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.
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