Only one man’s president

Mark A. Thiessen complains that “Democrats never gave Trump a chance to succeed (Jan. 21).” As evidence, he notes that, after Trump’s 2016 election, “a cry went up on the left: ‘Donald Trump is not my president.’”

I have experienced my share of disappointment in presidential elections, but I never felt the sense of dread that I did after Trump won in 2016.

Did the cries of “Not my president!” arise spontaneously, or did they arise out of a realization that Trump, through his words and actions, showed unequivocally that he was not going to be everyone’s president? Even before the election, he was dividing the country into camps. He made fun of war heroes and the physically challenged, he assaulted the press, and he mocked his challengers from both parties with his name calling. Things got no better after his election. Trump showed himself to be the president of racists, conspiracy theorists, and white nationalists while attacking people of color, women, migrants, the LGBTQ community, the poor, and the truth.

Rejecting Trump was not simply a question of policy differences. The former president made it very clear that he would not be everyone’s president. In the end, he even abandoned his most ardent supports and showed himself to be president, not for all, not for a few, but for only one—himself.

Gregory J. Cunningham

Spokane