Guest commentary by Gao Yang 

The inaugural ceremony of a new President of the United States is always a political drama for people around the world. However, the inaugural address made by a new President usually attracts greater attention, because it helps determine what the new administration will focus on for the next four years. 

In line with his distinctive style, President Trump made a 16-minute larruping inaugural address after being sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on Friday. In the address, he followed his own ideas and turned it into an individual show. 

President Trump reiterates in his address the themes that animated his stunning outsider campaign. "Make America great again" runs through the full text of the address centered around four key words: strong, wealthy, proud, and safe. Judging from his outsider campaign speech, I believe that in President Trump’s view, "Make America strong again" means that the US needs to develop a stronger military power. “Make America wealthy again" means more jobs must come back to the US. “Make America proud again" means Americans should become more patriotic and honorable, and “Make America safe again" means that his administration will curb the spread of radical Islamic terrorism. 

President Trump’s inaugural address neither emphasized the value of liberty, democracy and human rights, nor the efforts to bridge partisan and social political differences. Liberty, democracy and human rights are considered as the core of the "liberal world values." Unfortunately President Trump attaches greater importance to practice than ideology. Although a recent Gallup poll shows that in the recent 30-year history of the US, the public support for President-elect Trump has been the lowest, he still took the establishment as an enemy. He has made repeated calls for unity, but decries that, "For too long, a small group in our nation's Capitol has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost" and fiercely criticizes that "the establishment protected itself, but not the citizens of our country."   

President Trump puts “America first” in its dealings with the world. He said “we will seek friendship and goodwill with the nations of the world — but we do so with the understanding that it is the right of all nations to put their own interests first.” His line of thinking is mainly about deals from a merchant's perspective. He achieved great success in business negotiations and trade. It is predictable that in order to gain more benefits，President Trump's foreign policy will be tougher than that of his predecessor. No country stays aloof in face of the complicated situation of the world economy and global security. The international community has become a community of shared future. Therefore, President Trump's foreign policy should not be simply interpreted as anti-globalization or isolationism. 

Trump did not mention the relationship between China and the US in his inaugural address. However, he had made more than 300 posters about China on his twitter since 2011, most of which were unfriendly. In his TV interview as President-elect, he criticized China over its currency policy, its activities in the South China Sea and its stance toward North Korea, and questioned the position that Taiwan is part of “one China”. As the world's two largest countries, China and the US both agree that the interests of the two are interwoven. Sino-US trade jumped from $2.5 billion in 1979 to $519.6 billion in 2016, an increase of 211 times. History shows that when China and the US properly handled each other's core and major interests, their relations will grow smoothly. Otherwise, troubles will occur. Trump once said that his biggest advantage is that he is unpredictable. As a merchant, unpredictability may help seize the initiative. But as a President, unpredictability is a double-edged sword which tends to lead to miscalculations. 

(Gao Yang is a research fellow of the China Center for Contemporary World Studies. The article reflects the author’s opinion, not necessarily the view of CGTN.)