RUTHFULLY YOURS

Donald Trump’s inaugural address was functionally indistinguishable from one of his rally speeches. It wasn’t as long or discursive but was just as plain-spoken and pointed, and made exactly the same promises.

The address was another sign that Trump intends to govern the way he ran.

His critique of the status quo was stinging and harsh, while a pained Joe Biden and Kamala Harris had to sit within feet of him and endure it.

The flip side of Trump’s often-decried gloomy portrait of the present is his vaulting optimism about the future he intends to bring about. So it was with this address. As usual, he didn’t stint on his bigger-and-better superlatives. It’s going to be a new Golden Age, as “we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history.”

Trump described himself as an exemplar of common sense, and, indeed, on some key issues he captured the center last November. His pledges in his address to shut down the border, deport criminals, make it government policy that there are only two genders, and judge people on their merits rather than their race and gender are firmly in the middle of the American consensus, and not too long ago would have been utterly uncontroversial.

His assurances that he will build up the military, push back on electric vehicle mandates, exploit our fossil fuel resources to the maximum extent possible, and end all government pressure for censorship were welcome, as well.

On the other side of the ledger, but also consistent with his campaign, Trump extolled tariffs as a magic economic elixir, saying he will establish an External Revenue Service to handle the flood of revenues from tariffs and other taxes on products from foreign countries. There will be a lively internal debate in the new administration whether this talk will be taken seriously or literally, with sweeping, across-the-board tariffs risking self-sabotaging economic dislocation.

There will surely be the same sort of internal dynamic over Trump’s statement that “we’re taking back” the  Panama Canal.

Trump arrives back in Washington with the wind at his back. He’s relatively popular, corporate America has been accommodating, the Left’s reaction against him this time has been comparatively muted, and the legal actions against Trump have been winding down, not revving up the way they did in 2017. With Joe Biden departing on a particularly low note, there is an appetite for something new.

Trump can do much good, but events will inevitably take a hand, as will his erratic nature and personal willfulness. “From this moment on,” Trump said on Monday, “America’s decline is over.” It was the most memorable line of his speech, and one all Americans should hope proves true.