Trump hits the ground running but it won’t be easy

After his astounding political comeback, few will be surprised that in almost the first words of his inaugural address on Tuesday Donald Trump chose to declare “the golden age of America begins right now … from this moment on, America’s decline is over”. That is undoubtedly what he and the 77 million Make America Great Again supporters who voted for him in November fervently believe. It’s what they wanted to hear. And not just them – many who did not vote for Mr Trump will also have taken heart from the powerful message of sun-kissed aspiration and optimism the new US President and leader of the free world delivered as he maintained, without so much as a blush, that “I was saved by God to make America great again”.

His address came as a welcome change, however, after four years of dithering in the White House under hapless Joe Biden. But it also came as no less a welcome contrast to the dark, dystopian “American carnage” address Mr Trump delivered when he was inaugurated for his first term in 2017. That could not be more encouraging for America and its allies as the White House begins a new term under much-needed new management.

As one commentator noted, Mr Trump’s speech on Tuesday “was more Elon Musk and much less Steve Bannon”, and all the better for it. The second Trump incumbency is off to a good start few would have thought possible amid the rancour and deep division that surrounded the election.

Mr Trump being Mr Trump, nothing can be taken for granted. Uncertainty and unpredictability prevail, as it always does in Trumpworld. But even he must have realised by now that what America desperately needs if it is to achieve the “great again” goal he wants is sensible, coherent policies and strong leadership that unites a deeply troubled nation at a time of immense domestic and international challenge.

Mr Trump’s inauguration was itself a hopeful sign of the unity that is needed. Mr Biden and outgoing vice-president Kamala Harris, along with previous presidents and vice-presidents, friend and foe alike, were, to their credit, present, civilly and respectfully playing their part in the constitutional process of handing over power in the world’s most powerful democracy to Mr Trump. They did what he refused to do in 2021.

Mr Trump, in his inaugural address, outlined themes and actions that will define his first 100 days. They include the declaration of a “national emergency” on the US-Mexican border as he pulls the starter’s trigger on what he promises will be the ruthless mass deportation of “millions” of unwanted migrants. The practicalities of doing so look daunting. So do the potential global implications of his pledge to persist with imposing heavy trade tariffs to “protect American workers and their families”.

Global crises loom. His restated determination to reimpose US control over the vital Panama Canal, which he insisted is under increasing Chinese domination, is likely to prove no less challenging. And it should be a matter of profound concern to Western democracies that while he was voluble on the Middle East, he was ominously silent about the war in Ukraine.

Mr Trump, as Adam Creighton reported, “projected massive power, speaking in front of perhaps the greatest concentration of wealth and power to ever appear in one place”, including not just Mr Musk but also billionaires Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and the chief executives of Apple and Google.

The challenge for Mr Trump is to show over the next four years that he has the discipline and ability to fulfil his grandiose rhetoric. It won’t be easy.