After his huge victory in the Iowa Republican primary, the most divisive figure in American politics called for unity.
“I really think this is time now for everybody in our country to come together,” Donald Trump said. “Whether it’s Republican or Democrat or liberal or conservative, it would be so nice if we could come together and straighten out the world…”
If you did not know him, you might have thought he was sincere. You could have almost forgotten the grab ‘em-by-the-pussy sexual assaulter as he thanked his family. He even gazed heavenward to address his recently deceased mother-in-law, “incredible, beautiful” Amalija Knavs, whose funeral is scheduled for Thursday.
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“I just want to say to Amalija, ‘ You are special, one of the most special people I’ve ever known,’” he said.
But Trump was just speaking in the voice of a love-bombing narcissist who had received a fresh dose of the affirmation that he continually craves. Others he praised in this effusive gush included North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, whose own bid for the GOP presidential nomination had gone nowhere even though he is in Trump’s estimation “one of the best governors in the country.”
“But, traction is never easy, right?” Trump said. “You need controversy for traction sometimes. And this guy is the most solid guy. There's no controversy whatsoever.”
Moments later, the illusion ended. Trump was not about to be like some loser from North Dakota. He veered into controversy, saying that with this new togetherness “we’re going to seal up the border because right now we have an invasion of millions and millions of people that are coming into our country.”
“It’s horrible,” he said. “They’re coming from all over. They’re coming from countries most people never heard of.”
Likely a fair number of Americans only heard of Slovenia because it is the home country of Melania Trump and her parents. Amalija and her husband Victor Knavs only became citizens in August 2018 through family-based “chain migration” when their daughter was living in the White House as the first lady.
“This golden experiment, these doors that are in America, remain hinged open to beautiful people as they have today,” their attorney, Michael Wildes, was quoted saying after the private ceremony in Manhattan.
Trump presumably was not thinking of his in-laws eight months earlier when he told congressional leaders, “Chain migration is bringing in many, many people with one, and often it doesn't work out very well. Those many people are not doing us right.”
As the briefly tempered Trump went full MAGA in his victory speech in Iowa on Monday night, he stoked fear of hordes pouring though through open door into America from prisons, along with “mental institutions and insane asylums”
“They're being emptied out into our country,” Trump said.
He compounded that falsehood by saying there were “hundreds and hundreds of terrorists.”
“Known terrorists, some of them really bad,” he said. “And nobody knows where they are.”
Applause and shouts of approval from the crowd confirmed that he was getting traction when he pledged mass deportation. His supporters proved they had divided themselves from reason and sense to a point where they actually believed his falsehoods, all the more because he has so often repeated them.
His multiple indictments did not stop his supporters from feeding him more affirmation when he spoke of establishing “law and order.” He then targeted a group he had not included in his call for togetherness.
“If the fake news would become real and honest news, 90 percent of our problems in this country would be solved,” he said.
He veered back to talk of the border and summoned to the stage a man who was wearing a suit and tie patterned with bricks.
“He’s dressed like a wall,” Trump said. “I love this guy… He has the most beautiful outfit I've ever seen. It’s all beautiful brick.”
He was back to being his divisive self. He employed a pronoun as it was used by the king of England—whom our newborn nation threw off at its founding.
“We love it,” he said.
