Donald Trump’s inaugural address, deconstructed: Full text, analysis

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As Donald Trump delivered his second presidential inaugural address in Washington on Monday, the National Post consulted two experts in political oratory to parse his speech with a focus on the rhetorical devices, themes, and strategies it employed. Robert Danisch, professor in communication arts at the University of Waterloo, studies political rhetoric in democratic societies. Jeni Armstrong teaches political communication at Carleton University and was lead speechwriter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from 2015 to 2018. They spoke with the National Post’s Joseph Brean.

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Robert Danisch: It was a bit of a weird speech. But I think we kind of expected that. One big takeaway was about the writing itself. It was very traditional, like he clearly had a competent speechwriter, so it sounded like a typical inaugural address. But I felt like the delivery was quite odd. He seemed to be not very enthusiastic about delivering a scripted speech. He’s not at his best off a teleprompter, or at these formal occasions. It’s not what his supporters like about him. Thematically, it’s typical for inaugural addresses to be future oriented, and he did attempt that, but it just didn’t seem like he liked doing it.

Donald Trump: Thank you very, very much. Vice President Vance, Speaker Johnson, Senator Thune, Chief Justice Roberts, justices of the United States Supreme Court, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, President Biden, Vice President Harris and my fellow citizens, the golden age of America begins right now.

Jeni Armstrong: One of the best lines of the speech, and he delivers it right up top. Rhetorically, this is called connotation, where you’re attempting to elicit specific ideas, thoughts or reactions in your audience. It’s effective because it sounds good. Who doesn’t like gold?

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Donald Trump: From this day forward, our country will flourish and be respected again all over the world. We will be the envy of every nation, and we will not allow ourselves to be taken advantage of any longer. During every single day of the Trump administration I will very simply put America first.
Our sovereignty will be reclaimed.

Robert Danisch: From who? That’s not how he talks normally. I guess that is all about the 2020 election that he thinks was stolen. These lines are the speechwriter whitewashing the more controversial big lie about the 2020 election, putting it into generic language that most Americans can embrace.

Donald Trump: Our safety will be restored, the scales of justice will be rebalanced. The vicious, violent and unfair weaponization of the justice department and our government will end. And our top priority will be to create a nation that is proud, prosperous and free.

Jeni Armstrong: Nerdy point but you can absolutely start sentences with “but” and “and” in a speech, no matter what your fourth grade teacher told you. This is the way people talk so it’s the way speeches should be written.

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Donald Trump: America will soon be greater, stronger and far more exceptional than ever before.

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, but first, we must be honest about the challenges we face.

Jeni Armstrong: I don’t love these as metaphors. Tides are regular and routine and sunlight pours over the entire world every day. But the single trickiest thing to write in a speech are transitions from one idea or theme to the next. This was a pretty seamless one.

Robert Danisch: The Golden Age and the sunshine bits are what the speechwriters hope is the takeway, because the takeway last time (in his first inaugural) was the darkness, the cities overrun by crime.

Donald Trump: While they are plentiful, they will be annihilated by this great momentum that the world is now witnessing. In the United States of America, as we gather today, our government confronts a crisis of trust. For many years, a radical and corrupt establishment has extracted power and wealth from our citizens, while the pillars of our society lay broken and seemingly in complete disrepair. We now have a government that cannot manage even a simple crisis at home, while at the same time stumbling into a continuing catalogue of catastrophic events abroad.

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Jeni Armstrong: This is textbook alliteration, where you have successive words that start with the same sound. Sounds great to an audience but can be tough to deliver, because it’s not dissimilar to what we think as a “tongue twister.” Trump delivered it fine.

Donald Trump: It fails to protect our magnificent law-abiding American citizens but provides sanctuary and protection for dangerous criminals, many from prisons and mental institutions, that have illegally entered our country from all over the world. We have a government that has given unlimited funding to the defence of foreign borders but refuses to defend American borders, or, more importantly, its own people. Our country can no longer deliver basic services in times of emergency, as recently shown by the wonderful people of North Carolina — who’ve been treated so badly — and other states who are still suffering from a hurricane that took place many months ago.

Or more recently, Los Angeles, where we are watching fires still tragically burned from weeks ago without even a token of defence. They’re raging through the houses and communities, even affecting some of the wealthiest and most powerful individuals in our country, some of whom are sitting here right now.

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They don’t have a home any longer. That’s interesting. We can’t let this happen. Everyone is unable to do anything about it. That’s going to change.

We have a public-health system that does not deliver in times of disaster, yet more money is spent on it than any country anywhere in the world, and we have an education system that teaches our children to be ashamed of themselves, in many cases, to hate our country, despite the love that we try so desperately to provide to them. All of this will change starting today, and it will change very quickly.

My recent election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a horrible betrayal and all of these many betrayals that have taken place, and to give the people back their faith, their wealth, their democracy and indeed, their freedom. From this moment on, America’s decline is over.

Our liberties and our nation’s glorious destiny will no longer be denied, and we will immediately restore the integrity, competency and loyalty of America’s government. Over the past eight years, I have been tested and challenged more than any president in our 250-year history, and I’ve learned a lot along the way.

