Monday January 20, the entire planet had its eyes glued to the inauguration of the 47th American president. Signing of decrees galore, offensive against transgender people or migrants… While the television channels were running at full speed, Donald Trump gave them something to grind, with “a series of actions intended to delight his most ardent fans “, as the American site comments bitterly Politico. With a touch of irony, the specialized media likes to summarize his speech in one sentence: “You know what I said throughout the last decade? I really meant it.”
For her part, columnist Maureen Dowd of New York Timess laments: “Today, the Obama coalition looks like an anomaly and Trump is now the force that turns the pages of history.” In the same dailyanother journalist, Thomas L. Friedman, chose to warn the Republican ghost about the geopolitical situation: “This is one of those rare moments – like after World War I, World War II and the Cold War – where everything is at stake in the Middle East and everything is possible and right now, everyone is waiting for you.
The inauguration of Donald Trump must share the front page with the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in Gaza, as in the Belgian daily The Freewho worries: “We must fear that Trump will be the president who puts an end to Ukrainian resistance, and not Russian aggression. Who deports illegal immigrants ‘en masse’ without resolving the immigration problem.” Same story in the other French-speaking Belgian newspaper The evening : “Trump is back, in force and the world had better watch out”. Our colleagues atEl Paísthe number one daily newspaper in Spain, see in the inauguration of the new head of state the “day when the technological oligarchy took power”.
“A human wrecking ball”
Across the Channel, journalists from Guardian compare Donald Trump to a “human wrecking ball,” bringing “chaos” to the world. And add, not without sarcasm: “When the obituary for planet Earth is written, there may be an important place for what happened in a downtown basketball and ice hockey arena of Washington on January 20, 2025.” THE Times takes note of the new era taking place in the United States: “The Trump ‘revolution’ begins immediately.”
In Germany, the biggest concern is economic: the media are tearing their hair out over how to respond to possible customs taxes on their exports. Note that the United States constitutes Germany’s second largest export market, after China, in the automotive sector. “It will be a different America,” predicts a columnist from Bild, most read tabloid across the Rhine, mentioning a “fireworks display of decisions”. Marion Horn took the opportunity to attack her country’s politicians, saying: “It’s almost exactly the opposite of what we know in everyday German political life. A lot of things are promised and little happens.”
Unsurprisingly, the English daily newspaper distributed in Hong Kong, “The South China Morning Post, focuses on Washington’s outstretched hand towards Beijing. “By being lenient towards China from day one, Trump leaves room for deals,” said Da Wei, director of the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University in Beijing. The latter is delighted that China and the United States are now in “a fairly good communication process.” Until when?