Mexico's View of Trump: Messianism and Pananoia on Pennsylvania Avenue La Jornada
go to original January 22, 2017

By targeting minorities with his populist rhetoric, Trump has not just divided the U.S. with his savage campaign but has garnered the wrath of people from all over the world. (teleSUR English)

The ceremony in which the President of the United States took office, and especially his inaugural speech, made very clear the conception that Donald Trump has of himself, his country and the relations that it maintains with the other nations of the world. This image, which was presented many times throughout his campaign, is not exactly reassuring, and his words sounded like a warning to those who, naively, harbored hopes that the threats he launched regarding matters of politics, economy and society were only declarations made to win votes that, once in office, he could not or would not be willing to fulfill.

The tone that Trump set for his inauguration - absurd, ostentatiously grave, one of conservative austerity, which produced shouts of support but was lacking in joy - was in line with nationalistic rhetoric and the prophetic tone used in his message. The message was characterized as "dark and sad" by the political analyst, Rick Wilson, who is not a Democratic opponent, as one might think, but a longtime Republican party member, that is to say, of the president's party.

It was certainly a dark/obscure speech [the Spanish 'oscuro' can mean either dark or obscure], but not because it contained incomprehensible passages, rather because of what it augured for the future. And as for his alleged "sadness", it was perhaps derived from Trump chosing to present the United States as a victim that was deeply innocent, weak, credulous and harmed by the bad faith of the entire world.

He said,

"We defend the borders of other countries, while we refuse to defend ours."

He said.

"We made other nations rich, while the wealth, strength and confidence of our country disappeared from the horizon."

He said,

"We must protect our borders from the devastation of other lands."

And he added,

"The wealth of our middle class was taken from their homes and then redistributed throughout the entire world."

In short, it is the perfect description of a world upside down.

The speech (which Trump had previously said would be "philosophical") painted a reality distorted by the nostalgia of the most rancid imperialism, of a time when the US power presented itself as champion of democracy, the model of development and the example of white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant values. It was a time when those who had precisely such characteristics (but not all of them) could presume to live the "American dream", which now the thousands of dreamers are hopelessly seeking, since the new president despises them.

Read the rest at Mexico Voices | Spanish original

Related: Mexico Has to Look Past Trump to Its Domestic Issues (Reforma)

Related: Mexican Journalists Respond with Horror to Trump’s Inauguration (The Daily Caller)

Related: How the World Welcomed President Donald Trump (Quartz)

Mexico Voices is a blogging endeavor aimed at raising the awareness of U.S. citizens regarding the destructive impact of the U.S. economic policy and the War on Drugs on Mexico - on its people, their economic and physical security and their human rights, on the nation’s dysfunctional justice system, and on the rule of law and Mexico’s fragile democracy. Visit the website at MexicoVoices.blogspot.mx

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