Journalist and political analyst Bill Schneider on Thursday said that President Trump is different from his predecessors in that he ran for president as a divider and he governs as a divider.
“Trump is a little bit different from any of his predecessors in one respect: Trump ran as a divider. He got elected as a divider, and he’s governing as a divider,” Schneider told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons on “What America’s Thinking.”
“He succeeds four presidents in a row who promised to heal the country’s division. Now, they all failed,” he continued.
“The first [President George H.W.] Bush, kinder and gentler. [President] Clinton was a new Democrat in the third way, he got impeached. The second [President George W.] Bush, ‘I’m going to be a uniter, not a divider.’ The Iraq War ended that. And [President] Obama, who said there’s no liberal America or conservative America,” he said.
“Under each of these presidents, the country has become more and more divided. Trump didn’t have anything to do with that healing message. He ran as a divider, and he’s governing as a divider.”
Trump ran a largely anti-establishment campaign during the 2016 presidential election, taking what many said were controversial stances on immigration and national security.
Republicans and Democrats continue to have stark contrasts on various issues, including immigration, national security, race relations and environmental issues.
The Pew Research Center found that divisions on these issues reached all-time high levels under Obama, and have increased during Trump’s first year in office.
— Julia Manchester
hilltv copyright
