简体中文
By APD writer Lu Jiafei
Washington, Feb.1 (APD) -- For eighty minutes, U.S. President Donald Trump went to great lengths to act like a unifier- in- chief before lawmakers and millions of Americans in his first State of the Union speech.
Despite the annoying Trumpian braggadocio about the “extraordinary success” of his first year in office and some grumbling about the Korea Peninsula nuclear issue, the whole performance steered clear of the combative and divisive tone typical for Trump. It was a lackluster and boring, yet more or less normal presidential speech.
For Trump and his underlings, the speech could amount to a new page in a so far badly written book.
With the epic failure to repeal his predecessor Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, incessant investigation into whether his campaign colluded with Russians in the 2016 election, basement- level job approval ratings, a deeply divisive Congress, and a fractured nation deriving from his controversial policies and lack of presidential decorum, Trump needed to reset his tumultuous presidency.
Trump vs. Obama
Unfortunately, he would soon find out that his reputation of being the divider- in- chief won’t be easily shaken off.
“Tonight, I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people,” a seemingly sober Trump uttered the words.
If you found familiar the self- disciplined statement that aimed to strike a bipartisan tone, you are not alone in this respect.
In his first address to Congress almost one year ago, Trump also said that “the time for trivial fights” was over, claiming that he wanted to “deliver a message of unity and strength, and it is a message deeply delivered from my heart.”
That speech was undoubtedly the highest point of his first year in office when even his most vocal critics praised him of being presidential.
Back then, though, Trump soon unleased that fateful string of tweets, in which he falsely and recklessly accused Obama of wiretapping the Trump Tower during the campaign.
Before that, he had already blasted Democrats for “lost(ing) their grip on reality,” and called the investigation into Russian muddling into the U.S. election “a total ‘witch hunt!’”
I wouldn’t be surprised if this time Trump soon slipped back to his bellicose and provocative mode. In fact, the conditions are, sadly speaking, mature this time for Trump to be Trump.
U.S. President Donald Trump, center, greets attendees while arriving to deliver a State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018.
In his first State of the Union speech, Trump positioned immigration proposals as one major unifying initiative. He probably had forgotten that immigration had become a deeply contested and emotionally charged issue back at home because of his inflammatory and hardline remarks and his decision to end the Obama-era DACA program, which gives people brought to the United States as a child the temporary right to live, study and work in America.
DACA program
The effort to salvage the DACA program is currently causing a stalemate in Congress, resulting in a three- day government shutdown last month.
The level of animosity is now running unprecedentedly high now between Democrats and Republicans in Washington, and Democrats had already called Trump’s remarks “bigoted.”
If not for anything else, Trump’s emergence in the past two years to being a fixture of political discourse in Washington has taught us one thing: Do not expect self- restraint and discipline from Trump, and this man out- punches his rivals with vitriol unheard of from a decent man.
Lu Jiafei, researcher of APD Institute. After spending one year in Palestine covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict between 2013 and 2014, Lu moved to Washignton, D.C. and covered the 2016 U.S. presidential election till the very end of Donald Trump’s upset victory. He is a political contributor to APD.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
