Trump speech themes differ
Trump abandons vitriol in speech to American Legion
The president called for unity in a speech to the American Legion, just hours after a raucous rally in which he reignited the flames over his response to Charlottesville, Va.
RENO, Nev. — A day after a raucous campaign-style rally in which he lambasted the news media and political rivals in his own party, President Donald Trump set aside the vitriol Wednesday and called for healing and national unity.
“It is time to heal the wounds that have divided us, and to seek a new unity based on the common values that unite us,” Trump said, speaking before more than 5,000 members at the American Legion’s 99th National Convention. “We are one people, with one home and one flag.”
“We are not defined by the color of our skin, the figure on our paycheck or the party of our politics,” Trump continued, putting forth that “shared humanity,” “citizenship” and patriotism could heal the nation’s political and racial divides.
Reading from a teleprompter, the president spoke in measured tones and stuck to his prepared remarks as he praised members of the largest veterans group in the United States as examples for a nation yearning to set aside its differences. “We are here to hold you up as an example of strength, courage and resolve that our country will need to overcome the many challenges that we face,” he said.
The night before, the president cut loose in Arizona — defying instructions from his aides to stick to the script — and angrily renewing his fight with the news media over its coverage of his comments about the race-fueled violence in Charlottesville, Va.
Trump’s remarks come at a time when he is facing continued pressure to stem the divisions inflamed by the deadly rally.
The public push-and-pull in Trump’s message mirrors the internal dynamics at the White House, where new chief of staff John Kelly has organized and regimented the West Wing staff but has been unable to rein in the president’s tendency to veer off course.
The president’s speech in Reno was full of the calls for patriotism and national healing that would not have seemed out of the ordinary had they been uttered by previous occupants of the Oval Office.
In Phoenix, Trump opened with talk of unity but quickly erupted, blaming the media for the widespread condemnation of his response to the violence in Charlottesville at a protest organized by white supremacists.
By the time he arrived at the American Legion conference, Trump seemed more congenial. He even thanked Sen. Dean Heller, a Nevada Republican with whom he has openly and repeatedly feuded.
In Reno, Trump appeared to stick to his carefully crafted script, focusing on his administration’s efforts to improve services for veterans, a key focus on the nation’s largest veterans organization.
After his speech Wednesday, he signed into law the Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act, which reforms the process by which veterans can appeal their claims for disability benefits with Veterans Affairs.
“I promised you that I would make it my priority to fix the broken VA and to deliver to our veterans the care they so richly deserve,” Trump said. “And you see what’s been happening.
“Now you have a true reformer in Secretary David Shulkin.”
Shulkin served as undersecretary of Veterans Affairs for health under President Barack Obama before he was named secretary by Trump in January.
The day before Trump’s appearance, the Legion voted to reaffirm a nearly 100-year-old resolution condemning hate groups.
The resolution states that “the American Legion considers any individual, group of individuals, or organizations, which creates, or fosters racial, religious or class strife among our people, or which takes into their own hands the enforcement of law, determination of guilt, or infliction of punishment, to be unAmerican, a menace to our liberties, and destructive to our fundamental law.”
Since Kelly took over last month as chief of staff, he has ousted lightning-rod chief strategist Steve Bannon and hard-charging communications director Anthony Scaramucci while limiting dissenting voices, restricting access to the president and steering Trump toward a desired outcome on key decisions.
He has urged Trump to more closely follow a game plan. But Trump’s broadside against the “damned dishonest” media, which he says were out to get him, was one of several detours he took from remarks prepared for the Phoenix rally. Trump unabashedly acknowledged that his own advisers had urged him to stay on message and that he simply couldn’t.
His diatribe against the press wasn’t in his prepared remarks, according to two people familiar with the plan but not authorized to speak publicly.
Among those who gathered to hear Trump’s remarks at the convention, some were sympathetic to his approach to the Charlottesville controversy.
“He’s not a very delicate guy. He never says things in a very delicate way,” said Ed Riley, a retired Navy fighter pilot who began serving in 1970. “I never heard him ever endorse any of the far right.”
“It always upsets me when the news says this was a white supremacist thing. It was not, it was nationalist — a white nationalist (thing),” Riley added.