Foreign reactions to President Donald Trump’s inauguration speech bordered on cautious optimism although his words were the most uncompromising of any recent President and he might become one of the most divisive in US history.
Speaking for the first time as President, he seemed to reset the button on his own country’s democracy. At least, he had the merit of being clear and concise without rhetorical oratory.
Americans of all stripes showed dignity today. Some greeted their new President enthusiastically and others grudgingly, but all were gracious. The campaign’s rancor and toxicity were set aside, and arguments and wars of words were postponed for later.
Many would argue that Trump’s read on America as a nation burdened by economic weakness, debilitated middle classes and enfeebled military are large exaggerations. Former President Barack Obama has left a far better and stronger America to Trump than he received from George W. Bush.
The economy is better on almost every measure. The divisiveness during the past year was fueled by Trump, rather than flawed Obama policies.
Trump’s opponents say he is not their President because a significant majority of Americans voted against him. Undoubtedly, they will continue to fight tooth and nail throughout his presidency, starting with the 350,000 protestors today.
Whatever the results and verdicts of historians when the time comes, Trump stuck doggedly to his guns at the inauguration.
Recalling his disaster scenarios during the election campaign, he insisted, “This American carnage stops right here; it stops right now!”
“From this day forward, it is going to be only America first, America first.”
Applause was not too enthusiastic probably because the crowds before him were much smaller than the two million that welcomed Obama on inauguration day in 2009.
But Trump’s speech had the merit of sticking to the pledges he made to his electorate during the campaign, though many still accuse him of flip-flopping.
For outsiders, Trump’s speech did not augur belligerence. He was saying that his administration will stick to America’s knitting and stop interfering in the affairs of other nations. It will no longer try to impose its models of values, democracy and capitalism on others.
These give reasons for cautious optimism because large countries like Russia, China, India, Egypt and Brazil can now operate in their own political spaces according to their own national and cultural values, without being labelled as hostile to US interests.
Even Britain, France, Germany and Italy can expect to be lectured less by Washington about why they should castigate Russia’s Vladimir Putin despite the risk of having more nuclear missiles aimed at them in riposte.
For most countries, the interesting thing about Trump is that he does not fit into any political movement in the US or the world. He has his own unconventional ideas that do not match American conservatism, the thinking of democrats, international Christian democrats or Socialists.
If anything, some of his words about jobs and factory closings resembled liberal Bernie Sanders while other words leaned to the hard right.
These contradictory tendencies might rattle American analysts studying domestic issues but outsiders find them less disturbing. For them, Trump has the virtue of clarity.
They will find it easier to deal with him and protect their own interests more deliberately, if he sticks to America First in everything from trade, to security and foreign policy.
For them, the key issues are whether he is predictable, what he means by America First and how he will execute his intentions.
Will he try to increase American hegemony in a “Pax Americana” supported by the European Union and NATO? Will be simultaneously try to squeeze more trade and economic benefits for Americans from other nations?
Or will he prefer to end America’s half-century old role as the world’s policeman and decider of rules that govern international trade and finance?
Some of these matters will become clearer in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, it is worth hoping that his inaugural speech’s bluntness goes beyond his intentions. That he will not disrupt America’s military and economic allies around the world or cause friends to doubt that America’s heart still is in the right place.
It may be a little churlish so early in Trump’s presidency, but his desire to “put only America first, America first”, is likely to be rudely shattered.
The US is more powerful by far on all measures than other countries, including Russia and China, but the world no longer consists of kingdoms that can live in isolation from one another. It is too integrated at all levels.
In such a small world, always successfully putting Americans first is a futile dream. Let us hope that Trump’s advisors bring him up to speed soon with the cold realities of living together in this world.