Do you remember Donald Trump's promise to America a year ago? Sadly, I do.
Saturday is the one year anniversary of Trump's historic third nomination as the Republican presidential candidate and the gripping nomination speech where he told a rapt audience about his brush with death not long before.
The chairman of the Republican Party remembers it this way: 'Just days after surviving an assassination attempt, President Trump accepted his third nomination for President, showcasing his unwavering commitment to our nation and to the American people,' said Michael Whatley. 'President Trump campaigned on a bold vision for America: creating a strong economy, a strong border, and a strong America. One year later, President Trump has delivered — cementing his record of promises made, promises kept.'
I was at the convention near the rafters when Trump gave his speech, and I remember things differently. I remember being grabbed by the opening lines.
'Friends, delegates and fellow citizens. I stand before you this evening with a message of confidence, strength and hope. Four months from now, we will have an incredible victory, and we will begin the four greatest years in the history of our country, the soon to be president began, 'Together, we will launch a new era of safety, prosperity and freedom for citizens of every race, religion, color and creed.'
Then this: 'The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together. Or we fall apart,' Trump said.
Chairman Whatley remembers promises kept. I remember a message of 'hope' that said a near-death experience had changed Trump. I remember a promise to 'heal' our nation because we share a 'single fate' and a common 'destiny.' I remember a promise made and broken within minutes.
I am trying to recall any images of these past six months that bring to mind hope or healing or even a perfunctory attempt to bring people together.
On Sunday, Trump will have been in office for half a year and I recall:
Marines on the streets of San Francisco.
Masked ICE agents pulling U.S. citizens off the street
A person legally in the United States being thrown into a camp for writing an opinion column.
The Trump administration ignoring federal court orders.
A Congress passing laws on the barest of partisan majorities.
A Cabinet of half-wits and nut jobs who couldn't get bipartisan support if their lives depended on it.
Broken promises to end war in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Bragging about a prison camp patrolled by alligators.
Tax cuts, defunding Big Bird and Planned Parenthood, an open door to oil and gas drilling, massive deregulation and all the rest don't make up for it. Trump, that night last July, promised more than partisan victories to warm my heart.
No, I didn't believe Trump's promise of hope and healing long enough for him to finish his speech, but for some reason, Trump felt the need to make that promise. For some reason, he felt the need to echo presidents past and their calls to the better angels of our nature.
I don't know why. Maybe it was to give those who planned to vote for him plausible deniability for the division that, in their hearts, they knew would come. Maybe he fools himself into thinking that his misnamed 'Make America Great Again' cause will somehow heal more than it harms.
What I do know is that, six months in, a fracas over a dead sexual predator and the lies and conspiracies Trump has peddled about Jeffrey Epstein has shredded the unity of even his MAGA adherents. Before this latest division, Republicans were already divided between the rump of the Reagan faithful and the new nationalist vanguard. There is no one and nothing into which Trump cannot drive a wedge.
Six months in, Trump was right that we remain 'bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny,' but it does not seem like we're rising together as Republicans, conservatives or as Americans.
Even the chairman of the Republican Party remembers that Trump promised a strong America. To me, America does not seem destined for renewed strength if, for the next three and a half years, Trump is going to drive us all even further apart.
David Mastio is a national columnist for McClatchy and the Kansas City Star.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Washington Post
28 minutes ago
- Washington Post
From tech podcasts to policy: Trump's new AI plan leans heavily on Silicon Valley industry ideas
An artificial intelligence agenda that started coalescing on the podcasts of Silicon Valley billionaires is now being forged into U.S. policy as President Donald Trump leans on the ideas of the tech figures who backed his election campaign. Trump on Wednesday is planning to reveal an 'AI Action Plan' he ordered after returning to the White House in January. He gave his tech advisers six months to come up with new AI policies after revoking President Joe Biden's signature AI guardrails on his first day in office.
Yahoo
30 minutes ago
- Yahoo
These are the 3 manufacturing sectors set to be the big winners of Trump's Made in America push
Trump wants to increase manufacturing in the United States. His economic agenda has centered on measures meant to compel companies to build on US soil. These three industries are the likely big winners of the Made In America push, Oxford Economics says. President Donald Trump wants more stuff to be made in America. Upon taking office in January, he implemented tariffs against prominent US trade partners in an effort to bring more manufacturing back to American shores, brushing off warnings of potential pain for companies and consumers. But some industries are likely to see a boost in US manufacturing over others, Oxford Economics said on Tuesday. The firm is predicting that high-tech goods, pharmaceuticals, and aerospace technology will have an advantage. Nico Palesch, a senior economist at the forecasting firm, said these industries are well-positioned to benefit from Trump's policies because they already have a foothold in the US market. "A sector that has significant domestic capacity in the US is much more likely to be able to expand capacity and accrue benefits from changes in tariffs or reductions in taxation because the business case for operating in the US is already strong, as opposed to a sector that would essentially need to be built from the ground up," he stated. Despite high economic uncertainty, Palesch added that Trump's policies are likely to help spur growth for US manufacturing. He also credited the CHIPS and Inflation Reduction Acts of 2022 with helping revitalize US manufacturing in areas such as semiconductors and green technology production. In his view, they will be responsible "for a majority of reindustrialization" in the coming years. Palesch highlighted the advantage that companies with a strong US presence will have, noting that he did not believe Trump's policies would bring back an abundance of manufacturing jobs to the US. "A car maker in the US is more likely to decide to expand an existing production line or set up a new factory to try and capture more market share at the expense of tariffed competition than a firm operating in a sector that has little or no presence in the US," he added. The economist said he sees Boeing as a top pick among aerospace stocks, adding that while the company has experienced some negative publicity of late, "it remains one of the two major international aerospace manufacturers capable of producing the types of aircraft typically used in air travel at scale." Read the original article on Business Insider Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Washington Post
32 minutes ago
- Washington Post
Far beyond Harvard, conservative efforts to reshape higher education are gaining steam
Ken Beckley never went to Harvard, but he has been wearing a crimson Harvard cap in a show of solidarity. As he sees it, the Trump administration's attacks on the school echo a case of government overreach at his own alma mater, Indiana University. Beckley, a former head of the school's alumni association, rallied fellow graduates this spring in an unsuccessful effort to stop Gov. Mike Braun , a Republican, from removing three alumni-elected members from Indiana University's Board of Trustees and handpicking their replacements.
