In Trump’s second term, a focus on immigration, nationalism – and retribution

On Monday, in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington DC, the 47th President of the United States was sworn into office. The second Trump era has begun.

In his inaugural address, Trump outlined a radical agenda to reshape American life and the United States’ role in the world. As was widely predicted, Trump’s speech focused on the same things he has been focused on relentlessly for years: immigration, fossil fuels, revenge and retribution, and an aggressive “America First” nationalism – a nationalism that is rapidly morphing into naked imperialism.

While the speech itself was unremarkable – a standard Trump effort mostly indistinguishable from countless others – it marks the beginning of a second administration that will be radically different from the first.

Trump’s narrative of victimisation, his attacks on vulnerable groups and focus on his base will continue. But this time they are underpinned by a level of preparedness for action that did not exist in 2016.

On immigration: ‘Our sovereignty will be reclaimed’

As Trump himself noted in some unscripted remarks after he left the Rotunda, he has been talking about the “border crisis” since he first descended that golden escalator in 2015.

Trump’s (or more likely, his speechwriter’s) invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, for example, nodded to the...

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