiment of the national mood and a wrecking ball aimed at the political class.

The two American presidents most alike Donald Trump are Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt (nationalism, hostility towards concentrations of power—that last one is more apt than you think). Yet if you’re looking for similarities to President Trump’s maiden speech on Friday, you’ll comb through Jackson’s and Roosevelt’s inaugural addresses in vain. Jackson’s are surprisingly delicate statements of political theory, including a pledge to “keep steadily in view the limitations as well as the extent of the Executive power.” Roosevelt’s are more sweeping, but still humble, with a focus on Americans’ “duties to others and duties to ourselves.”

Trump’s inaugural address, in contrast, was replete with litanies of what government owes its people, almost all of which it’s been failing to provide. At first, the speech sounded like it might be Reaganesque: “For too long,” Trump began, “a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the costs.” Cut to Dick Cheney in his ubiquitous cowboy hat sitting next to Hillary Clinton, charter members of that aforementioned small group. Presidential inaugurations are a weird American blend of political aristocracy, martial mystique, and soapbox speechifying; Trump’s was, too, though with more of the third element than usual.

Alas, the speech quickly took a dark turn, albeit with some artful flourishes. Our economy, according to Trump, is plagued by “rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our nation.” Crime and gang violence constitute “American carnage.” The United States was painted not in the bright hues visible from a top-dollar townhouse in Friendship Heights, but the drab grays that our newest president sees smudged across the heartland. Trump was bleak, though not nearly as bleak as during his jeremiad at the Republican National Convention. He was also hopeful, with the usual promise of salvation provided he’s allowed to exercise untrammeled power.