We should ask: is sunlight pouring all over the world with Trump 2.0? While American exceptionalism may sound like good music to the ears of most Americans, particularly fans of Trump’s agenda, it sounds ominous to the rest of the world, as Trump’s speech was underscored by threats of possible and likely American expansionism, casting America’s superior power as a threat to the global order. For Nigerians who think that a public profession of faith means something, President Trump, for their information, refused to place his hands on any Bible…
The most important global event yesterday, 20 January, was the inauguration of Donald J Trump, the 45th president of the United States, now as the 47th president of the United States in what has been correctly described as his second coming. Trump’s second coming should be taken in this literal sense, the United States allowing for a possible two terms in office as the limit for any president, in line with the 22nd Amendment (1951) of the United States Constitution. With his landslide victory in the 5 November, 2024 election, in which he defeated Democratic late-comer-to-the-race, Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump was assuredly on his way to serving his second and final term as president and that process reached its climax yesterday. The only president that served more than two terms was Franklin D Roosevelt, who ran for the presidency and won four times (1933-1945), before Americans embraced the wisdom of George Washington (US founding father and first president) that any president serving more than two terms was likely to become a king or an emperor. Trump’s return to the White House is reminiscent of the example of Grover Cleveland, who served a term like Trump (1885-1889) as 22nd president, lost re-election like Trump and then won re-election four years later (1893 – 1897) to become 24th president.
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History turned full circle and repeated itself yesterday more than a century later with Trump being the second president in American history to be elected for two non-consecutive terms. History was also made with Trump at 78 years, 220 days becoming the oldest president ever inaugurated, over 100 days older than Senator Joe Biden was when he became president in January 2021. By the time he completes his term four years from now, Trump will be 82. He is also the first convicted felon to occupy the White House, having been found guilty of 34 counts of felony in the Stormy Daniel, hush money, record-falsification case. Curiously, Grover Cleveland, the first democrat elected after the civil war, was also embroiled in allegations of sexual assault and violence from a woman named Maria Halpin. It would be quite a long shot to assume that Trump is a reincarnate of Grover Cleveland, in the same manner as students of soul evolution have tried to establish similarities and connections between Abraham Lincoln and JF Kennedy. Nor can the phrase, “the second coming of Trump,” be interpreted in a Christian eschatological sense.
With all his right-wing, hardline conservative rhetoric, however, Trump is not the messianic figure who will bring about a new heaven, a new earth and a new Jerusalem that his supporters and fans envision him to be. “Donald Trump’s Disruption is Back…He’s Back” says Time magazine, with an illustration showing President Biden’s aviator sunglasses being swiped off the Resolute Desk. Nothing could be more apt, again very much like the official portrait of the 47th president, unsmiling – the smile in the 2016 official portrait having been wiped off and replaced with a gangster-style, fiendish look, with a scowl. The portrait looks like a mug shot and one body language expert has observed that the simple language of the picture is that Trump is on a revenge mission. He is back to take a pound of flesh. Trump is not the messiah; he is Nietzsche’s change agent: the Super Man who revels in his own sense of importance. Trump has promised that he will “make heads spin on his first day back in office”, and really heads started spinning long before he made his improbable comeback now a reality. Last Sunday, he posted memes on Truth Social, including one that says: “Not elected to be nice. Elected to get results.”
