The best part of Trump’s inaugural speech was his proclamation that a new “golden age of America begins right now.” This new era, the 47th president declared, will be accompanied by a “revolution of common sense” and entail “the complete restoration of America” and even “launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.” That galvanizing spirit surely helped move America to twice elect Mr. Trump as  president.

As often with Mr. Trump, though, the bitter and the sweet were comingled. The dark streaks weren’t as startling as they were in 2016, when the then 45th president invoked “American carnage.” He also then noted, as these columns remembered, that ​​”through our loyalty to our country, we will rediscover our loyalty to each other. When you open your heart to patriotism, there is no room for prejudice.” That golden thread is the one worth pulling.

Mr. Trump’s areas of focus in his second inaugural were as eccentric as we have come to expect. Renaming the Gulf of Mexico hardly feels pressing, and while we agree on the substance of his stance on the Panama Canal,  its pride of place is puzzling given that President Biden bequeathed his successor a world on fire everywhere from the middle of Europe to the Middle East — not to mention Main Streets across America.

The display of wealth around Mr. Trump sends a mixed message to us mortals. The billionaires’ row near the president included the richest man, Elon Musk, as well as Meta’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, and Apple’s chief, Tim Cook, and the head of LVMH, Bernard Arnault. America’s social mobility means that one year’s billionaire may not be the next one’s. Titles of nobility are prohibited, though, in our Constitution.

Then there is Mr. Trump’s own sudden wealth, which startled some of the most conservative figures we talked to today. His riches are reportedly pouring in from the issuance of a meme coin “$Trump.” The digital tchotchke is reportedly now worth tens of billions of dollars. All of this money presents the danger that the national interest could bend to self-interest and takes the sages that we most admire aback. 

One of them, journalist James Grant, wondered to us, in respect of “$Trump,” which other president “would have done it — would have even conceived of doing it (if the  technology were available to tempt him). Old John Adams? I don’t think so. The great Grover Cleveland? Eisenhower, Honest Abe Lincoln? No, no, no.”  Mr. Grant calls it “Trump’s personal QE,” a reference to quantitative easing. “It robs the President of his moral bully pulpit.”

We mention all that not to gainsay the Golden Age the 47th president evokes today. A note of humility, though, is in order even for a leader who has led a long and bitter march to a famous victory and who has come to believe that God has chosen him to Make America Great Again. We mark the point more in the nature of the messenger whose job it was to keep whispering in the emperor’s ear: “All glory is fleeting.”