"America is Back" is a catchphrase occasionally used by United States presidents and other political leaders to assert different things. The slogan was used during the presidency of Ronald Reagan to represent the theme of American economic recovery and Reagan invoked the phrase during his 1984 State of the Union address. [1] [2] It later became a Reagan-Bush campaign motto during the 1984 U.S. presidential election. [2] The phrase was also used by Arnold Schwarzenegger during his speech to the 2004 Republican National Convention, who declared that "Ladies and gentlemen, America is back!", [3] followed by Susan Rice during a February 23, 2009 NPR interview about her recent appointment as Permanent Representative of the United States of America to the United Nations, [4] Hillary Clinton in speeches while serving as United States Secretary of State during the presidency of Barack Obama, [4] and Obama himself during his 2012 State of the Union address. [5]
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Donald Trump declared "we are going to show the whole world that America is Back" while speaking during a rally on September 28 in Council Bluffs, Iowa [6] and used the phrase intermittently on other occasions during his presidency. [5] The slogan was also used during the presidency of Joe Biden [7] as a renunciation of the first presidency of Donald Trump [8] and, according to Alessandro Colombo, was "repeated by Biden almost daily during the first 100 days of his presidency". [9] His usage to indicate a heightened foreign policy focus on Atlanticism [10] positioned him "as the incarnation of America, which is held as the centre of the form of life of liberal capitalism and democracy" and "which presupposes a moment of prior retreat hinted presumably at Trump", according to Daniel Rueda Garrido. [11] Marc Chandler, writing in Barron's in 2021, noted that there was reason to be skeptical about the assertion "America is Back" since the "U.S. may be one election from leaving NATO and pulling out of the Paris Accord". [12] Trump repeatedly invoked the slogan at the start of his second presidential term, including in his first address to Congress in 2025. [13]