President-elect Donald Trump has uttered many reassuring, unifying words since his election victory last week.
“I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all Americans, and this is so important to me,” he said in a victory speech in the early morning hours of Nov. 9.
During a lengthy “60 Minutes” interview in his New York City penthouse, Lesley Stahl asked Trump what he would say to those protesting his election as president because they are afraid of what his time as chief executive will mean to America.
“Don’t be afraid. We are going to bring our country back. But certainly, don’t be afraid,” he answered.
And perhaps most important, when asked about his supporters harassing minorities, which Trump shockingly said he didn’t know about, he had a strong message: Stop it.
“I would say don’t do it, that’s terrible, ‘cause I’m gonna bring this country together,” Trump said in the interview.
Stahl interjected: “They’re harassing Latinos, Muslims.”
“I am so saddened to hear that,” he said. “And I say, ‘Stop it.’ If it, if it helps. I will say this, and I will say right to the cameras: Stop it.”
All of this positive, conciliatory rhetoric was thrown out the window days later, when Trump picked Stephen Bannon, a bully who promotes white nationalism, as his chief strategist and adviser.
In the words of one of Trump’s most ardent supporters, Gov. Paul LePage, “actions speak louder than words.”
Trump’s choice of Bannon rendered meaningless all of his words about being president for all Americans.
A president with an arbiter of hate and division at his side cannot be a president for all Americans. A president with an adviser who peddled anti-Semitism and misogyny in his inner circle cannot tell the people whom he and his adviser have targeted with their hatred and ire not to be afraid.
Those protesting, and all of us, have myriad reasons to be afraid. Already, people on the far-right fringes of society have been empowered to harass and threaten Muslims, Jews, people of color, immigrants and others they see as diluting America’s purity.
Trump must do much more than tell these people to “stop it.” He must clearly show that he disapproves of such hate. Dumping Bannon would be an important start.
Trump fails to realize that winning an election and governing are two different things. Like it or not, politicians do and say things to get elected. They often have bomb-throwers, such as Bannon, on their campaign teams.
If they are victorious, their job is fundamentally altered. Trump now has to govern a country where three-quarters of voters didn’t cast a ballot for him. He needs to work with members of Congress, many from his own Republican Party, who disagree with him on some of his campaign platforms. He must work with a diverse group of world leaders to address global concerns, such as terrorism, ISIS and the migration problem that has resulted.
Trump jeopardizes his ability to accomplish all of that by choosing Bannon as his chief adviser.
“To conservative and liberal alike, that [Bannon] has the ear of the next president of the United States (a man of no particular convictions, and loyal to no particular principles) should be a source of grave concern,” the conservative National Review wrote this week.
Bannon’s history of allowing his Breitbart News website to denigrate minorities, Jews, women and other groups clearly disqualifies him from service in the White House. That Trump cannot see this is horrifying. It is also distressing that only one member of Maine’s congressional delegation — Democrat Chellie Pingree — has spoken out and condemned Trump’s choice of Bannon.
This pick shows that Trump has no sense of the enormity and gravity of the job before him. He can start to prove that he is a quick study by rescinding Bannon’s place in his administration.