No transition from campaign Trump to presidential Trump

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk near the White House in the inaugural parade. Picture: AP

Donald Trump answered one big question with his inauguration address. There is to be no transition from campaign Trump to presidential Trump.

Donald Trump is always Donald Trump. This consistency is perhaps his chief virtue.

And his inauguration address made it clear that he intends to govern just as he campaigned, taking swings at his opponents, extolling his populist mantras, speaking in the slightly weird argot of contemporary down market celebrity.

Every now and again he tried a presidential locution: “From this day forward” and the like.

But it sounded odd, as though he were reading quotes from a foreign dialect.

It was much more the Trump metier when he spoke of “the carnage” of lost jobs, when he complained that “we’ve spent trillions defending other nations’s borders while refusing to defend our own”.

As with most populists, it is impossible to reconcile all the different parts of the Donald’s pitch.

From the day forward it’s going to be America first, hire America, but America, only act internationally to advantage America.

Ok, fair enough, but then: “We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones”, which means there’s got to be something in this for foreigners as well.

Some of his promises are a bit unbelievable: “We’re going to bring back jobs”.

That’s OK if it means create new jobs, but if he means he’s going to bring back masses of manufacturing jobs which have been lost to technology much more than to trade, it’s hard to know how it can possibly happen.

Donald Trump inauguration

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And certainly you could never accuse Trump of under statement.

As in: “We’re going to unite against radical Islamic extremism which we will eradicate completely from the face of the earth.”

Eradicate completely?

How on God’s green earth is he going to do that?

The day brought happy news though, too.

The estimable General Jim Mattis has been formally confirmed as Defence Secretary.

With his heavyweight cabinet picks, like Mattis, it’s as if Trump has recognised that he needs adult supervision.

Or maybe there is a thread of superior knowledge in understanding that a modern administration has to be a three ring circus, with something for everyone and all of its parts not necessarily in perfect unity but heading generally heading in the same direction.

Of course, nothing makes Trump look better than his enemies.

The Democrats who stayed away from the inauguration, the protesters who smashed shops and engaged in violence, they remain a formidable Trump asset.

You couldn’t possibly begrudge Trump the obvious happiness that he and his family felt on their historic day. His achievement has defied every single prediction.

But he is going to need all the unconscious help his opponents can give him if he is to prosper in the White House.