Donald Trump returns to the White House with a more nationalist, optimistic, and less labor-oriented tone than eight years ago when he first became President of the United States. On Monday, the President delivered an inauguration speech that seemed more like an electoral promises rally focused on the absolute independence of the United States from unspecified forces. "January 20, 2025, will be remembered as the day of the liberation of the United States," Trump declared. The closing words of his speech were a clear statement of intent: "Nothing will stand in our way because we are Americans, the future is ours, and the golden era has just begun."
It could almost be said that, if not for his usual ferocity towards the rest of the world and his political rivals - although not naming them - Trump's unusual message of hope was almost Reagan-esque. "At this moment, the decline of the United States has ended." "Our freedoms and our glorious destiny will never be denied to us again." "We will prevail, and we will be greater than we have ever been." "The United States will be respected and admired again." He also mentioned that "God" saved his life to "make America great again" and that the "revolution of common sense" is beginning.
These statements clearly conveyed an optimistic message, far removed from the "American carnage" Trump spoke of in his first inauguration speech in 2017, referring to the crisis of the middle class that, almost ten years later, still faces the same issues of low life expectancy, drug addiction, poverty, and lack of access to healthcare, and continues to vote for Trump. Although those surrounding the President at the Capitol were the wealthiest men in the world. Three of them, who were chatting amicably before the ceremony - Elon Musk of Tesla, SpaceX, and X; Jeff Bezos of Amazon and Blue Origin; and Mark Zuckerberg of Meta - alone accumulate a wealth of 877 billion euros, equivalent to four million middle-class American families.
Near them was the financier John Paulson, who earned 4 billion euros in just 2008 by betting on the collapse of the real estate market and unsuccessfully vied for the position of Treasury Secretary under Trump. More discreet was Shou Chew, the CEO of the Chinese social network TikTok, which Trump has pledged to keep in the United States despite concerns about its role as a spying tool for the Communist Party of that country.
Perhaps the massive presence of business leaders and billionaires is a sign that, when choosing between the two pillars of his power - big capital and the working classes - the President has opted to maintain a rhetoric favorable to the latter but a policy close to the former. What is certain is that the Trump of 2025, even more than in 2017, is not anti-establishment, at least concerning money. In his message, he only attacked political and social elites. He did not mention outsourcing of companies or falling real wages. He only vaguely promised to control inflation without specifying how it will be achieved.
There were no references to the rest of the world, with one exception - Panama, which was harshly criticized - although China, represented by its Vice President, Hang Zhen, was indirectly targeted through its presence in that Central American country. Trump declared, in an unprecedented statement - especially given the institutional importance of the speech - that "we will take it back," referring to the Panama Canal that crosses the country and connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The President did not specify whether this would be done peacefully or violently. The Republican Party has introduced a bill in the House of Representatives to force Panama to hand over the Canal to the United States for one dollar, the symbolic price Washington paid in 1999 when it returned it to Panama.
Trump reinforced his demand for the return of the Canal with blatant lies, such as claiming that 38,000 Americans died during its construction, when in reality, there were few U.S. citizens involved, and most of the victims were in another attempt to build the waterway by France. Other falsehoods include that "American ships are overpaying" to cross the Canal, and that "we gave it to Panama, not to China."
A Chinese company, Hutchinson, has operated the Panama Canal since 1997, when the Canal was still U.S. territory, adding an even more astonishing twist to Trump's demand, and their contract extends until 2047. The Panamanian President, José Raúl Mulino, responded to Trump that "the Canal is and will remain Panama's." Interestingly, Panama is a country literally created by the U.S. Navy to build that waterway. The last U.S. invasion of that nation took place exactly 35 years ago.
The reference to Panama - and indirectly to China's alleged role in the Canal - was Trump's only mention of events outside the United States. Trump, who had promised on numerous occasions to end the war in Ukraine "in 24 hours," did not mention it. Nor did he address the eternal conflict in the Middle East, where he and his family have strong political, personal, and business alliances with Israel and most Gulf countries. There was not a single mention of the technological race with China, Taiwan, demands for increased defense spending by other NATO countries, or Cuba or Venezuela, despite the massive support from immigrants and exiles from both countries for the President.
Many of the United States' allies, such as Canada, which Trump threatened to annex, or Denmark, whose territory of Greenland he also wanted to acquire, probably breathed a sigh of relief at the omission. There were some nationalist details aimed at irritating more than one, such as the decision to rename the "Gulf of Mexico" as the "Gulf of the United States," which elicited a visible laugh from Hillary Clinton, one of the honored guests at the ceremony as the former First Lady.
A notable absence from the speech was tariffs, possibly because Trump still needs to refine them to avoid causing inflation spikes, a decline in U.S. economic growth, or harm to his major allies on Wall Street and Silicon Valley, who were well represented - especially the latter - in the Capitol Rotunda where the event took place. The President declared that he would end the "electric car mandate, so that everyone can buy the car they want," which could be interpreted as a blow to his ally Elon Musk, owner of Tesla. However, there is no "mandate" in the U.S. to buy electric cars, and most related legislation comes from states, not the federal government. Trump also stated that he would "plant the stars and stripes," referring to the U.S. flag, on Mars. Musk's space travel company, SpaceX, is the entity most advanced in a project to reach that planet.
Despite the electoral nature of the speech, Trump announced that he was going to create a new Public Treasury, now to collect revenues from the tariffs he will charge for the import of foreign goods and services. The President presented his original proposal as a strategy to "instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will impose tariffs and tax other countries to enrich our citizens."