President Donald Trump was sworn in Friday. CNN contributors and analysts offered these assessments of the 45th president’s inauguration. The opinions expressed in these commentaries are solely those of the authors.
Lanhee Chen: Trump’s message — I won’t change
Donald Trump’s inaugural address was classic Trump. It showed remarkable consistency with the themes and language that he used on the campaign trail last year — up to his closing assertion that we will “make America great again.” And it reiterated the basic policy promises that he made during his campaign: a tough stance on immigration; an “America first” foreign policy; and a deep skepticism toward free trade.
Trump reminded us that he isn’t a garden-variety Republican. And showed that he will be willing to break from his party’s orthodoxy when it clashes with his populist sensibilities.
The speech was indeed targeted at those who supported him during the campaign, but it also sent a strong and important message to those who did not — the message that we should not expect Trump to change just because he’s been sworn in as our new president.
Lanhee J. Chen is a CNN political commentator and the David and Diane Steffy Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He served as the policy director on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign and was a senior aide at the US Department of Health and Human Services during the George W. Bush administration.
Roxanne Jones: America’s other face
No day in our nation feels more patriotic than Inauguration Day — the Marine Marching Band, the past presidents, politicians and power brokers braving the cold to flock to our nation’s capital. But it was hard not to look at the sea of white faces in the crowd, gathered for President Donald J. Trump’s swearing-in, and not see represented a shockingly different America than we saw on this same day eight years ago when President Barack Obama was sworn in. In fact, this was the whitest inauguration I’ve witnessed in my lifetime.
Still, I believe Trump when he said we are all one nation with one home, one heart and one shared destiny. Harder to believe his vow to end “right now”crime, drugs, failing schools and political corruption. Trump promised to bring back jobs, build new airports, tunnels and roads. Lofty words for a pep rally, but any realistic person knows no president can wave a magic wand and fix all of these problems immediately — especially if we spend all of our time focusing on the politics of protectionism and fearing our neighbors around the world because they don’t look or pray like us.
Politics aside, I want President Trump to make me proud. We all deserve this. But on this rainy winter day, somehow it seemed ominous that instead of looking toward America’s bright future with optimism, nearly every speaker focused on how we were witnessing “a peaceful transition of power,” as if this is the best thing we can offer the world on this day. We’ll have to do much better than that if we seek to Make America Great Again.
Roxanne Jones, a founding editor of ESPN Magazine and former vice president at ESPN, has worked as a producer, reporter and editor at the New York Daily News and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Jones is co-author of “Say it Loud: An Illustrated History of the Black Athlete.” She talks politics, sports and culture weekly on Philadelphia’s 900AM-WURD.
Mark Bauerlein: A restoration of popular will
Well, the unthinkable is complete — that is, the unthinkable as seen by my professor colleagues across the country and by millennials on campus and off. President Trump’s inauguration speech likely only confirmed their incredulity.
He didn’t soften one bit — no toning down, no conciliation. A “small group” of DC politicians have sold out the American people, he thundered. They have pursued their own interests and ignored the citizens they were supposed to represent, but “you will never be ignored again,” he promised. They have enriched the world and impoverished their own constituents, but “a nation exists to serve its citizens,” not the citizens of other countries.
The contentious manner doesn’t bother me. It is necessary to the great civic meaning of America. As Walt Whitman put it 160 years ago, “The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures . . . but always most in the common people.” He praised “the terrible significance of their elections — the President’s taking off his hat to them, not they to him.”
President Trump is squarely in this tradition. In the last half century, the sovereignty of the people has steadily been eroded by unelected judges and government bureaucrats. They feel that the government increasingly tells them what to do and what to think.
Trump is a restoration of popular will, and the evidence of today’s words shows that he isn’t going to curb his anti-establishment populism one bit.
Mark Bauerlein is a professor of English at Emory University, senior editor of the journal “First Things” and author of “The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future; Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30.”
David Andelman: A warning for the rest of the world
The world was watching, but got little comfort from Donald Trump’s inaugural address. The theme was quite clearly stated: “We are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, in every hall of power,” President Trump proclaimed, “From this day forward it’s going to be only America first.”
The message was calculated to spread fear among so many of the traditional friends of the United States, who have sheltered for decades under its protective umbrella.
Those days may be very much in the rear view mirror. “We’ve defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own,” was a potentially dire warning. One unspoken issue, however, is that as he arrives in office as the least popular president in modern history, how much real traction will he have in many corners of the world to make good on what could only be seen as a threat rather than an open hand of friendship? Still, the new president concluded with a note of hope: “We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones.” Provided, of course, one is not antithetical to the other. So much to explore in the new era to come.
