A friend commented today that they were surprised that I hated this new president's inaugural speech. My reply became too long to post at the place where my friend left this query, so I am putting it here and will send them the link.
Dear friend,
You said: "most Americans found it to be the most uplifting and inspiring
speech in the last 50 years. It was refreshingly honest."
Most Americans? That's a rather blanketing statement. Do you actually
have figures to support this claim of "most" or is this your subjective opinion?
I went and got the official transcript of that speech. Obviously, I
am only going to quote the portions that were red flags for me. I'd
roughly estimate that means I am quoting 1/3 the speech, but you are
welcome to check that calculation and correct me. I will put the speech quotes in bold and number them to make it easier for you to reply to them.
1. "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. "
This is histrionic.
There is, as far as I know and I have checked, no evidence
that refugees and migrants are mostly from prisons and
mental institutions. Feel free to give me the breakdown
stats on this.
2. "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."
Misleading.
If he means the Capitalist Oligarchy I'll agree. If he
means governing Presidents before him it is offensive. No president or leader is infallible, we are all human, but to imply that all of them were morally bankrupt is truly offensive.
3. "We have a
government that has given unlimited funding to the defense
of foreign borders but refuses to defend American borders
or, more importantly, its own people. "
What
foreign borders? Because I know many countries
pay to have US bases in their countries. (I can quote which if you ask) Who is getting
this unlimited funding? I'm curious as I did not know
this.
4. "They’re
(fires) 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.
They don’t have a home any longer. That’s interesting.
But we can’t let this happen. Everyone is unable to do
anything about it. That’s going to change. "
Inflammatory, misleading and thus offensive. Why do rich
people losing their homes matter more than poor? And why
the dig that seems to imply a paranoid and inflammatory
innuendo that those people were deliberately targeted or
deliberately ignored by the firefighters?
5. "And we have an education system that teaches our children
to be ashamed of themselves "
Eh? I know three USA teachers and they have genuine
complaints about lack of funding, lack of staff, low
wages, etc, but not one of them has ever said that children are
taught to be ashamed of themselves. This feels
deliberately inflammatory and offensive to every hard
working, decent teacher out there. I doubt any teachers
found this portion of the address uplifting and inspiring.
so far he has insulted firemen and teachers... yes very
inspiring. :P
6. "My recent
election is a mandate to completely and totally reverse a
horrible betrayal and all of these many betrayals that
have taken place"
Offensive and alarming. Offensive because he's implying
every government before him was corrupt. He's inflaming
the worst emotions. He is not at all being a peace-maker
or unifier with this. He is turning the citizens of his
country against each other. Implying "they" are betrayers.
Which they? That is very scary stuff.
And I'll jump to this portion for the glorious irony.
7. "My
proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker and unifier.
That’s what I want to be: a peacemaker and a unifier."
Seriously?
He has brought peace to the USA? Seriously? Please show it
to me. I'm dumb-founded. Please tell me how your Democrat
voting friends and family feel about this. Do they feel
more at peace, safer, heard, respected, acknowledged for the good they
have done?
Or has he brought peace elsewhere maybe? By demanding Denmark hand over a part of their lands? How
is that peacemaking or unifying? If any other country demanded another country to hand over their land/s what would we call that?
8. "Our liberties and our nation’s glorious destiny will no
longer be denied."
Super creepy. He sounds like Hitler. Yes, I have listened
to recordings of Hitler's speeches.
9. "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. "
Histrionic and smacks of narcissism. It's not about him -
it's about him serving the American people.
10. "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. "
Coming from a man
who is about as spiritual/Christian as a bog this is
either cult level messiah creepy or deliberately misleading.
11. "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, color, and
creed.
For American citizens, January 20th, 2025, is Liberation
Day. (Applause.) 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. "
Two major red flags.
The term patriots is alarming,
considering his close association with some very extremist
and dangerous "Patriots", including those he
recently set free from prison.
Next red flag is that Jan
20 2025 this is liberation day. From what? From whom? I
thought your country already was the land of the free? Or has the statue
of Liberty recently been removed as false advertising?
12. "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. "
This alarmed me as I did not believe he was genuine. His
track record on being friends with extremely racist groups
and organisations, made me feel extreme suspicion about
this statement.
13. "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."
Frightening and highly offensive. It implies all migrants
are criminals and thus implies you can use extreme force
(such as bounty hunters?) to round them up.
Having been an
immigrant twice and a stateless person for a year I can
vouch how stressful it is. My panic attacks started
around the time I became stateless. Anyone thinking that
being a refugee or even a migrant worker means they are
bad is utterly clueless.
I have friends and family in
Africa who have taken borderline migrant work in order to
improve their lives. All of them are good, decent people. Two of them
ended up in the USA but hey, they are white so probably
won't fall under the new radar? :P
I mean, the
fact these ICE squads have accidentally picked up Navajo
citizens of the US does show a strong colour-racial bias
here. Irony is my Hispanic ex (born in Chile) was blonde,
green eyed and fair skinned. And for the record I know
people of Mexican ancestry who are awesome, lovely people.
These blanket statements are dangerous, inflammatory and
hugely offensive.
14. "And I will send troops to the southern border to repel the
disastrous invasion of our country. (Applause.)"
Histrionic. Words such as "disastrous invasion" are emotionally charged.
15. "And by invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, 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"
Sounds great in
theory, but what about gangs and criminal networks within the USA run by
USA citizens? I do hope he intends to go after them as well? I hope so or otherwise he's simply deflecting all blame for the
problems in your country elsewhere.
