Trump’s pledge of unity: Quit complaining and unify around me | McClatchy Washington Bureau

In case it needs to be said, Trump’s words now carry a different weight. No one is required to embrace his enemies. But referring to “those who have fought me and lost so badly” is a deliberate twist of the knife, another part of his victory lap against Hillary Clinton and her supporters.

Most of Trump’s victory-lapping came in the form of a series of “thank you” events in states he won, several of which were spent mostly rehashing his victory and his defiance of the odds, several of which also included similar dismissals of his opponents, of Clinton and of Obama.

Before Thanksgiving, Trump released a video message offering his thoughts to the country.

“It is my prayer that on this Thanksgiving we begin to heal our divisions and move forward as one country, strengthened by a shared purpose and very, very common resolve,” he said.

He continued:

“We have just finished a long and bruising political campaign. Emotions are raw and tensions just don’t heal overnight. It doesn’t go quickly, unfortunately, but we have before us the chance now to make history together to bring real change to Washington, real safety to our cities and real prosperity to our communities, including our inner cities. So important to me, and so important to our country. But to succeed, we must enlist the effort of our entire nation. . . . I am asking you to join me in this effort. It is time to restore the bonds of trust between citizens. Because when America is unified, there is nothing beyond our reach, and I mean absolutely nothing.”

Less than two weeks later, he made his first “thank you tour” stop in Ohio. Our report on the event summarized the topics covered: the dishonest press, his frustration with Republican Gov. John Kasich (who didn’t support him) and how protesters at the event “don’t know that Hillary lost a couple of weeks ago.”

Despite that, he insisted that “we are going to bring our country together - all of our country. We’re going to find common ground, and we will get the job done properly.” As the crowd chanted “lock her up,” he said, “we did have a lot of fun fighting Hillary, didn’t we?”

Part of Trump’s frustration over his political opponents stems from the fact that he only narrowly won, earning more electoral college votes despite losing the popular vote by almost 3 million votes. (He’s tried to dismiss this as being the result of votes cast illegally, which is patently untrue.) He’s also more recently been annoyed at suggestions that Russia’s apparent hack of the Democratic National Committee may have pushed him over the finish line. In response, Trump has said that Russia’s efforts are old news that everyone should move past.

Past presidents have similarly entered office to lead a divided nation. For Trump, the path to unity is narrow: Stop complaining about him and unify around him. When given a teleprompter, Trump makes the sort of pronouncements about working together that you’d expect of a president-elect. Once he grabs his phone and starts tweeting, though, his real thoughts - as always - leak out.