King Trump: ‘America Is Back’

Six weeks after being sworn in as president of the United States and fulfilling his constitutional duty of unveiling his plans before members of Congress and the Senate in the State of the Union Address, Donald Trump showcased a political marketing and communication strategy last Tuesday aimed at showing the world that America’s decline, loss of leadership and structural crisis are over, because with him, “America is back.”

This political marketing strategy was unveiled in the presence of a Democratic Party whose representatives managed some protest, but in the main had no choice but to sit back and listen as the American president blamed them for all the nation’s woes. His speech had two components that give vital insight into the possible future actions of a president who has only four years to implement his policies, unhindered by any obstacle aside from the judicial branch, seeing as he has a majority in the two houses comprising the legislative branch.

The first of these was undoubtedly the setting in which he delivered the address, as both his entrance into the House chamber as well as the legislative representatives’ behavior made Trump’s speech seem much more like that of a king returning to power, a lauded ruler come to save America from decline and lack of leadership in the face of external threats in an ever-changing world. Internally, it made him seem like a politician capable of surmounting the evident lack of harmony within a divided and polarized society like that of American society today.

The second marked aspect of Trump’s address was his tactic of referencing American citizens present within the chamber itself. This would be an unusual move in a European parliament, and could really only happen in parliaments that arose from old British cultures. It’s a tactic that involves interacting with ordinary people and making them out to be the cause of their personal circumstances in order to further a political agenda, making them into nominal heroes in the wider narrative of the government’s decisions. Thus, Trump used a border control agent who took a bullet on the border to discuss his immigration policies; the daughter and widow of an American soldier who was killed in Afghanistan; a young sportswoman who had lost a competition to a transgender woman to announce his plans for banning of trans women in female sporting events; and Elon Musk, businessman-turned-politician who does not hold a concrete government role but carries out budget cuts within the American administration. Trump used Musk as an example of how Social Security was being paid out, even going so far to state that, until Trump took office, the administration was needlessly paying out Social Security to people over the age of 100, despite the unlikelihood of these individuals even existing. He went on to talk about the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, whose proposed $100 billion investment would see them avoiding tariffs. Trump also mentioned the recent boost in the automotive industry and reminded Congress that he had protested rising inflation rates on groceries, inflation caused by importing foreign fresh produce, which impedes sale of American goods and hinders farmers’ attempts to better their lives.

Throughout the address, Trump hardly commented at all on the matter of Ukraine, aside from expressing the need to reach a peace agreement and complaining about the lack of compensation received in exchange for U.S. aid sent to the country. Indeed, he only touched on the need for increased European involvement in the material defense of Ukraine (by which he means economic investment.) Strangely, he barely even mentioned NATO, despite it having been rumored that the U.S. may choose to withdraw from the organization.

Listening to this address and analyzing what new American politics may look like makes one thing clear: From now on, the United States will go its own way, turning its focus inward to carry on being the leader it says it is. However, it has lost its way in the midst of Trump’s goal for other nations to surrender their own ambitions; his ready disregard for all rules other than those that serve U.S. interests; his turning a blind eye to any course of action that would sidetrack the U.S. from the mantra that “America is back” — more pipe dream than reality. Trump will be that crownless king who will try to make the world bow to his whim or else suffer his politically insulting tariffs, leaving other countries without sure allies and saddling them with punishing tariffs to pay.

Will Trump be able to achieve this within the four-year time frame, or will he hope to have a third term to finish the job in what is being called the “New World Order”?