A part of Trump’s second inaugural speech feels particularly relevant todaypublished at 22:05 GMT
22:05 GMT
Joe Inwood
World news correspondent
Image source, EPIn Donald Trump’s second inaugural address, there is one
section that feels particularly relevant today.
“The United States will once again consider itself a growing
nation,'” he said of his ambitions for his second term. “One that
increases our wealth, expands our territory, builds our cities, raises our
expectations and carries our flag into new and beautiful horizons.”
There has been a lot of talk recently of the “Monroe Doctrine”,
named after the 19th Century President James Monroe, which made clear the US
desire to have a “sphere of influence”.
Donald Trump has renamed it the “Donroe Doctrine” – most recently
put into practice in Venezuela.
But Monroe is not the only one of his 19th Century predecessors to
whom Donald Trump has looked for inspiration. James Polk was US President from
1845-1849 and expanded the United States by more than anyone before or
since.
Through a combination of war, diplomacy and purchase, he acquired
vast new territories along the Pacific coast and in the Southwest, said to be
driven by a sense of the “Manifest Destiny” of the United States to expand ever
West.
A portrait of Polk now hangs in the Oval Office.
Whatever one’s view of Donald Trump, it is inarguable that he has
been hugely consequential, both for the United States and the wider world. He
has radically changed American politics and society.
But, the list of modern US Presidents who have physically altered
the country is select indeed. It is a list Donald Trump clearly sees himself
joining.
It is almost a year
ago to the day that the 47th President of the United States gave his
Inaugural Address.
Few back then would have predicted that the territory
into which he intended to expand, was that of a Nato ally.