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As my wife, Ambassador Callista Gingrich, and I sat in the Capitol rotunda listening to what was reported… President Donald Trump's inauguration speech On Monday, I realized that it was among the most revolutionary inaugural addresses in American history. If President Trump achieves the great changes he described in those 30 minutes, he will be the most important president since Abraham Lincoln.
This morning I read President Thomas Jefferson's first and second inaugural addresses (1801, 1805), President Andrew Jackson's first inauguration address (1829), and President Franklin Roosevelt's first inauguration address (1933). They are all worth reading.
President Jefferson did an amazing job in his first address of explaining the importance of the peaceful transfer of power – and the obligations of citizens to respect one another if the system is to succeed. Jefferson helped found the Democratic-Republican Party (which later evolved into the Democratic Party) to compete with the Federalist Party.
It was a bold and challenging thing to do. The world was shaken by the brutality and bloodshed of the French Revolution. The revolutionaries executed the King, Queen, and hundreds of aristocrats by guillotine. Then they started guillotining people they didn't like in their ranks. Finally, that revolution ended when Napoleon Bonaparte used military force and returned France to a despotic government.
Trump's second inaugural address was a triumph for him and his supporters
In this context, Jefferson was dealing with the concept of loyal opposition at home Constitution framework. In monarchical states, open dissent was considered treason. This was important because in those days, the president and vice president were elected separately. You could have a really oppositional White House. The power struggle between President John Adams and his vice president, Jefferson, was real. There has been some real confusion about the line between discord and the legitimate process of disagreement and power struggle.
President Jefferson's first inauguration is almost a classroom lecture on the duties of citizenship and the importance of competing without being destructive. However, neither of Jefferson's inaugurations bore even a slight resemblance to President Trump's revolutionary second inauguration.
He turned next to President Jackson. He had a fiery and aggressive personality by nature. He felt that the election of 1824 had been stolen from him. (He received 40% of the vote, but the other candidates banded together to beat him in the House of Representatives.) And somewhat like President Trump, Jackson campaigned for four years as a populist against the Eastern establishment. However, his inaugural address was surprisingly kind and reassuring. He could have been as tough on the late President John Quincy Adams as President Trump was on the betrayals and failures of the United States. Biden-Harris administration But Jackson was more moderate and conciliatory.
Trump targets culture war in early list of executive orders
Finally, the most revolutionary inaugural speech before 2025 was President Roosevelt's. Roosevelt was in office during the Great Depression, which led to the largest industrial unemployment in American history. Banks were relentlessly closing on homes and small businesses. Farmers had no market for their crops. The old order had failed, and Roosevelt used his inaugural address to underscore this fact.
Roosevelt called for bold, dramatic changes, but they were less clear and detailed than President Trump's inaugural address.
The amazing thing about President Trump's revolutionary rejection of the old order is that it happened in five different areas. It was decisive in both: the cultural, governmental, political, and economic role and America’s role in the world.
First, the most significant break with the old order has been the cultural rejection of the left in almost every direction. The focus was on winning, work ethic, and meritocracy Complete rejection of vigilance and diversity, equity and inclusion. The explicit statement that there are only two sexes, male and female, strikes at the heart of the Left's rejection of objective truth. The insistence on teaching patriotism constitutes a direct confrontation with the left's passion to undermine America and degrade its value.
The degree that A Religious spirit The entire inaugural experience was surrounded and permeated by the unprecedented. President Trump has demonstrated the greatest willingness to be surrounded by religious activity since President Roosevelt appeared on the radio and led the nation in prayer as our young men stormed the beaches of Normandy in Victory Day 1944. Compare the music, prayers, and religious leaders present to what you would expect at a left-wing rally.
Head here for Fox News updates on President Trump's first 100 days in the White House
Second, the directive that all federal employees must return to work or face termination is a sign of how directly and forcefully President Trump is determined to reform and shrink the federal government. The Cabinet nominees he sent to the Senate shared the same entrepreneurial spirit, a commitment to the “Make America Great Again” philosophy, and a desire to confront the old order and the bureaucracy that created it.
Third, President Trump's direct appeal to African Americans and Latinos – his pledge to work with them – and his gratitude to autoworkers represents a continuation of his growing appeal. Many voters who used to be Democrats have proven increasingly willing to switch to Trump's Republican Party.
Fourth, Trump's energy regime is radically different from the climate-obsessed, economically destructive, bureaucratically enforced left. His commitment to making America Leader in energy production He addresses one of the greatest goals of the modern left. They want less energy, and Trump wants more. They want to close off land for development. Trump wants to make development easier and more profitable. They want to strangle the industry until it dies. He wants to create jobs and more export opportunities.
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They want higher taxes. Trump wants to cut taxes. They want a trading system that continues to export American jobs to foreign countries. Trump wants a system that relies on growing American companies and makes America an economic leader on every front. They want bureaucracy to dominate and determine how people live. Trump wants maximum freedom of choice. He wants people to be client citizens and not obedient servants.
Fifth, and finally, Trump's approach to dealing with the crisis US-focused foreign and defense policy It is a crucial break from post-Cold War efforts to define and control the entire planet. The establishment loved policing, education, funding, and prioritizing the feelings of others, including our enemies. In the name of some humanitarian internationalism, the United States was supposed to spend the blood of its young men and women—and its taxpayers' money—on a wide range of dictatorial regimes and poorly managed states.
The Gulf of America described by President Trump is a symbol of the stunning break with negativity and preservation of the status quo that has characterized the last generation since Collapse of the Soviet Union.
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With these five major breaks from the old order – and their initial implementation through a storm of more than 200 executive orders in the first 24 hours – President Trump has made clear that he intends to govern while on the campaign trail. He is a defender of the interests of the working class and American interests.
It was an extraordinary beginning to what I believe will be an extraordinary presidency with historic consequences.