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The journey to reclaim our republic has not been an easy one, that I can tell you.

Jeni Armstrong: Classic Trump ad lib line… I wonder if it was in the original scripted remarks!

Donald Trump: Those who wish to stop our cause have tried to take my freedom and indeed, to take my life.

Just a few months ago, in a beautiful Pennsylvania field, an assassin’s bullet ripped through my ear, but I felt, then and believe even more so now that my life was saved for a reason: I was saved by God to make America great again.

Robert Danisch: That’s clearly evangelical language. He’s clearly appealing to the evangelicals who support him, and he doesn’t always do that. And I want to be careful how I say this. Rhetorical scholars will tell you that that is a version of fascist rhetoric. When the leader says they are ordained by God on a mission, that’s normally associated with authoritarian rhetorical style. I don’t think the speech was all that.

Donald Trump: That is why, each day, under our administration of American patriots, we will be working to meet every crisis with dignity and power and strength. We will move with purpose and speed to bring back hope, prosperity, safety and peace for citizens of every race, religion, colour and creed. For American citizens, Jan. 20, 2025, is Liberation Day.

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Jeni Armstrong: You know that Seinfeld exchange: “And this offends you as a Jew?” “No, it offends me as a comedian!” I had the same reaction, on a personal level, to this line. As a speechwriter, fine, whatever. As a Canadian who had family members liberated by Allied troops, this felt offensive.

Donald Trump: It is my hope that our recent presidential election will be remembered as the greatest and most consequential election in the history of our country. As our victory showed, the entire nation is rapidly unifying behind our agenda, with dramatic increases in support from virtually every element of our society: young and old, men and women, African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, urban, suburban, rural and very importantly, we had a powerful win in all seven swing states and the popular vote, we won by millions of people.

To the black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. We set records, and I will not forget it. I’ve heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come. Today is Martin Luther King Day, and his honour, this will be a great honour, but in his honour, we will strive together to make his dream a reality. We will make his dream come true.

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Jeni Armstrong: This is a very bold claim. Would have been better to stick with “strive together.”

Donald Trump: National unity is now returning to America, and confidence and pride is soaring like never before. In everything we do, my administration will be inspired by a strong pursuit of excellence and unrelenting success. We will not forget our country, we will not forget our Constitution, and we will not forget our God.

Today, I will sign a series of historic executive orders. With these actions, we will begin the complete restoration of America and the revolution of common sense. It’s all about common sense.

First, I will declare a national emergency at our southern border. All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came. We will reinstate my “Remain in Mexico” policy.

I will end the practice of catch and release. And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the disastrous invasion of our country.

Under the orders I signed today, we will also be designating the cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. And by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798…

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Jeni Armstrong: Did not have this on my bingo card.

Donald Trump: … I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.

As Commander in Chief, I have no higher responsibility than to defend our country from threats and invasions, and that is exactly what I am going to do. We will do it at a level that nobody has ever seen before.

Next I will direct all members of my cabinet to marshal the vast powers at their disposal to defeat what was record inflation and rapidly bring down costs and prices.

The inflation crisis was caused by massive overspending and escalating energy prices, and that is why today, I will also declare A National Energy Emergency. We will drill baby, drill.

America will be a manufacturing nation once again, and we have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have: the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth. And we are going to use it. Let me use it. We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again, right to the top, and export American energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.

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With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the Electric Vehicle Mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers.

In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice.

We will build automobiles in America again at a rate that nobody could have dreamt possible just a few years ago. And thank you to the autoworkers of our nation for your inspiring vote of confidence. We did tremendously with their vote.

I will immediately begin the overhaul of our trade system to protect American workers and families. Instead of taxing our citizens to enrich other countries, we will tariff and tax foreign countries to enrich our citizens. For this purpose, we are establishing the External Revenue Service to collect all tariffs, duties and revenues. It will be massive amounts of money pouring into our treasury, coming from foreign sources.

The American Dream will soon be back and thriving like never before. To restore competence and effectiveness to our federal government. My administration will establish the brand new Department of Government Efficiency.

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After years and years of illegal and unconstitutional federal efforts to restrict free expression, I will also sign an executive order to immediately stop all government censorship and bring back free speech to America. Never again will the immense power of the state be weaponized to persecute political opponents, something I know something about. We will not allow that to happen. It will not happen again. Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.

And we are going to bring law and order back to our cities.

This week, I will also end the government policy of trying to socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life. We will forge a society that is colourblind and merit based. As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.

Robert Danisch: There’s an attempt in the speech to ratchet down the rhetoric for the purpose of unity, and to obey the traditions of an inaugural address, which is an attempt at unity and articulating broad-based values. But that felt more like Trump, like a point that married Trumps’s instinct with the speechwriter’s craft. That was no ratcheting down, that was explicitly stating a cultural value that resonates with his followers. I think that interestingly got quite a positive response.

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Donald Trump: This week, I will reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the COVID vaccine mandate — with full back pay. And I will sign an order to stop our warriors from being subjected to radical political theories and social experiments while on duty. It’s going to end immediately. Our armed forces will be free to focus on their sole mission, defeating America’s enemies.

