Here's The New Reality

The triumph and turmoil of Donald Trump’s inauguration has set the scene for the next four years when American politics will be anything but dull.

- Jane Vorster & Mieke Vlok

AS HE took his place behind the podium a light drizzle began to fall. Some saw it as a good omen while others said the angels were weeping. Either way, President Donald John Trump hardly seemed to notice. Having been sworn in as America’s 45th president just moments earlier he had something to say to his people – and it was a message that was to reverberate around the world.

There were no olive branches held out to his opponents. No soothing words to unite the country in the aftermath of one of the most blistering and divisive election battles in US history. Nothing to extend a hand of friendship to nations around the world. Instead, what Trump (70) delivered was one of the most radical and confrontational inaugural addresses ever – and he seemed to enjoy every moment of it.

“We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power,” Trump declared. “From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first.”

Although many see the US as the world’s richest and most powerful nation Trump painted a very different picture in his hard-hitting speech, portraying it as a country blighted by poverty, unemployment, closed factories, crime, drugs and gangs. And he laid the blame for this squarely at the door of America’s former presidents.

“For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth,” the brash business tycoon and former reality TV star said.