It is no secret that President Donald J. Trump’s narcissism was on full display during his historic campaign. The first few days of his administration, however, have yielded up even more jaw-dropping examples of Trump’s egomania. The biggest of these is that he declared his own inauguration day a “National Day of Patriotic Devotion.”
The whole inauguration was surreal. At times, it evoked scary undertones of fascism and a dictatorial reign. Creating a holiday in honor of himself, however, was Trump’s most bizarre action on January 20, 2017.
Trump’s proclamation reads like a mixture of a sixth grader’s patriotic essay assignment and the ravings of a comic book villain who is trying to hard sell the public on his newfound authority. Indeed, some even compared Trump to Bane from the Batman comic series.
Here are the exact words of the preamble to Trump’s proclamation as provided to numerous media outlets:
“A new national pride stirs the American soul and inspires the American heart. We are one people, united by a common destiny and a shared purpose. Freedom is the birthright of all Americans, and to preserve that freedom we must maintain faith in our sacred values and heritage.”
In subsequent paragraphs of the declaration, Trump rambles on with more platitudes that are designed to stir his group of supporters into a frenzy. He has proven over and over again that he has no interest in convincing those who oppose him of his merits. Trump is only interested in preaching to the choir. At the core of Trump’s strategy, if it can be called that, is a desperate attempt to equate his own agenda with national pride.
Trump issued this proclamation just hours after he took the oath of office that confirmed his leadership of the United States for the next four years, or until his ego forces him to be impeached. He followed this celebration of the American people by promptly issuing two other orders that effectively gutted the Affordable Care Act and revoked a mortgage rate reduction for struggling families buying their first home.
No one knows for sure if Trump intends to celebrate “Trump Day” every year on January 20th.
Even though Trump signed the order on his inauguration day, it took another couple of days for the complete text of the proclamation to be provided to the media and the public. Some have joked that the proclamation sounds more appealing when it is read in the original Russian. It is no laughing matter, however, that the declaration reeks of nationalism that has often signaled the rise of a despotic regime in other countries. The rise of Adolf Hitler is an apt comparison.
Clearly, Trump will stop at nothing to craft his own narratives with no regard for the truth.