Democrats remind Trump that he must govern for all citizens

Since his election on Nov. 8, Donald Trump has continued to use his public platform to sow partisan division. There are deeply concerning questions about how much influence foreign governments might have over his administration. He’s criticized America’s intelligence agencies for presenting substantiated evidence of Russian hacking to influence the election’s outcome. His Cabinet picks have serious conflicts of interest and many have little experience when it comes to the agencies they’ve been asked to lead.

As a result of these actions, according to a CNN/ORC poll out this week, Trump is set to take the presidential oath on Friday with the lowest approval rating of any president on his first day in office — just 40 percent. For comparison, his predecessor entered office with an 84 percent approval rating in January 2009. 

{mosads}Tomorrow, when Trump steps into the Oval Office for the first time as its occupant, I hope he will realize — and appreciate — the scope not only of his new power, but the responsibility that comes with it. 

That means recognizing that 3 million more Americans voted for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton than for him, which means they voted for policies such as raising the minimum wage, protecting the Affordable Care Act and women’s access to healthcare, and investing in the creation of jobs and opportunities. They also voted to preserve America as a bastion of tolerance of different faiths and equal justice under law. They did not vote to split millions of immigrant families apart through aggressive deportation policies. Nor did they vote for schemes to privatize Social Security or turn Medicare into a voucher program.

When Trump enters the Oval Office, he will do so as president of a deeply divided nation, elected by a minority of its citizens but charged with overseeing a government that serves all of them. He will have to embrace compromise and cooperation and reject the kind of all-or-nothing partisanship that has plagued the Republican-led Congress in recent years. The president-elect must focus on the work of being a president for all Americans, even those of us who strongly opposed him.

On Friday, I will join other members of Congress — Democrats and Republicans — to witness the greatest peaceful transfer of power in the world. I’ll be there because Trump needs to see those representing the plurality of Americans who did not vote for him or his agenda. He needs to see the faces of those who will continue fighting to protect our rights and freedoms and defend democratic institutions and traditions for which so many brave Americans in uniform have given their lives. He will be reminded that he does not govern alone, that he will have to work with Congress on behalf of all Americans. 

Rep. Hoyer is the House minority whip.