Trump’s challenge is to unite the nation

Donald Trump faces the daunting task of making America whole again as the uniter-in-chief.

We know Donald Trump can campaign.

Now we’re about to find out if he can lead. And unite. And heal. It won’t be easy after what transpired Tuesday.

A country hungry for change turned to a man whose fame rested in part on his ability to inform people, ‘You’re Hired,’ and offered this unexpected mandate: You’re hired.

Will the billionaire real estate tycoon — with no military or government experience — be true to the comforting words he offered in accepting the results of a stunning tidal wave on Election Day, or will he revert to the bombastic rhetoric that carried him to the White House? Donald Trump becomes commander-in-chief of a fractured nation.

His shocking victory revealed an America that is angry and that has lost trust in its institutions.

In its government.

In big business. In the press. Now Trump faces the daunting task of making America whole again. One of his duties immediately becomes healer and uniter-inchief. (That was also the task given to Barack Obama eight long years ago — and it’s clear now he failed.)

Trump will be helped in his mission by a Republican Senate and House. America apparently did not want that much change. They did not turn over control of the Senate to Democrats, as expected. The GOP also will again be the majority party in the House.

Here in Pennsylvania, proof of that resided just under the presidential candidates, where Republican Pat Toomey, despite a months long dance around the tense question of whether or not he would vote for Trump, was sent back to Washington for another sixyear term. Toomey, who waited until 6:45 p.m. to cast his ballot and then sheepishly announced to the press that he had in fact backed Trump, edged Democrat Katie McGinty by a razor-thin margin.

Trump built his campaign on that fissure in American society. Tuesday’s electoral earthquake detonated that fissure into a gulf separating a huge block of disaffected Americans angry at their elected leaders, their government and the institutions they believe had betrayed them.

They sought change. They sought an outsider, someone not of the “elite” they believe had spurned — indeed at times mocked — them. They awaited an outsider, an agent of change.

Enter Donald Trump, a 70-year-old reality TV star who said what was on his mind, and didn’t especially seem to care who he offended along the way.

He turned his vitriol on an easy target, someone who epitomized everything those unhappy masses loathed. Enter Hillary Clinton.

You can make the argument that Trump turned American politics on its head by delivering Hillary Clinton’s head on a platter. She became the symbol for what so many in the nation despised. She was not a heroine looking to shatter America’s final glass ceiling so much as a career bureaucrat who had so many trust and transparency issues.

During his campaign, Trump repeated one mantra over and over: Make America Great Again.

We hope he’s right. But then, we never thought otherwise.

We always thought this was the greatest country and democracy on Earth. We hope the president-elect sees the values and beliefs that America holds at its core, a beacon for all who seek refuge in its loving arms.

Too often during the campaign Trump instead veered into ugly rhetoric that often stood in stark contrast to the ideals that indeed make America great. You’re hired, Mr. Trump. Now be good to your word.

Now Trump faces the daunting task of making America whole again. One of his duties immediately becomes healer and uniter-inchief.