What Trump should say in his inauguration address

OPINION:

Inauguration speeches have, like State of the Union addresses, become subject to the terrible, relentless machinery of the Washington bureaucracy. Rather than framing the next year or presidential term, they have devolved into policy checklists. Worse yet, they have taken on the length and tediousness of typical State of the Union addresses. 

President Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address consisted of about 700 words; President Biden’s sole inaugural address consisted of about 2,400 words.

In 2017, to resist these unfortunate trends, President-elect Donald Trump decided to talk about the economic and social carnage that has been visited upon the American heartland for the last two generations. It was a decided break from the usual inaugural addresses, but not necessarily a welcome one.

The good news is that Mr. Trump has been given a mulligan. Here’s the entirety of what he should say as his do-over:

“I welcome all of you. To those who did not vote for me – and I know there are many – I encourage you to remain open-minded about the policies we will pursue. In each case, they will be efforts, if imperfect ones, grounded in love for the nation we share. Each and every day, we will strive to make our nation and all of our citizens better. Our administration will remain aware that we work for all Americans and for all of America.

“I was clear during the campaign that we intended to do whatever is necessary to improve our economy and secure our borders. The voice of the voters must be respected. I intend to do both of those of things as quickly and thoroughly as we can. That said, if there are those who have better ideas than ours to improve the economy and secure the borders, we welcome your thoughts.

“I was also clear during the campaign that we needed to rebuild American power and that we needed to be more judicious about its use. Make no mistake: We will do both. We welcome those who have substantive ideas about how best to do both. All of those efforts will, however, be informed by a clear understanding that the era of the United States writing blank checks to defend vague or non-existent American interests is over.

“Most importantly, we need to change how Washington works. Accusations, recriminations and efforts to use the legal system have stacked one upon another. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth eventually leads to everyone being blind and toothless. I intend to issue a blanket pardon for everyone – on both sides — who have been subject to law enforcement because of their political beliefs. The only way we can move forward as a nation is to erase the ledgers that contain our complaints against one another.

“If Jesus could forgive his executioners, we can certainly forgive each other.

“Such forgiveness is not just the Christian thing to do. It is the practical thing to do. To make America as great as she can be, all of us will need to work together. I call on all Americans to join our cause and to unite their efforts to make this country greater with our efforts to make this nation greater.

“This nation is the greatest nation the world has ever known. Our accomplishments – from taming the North American wilderness to harnessing electricity to flying to inventing the computer to going to the moon and everything in between — are staggering in their breadth and importance.

“The best part is that our greatest days are before us. I am proud to be an American and proud to be your president. May God bless the United States of America.”

• Michael McKenna is a contributing editor at The Washington Times.