David A. Andelman, editor emeritus of World Policy Journal and member of the board of contributors of USA Today, is the author of “A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today.” Follow him on Twitter @DavidAndelman.
Alice Stewart: An inspirational message of unity
It was Donald J. Trump being sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, but from where I stood amidst the crowd, people heard and felt his message that “today is the day the people became the rulers of this country.”
President Trump’s inaugural speech was inspirational. Many took comfort in his commitment that “the forgotten people will be forgotten no longer.”
The first step in “The Art of the Deal” is to “think big;” President Trump took that one step further as he inspired the crowd with the words “Think big, dream even bigger.”
As he inherits a country that is deeply divided, President Trump called for unity; reminding citizens that no matter the color of their skin, “we all bleed the same red blood of patriotism.”
Thomas Jefferson made a similar plea for unity in his inaugural address in 1800, stating, “every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.”
That same sentiment holds true today. President Trump reminded us “when America is united, it is unstoppable.”
With gratitude to the grace of President Obama, people across the world were fortunate to witness the hallmark of the American experience — the peaceful transfer of power.
I expect great things as President Trump puts his inaugural talk into action.
Alice Stewart is a CNN political contributor and former communications director for Ted Cruz for President.
Michael Nutter: Now reach for hope — to overcome this fear
I’m sad and fearful today, not just because a great President is leaving office after performing his duties with excellence for eight years, but because there is virtually no indication that the incoming President is actually ready to lead, to inspire, to empathize, to focus, to mature, to change, to act responsibly and to truly understand the power, duty and responsibility of his new position.
Today feels like the final episode of a reality TV show, and that tomorrow we’ll all just watch something different to entertain us. Well, today is real, an election did happen, the peaceful transfer of power is complete, America is still strong and we will move on with our lives.
It’s been said that hope is the only thing stronger than fear. I plan to use my unending hope in America to overcome my fears about our new President. I would encourage America and the world to do the same.
Michael A. Nutter is the former mayor of Philadelphia, a commentator on CNN, and professor at Columbia University/School of International and Public Affairs.
Raul Reyes: Trump’s missed opportunity
Donald Trump’s inaugural festivities left a lot to be desired. Instead of the record-breaking crowds he predicted, there were wide swaths of the Mall in Washington, D.C. that were empty. Along with the procession of dignitaries and political leaders, there was split-screen coverage of protesters, representing the majority of Americans who did not vote for Trump.
The new president himself seemed to scowl through many of the activities. And it rained. As Trump himself might have described this inaugural, it was “sad.”
It is unfair, though, to blame Trump for the poor turnout and gloomy skies. Yet at his first moment in the national spotlight as President, Trump proved a huge disappointment. He gave a speech that was dark, pessimistic, and at times ultranationalistic. “Washington flourished while the people did not… the establishment protected itself,” he declared angrily, before the assembled members of the Washington establishment.
The stridently populist tone was ironic coming from a leader who has stocked his Cabinet with billionaires and Goldman Sachs alumni. Much of his speech could be seen as a rebuke to the lawmakers in attendance, including former President Obama, as Trump recited a laundry list of what he thought was wrong with America: crime (actually down in the US), drugs, illegal immigration (also down). As he was throughout his campaign, Trump on the inaugural platform was still full of putdowns.
What was notably missing from Trump’s speech is what Americans of all political affiliations crave at such historic moments: optimism and a vision for the future. The closest Trump got was exclaiming that “America First” would be his guiding principle, a phrase that carries ugly echoes of an isolationist, anti-Semitic movement that urged the US to appease Hitler during World War II. His call to “protect our border from the ravages of other countries” could be seen as playing to the xenophobia of many of his supporters.
On this pivotal day, Trump did not likely win over one viewer or listener who was not already a supporter.
Where was the sincere attempt to bring the country together? Where was the grace or humility as he assumed the presidency? What viewers received, instead, was a mashup of the speeches that Trump used to rally the base that — along with the Electoral College and possibly Russia — helped put him in power. Trump’s speech was more divisive rhetoric from the least-popular incoming president in modern history. This was a tremendous lost opportunity, all because Trump cannot seem to grasp that the campaign is over.
Raul A. Reyes, an attorney and member of USA Today’s board of contributors, writes frequently for CNN Opinion. Follow him on Twitter @RaulAReyes.