National Security is Everyone's Business

April 26th, 2024 | 11:29 PM ET

Power and the U.S. Presidency

Posted: January 20th, 2017

Today, President-elect Donald J. Trump and Vice President Michael R. Pence will take the oath of office on the western steps of the Capitol building. Mr. Trump enters the White House as possibly the most controversial new President in history. His inauguration will be met by record-setting protests – 200,000 people are expected to attend the Women’s March alone – and polls clock his approval rating at just 40 percent.

While his supporters believe he will restore American leadership in the world, the President-elect’s critics point to a series of controversial campaign positions and statements, which, when it comes to national security, range from a statement that if Iranian naval vessels continue to harass U.S. ships in the Straits of Hormuz they “will be shot out of the water” to a promise to “bomb the [expletive]” out of ISIS and “take the oil” from Iraq. 

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