The second inauguration of Donald Trump and his first action

On January 20, 2025, at the Capitol, Washington D.C., Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th president of the United States. For his oath, the Republican used the original Bible used, in 1861, by Abraham Lincoln when he was consecrated as American president. This detail has great symbolism because, at that time, the sacred book of the Catholic religion was used in the context of an imminent Civil War, so this no small detail would imply that the recently inaugurated American president considers that the United States faces a big crisis. It is worth noting that this is not the first time that this Bible has been used. Barack Obama swore on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible in his two terms in 2009 and 2013, and Trump did the same when assuming his first government (2017).

The guest list for the US Presidential Inauguration included political leaders (heads of state, chancellors and leaders of international organizations), former US presidents and influential billionaires.

From the business sector, the ceremony was attended by: Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, X and SpaceX; Mark Zuckerberg, the founding entrepreneur of Facebook; Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon; Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company, and Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple. Meanwhile, as former presidents, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden were present.

In the case of political leaders, for Europe, they attended: Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy, and Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary. Present for Latin America were: Javier Milei from Argentina, Daniel Noboa from Ecuador and Nayib Bukele from El Salvador. And for Asia, S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India and Takeshi Iwaya, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan.

Furthermore, the presence of far-right European politicians and deputies was notable, such as Jovita Neliupšienė, EU representative in the US; Mateusz Morawiecki, former Polish Prime Minister; Tom Van Grieken, leader of the Belgian Vlaams Belang party; Eric Zemmour, leader of the French nationalist party Reconquête and Tino Chrupalla, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, among others.

Regarding his domestic policy, Trump described how he will rebuild the US: “America’s golden age is beginning.” However, he also pointed out the conditions in which he received the position, saying that: “The Nation is in decline,” criticizing the education and medical care system, for which he promised to bring changes “very quickly.”

One of the most notable lines of Trump’s speech was a nationalist message: “We will not be intimidated… We will not be broken and we will not fail. From this day forward, the United States of America will be a free, sovereign, and independent nation.”

Regarding his foreign policy, Trump’s key words were “immigration,” “invasion” and “expansionism.” The US president declared a national emergency on the border with Mexico and the cartels as terrorist organizations. In addition, he said he will change the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of the United States.

In addition to the promise of invasion of the Gulf of Mexico, Trump also threatened that he will invade the Panama Canal, justifying his imperialist action by maintaining that Panama has violated treaty agreements that require neutrality in canal operations. In Trump’s words, “China is operating the Panama Canal and we didn’t give it to China, we gave it to Panama and we are taking it back.”

Although, the issue of the Canal is not an action only for Panama, since Trump literally said that: “Chinese soldiers operate the Panama Canal, and China’s strategic positions in maritime transportation worry officials in Washington.”

The invasion speech was part of an imperialist ideology, where within international politics, Trump assured that: “The United States will regain its rightful place as the largest, most powerful and most respected nation on Earth, inspiring amazement and the admiration of the whole world.”

Background

The political actions that precede the swearing-in of Donald Trump as president of the United States are the electoral contest that left the Republican the winner with victory in 312 electoral colleges, out of a total of 538, against 226 obtained by the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

After Donald Trump won the elections and became the elected president of the United States of America, he assumed an active stance as if he were going to carry out a foreign policy in which he has constantly been making claims of wanting to invade the countries of the region. , for example, pointing out Greenland, Canada, Mexico and Panama as having rights over those territories. In addition to the aggressive speeches against presidents with different or rather leftist development models, such as the presidents of Cuba, Díaz Canel, of Nicaragua, Daniel Ortega, and, most especially, against President Nicolás Maduro. Trump has shown his support for the war conflicts that persist in the Middle East region where Israel is opening fire on several countries, generating political instability.

China, always China

China is the biggest antagonist for the imperialist administration that Trump will try to impose. In that order, Trump’s threats of wanting to invade Panama and forcibly control the canal have a background that is directly aimed at China, due to Chinese dominance in maritime zones for international trade. This issue is of vital importance considering that German geopoliticians had already highlighted how important the seas are to conquer world supremacy. When England was a powerful empire, it had both commercial and military sea power, but was later succeeded by the United States. Now China is making a major push in the strategic maritime channels and zones through the Silk Road and its presence in the East China Sea.

The East China Sea has long been an important space for the United States in its economic war against China, which is why the North American country financed the economic growth of several nations such as South Korea, Vietnam, Taiwan and Malaysia, countries known as the “Asian Tigers”, in order to stop China’s economic expansion. There was also a US military presence in this region, but this has changed considerably since China has grown economically and therefore militarily as well.

The Panama Canal symbolizes an important geostrategic space within the trade war between China and the United States, since the largest flow of products traded between these two nations passes through it.

Although it is true that there was a speech attacking the People’s Republic of China, which refers to a distance between these two nations in this next presidential term of Donald Trump, it is possible to see that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the India, which indicates that its foreign policy on the Asian continent is oriented towards this country, in addition to its Asian Tigers (Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore).

Mexico. Trump had previously spoken about his intention to invade Mexico, however, during his inauguration ceremony, he made it clear that he is going after the Gulf of Mexico as well. This area is one of the main oil production areas in the world, with a large amount of proven crude oil reserves, which makes it a strategic center for the global oil industry. Furthermore, the proximity of the Gulf of Mexico to important oil refining and transportation centers, such as Texas and Louisiana, is another relevant point since it is the entry and exit for crude oil trade in the region.

Trump’s statements since his electoral victory, on November 5, 2024, have raised concerns in Europe about the speed at which he will try to increase the contributions of NATO member states and about the speed and cost of an agreement of peace on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, in addition to the omnipresent threat of increased tariffs; Trump has also alarmed Europeans by announcing that he intends to buy Greenland, a Danish territory, without ruling out the possibility of using force.

Within an intertextuality and Interdiscursivity of the semiotic analysis of discourse, it is noticeable how Donald Trump speaks of “Manifest Destiny”, a doctrine on which the United States based its expansionist policy in North America during the 19th century. “Manifest Destiny” considers the United States as a nation “chosen by providence” and destined to expand from the coasts of the Atlantic to the Pacific. It is important to remember that after this doctrine was established, Mexico was the first country to be invaded and until now half of its territory was annexed to the northern empire.

Another element of study in the analysis of semiotic discourse is the reception or audience that listens to the discourse. It should be noted that Donald Trump did not place greater emphasis on regions relevant to his management such as Russia due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the Middle East due to all the conflicts in which it is one of the sponsors and Europe as a commercial ally, but his main emphasis It was in Latin America and the Caribbean, hence it has generated greater fear in countries like Mexico and Panama, as well as others that predict an age of darkness, as was the case when Plan Condor was active.

Finally, although Trump promised that the US will begin a golden age, those promises are conditional on the growing rise of countries such as China, Russia, South Africa, India and Brazil, which represent those emerging nations. Likewise, there are conditions that will affect the North American economy, such as the fact of the future decrease in US oil production. This will cause the Latin American countries, crude oil producers, to witness an increase in their production level as well as improvements in their economies. Hence, one can observe in Trump’s speech his need to quickly impose a kind of tyranny on a global level.

Last considerations

Donald Trump is a thoroughgoing imperialist and supremacist who now feels that the civilizational “order” of the United States is supposedly threatened by immigrants and the Chinese. Trump, the first convicted president of the United States, has already expressed what he intends to do, if they let him. It now remains to be seen whether the international community will resist this madness or not.