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This process of getting results began over the weekend with President Trump relocating to Washington DC, in preparation for his inauguration on Monday, 20 January. On Saturday, he held a party at his golf club in Sterling, Virginia, featuring an Elvis Presley impersonator and fireworks display. Saturday night, he slept at the Blair House, the president’s official guest residence on Pennsylvania Avenue, across the street from the White House. On Sunday, he held a rally ahead of the inauguration to remind everyone obviously that he was back in town and he was going to plant the Republican and the Trumpian flag in Washington DC, again. Trump was not new to the symbolism nor the imagism but he needed to drive home the point. The glorious moment eventually came yesterday and it was quite an impressive ceremony. The inauguration of the 47th president was held indoors due to freezing temperatures outdoors. The weather yesterday was -5 Celsius in the same city, on the same grounds. In 1961, President John Kennedy was inaugurated amid -22 Celsius, but the weather can be cruel, and climate change has been the cruellest of all things over the years, after all the poets, not one, not two but about four are of the view that “winter is the cruellest month.” I have no objections to the Trump inauguration being held indoors, with about 750 persons in attendance. It was however most ironic that the ceremony was held in the same high sandstone hall at the Capitol’s Centre where Trump’s supporters broke in and rioted on 6 January, 2021 in an attempt to overturn America’s democracy. In 2021, the same Trump supporters held America hostage. Their man, who threatened to hold America by the jugular, returned yesterday. “Oh! America.”
He accused the democrats of a horrible betrayal of our people. “All of this will change starting today,” he bellowed. He threatened to change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and take back the Panama Canal, which he called “a foolish gift” to Panama. He declared that he would be “a peacemaker and a unifier,” and that under his watch, America will be the most respected nation in the world. He wants to build a society that is colour-blind and marriage based.
This was much clear when Senator Amy Klobucher (D-Minnesota), chairwoman of the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural ceremonies, in declaring the ceremonies open and welcoming everyone, talked again and again about “peaceful transfer of power at the heart of our democracy”, our enduring democracy, and how the “Capitol is the people’s home”, and the responsibility of citizenship not to seek malice. Yesterday, Americans celebrated 250 years of democracy and the 60th presidential inauguration ceremony, but I could not miss the additional point made by Senator Deb Fisher (R- Nebraska) about “the prominence of a people through change.” Again, it was all about the American people, putting back to power a man whose supporters, in the same space, desecrated the people’s yearning for change. Senators Klobuchar and Fisher may have been passing a message or a set of subliminal messages across, but the point is that democracy is what it is: It provides the people an opportunity to make a choice, and even if they make a wrong choice, it is up to the people to either defend or reject their own choice, not for anyone to dictate to them. President Trump was applauded again and again after being sworn in as president, and there was a crowd of enthusiastic cheer leaders at the Capitol Arena hailing the new chief.
It was a symbolic, impressive moment, but it was also a prayerful moment as well, from the invocations of Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York to Reverend Franklin Graham, president and CEO, Samaritan’s Place, who delivered the opening prayers. And the Benedictions by Rabbi Dr Ari Berman of the Yeshiva University; Reverend Lorenzo Sevell, senior pastor of 180 Church, West Detroit; and Reverend Frank Mann of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, New York. Reverend Sevell from West Detroit made quite an impression. Trump’s inauguration coincided with the Martin Luther King week. King was a champion of freedom, justice and equality. Brother Sevell understood the assignment. He spoke about freedom and equality and evoked memories of Black America’s struggle for freedom. This was clearly in line with the tone that was further echoed in Donald J Trump’s second inaugural speech, and perhaps the bigger poignant moment at the main event for me was the rendition of “America, the beautiful” by Carrie Underwood, after what looked like a brief impasse of awkwardness in an otherwise beautifully organised, well-choreographed event. But, of course, the main moment anyway was President Donald Trump’s speech. Well crafted. Well delivered. Good nuance. A fiery speech. It was a combination of sharp, cruel jabs at the outgoing administration and a promise that America will do better under Trump.
He accused the democrats of a horrible betrayal of our people. “All of this will change starting today,” he bellowed. He threatened to change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and take back the Panama Canal, which he called “a foolish gift” to Panama. He declared that he would be “a peacemaker and a unifier,” and that under his watch, America will be the most respected nation in the world. He wants to build a society that is colour-blind and marriage based. “There are only two genders – male and female, and that will be US state policy, and those who rejected COVID mandate will be reinstated with full back pay.” He wants to overhaul America’s trade system and impose tariffs and taxes to “enrich our country” by setting up an External Revenue Service. His words as I heard them: Confidence. Effectiveness. Exceptionalism. He wants America to be a manufacturing country again, the largest oil and gas nation, that will build automobiles. He will announce a national emergency to drill. Drug cartels will be classified as terrorist organisations. All illegal entries will be halted. “And we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came.” Those coming from Mexico must remain in Mexico, as all foreign gangs will immediately be eliminated. On inflation, President Trump said he will “direct all members of my cabinet… to defeat what was record inflation”. He lied in that regard though. US inflation was not record-inflation under President Biden. I watched President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ body language as the delivery progressed. The only time I saw them standing up and applauding was when Trump touched on the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East. In any case, Trump promised what he called “the revolution of common sense.”