Like in 2017 we will again build the strongest military the world has ever seen. We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end, and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into. My proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier. That’s what I want to be, a peacemaker and the unifier. I’m pleased to say that as of yesterday, one day before I assumed office, the hostages in the Middle East are coming back home to their families.

America will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world. A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and we will restore the name of a great president, William McKinley, to Mount McKinley, where it should be and where it belongs.

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President McKinley made our country very rich through tariffs and through talent. He was a natural businessman, and gave Teddy Roosevelt the money for many of the great things he did, including the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to the country of Panama.

Robert Danisch: McKinley’s such a weird one for him to like right now. McKinley was big on tarrifs, I guess. Teddy Roosevelt was the one who undid all that. McKinley also got assassinated, I’m not sure he knows that. And the great things Teddy did was national parks, busting the trusts.

Donald Trump: The United States, I mean, think of this, spent more money than ever spent on a project before, and lost 38,000 lives in the building of the Panama Canal. We have been treated very badly from this foolish gift that should have never been made, and Panama’s promise to us has been broken.

Jeni Armstrong: This feels very much like a line Trump might have written himself, especially “treated very badly” and “foolish gift.”

Donald Trump: The purpose of our deal and the spirit of our treaty has been totally violated. American ships are being severely overcharged and not treated fairly in any way, shape or form, and that includes the United States Navy. And above all, China is operating the Panama Canal. And we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.

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Above all, my message to Americans today is that it is time for us to once again act with courage, vigour and the vitality of history’s greatest civilization. So as we liberate our nation, we will lead it to new heights of victory and success. We will not be deterred.

Jeni Armstrong: Flat, flat, flat. Rhetorically, it’s not great either. Almost flirts with being jargony.

Donald Trump: Together, we will end the chronic disease epidemic and keep our children safe, healthy and disease-free.

Robert Danisch: That’s RFK right there. We’re gong to see a shift away from a concern with measles. smallpox, polio, that kind of thing, and toward whatever RFK considers a chronic disease which I guess is unhealthy lifestyle habits.

Donald Trump: The United States will once again consider itself a growing nation, one that increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons.

And we will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.

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Ambition is the lifeblood of a great nation, and right now, our nation is more ambitious than any other.

There’s no nation like our nation. Americans are explorers, builders, innovators, entrepreneurs and pioneers. The spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts. The call of the next great adventure resounds from within our souls.

Our American ancestors turned a small group of colonies or the edge of a vast continent into a mighty republic of the most extraordinary citizens on Earth. No one comes close. Americans pushed thousands of miles to a rugged land, of untamed wilderness.

They crossed deserts, scaled mountains, braved untold dangers, won the Wild West, ended slavery, rescued millions from tyranny, lifted billions from poverty, harnessed electricity, split the atom, launched mankind into the heavens and put the universe of human knowledge into the palm of the human hand.
If we work together, there is nothing we cannot do and no dream we cannot achieve.

Many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback. But as you see today, here I am, the American people have spoken.

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I stand before you now as proof that you should never believe that something is impossible to do. In America, the impossible is what we do best.

Jeni Armstrong: Okay, full credit to whoever fought for this one. It’s a great line.

Donald Trump: From New York to Los Angeles, from Philadelphia to Phoenix, from Chicago to Miami, from Houston to right here in Washington, D.C., our country was forged and built by the generations of patriots who gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom.

They were farmers and soldiers, cowboys and factory workers, steel workers and coal miners, police officers and pioneers who pushed onward, marched forward and let no obstacle defeat their spirit or their pride.

Together, they laid down the railroads, raised up the skyscrapers, built great highways, won two world wars, defeated fascism and communism and triumphed over every single challenge that they face.

After all, we have been through together, we stand on the verge of the four greatest years in American history. With your help, we will restore America’s promise, and we will rebuild the nation that we love — and we love it so much. We are one people, one family and one glorious nation under God.

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So to every parent who dreams for their child and every child who dreams for their future, I am with you. I will fight for you, and I will win for you. We’re going to win like never before.

In recent years, our nation has suffered greatly, but we are going to bring it back and make it great again, greater than ever before. We will be a nation like no other, full of compassion, courage and exceptionalism.

Our power will stop all wars and bring a new spirit of unity to a world that has been angry, violent and totally unpredictable.

America will be respected again and admired again, including by people of religion, faith and good will.

We will be prosperous. We will be proud. We will be strong, and we will win like never before. We will not be conquered, we will not be intimidated, we will not be broken, and we will not fail.

From this day on, the United States of America will be a free, sovereign and independent nation. We will stand bravely, we will live proudly, we will dream boldly, and nothing will stand in our way, because we are Americans, the future is ours, and our Golden Age has just begun. Thank you. God Bless America. Thank you all. Thank you very much.

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Robert Danisch: This is called a peroration. It’s a parallel structure with a repeated phrase, and you usually build and amplify as you move through the sequences. When you do that, your voice goes up, with more urgency and volume, but he goes down. He seemed to get quieter or rush through it. You want to pause, let it build. The whole thing looked a little like a funeral, maybe that’s because it was inside. He seemed sombre, constrained by the location and the formality of the tone of what was written.

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