The 'intensely' American president with an agenda like Trump's

'Silent Cal' was Trump's opposite in style and personality. Plus: A lesson for discouraged Democrats

It’s the 25^th year of a new century.

A Republican takes the oath of office as president of the United States for his second term. He believes in cutting taxes, restricting immigration and using tariffs to protect American industries from foreign competition.

Government spending should be cut to the bone. Big international organizations should be viewed warily. And the U.S. should never be shy about proclaiming its virtues.

This president isn’t the one who’s going to be sworn in on January 20 this year. It’s the president whose inauguration took place 100 years ago: Calvin Coolidge.

As Mike Johnson noted Friday after being reelected House Speaker, it was Coolidge who declared in his inaugural address that year: “We believe that we can best serve our own country and most successfully discharge our obligations to humanity by continuing to be openly and candidly, intensely and scrupulously, American.”

Calvin Coolidge, in the Oval Office in August, 1923, weeks after he succeeded Warren G. Ha…