In terms of optics, the ceremony did not disappoint. Trump, a friend of rich America, did not disappoint in particular, as some of the world’s richest persons got the best sitting positions: Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk, with the room reeking of capital, wealth, power, and influence. The CEOs of the tech giants had reportedly donated as much as a minimum of a million dollar each to support the inauguration. Musk, the world’s richest man, was so excited he told the audience at the Capital One Arena, where there was a more elaborate parade, that Trump’s win is “no ordinary win, this was a fork in the road of human civiliaation” and that “the future of civiliaation is assured”. He echoed Trump’s sentiment that now is the time “to plant the Stripes and Stars on the planet Mars.”
Trump’s tone was, in turns, dark, staid, and aggressive. He insisted in a second speech that he won the election in 2020. As he spoke, members of his far-right Proud Boys group, the J6 gang, paraded around the streets of Washington. They expect him to pardon their members who have been convicted for the January assault on the Capitol. And he has promised that he will. He was confident that he would save America.
Trump’s tone was, in turns, dark, staid, and aggressive. He insisted in a second speech that he won the election in 2020. As he spoke, members of his far-right Proud Boys group, the J6 gang, paraded around the streets of Washington. They expect him to pardon their members who have been convicted for the January assault on the Capitol. And he has promised that he will. He was confident that he would save America. “From this moment on, the decline of America is over… I return to the Presidency confident and optimistic that we are at the start of a thrilling new era of national success. A tide of change is sweeping the country. Sunlight is pouring over the entire world. And America has the chance to seize this opportunity like never before”.
We should ask: is sunlight pouring all over the world with Trump 2.0? While American exceptionalism may sound like good music to the ears of most Americans, particularly fans of Trump’s agenda, it sounds ominous to the rest of the world, as Trump’s speech was underscored by threats of possible and likely American expansionism, casting America’s superior power as a threat to the global order. For Nigerians who think that a public profession of faith means something, President Trump, for their information, refused to place his hands on any Bible: his mother’s Bible and the 1861 Lincoln Bible, held by his wife, Melania, while he took his oath of office. President Jose Raul Mulino of Panama says he must “comprehensively reject the words of President Donald Trump“ because “the canal is and will remain Panama’s.” Beyond Panama, it is the entire world that is panicking, from Greenland to Russia, to Ukraine, to Canada, which Trump has boasted will be turned into the 51st state of the United States, to Africa, the European Union and Asia. Trump may be determined to make America great again, but it would be a sad development if the world were to become a smaller place under his influence. America gets a new president; the world is quaking. It is a poor foreboding.
No one is even sure of what the future holds for America within its own borders. In the last moments of his Presidency, Joe Biden had to grant unprecedented, preemptive, pardons to persons that he thinks may be targeted by the second coming of a man on a revenge mission. Those pardoned are essentially prominent critics of Donald Trump, including Dr Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease for more than a decade, who defended COVID protections; former Representative Liz Cheney who condemned Trump; members of Congress who served on the committee that investigated the 6 January, 2021 insurrection; as well as close members of the Biden family and their spouses who could be targeted by Trump. The mere fact that a group of persons needed to be shielded, even when they have not been held liable for any specific crime, ahead of the inauguration of a new administration in the United States, is a loud, sub-textual comment on the status of American democracy and its immediate future.
Reuben Abati, a former presidential spokesperson, writes from Lagos.
