The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)
Trump’s bipartisan pitch long gone; now he’s talking treason
WASHINGTON » President Donald Trump’s call in the State of the Union address last week for a new era of bipartisan cooperation seems like a distant memory.
Now, he’s calling Democrats “un-American” and perhaps “treasonous” for not clapping during that address — part of a larger trend of recent insults and slights as the president turns his ire on the opposition party for failing to go along with his plans.
His treason quip on Monday triggered an uproar among Democrats. The White House quickly responded that the president was joking, although Trump hasn’t said — or tweeted — as much.
Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, a double amputee veteran of the Iraq War, tweeted her umbrage, working in a reminder that Trump had deferments during the Vietnam War for bone spurs.
“We don’t live in a dictatorship or a monarchy,” she wrote. “I swore an oathin the military and in the Senateto preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, not to mindlessly cater to the whims of Cadet Bone Spurs and clap when he demands I clap.”
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi tweeted that, “Every American should be alarmed by how @realDonaldTrump is working to make loyalty to him synonymous with loyalty to our country. That is not how democracy works.”
Some Republicans, too, said Trump had gone too far.
“You don’t have to always agree with those on the other side of the aisle, but all members of Congress love their country, and none are treasonous,” wrote Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Arizona.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley insisted the president had made the comment in jest.
“It was tongue in cheek. The president was obviously joking. But what’s serious is it seems as though the Democrats put their personal hatred for this president over their desires to see this country succeed,” he said.
Trump made his treason remark during an appearance at an Ohio manufacturing plant, where he said Republicans went “totally crazy, wild, they loved everything” about his State of the Union address. He described Democrats as refusing to applaud even positive news, and said they’d prefer to see him do badly than the country do well.
“Can we call that treason? Why not?” he asked, lobbing an extraordinary accusation. “They certainly didn’t seem to love our country very much,” Trump added.
Trump also accused the party of not wanting to secure the nation’s borders.
“They don’t care about the security of our country,” he said. “They don’t care about MS-13 killers pouring into our country.” That was a reference to a violent street gang.
It was a significant departure from the night a week earlier when Trump talked of “extending an open hand to work with members of both parties — Democrats and Republicans — to protect our citizens of every background, color, religion and creed,” all the while pushing a hardline immigration plan that Democrats have rejected as a nonstarter.
Trump’s plan would provide a path to citizenship for up to 1.8 million young people living in the country illegally, in exchange for billions for his promised border wall and immigration enforcement, as well as major cuts to legal immigration that Democrats say they can’t get behind.