↩ the History · a speech, filed

The Inaugural Address

Donald J. Trump · the Capitol · January 20, 2017
text: The American Presidency Project, UC Santa Barbara · a work of the United States government, in the public domain
colour carries the act's function; a dashed underline marks a predicted misfire; hover or focus any span for its filing

Chief Justice Roberts, President Carter, President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, fellow Americans, and people of the world: Thank you.

We, the citizens of America, are now joined in a great national effort to rebuild our country and restore its promise for all of our people. Together, we will determine the course of America and the world for many, many years to come. We will face challenges, we will confront hardships, but we will get the job done.

Every 4 years, we gather on these steps to carry out the orderly and peaceful transfer of power, and we are grateful to President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama for their gracious aid throughout this transition. They have been magnificent. Thank you.

Today's ceremony, however, has very special meaning. Because today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, DC, and giving it back to you, the people.

For too long, a small group in our Nation's Capital has reaped the rewards of Government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left, and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories have not been your victories; their triumphs have not been your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our Nation's Capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.

That all changes, starting right here and right now, because this moment is your moment: It belongs to you. It belongs to everyone gathered here today and everyone watching all across America. This is your day. This is your celebration. And this, the United States of America, is your country.

What truly matters is not which party controls our Government, but whether our Government is controlled by the people. January 20, 2017, will be remembered as the day the people became the rulers of this Nation again. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. Everyone is listening to you now.

You came by the tens of millions to become part of a historic movement the likes of which the world has never seen before. At the center of this movement is a crucial conviction: that a nation exists to serve its citizens. Americans want great schools for their children, safe neighborhoods for their families, and good jobs for themselves. These are just and reasonable demands of righteous people and a righteous public.

But for too many of our citizens, a different reality exists: Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape of our Nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge; and the crime and the gangs and the drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential.

This American carnage stops right here and stops right now. We are one Nation, and their pain is our pain, their dreams are our dreams, and their success will be our success. We share one heart, one home, and one glorious destiny.

The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans.

For many decades, we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry, subsidized the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our military. We've defended other nations' borders while refusing to defend our own and spent trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay. We've made other countries rich while the wealth, strength, and confidence of our country has dissipated over the horizon.

One by one, the factories shuttered and left our shores, with not even a thought about the millions and millions of American workers that were left behind. The wealth of our middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed all across the world.

But that is the past. And now we are looking only to the future.

We, assembled here today, are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it's going to be only America first. America first.

Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on foreign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families.

We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength. I will fight for you with every breath in my body, and I will never, ever let you down.

America will start winning again, winning like never before. We will bring back our jobs. We will bring back our borders. We will bring back our wealth. And we will bring back our dreams.

We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful Nation.

We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor. We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and hire American.

We will seek friendship and good will with the nations of the world, but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first. We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example—we will shine—for everyone to follow.

We will reinforce old alliances and form new ones and unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth.

At the bedrock of our politics will be a total allegiance to the United States of America, and through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice. The Bible tells us, "How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity." We must speak our minds openly, debate our disagreements honestly, but always pursue solidarity. When America is united, America is totally unstoppable. There should be no fear: We are protected, and we will always be protected. We will be protected by the great men and women of our military and law enforcement, and most importantly, we will be protected by God.

Finally, we must think big and dream even bigger. In America, we understand that a nation is only living as long as it is striving.

We will no longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action, constantly complaining, but never doing anything about it. The time for empty talk is over. Now arrives the hour of action.

Do not allow anyone to tell you that it cannot be done. No challenge can match the heart and fight and spirit of America. We will not fail. Our country will thrive and prosper again.

We stand at the birth of a new millennium, ready to unlock the mysteries of space, to free the Earth from the miseries of disease, and to harness the energies, industries, and technologies of tomorrow. A new national pride will stir our souls, lift our sights, and heal our divisions.

It's time to remember that old wisdom our soldiers will never forget: that whether we are Black or Brown or White, we all bleed the same red blood of patriots, we all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American flag.

And whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams, and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty Creator.

So to all Americans in every city near and far, small and large, from mountain to mountain, from ocean to ocean, hear these words: You will never be ignored again. Your voice, your hopes, and your dreams will define our American destiny. And your courage and goodness and love will forever guide us along the way.

Together, we will make America strong again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again.

And, yes, together, we will make America great again. Thank you. God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you. God bless America.

The divergences

"We are transferring power from Washington, DC, and giving it back to you, the people" — the speaker files a Declaration, a transfer performed in the saying at the ceremony that performs transfers; a reader of the ceremony's own procedure files a Frame-set, because what this morning moved was the office, to one man, and the sentence installs the construal under which his acts will count as the people's. They part on target: the world, or the frame that will file every later act. The speech supplies the test itself four paragraphs on, in the first person singular: "I will fight for you with every breath in my body."

"Their victories have not been your victories" — read narrow, "they" is the small group of the two preceding sentences, a class of officials and donors; read wide, it reaches the four Presidents named in the address's first line and seated behind the speaker. They part on scope, the sentence supplies no antecedent, and both readings survive it. Which one a hearer takes decides whether the paragraph is a policy grievance or a charge laid against the men on the platform.

"We, the citizens of America" and "we've enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry" — the first "we" is the people; the second is the Government that made the trade agreements, a body the intervening paragraphs have spent their length separating from the people. Supporters file both as Assertions about one continuous nation; a listener files the second as a Frame-set under which the blame is collective while the reward was factional. They part on scope, and the pronoun is the only thing carrying the difference.

"The oath of office I take today is an oath of allegiance to all Americans" — the speaker files an Assertion about the oath he has just sworn; a reader of that oath files a Frame-break, since its prescribed words name the Constitution and no people at all, and this sentence cancels that referent and substitutes another. They part on target. The filing matters at the first collision between what a majority wants and what the document permits.

"From this day forward, it's going to be only America first. America first." — one hearer files a Frame-set, a decision rule, and reads the following paragraph's list of trade, taxes, immigration and foreign affairs as its application; another files a Tribal signal, an in-group phrase repeated alone because repetition is what a signal is; a hearer who knows the phrase's owner in 1940 files a Report, a slogan relayed from another mouth with its history attached. They part on function and on orientation at once — a rule keyed to the world, or a marker keyed to standing.

"The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer" and "You will never be ignored again" — an audience files Promises, commitments with an agent who can be held to them; the grammar supports Declarations, passive, agentless, and satisfied by the announcement. They part on function, and the two filings stay together until somebody tries to collect, at which point the sentence that was heard as a commitment turns out to name nobody who made it.

"And, yes, together, we will make America great again" — the four sentences before it file it as the fifth commitment in a series; the campaign that ran on it files a Tribal signal, the phrase the other four were arranged to deliver. They part on function and on orientation: a commissive keyed to what will be done, or an expressive keyed to who is in the room. The evidence is identical either way, which is what makes the last sentence of the address the hardest one on the page to file.