As now-President Donald Trump wrapped up his uncharacteristically short Inauguration speech, members of the media were suddenly in agreement: Trump’s remarks were “dark.”
Across the news media, everyone from Vanity Fair to MSNBC and beyond was horrified that Trump’s short message was a condemnation of the previous administration, and a bleak description of middle America.
Trump seems to be setting the bar low for America in this speech. He says things are dark, so it's as though any change is improvement.
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) January 20, 2017
Trump’s dark, raw, partisan speech shocks Washington https://t.co/pATbOXOn9N #InaugurationDay pic.twitter.com/Dj2wd6qARj
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) January 20, 2017
'It Was Militant and It Was Dark': Rachel Maddow Says Trump's Speech Was 'Hard to Hear' https://t.co/q2l9VhLer5 (VIDEO) pic.twitter.com/kTxxb3A4sT
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) January 20, 2017
In a dark, threatening first speech, President Trump promises radical changes in US policy https://t.co/wXD447JWBu #AmericanCarnage
— Heather Timmons (@HeathaT) January 20, 2017
Here's my quick-take on Trump's surprisingly dark speech: https://t.co/UWIUtHaVDh
— David A. Graham (@GrahamDavidA) January 20, 2017
Rachel Maddow, on MSNBC, went on to accuse Trump of adopting militaristic language from early 2oth-century isolationist campaigns, claiming the words made her feel unsafe. “The America First Committee is something that means a specific thing in this country. To repurpose it now, not that far down the historical path, it’s hard. It’s hard to hear.”
Other left-leaning outlets, like Jezebel, compared the Trump’s message to a speech given by Bane, Gotham’s threatening arch-villain and Batman’s back-breaking foil in The Dark Knight Rises.
Donald Trump's inauguration speech was very similar to Bane's in The Dark Knight Rises https://t.co/hQW9fm4JS6 pic.twitter.com/nCy4t4ao0C
— Indy Film (@TheIndyFilm) January 20, 2017
Donald Trump plagiarized Bane in his #inauguration speech: https://t.co/Vt3tISj9s9 pic.twitter.com/sSjkx7vcRJ
— Jezebel (@Jezebel) January 20, 2017
Trump said in his speech that he is transferring power from Washington, D.C., and “giving it back to you, the people.” Bane’s speech, on the steps of Gotham’s Blackgate prison ends with the masked giant claiming that his goal is to “take Gotham from the corrupt” and “give it back to you, the people.”
It’s not particularly significant, but it does make for an apt, metaphorical comparison for Trump’s detractors and a fairly fascinating meme.
Trump’s remarks focused on “America First,” a secondary theme in his campaign, but was not the “unifying” or “optimistic” speech that his senior advisers had promised during their early-morning network appearances.
Although Trump did rally his audience with lines about “celebration,” the speech largely focused on what Trump felt were failings of the Obama presidency, alongside a call to embrace populist solutions. The tenor sharply contrasted with former President Obama’s 2008 and 2012 inaugural speeches.
