NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� He talked of a new Manifest Destiny and a 鈥淕olden Age." He invoked the , William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. An honor guard appeared with tricorn hats, fifes and drums 鈥� all traditional Revolutionary War iconography. Those in attendance heard tunes deployed from the classic American songbook 鈥� from Scott Joplin's 鈥淭he Entertainer鈥� to Woody Guthrie's 鈥淭his Land is Your Land.鈥�
At the inauguration Monday, American history in its varied stripes was firmly planted. "We will not forget our country," President said.
In summoning people to throughout a day of pageantry, Trump assembled a dizzying collage of American myths, tropes and ideals. His new 鈥淕olden Age鈥� was brimming with the stories that shaped the nation鈥檚 past. But how will he use them?
A presidential inaugural address is typically a projection of the balance between American yesterdays and American tomorrows. Trump came to power the first time, and regained it the second, with an exhortation to reclaim the past and 鈥淢ake America Great Again.鈥� In his address on Monday, he conflated a vast and sometimes confusing array of national imagery from across the centuries to make his larger point.
Manifest Destiny returns to center stage
Most epic, perhaps, was the notion of American expansionism once called 鈥淢anifest Destiny鈥� 鈥� a romantic story about the 鈥淕od-given鈥� right to push westward and outward that has defined the nation's growth even while oppressing and killing many others as it has played out over 350 years.
This, coupled with his recent comments about absorbing , making and taking over the , suggests Trump and his administration consider expansionism to be not a sliver of history but a matter for here and now. Consider Trump's sweeping statement:
鈥淭he spirit of the frontier is written into our hearts. The call of the next great adventure resounds from within our souls. Our American ancestors turned a small group of colonies on the edge of a vast continent into a mighty republic of the most extraordinary citizens on Earth. No one comes close. Americans pushed thousands of miles through a rugged land of untamed wilderness. They crossed deserts, scaled mountains, braved untold dangers, won the Wild West, ended slavery, rescued millions from tyranny, lifted millions from poverty, harnessed electricity, , launched mankind into the heavens and put the universe of human knowledge into the palm of the human hand.鈥�
Manifest Destiny was itself fueled by the equally foundational notion of American exceptionalism 鈥� colonial Gov. John Winthrop's 17th-century statement of being 鈥渁s a shining city upon a hill鈥� as an example to others. That was one of the few dominant threads of American history Trump didn't invoke on Monday, possibly because resurrected it so famously in his 1989 farewell address. Its echoes, though, were everywhere in Trump's words.
The notion of American exceptionalism is itself a freighted topic. For some, it is triumphal and natural 鈥� the United States is the greatest nation on Earth and must act that way. For others, it is a statement of eternal potential and example-setting that does not necessarily place Americans above others.
Trump leaned hard into the former definition. 鈥淎merica will reclaim its rightful place as the greatest, most powerful, most respected nation on Earth, inspiring the awe and admiration of the entire world,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e will pursue our Manifest Destiny into the stars,鈥� Trump said. : 鈥淢AGAfest Destiny."
A pitched battle between past and future
That kind of language has never rolled easily off Trump's tongue. He tends to favor more blunt, even brutish rhetoric to make a point. The overall effect was an exercise in looking over the national shoulder even as he talked about moving toward new horizons. Simply by saying that the nation's "Golden Age鈥� had just begun 鈥� a seemingly forward-looking statement 鈥� Trump was employing terminology that hints at the past.
Some of the American cultural mashups that popped up were a bit puzzling 鈥� like the 1980s Guns N鈥� Roses hit 鈥淪weet Child of Mine鈥� echoing across a packed Capital One Arena as the jumbotron showed billionaire , in sunglasses, striding in. Or 鈥� with his already highly questioned gestures 鈥� to the tune of AC/DC鈥檚 鈥淭hunderstruck.鈥� Even the strains of Scott Joplin's ragtime 鈥� a key marker in American racial and musical history 鈥� seemed designed to make a larger point, though maybe a song is just a song.
Or maybe it's more. The use of 鈥淭his Land Is Your Land,鈥� by Woody Guthrie 鈥� a song to the saccharine patriotism of 鈥淕od Bless America鈥� 鈥� was a curious choice. After all, it came from the mind of a man who railed against injustice and famously wrote upon his guitar: 鈥淭his machine kills fascists.鈥� There's enough American history there for both sides to claim.
For all the focus on what came before, Trump's after the inaugural were not reactionary but 鈥� in their 21st-century context, at least 鈥� quite radical. His flurry of executive orders, executed as promised, included , the and 鈥� perhaps most saliently 鈥� that evoked 19th-century and early 20th-century exclusion rules.
When Trump summoned so much of the American past 鈥� including parts of it that are still hotly contested, not least by those whose ancestors suffered through them 鈥� he assembled it into a tapestry of what he called 鈥渓iberation鈥� (itself an often radical term) that led to this conclusion that seemed decided at odds with public sentiment: 鈥淣ational unity is now returning to America and confidence and pride is soaring like never before.鈥�
鈥淭hat's what I want to be 鈥� a peacemaker and a unifier,鈥� Trump said. One question, though, hangs in the air, as it often does at a hinge point like this one. It's a question that he must address, but even more so it's something to consider as his second administration begins with the statement that he has the winds of history at his back:
Of the American past, what is worthy of carrying into the American future?
That鈥檚 the risk of history, and its reward, too: It can be disassembled, reinterpreted at will. The most fascinating aspect of Trump鈥檚 inaugural was, perhaps, how so many of the currents of American history 鈥� from the to the Pax Americana 鈥� are still alive, still potent, still being used by countless constituencies and stakeholders to tell the stories that they wish to tell. 鈥淭he past is never dead,鈥� William Faulkner famously wrote. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not even past.鈥�
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Ted Anthony, director of new storytelling and newsroom innovation for The Associated Press, has been writing about American culture since 1990. Follow him at or
Ted Anthony, The Associated Press
