Trump is divisive. He splits his opposition perfectly

Washington, DC

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.’