Trump Is Still Attacking Democrats, Republicans and Everyone in Between. Status: Stalled.
UNITY
In his victory speech, President-elect Donald Trump vowed to work with his critics and unite the nation.
But in the year since that pledge, Trump has attacked pro football players, late-night television hosts, foreign leaders, Democrats, Republicans, his own Cabinet, the cast of the hit Broadway musical “Hamilton,” the mayor of San Juan, Puerto Rico (in the midst of hurricane recovery), judges and more.
On a policy front, there's been little evidence of efforts to reach out to Democratic lawmakers outside of one frenzy-inducing meeting in September about DACA that did not lead to any movement on the issue in Congress, and a recent phone call on tax reform. Democratic lawmakers have largely closed ranks, voting unanimously against Trump-endorsed plans to dismantle Obamacare, for example.
Additionally, Trump blindsided his own military when he announced he’d discharge all transgender troops and bar them from serving, despite the military’s own plans to integrate transgender troops after they’d found it would not significantly alter readiness or care costs. A court temporarily blocked the ban, declaring that it was based on “disapproval of transgender people generally,” not military readiness.
One of Trump’s more generous donors, Bob McNair, owner of the NFL’s Houston Texans, called Trump’s attacks on protesting players “divisive and counterproductive to what our country needs right now.”
And two past presidents — Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama — appeared to condemn Trump without naming him in a pair of recent speeches.
“We’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgotten the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America,” Bush said.