Donald Trump's first days

The Donald Trump era has officially begun as the 45th U.S. president took the oath of office amid worldwide hysteria. Mainstream American and international media seem hesitant to adjust themselves to the new reality and are continuously downplaying Trump's political success by focusing on rather trivial stories. CNN, for instance, compared his inaugural crowd size with that of Barack Obama eight years earlier; social media have reproduced this rather insignificant comparison.

It is also indicative that Trump is regarded as the first U.S. president to swear in with a particularly low approval rating on the basis of a Gallup polling, which estimates it to be 48 percent - as opposed to 67 percent of Bill Clinton, 65 percent of George W. Bush and 75 percent of Barack Obama. Nevertheless, the reliability of similar surveys was seriously tested during the pre-election period as well as on election day, when they predicted a clear victory for Hillary Clinton.

What now matters more is not to endorse wishful thinking or employing - a priori - an anti-Trump rhetoric but to carefully analyze how the new U.S. president will act. His inauguration speech reflects personal optimism that he will "get the job done." This tone increases expectations, which is not necessarily a negative thing. Trump promises to eliminate problems that have hit the American society for years. Examples include drugs and gangs. Whether "this American carnage stops right here and stops right now" as the U.S. President said, remains to be seen in the next four years.

Moreover, Trump wants to dismantle the American establishment, whether it is affiliated with Republicans or Democrats. "The establishment protected itself but not the citizens of our country," he said. In theory, this phrase could mark the beginning of a new era in American politics in which a government might be better controlled by the people. However, some initial constraints are apparent, not only because Trump himself belongs to a small, privileged elite of businessmen who made fortunes as part of the establishment but also because the very nature of American democracy - including the checks and balances system and lobbying by pressure groups - prevent structural changes.

Trump seeks to turn his vision into reality by putting "America First," as he mentioned in his inaugural address. He was straightforward in disassociating himself from choices of previous presidents that he considers wrong. Talking in front of George W. Bush and Barack Obama he openly criticized their foreign and economic policies, respectively. On the one hand, he disagreed with the strategy of "subsidiz[ing] the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of [U.S.] military [as well as with] spend[ing] trillions of dollars overseas." And on the other, he disapproved the current situation where "mothers and children [are] trapped in poverty" and "the wealth of middle class has been ripped from their homes and then redistributed across the entire world."

All in all, Donald Trump will be a different U.S. president. Although his inaugural speech was rather general and did not point to how he will specifically act, Trump has already shown his will to personally stamp American politics from the very first beginning. He almost immediately signed an executive order rolling back Obamacare. And the White House website has already been updated with analyses with which the 45th president plans to differentiate himself from Obama. A simple navigation shows, inter alia, that the Trump administration will eliminate "harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the U.S. rule," it will transform the Department of Veterans Affairs, it will develop defensive and offensive cyber capabilities at U.S. Cyber Command and it will proceed to pro-growth tax-reform.

George N. Tzogopoulos is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/GeorgeNTzogopoulos.htm