Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1531651
10 OPINION maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 22 JANUARY 2025 Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on Monday ON Monday, in the Capitol Rotunda in Washington DC, the 47th President of the Unit- ed States was sworn into office. The second Trump era has be- gun. In his inaugural address, Trump outlined a radical agen- da 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 fo- cused on relentlessly for years: immigration, fossil fuels, re- venge and retribution, and an aggressive "America First" na- tionalism – a nationalism that is rapidly morphing into naked imperialism. While the speech itself was unremarkable – a standard Trump effort mostly indistin- guishable from countless oth- ers – it marks the beginning of a second administration that will be radically different from the first. Trump's narrative of victimi- sation, his attacks on vulner- able groups and focus on his base will continue. But this time they are under- pinned by a level of prepared- ness for action that did not ex- ist in 2016. On immigration: "our sovereignty will be reclaimed" As Trump himself noted in some unscripted remarks af- ter 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 depth of legal and his- torical knowledge that has been brought in, and how that knowledge will be used as a weapon against the institu- tions of US power. Trump has continued to blame the United States' woes on "illegal" immigration. In the first hours of his presidency, he promised to declare a "nation- al emergency at our southern border" and to deploy troops. While the new administra- tion's efforts to radically re- shape the immigration system and engage in mass deporta- tions will inevitably be em- broiled in chaos, this second administration has learned the lessons of the first. Trump understands just how politi- cally effective it can be to tar- get minorities and vulnerable people, shifting blame for big structural problems onto out- groups such as immigrants or transgender people. On climate: "drill, baby, drill" The other emergency, as Trump outlined it today and has many times before, is one of "energy". Trump and the powerful interests that support him have long claimed that climate action undermines US power. By declaring a national ener- gy "emergency", Trump hopes to ease the way for more and faster permits for oil and gas extraction and use, despite outgoing President Joe Biden's efforts to thwart him. Trump has already signed an order to withdraw the US from the Paris Climate Accord for a second time. As Los Angeles continues to burn, the world can no longer hide behind US "leadership" on climate action. Trump has vacated the field – the question is, now, who will fill it? On justice: "A mandate to completely and totally re- verse a horrible betrayal" Trump has long promised re- venge and retribution for those he perceives to have wronged him, so it is no surprise this theme was prominent in his inaugural address. He promised, again, to stop the "weaponisation" of the De- partment of Justice. His nomi- nee for attorney-general, Pam Bondi, is widely expected to be an effective footsoldier in Trump's war on institutions, enacting revenge on her boss's behalf. Trump will also revive "Schedule F" via executive or- der, which will theoretically al- low him to reclassify and then fire thousands of independent public servants and replace them with lackeys across fed- eral government agencies and departments. Officials in the Department of Justice are already being re- moved. And, also as foreshadowed, he has moved quickly to par- don the January 6 insurrec- tionists, whom he refers to as "hostages". On the world: "A peacemaker and a unifier" Trump's version of "peace" and his promise to "stop all wars" must be understood in the context of his imperial re- vival. As he so clearly outlined, Trump's "peacebuilding" is in fact the aggressive assertion of US dominance, in the Western hemisphere and beyond. On the Panama Canal, for ex- ample, Trump was unequivo- cal: "We're taking it back." This brazen imperialism is not limited even to this plan- et. Trump outlined a vision for conquering Mars, too, which he described as the "manifest destiny" of the US. Trump is apparently content to leave that destiny in the hands of Elon Musk, whose in- vocation of "the future of civ- Trump promises a second term focused on immigration and nationalism Emma Shortis is Adjunct Senior Fellow, School of Global, Urban and Social Studies, RMIT University Emma Shortis