President Donald Trump’s Inauguration on Jan. 20th led to a large and polarizing reaction from the political community. His speech was subject to much of the scrutiny, as its tone was oftentimes less optimistic and more divisive than one would expect from a recently sworn in president. His speech read more like one heard at his political rallies during the campaign than a unifying speech looking to move forward from the bitter election cycle and onward into his presidency. Especially after his more positive victory speech on Election Night, it felt like a step backward rather than one towards bringing the country together.

Trump assured his audience several times that, from now on, America belonged to the people. The nationalistic connotations of “America First” are disguised by his implicit intentions of prioritizing only a very small fraction of the American people. He does not mean the America that is made great by immigrants. He does not mean the America filled with strong women, nor the America where diversity is encouraged. Trump’s America, like so many of his supporters, is divisive, exclusive, fearful and misinformed. He did not vow to make all americans safe, wealthy and great — he only gave that guarantee to Americans who voted
for him.

Instead of appealing to the Democratic Party to work on bipartisanship, Trump blamed all the problems in our country on the previous administration. Addressing the establishment as a whole, Trump’s only mention of the opposing party was, “What truly matters is not which party controls our government, but whether our government is controlled by the people.” Many students at NYU do not identify with Trump’s rhetoric and looked to this speech as a way of connecting them to his new government, but by failing to address their concerns Trump was unable to bridge this disconnect. To his credit, while President Trump’s rhetoric emphasized the importance of people working together, it was merely a lukewarm attempt at unifying the country. In actuality, he failed to bring them remotely closer by refusing to acknowledge the views of his opposition. His divisive language separated the country even more.

In President Trump’s victory speech, he promised to be a president for all Americans. Unfortunately, the President’s language sounded almost identical to speeches given at his infamous campaign rallies. Hopefully, President Trump can start to focus on the promise made in his victory speech and try to find common ground with the 256 million Americans who did not vote for him. If this happens, all Americans — Trump supporters, Clinton supporters and independents — can start to find some much
needed unity.

A version of this article appeared in the Monday, Jan. 23 print edition. Email the Editorial Board at [email protected].