Trump wants to reverse America’s decline. Good luck | Samuel Moyn

Trump and his supporters would like to buck the tide of history, but they could end up pulled further into it, and have no way to stop it

After years of strife over what his rise means, Donald Trump's inaugural address on assuming the presidency a second time clarified everything: he is the symptom of imperial decline who purports to be the cure.

His first inaugural, of course, dwelled on national decline: American carnage. The opening of Trump's second speech, however, began with the myth of the golden age - an almost idyllic picture of an end to America's time of troubles, when the country elicits envy and respect it once enjoyed among the powers of the earth. And, far more clearly than in his first inaugural and term, Trump's speech and stratagems indicate a vision not just of competition but of return to comparative ascendancy. He wants America to bask in the sun of its former victory in the competition of empires. It will be a a thrilling new era of national success."

Samuel Moyn teaches history at Yale.