January 20 marks the inauguration of a new American president as Donald Trump becomes the 45th President of the United States.
But, unlike any other new president in recent history, Donald Trump enters office in an environment where the public is still largely unclear about his policy positions on important issues, including immigration, education, health care, and, especially, international relations.
During the campaign, Donald Trump gave few details on his approach to addressing complex issues facing the country. His oversimplified promises to make things better or negotiate better deals seemed to stir both passions in his supporters and fear in those that opposed him.
On immigration, Trump’s threat to build a border wall and deport undocumented immigrants rallied his conservative base, but left millions afraid for themselves and their families. The political rhetoric was strong and clear, but as soon as the election passed, Trump seemed to back off the pledge to launch a deportation force to weed out those in the country illegally.
During the campaign, Trump often complimented Vladimir Putin and even encouraged Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s emails. Since the election, as intelligence agencies concluded Russia did, in fact, try to influence our presidential election, Trump dismissed those reports as coming from the “intelligence” community that “said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,” attempting to discredit the clandestine operations officials that keep us safe from terrorists. This week, though, his nominees for Secretary of State and intelligence positions declared that Russia is a threat to American security.
With regards to the environment, Trump first claimed “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” but this week his nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assured Senators that he does “not believe climate change is a hoax.”
And on health care, Trump repeatedly promised to repeal Obamacare “on Day 1”, which could lead to the denial of health insurance to many of the 20 million new individuals that gained coverage since the 2012 law began. This week, under pressure from Democrats and patients’ rights groups, Trump declared that his yet-unannounced plan to repeal and replace Obamacare would provide “insurance for everyone”, seemingly identical to the goals of Obamacare.
So, after a yearlong campaign, and now over two months since the election, no one is quite sure what to expect from a Trump presidency.
Trump has moved from liberal positions on same-sex marriage and abortion he expressed years before running for office, to hardcore Republican positions against gun control, illegal immigrations, and taxes, to now contradictory positions on just about everything.
But it’s not just his political opponents that are worried.
Even traditional Republicans are growing uneasy with Trump’s ever-changing positions, especially his recent comments on Russia and NATO, for example. Republicans have historically been hawks that supported a strong military against the Soviet Union that eventually led to its collapse under Ronald Reagan. NATO, created after World War II to counter Russian aggression into Europe, has been a cornerstone of American foreign policy for over 60 years. In a matter of week, Trump has threatened to destabilize an alliance that has kept the peace for decades.
Trump’s unfiltered Twitter messages have confused, confounded, and concerned just about every segment of society, from both parties, and even those close to him. His shoot-from-the-hip approach is unconventional, at best, and alarming, at worst.
As the day finally dawns upon us when the unlikeliest of candidates actually becomes the leader of the free world, all eyes will be on Donald Trump as we attempt to access his true intentions.
Will he continue to bully, harass, and insult those that disagree with him? Will be temper his temper and become a consensus builder and true leader? Or will be run rough shod over Congress and the Washington establishment, as he has promised (and threatened) to do, brekaing all conventions?
Our fingers are crossed that the campaign rhetoric will give way to a more diplomatic Donald Trump, the true Donald Trump that he disguised in order to win the most unconventional campaign in modern history.
Maybe Trump fooled us all into thinking him a fool, and in the end, we’ll be surprised by him.
It’s Inauguration Day, and we must all welcome the President, whether we voted for him or not. With high hopes, fingers crossed, and baited breath we will all wait to witness the true impacts of his presidency. And we must all withhold judgement until and unless actions prove otherwise.
We salute President Donald J. Trump on his inauguration, not for his past comments, but for the yet-unrealized potential of his administration. The stakes are too high to root for his failure, for it would certainty come at a high price for us all.
God bless America.