16. "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."
scaremongering as, to my knowledge, no foreign power is showing any
signs of wishing to invade the USA. On the other hand, he had, pre
inauguration, already mentioned the possibility of invading Panama and
Greenland.
17. "...and that is why today I will also
declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby,
drill. (Applause.)
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. We’ll use it."
As an
environmentalist supporter and a Green voter I find those sentences
extremely depressing. Also amused as (since you said you admired the
honesty) it's either a lie or gross misinformation.
Venezuela had the largest oil reserves in the world, with over 303
billion barrels. Saudi Arabia has the second largest oil reserves in the
world, with about 17% of the world's oil reserves. Canada has the third
largest oil reserves in the world, with about 10.4% of the world's oil
reserves.
18. "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. (Applause.)
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. "
Ahhh..
seriously? Has he any idea how tariffs work and whose money will be
pouring into the treasuries? Is this a blatant lie or ignorance? Why
wasn't this explained to him beforehand?
19. "To restore competence and effectiveness to our federal
government, my administration will establish the brand-new
Department of Government Efficiency. (Applause.) "
Ouch! Talk about insulting every single Federal government worker.
20. "Under my leadership, we will restore fair, equal, and
impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.
(Applause.)
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. (Applause.)
As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the
United States government that there are only two genders: male
and female. "
This is appalling.
I'll deal with the stupidity/ignorance first.
Science and biology already know there are not "only two genders." How
come he doesn't know this? Heck, I knew this when I was a child and he
doesn't? He's never heard of intersex? No one told him? No one clarified
his big clanging error here?
And what about cultural differences, such as some Native American people acknowledging a third gender?
Now let us deal with the appalling. Yes, transgender and intersex people are a minority. Only
1.6% of adults and 5% of youths (I checked) in the USA identify as transgender
or non-binary. Probably higher as I doubt any adult or child in an
extremely conservative area is going to openly come forward and say what
they are. I mean, I know two Trans Americans who are open about their
status, but I know one young person who keeps it secret from everyone
except close friends and family. So I suspect these percentages are
higher. But we'll stick with 5%.
So only 5% of your children are going to have their lives ruined. I
mean, who cares about roughly 2 million American children and young
adults, right?
And what about the 1.7% intersex American citizens? That's another roughly 5 million citizens. What happens to them?
yeah.. true peacemaker and unifier you got there. Such a compassionate human being.
21. "A short time from now, we are going to be changing the name of
the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America "
Oh nothing there to remind me of African dictators constantly changing
the names of lakes, countries, towns, etc. Is he that insecure he needs
to remove the name "Mexico" from his maps? And at what expense? At a
time when he says the US needs money, why waste it on changing every
single map, geography school book.. it's insane. And feel rather petty
and spiteful. There is no good reason for this whatsoever other than
annoying Mexico.
Smacks of personal pettiness and spite.
22. "the Panama Canal, which has foolishly been given to
the country of Panama after the United Spates — 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.
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. "
Loads of lies or ignorance here. I'll quote the BBC
On Christmas Day, Trump
posted on social media that the "wonderful soldiers of China" were
"lovingly, but illegally, operating the Panama Canal" - a claim which
was swiftly denied by officials in Panama City and Beijing.
At
the time, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino described the claim as
"nonsense", stressing that there was "absolutely no Chinese
interference" in the canal.
Trump
has also threatened to take the canal back by force, citing
"exorbitant" fees being allegedly charged for US vessels to pass through
it - another claim rejected by Panamanian authorities.
Following
Trump's inauguration address, President Mulino again stressed that
there was "no presence of any nation in the world that interferes with
our administration" of the Panama Canal.
23. "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. "
Big red flag here - EXPAND OUR TERRITORY. What does this mean? I mean Germany was very keen on expanding territory. Although in fairness they only "annexed" Austria in 1938, right? Not like it was in any way a red flag that they did that for their own security. :P
24. "Our American ancestors turned a small group of colonies on the
edge of a vast continent into a mighty republic of the most
extraordinary citizens on Earth. No one comes close."
Wow, such a humble man. :P Since he must have known the world would be
watching this speech, did he really think insulting the citizens of the
rest of planet Earth was a good move?
25. "Americans pushed thousands of miles through 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."
Ohhh so much to unpack here and so not good. Let's ignore the grandiose
over-inflation of facts and hone in on the obvious clangers.
Denmark-Norway was the first country in Europe to ban the African slave
trade in 1803. In 1807 The British Parliament makes it illegal for
British ships to transport slaves and for British colonies to import
them. The USA abolished slavery in 1865.
Ernest Rutherford, a New Zealand physicist, is credited with being the first to split the atom in 1918.
26. "We will be a nation like no other, full of compassion,
courage, and exceptionalism.
America will be respected again and admired again, including
by people of religion, faith, and goodwill. We will be
prosperous, we will be proud, we will be strong, and we will
win like never before."
This sounds good, but it also sounds fake news. Which was made very
obvious as within less than a day the same man talking of compassion,
respect and and goodwill from all faiths was demanding an apology from a
Bishop who preached tolerance and compassion to all God's children.
People of religion.. like the Pope? Religious leader to 20% of the
American population? How much respect and goodwill does the Pope
consider him to have?
27. "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. "
How is he helping the US earn this respect from the world? By
threatening Denmark when he doesn't get his own way? By threatening
Columbia? By insulting Canada, Mexico, Germany, France, and Spain
so far? And he hasn't even been the president for a fortnight. That's a
lot of enemies to make in about ten days. That's pretty impressive, in a
very depressing way.
I wish this was a hope-filled new dawn for the world and the US, but I'm afraid I see that rising sun obscured by way too many red flags.
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