Trump: A president with no party
It seems as if the president of the United States is losing allies in the Republican Party
The recent protests in Charlottesville showed how divided the country seems to be. Far-right participants, including Neo-Nazis, KKK and white-supremacist groups, collided against left-wing groups, including antifascist. After that, president Donald Trump sent a contradictory message during the following days.
At the beginning, the real estate mogul stated his repulse towards “both side’s violence”, despite a Neo-Nazi sympathizer having killed 1 woman and leaving 19 injured. However, the next day, after a storm of criticism, Trump accepted that racism has no place in America and classified the KKK and neo-Nazis as ‘repugnant’. Later, Trump blamed both sides, once again, for the violence in Charlottesville.
After this indirect support to the KKK and Neo-Nazis, moderate republicans seem to be stepping away from Trump.
Senator John McCain tweeted that “There’s no moral equivalency between racists and Americans standing up to defy hate and bigotry. The President of the United States should say so”.
Maybe McCain’s tweet wasn’t completely unexpected -he was one of the most important votes to sink Trump’s attempt to change Obamacare- but his South Caroline colleague, Lindsey Graham, declaration was. Graham said “I, along with many others, do not endorse this moral equivalency (…) Many Republicans do not agree with and will fight back against the idea that the Party of Lincoln has a welcome mat out for the David Dukes, former KKK leader, of the world”.
Others that made their disagreement known against Trump’s statement were Marco Rubio (Florida’s Senator), John Kasich (Ohio’s Governor) and Cory Gardner (Colorado’s Senator). Some others like Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, and Mitt Romney didn’t mention president Trump, but did condemn the white-supremacist groups.
Donald Trump also had to dissolve 2 of his Business Advisory Council because some of the members quit their jobs due to the halfhearted declarations.
It’s possible that Trump will continue to keep his electoral support, but it will be vital for his presidency to have the Republican support in Congress. If not, the president will lose all his legislative propositions due to a lack of votes, as it happened when Trump tried to replace Obamacare. And to think this is just his first period.
Latin American Post | Santiago Gómez Hernández
Copy edited by Susana Cicchetto
