‘American Carnage’: Looking back at Trump’s first inaugural address before his second

Eight years ago, Donald Trump delivered an inaugural address that overshadowed the typical optimism and promises of unity with a dark portrait of national life.

Are unapologetically populist and nationalist speech installed the phrases “American Carnage” and “America First” into the presidential lexicon. It indicated how he would govern during his first term — and how the president-elect might govern during his term second.

Here’s a look back at Trump’s first comments and why they remain relevant ahead of his encore Monday.

To be sure, many presidents have held up their election as evidence of a new birth for democracy. But Trump went further than rotely celebrating American voters:

‘Politicians flourished – but the jobs disappeared and the factories closed. The establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country. Their victories were not your victories; their triumphs were not your triumphs; and while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families across the country. … The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer.”

Trump has grown his offense in eight years, even as he taps into a cabinet and a West Wing full of billionaires. During his first term, he also pushed for a sweeping tax overhaul aimed at big corporations and the wealthiest households. But in 2024, he added many promises for working-class voters suffering from inflation, most notably his promises to exempt tip income and Social Security from taxes.

Trump made the requisite inaugural nods to national unity. But he clearly spoke to his supporters with language that uplifted them, despite Hillary Clinton leading the national popular vote. In 2024, Trump won the popular vote, and since then he has advanced the idea that his victory — clear but still competitive — was a mandate and even a “landslide.”

This sentence, which underscored Trump’s description of a dwindling nation, became shorthand for his fifteen-minute speech. There is a “different reality” than what is depicted in the presidents’ usual national praise, Trump said:

“Mothers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted factories scattered like tombstones across our nation’s landscape; an education system that is cash-rich but leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime, gangs and drugs that have stolen too many lives and robbed our country of so much unrealized potential. This American carnage stops here and stops now.

This was a preview of how Trump spoke during the recent campaign about the US as “a failing nation.” It is of course a fundamental political and rhetorical task for politicians to raise expectations. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was talking about the economic reality of the Great Depression when he said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Ronald Reagan spoke of many “crises” as he took office after a decade marked by inflation, unemployment, rising interest rates and global energy shortages.

Trump inherits what has been an inflationary economy — but also one that stabilized and grew under President Joe Biden after a global pandemic that began during Trump’s first term. And income gaps in America widened before Trump or Biden became president.

This is Trump’s secondary motto, surpassed only by “Make America Great Again.” Trump promised a renaissance in American manufacturing – which grew more under Biden than during Trump’s first term, especially in computer chip production. Trump has imposed new tariffs and promised higher duties when he returns.

This was one of the more specific pledges as part of Trump’s “America First” idea. But he failed to secure a major infrastructure package. Congress and Biden signed that deal instead, and they added more plans with the Inflation Reduction Act that Trump blasted and that some Republicans are aiming to repeal.

Trump’s first speech was light on foreign policy. But this 2017 statement stands out because Trump took a more openly imperialist tone in 2025. Since his victory in November, he has talked about taking control of the Panama Canal suggested that the US should annex Canada and Greenland.

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