On March 4, 1933, in his inaugural address, President Franklin Roosevelt told an anxious nation that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.”
On April 12, 2017, in response to a question from a Norwegian reporter at a press conference with the NATO Secretary General, President Donald Trump told an anxious world that they would soon have nothing to fear as soon as he fixed all the problems, because it’s better when there aren’t problems:
Reporter: What do you think European countries have to fear from Russia if this tension continues to escalate?
Trump: Well, I want to just start by saying hopefully they’re going to have to fear nothing, ultimately. Right now there is a fear and there are problems, certainly problems, but ultimately I hope there won’t be a fear and won’t be problems and the world can get along. That would be the ideal situation. It’s crazy what’s going on, whether it’s the Middle East or you look at no matter where, the Ukraine, you look at – whatever you look at, it’s got problems. So many problems. And ultimately, I believe that we are going to get rid of most of those problems and there won’t be fear of anybody. That’s the way it should be.
So there you have it. Trump also said, in reference to deterring North Korea’s nuclear program, that “if we go it alone it will be with other nations.”
