One Nation Trumpism

 Washington, DC

Trump is articulating an upbeat vision for America, while Democrats talk only of the misery he causes

Donald Trump, the unity president — doesn’t sound right, does it? Trump is, we know, divisive. Under his administration, America is polarised to the point of madness. Democrats and Republicans despise each other, culture wars rage, sane people speculate about another civil war.

In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, however, Trump spoke about bringing his country together. He will never be an elegant orator, but ‘SOTU 19’ was objectively a good speech: its authors cleverly wove American themes of optimism and success into a political challenge to the Democrats. ‘Millions of our fellow citizens are watching us,’ he said, ‘hoping we will govern not as two parties, but as one nation.’ You could call it One Nation Trumpism. Trump tried to sound magnanimous. He was positive, patriotic, less braggadocious. ‘The state of our union is strong,’ he said. ‘That sounds so good.’ What he did most effectively was put the Democrats on the defensive. House speaker Nancy Pelosi and her legion of new congresswomen chose to wear ‘suffragette white’, an ostentatious statement against Trump’s attempt to, as they put it, ‘roll back women’s progress’. They looked striking, but Trump toyed cleverly with their determination not to applaud. Would they clap when the President announced the return of 600,000 manufacturing jobs to US soil? Nah. What about the lowest historical unemployment rate for African-Americans? Nope. Disabled people having more jobs than ever? Not much. After Trump declared that America now has more women in the workforce, the Democrats all knew they must stand for the sisterhood. ‘You weren’t supposed to do that,’ Trump said, not without charm. He added: ‘Don’t sit yet. You are going to like this — we also have more women serving in Congress than any time before.’