Forget soaring rhetoric. Donald Trump’s inaugural speech abandoned optimism, unity, and hope for the meanest, angriest speech of modern times. As Trump put the “bully” in bully pulpit, his “American carnage” speech included a phrase that was familiar from his campaign rhetoric.
TRUMP: We assembled here today are issuing a new decree to be heard in every city, in every foreign capital, and in every hall of power. From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward, it's going to be only America first, America first.
It’s not a new term. In fact, it’s a term that Franklin Roosevelt admitted was “pretty good.” But the history of that phrase is not good at all.
He wasn’t quite promising “America über alles,” but it comes close. “America First” was the motto of Nazi-friendly Americans in the 1930s, and Trump has more than just a catchphrase in common with them. ...
The phrase was minted by Nazi sympathizers, who used isolationist rhetoric to oppose Roosevelt in the 1930s. And its heart was in America’s heartland ...
There would soon be several hundred chapters and almost a million members, two-thirds of whom resided in the Midwest. Charles Lindbergh would officially join America First in April 1941, serving as the committee's principal spokesman and chief drawing card at its rallies.
But while those who began the idea at Yale may have had mostly pacifist leanings, the same wasn’t true of those who swarmed to the motto. America first was seen as anti-immigrant, and above all, anti-Semitic. And it was more than willing to let the UK be destroyed rather than oppose fascism.
"The British and the Jewish races," [Lindbergh] declared, "for reasons which are not American, wish to involve us in the war." The nation's enemy was an internal one, a Jewish one. "Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government," he contended.
It’s not as if Trump is ignorant of the term’s history. It’s been pointed out to him several times. Trump is using the phrase quite deliberately, and for much the same reasons.
Trump defines the “America” he wants to put “first” by saying who does not properly belong in it. That definition does not include certain people of foreign descent born in the United States, who are to him still foreigners and whom he labels accordingly (in the past few weeks, Trump has referred to native-born Americans as “Mexican” or “Afghan”). It does not include Muslim residents, whom he would “certainly” and “absolutely” force to register their presence with the U.S. government (asked how this proposed policy differs from Nazi laws regarding Jews, Trump replied, “You tell me“).
Roosevelt proposed that “America First” was perfectly fine, so long as you finished the sentence.
Roosevelt: What is the whole sentence? "America First Through Aid to Britain." Now that's a very different thing; that tells the truth. You are working for America first, because England today is holding the line and is doing practically all the fighting. Now the real sentence is, "Let us keep America going by giving aid to Britain while we are arming ourselves," and that is the thought to get across. And I think you can all help tremendously to make people realize the seriousness of the situation, and eliminate a lot of the perfectly silly prejudices that exist today because of wrong slogans—literally, the wrong slogans.