YEREVAN. - With the inauguration of the new U.S. president, many expected President Trump to adopt a more serious and more positive approach to unite the country but his inauguration address did little to reassure Americans.

Political analyst and Director of the Regional Studies Center (RSC), Richard Giragosian, stated the aforementioned to Armenian News – NEWS.am.  

According to him, Trump’s speech was rather “a message of negative revenge, and personal animosity.” Despite a disciplined but disturbing record of campaign promises and threats, traditionally, most candidates leave behind the bluff and bluster of campaign rhetoric and swiftly adapt to the practical demands of presidential pragmatism once in office, he noted. Yet, in Giragosian’s words, President Trump is anything but traditional, and his unconventional convictions were at the heart of his strategy to win the election. 

“Moreover, the rather unpredictable, if not irresponsible, rhetoric of the Trump campaign actually served the candidate as a political asset, helping him to overcome challenges from both more mainstream Republican rivals and from the race against Hilary Clinton.  Therefore, any expectation for a return to normalcy and mature governance may be misplaced.  And while the pursuit of American foreign policy will undoubtedly be altered, it is clear that policy toward the former Soviet states will shift the fastest and the farthest,” he noted.