Republicans, particularly those of the strong fiscal-conservative variety, had to shudder a bit when they listened to the brief and largely superficial Inaugural Address delivered Friday by President Donald Trump.

His was a populist, nationalistic and even isolationist message. Absent were traditional conservative principals such as smaller government and trimming deficit spending. Instead, Trump described a country in desperate need and a government that must be ready to come to the rescue.

“We will build new roads and highways and bridges and airports and tunnels and railways all across our wonderful nation,” said Trump. “We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor.”

For those of us who have called for a massive federal investment in infrastructure for several years, only to see former President Obama’s efforts to do so blocked by Republican leaders in Congress, Trump’s promise in that regard is welcomed news. If Republican opposition remains, Trump should be willing to work with Democrats to rebuild America.

And using infrastructure projects to “get our people off of welfare and back to work” sure sounds like a jobs program. While that may not be music to the ears of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-.N.Y., would probably march to that tune.

This new Republican president drew no connections to the hero of what had been modern Republicanism, President Ronald Reagan. In his 1980 Inaugural Address, Reagan contended “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem” and promised his efforts to “curb the size and influence of the Federal establishment” would produce “a healthy, vigorous, growing economy that provides equal opportunities for all Americans.”

Rather than provide such inspiration and a clear sense of ideological direction, Trump offered a vision of a nation so dystopian that it is unrecognizable to most Americans. Trump’s America, it seems, is a place of “mothers and children trapped in poverty … rusted out factories scattered like tombstones across the landscape … an education system which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.”

Trump’s solution to rebuild this squalid place is development of Fortress America.

“From this day forward, it’s going to be only America first, America first,” said the president. A nation guided by “two simple rules, buy American, hire American.”

Except that it is not a simple world. It is a world more interconnected than ever, technologically and economically. By erecting barriers that make it difficult for other nations to sell products here, the United States will invite reciprocal trade barriers, cutting off export markets for U.S. businesses and inviting global recession.

One of America’s great success stories has been its leadership in microcomputer and microprocessor technology, for example, with global impact and corresponding global sales. The United States cannot remain a leader in the high-tech revolution if it retreats behind trade barriers.

Give the new president credit, however, for putting the focus on companies that ship manufacturing operations across borders in pursuit of cheap labor and fatter profit margins. It makes sense to pursue tax policies that encourage domestic manufacturing investment.

The new president offered little about his foreign policy vision. What he did have to say was contradictory. He decried past decisions to spend “trillions and trillions of dollars overseas while America’s infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay,” an apparent reference to recent wars. And his “America first” approach would not seem to accommodate future military incursions.

Yet, in the next breath, Trump pledged to “unite the civilized world against radical Islamic terrorism, which we will eradicate from the face of the Earth.” Eradication would suggest a vast military expansion beyond the commitment under Obama.

Trump was on target in noting that Washington and its lobbying, bureaucratic and political classes have thrived even while the wages of middle-class Americans have stagnated and little has been done to address the industrial job losses tied to technological and market changes.

“For too long, a small group in our nation’s capital has reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost. Washington flourished, but the people did not share in its wealth. Politicians prospered, but the jobs left and the factories closed,” he said.

In pursuit of positives, consider that Trump, beholden neither to parties nor to political insiders, could shake up Washington. But to achieve his stated priority of creating good jobs, a Trump administration must develop a more realistic, nuanced approach to economic policy than the bumper-sticker platitudes offered during the campaign and repeated in his Inaugural Address.