Trump Inauguration Address Centers on Fighting Islamic Terror

Vows to Unite the Civilized World to Eradicate 'Radical Islamic Terrorism'

Taking office today, President Donald Trump gave his inauguration address, laying out a global war on “radical Islamic terrorism” as the centerpiece of his foreign policy, and promising to unite the entire civilized world to see this threat destroyed.

Trump cited the Bible’s call for God’s people to live together in unity while promising to reinforce existing alliances and forge new ones across the civilized world, saying the defeat of  ISIS and other radical Islamic terror groups is the “highest priority” of his administration.

Trump insisted this would involve aggressive joint and coalition military operations, expanded intelligence sharing, and “cyberwarfare” to disrupt ISIS’ recruitment efforts. He did not, however, offer any specific ways in which this would be different from the assorted global war on terror operations already ongoing.

He did, however, promise to “rebuild” the American military, a process which would involve enlarging both the Air Forcce and Navy by significant amounts. Previous estimates have put the cost of just building the naval vessels proposed in the realm of $165 billion, with the cost of maintaining the ships and actually hiring crews to pilot them adding much more.

Trump had previously insisted during the campaign that he had plans that would lead to the outright defeat of ISIS, though he was similarly tight-lipped about the details back then, and so far we remain largely in the dark about what that is going to entail.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.