President Trump is perhaps the most
overrated public figure of the modern era. Trump is described in his campaign
website as “the very definition of the American success story”. Talk about
bombast and idolatry.
Both Trump and his transition team promised
that the address would be a
“philosophical document”. Two days before his inauguration, Donald Trump
posted on Twitter a picture of himself sitting at a desk writing his inaugural
address at his winter home in Florida. For a man who without shame disdains
ideas and especially the use of precise language, I was deeply skeptical that
Trump would deliver a “philosophical document”.
On January 20th 2017, Donald J.
Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States of
America. And President Trump delivered his inaugural address. It was not
philosophical. It was not uplifting. For a president who lost the popular vote
by nearly 3 million votes, President Trump did not have any words to heal a
nation shattered by political division
In a rather morbid address, Trump observed
that empty factories were strewn across America like tombstones. Trump spoke in
apocalyptic terms about families ensnared in poverty and communities and cities
staggered by the winds of crime, drugs and gangs. Under the dark winter skies
president Trump proclaimed; “This American carnage stops here and right now”.
In his 16-minute
address Trump advanced rapidly to what defined his unlikely rise and what shaped
one of the most unconventional campaigns in recent times. In one of his
sharpest indictment of Washington Trump said, “For too long, a small group in our nation’s Capitol has
reaped the rewards of government while the people have born the cost. Washington
flourished. But the people did not share in its wealth. “
In an unvarnished
smack against globalization, President Trump charged that the wealth of America’s
middle class had been ripped from their homes and redistributed all across the
world. President Trump decreed that a new vision would govern America. “From
this day forward, it’s going to be America first. America first”. Trump
declared with emphatic boldness. Protection, In Trump’s view, will lead to
“great prosperity and strength”.
President Trump’s remark about an
out-of-touch elite and a political order that is massively rigged against swelling
ranks of the underclass has universal resonance. Here in Kenya, a small club of
ethno-political and business elite has prospered at the expense of tens of
millions of hard working citizens.
Too often ordinary citizens are denied
basic social services. Our children lack adequate and well-prepared teachers.
Millions of youth graduating from our schools, colleges and universities cannot
find work. Those who work earn too little to live on. Our cities are chocking
in filth, poverty and decay. Where is
the promise of urbanization?
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