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© 02.03.2017, Viktoria Zhuravleva

United States Capitol - photo by Kimberly Vardeman // www.flickr.com/photos/kimberlykv

On February 28th, D. Trump gave his first speech to a joint session of Congress. Traditionally, the first speech of an American president is symbolic and very important in terms of establishing contact between the branches of power. There is nothing to report yet, so the main goal of the new chief executive is to demonstrate that he is ready to move from his campaign promises to their implementation, submitting a more detailed program of his incumbent presidency.

The presidential agenda is in the center of his first address and, in fact, sets the vector of legislative activity of Congress. The first speech of the president - as the first acquaintance - is a very important moment in the functioning of the federal government, on which depends largely how the relationship between the executive and the legislative branches would evolve for the entire period of the presidency, or until the nearest change of the party control in Congress.

Judging by Trump’s performance, he understood very well the importance of this moment, despite his lack of political experience. His first address to congressmen was fundamentally different from his public speeches during the election campaign and from the inaugural speech of a triumphant. Indeed, it was his first public statement of a president, not of a candidate.

He was emotionally remote and was trying to make an impression of a moderate politician who is ready to cooperate. The thematic scope was entirely familiar to legislators and citizens because of the election campaign. However, the wording was smoothed and the most odious slogans were left aside.

Under unprecedented pressure which has been exerted by the bipartisan establishment on Trump all the months after the inauguration, his speech has become an appeal to both the establishment and the society to shift from confrontation to cooperation. That was the impetus of his first words about unity in the face of terrorism which opened the president’s speech and of an unexpected combination of the conservative and social-liberal agenda in the program of actions. Trump is not the first president who in recent decades has been calling for cooperation between parties and institutions of power. Nevertheless his appeal sounds very symbolical as it is voiced by a man who came to the White House largely as a result of ideological split and who from the first day could personally feel its sharpness.

At the same time, the president-businessman stayed true to himself keeping his language vivid and picturesque as the gloomy image of a ruined country migrated from the electoral slogans into an official speech. Even so, Trump the President, in contrast to Trump the Candidate, projected to fellow citizens a bright future with clear time guidelines. The new future will be fulfilled by the 250th anniversary of the USA independence which the country is celebrating in 9 years. So after his second presidential term, Trump, of course, will be the one who have led the country to this bright future by opening a new page of American greatness.

The scenario implementing this future is not detailed but is designed in the spirit of traditional addresses to the nation. The vector is indicated, the steps most important for the president are clearly articulated. Trump has already published this to-do-list on his web-site. Summing up his pre-election promises, they are aimed at restoring well-being of the middle class which is at the centre of the presidential program of reinstaiting of American greatness.

Тhere are several priority areas in the Trump's scenario which are likely to arise in the nearest future in the work of the new federal government: immigration reform, infrastructural development of the country, tax reform, continuing the health care reform, investments in defense and expanding social programs.

The agenda of the new president, aimed at uniting the nation, reminds more of George Bush's «compassionate conservatism» than the testaments of the right-wing conservatives who have dominated in the Republican Party in recent years. Having pledged the need for a stricter immigration legislation and for transition to the system of professional migration, he at the same time, proposed a program investing in the country's infrastructure, aimed at creating jobs, as F.D. Roosevelt, the reformer-democrat, had done. Calling to repeal Obamacare, Trump intends to maintain its main elements so important for Democrats, such as coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and affordability of insurance. He announced a historic increase in defense spending, and at the same time proposed to introduce a childcare allowance and to keep the level of funding for Medicaid - an unprecedented diseconomy for conservatives, but very much in the spirit of pre-election proposals of democrats.

This program can be implemented and this great future can be achieved, of course, only if parties, institutions and society cooperate. This was the conclusion of the Trump's speech: the power of America lies in its unity.

The president has made the first move towards the bipartisan establishment. But would the establishment want to follow the suit? Or would it rather prefer to block the president, squeeze him out of the legislative field, and to continue defaming him in the eyes of society and the outside world? American political establishment will very soon have to make the choice between these two opposite scenarios. On this choice depends whether Trump's presidency would turn into an endless, exhausting war of the US political system with an outsider, which is fraught with a complete loss of effectiveness of the system itself, or would it become the first move to the formation of a new social and political contract between the American government and the society.