If Donald Trump, as Scott Jennings observed on CNN, is at the ‘apex of his political power,’ then what comes next? In his inaugural address, Trump vowed that ‘American decline’ had ended and a ‘golden age of America’ was about to begin. He essentially embraced what amounted to a form of liberation theology. ‘Liberation Day,’ as Trump put it, would ensure the restoration of American sovereignty.
Trump barely touched on foreign policy. There was no mention of Israel. No word about Ukraine. No allusion to Russia. No nod to Nato or any other American alliance. Instead, it was McKinley all the time – William McKinley, the president who imposed high tariffs and embarked upon various imperial ventures, including the 1898 Spanish-American war. Trump wants to return Mt. Denali to its original name of Mt. McKinley, and call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. Maybe Greenland will also be renamed Americaland.
But what really excited Trump was the prospect of reclaiming the Panama Canal, which opened in 1914.
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