Actions speak louder than Trump’s words

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Despite President Trump’s call for unity, the country largely remains divided.

Tuesday night, as my classmates finished up grabbing their slices of pizza and drinks, a “teleprompted” President Donald J. Trump appeared on my friend’s television trying to convince Americans that the state of the union is stronger than ever under his leadership.

With every policy update, Mr. Trump promised Americans a country and government keeping them in mind through every decision that will be made until the next address.

From the beginning, we were all skeptical about how this State of the Union address from Mr. Trump would go. We joked over how hard he tried to get the attention of African-American and Hispanic viewers to prove that he wasn’t the white supremacist that the “fake news media” has made him out to be.

Someone even started to look up live fact-checking sites once he began reviewing the economic state of the United States.

We were all on our laptops taking notes of his speech when we heard “Americans are dreamers, too” and instantly we all ooh-ed, knowing that phrase would be one of the most talked about aspects of the speech.

Immediately, I felt as though he attacked yet another group of people, this time those who take pride in calling themselves “dreamers.”

My friends and I were also surprised by policy suggestions that seemed bipartisan in nature. He said he planned to make cutting the cost of prescription drugs one of his “top priorities” and then he mentioned prison reform — two policies that are part of the Democratic Party platform.

His message, on the surface, seemed clear: His presidency will focus on protecting “citizens of every background, color, religion and creed.” However, despite promising to strengthen American interests and compromise in order to achieve “unity,”  I can’t help but doubt our President based on his past actions.

In August, Mr. Trump defended a group of protesters in Charlottesville, Va., which featured neo-Nazis and white supremacists, calling some “very fine people.” It divided the nation and alienated Americans of color.

He has continued to attack people of color, such as NFL athletes who didn’t stand for the national anthem because they were protesting what they viewed as social injustice in America.

Mr. Trump hasn’t shown Americans that he is for unity. He can’t resist attacking people, even members of his own party, such as Sen. Bob Corker, Sen. John McCain, Sen. Jeff Flake, and even his own Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell.

Despite his repeated claims that he is all about defending veterans and the flag that he says represents them, he has disparaged Sen. McCain for being captured in the Vietnam War.

Then there’s his treatment of Hispanics and Latinos. Before his presidency, Mr. Trump labeled Mexican immigrants as “rapists.” He claimed an American-born judge was biased against him in a Trump University fraud case because of his Mexican heritage.

The President’s ignorant words certainly make it seem as if European or “white” immigrants are favorable to brown and black immigrants, who he sees as “drug dealers” or “terrorists” from countries he has disparaged with vulgarities I can’t repeat in a student newspaper.

How can anyone take Mr. Trump’s statements on Tuesday seriously considering his behavior, attitude, and words over the past year?

Yes, Mr. Trump’s ability to stay on script made him seem “presidential.” We aren’t used to that. He laid out a plan for the next year with ideas which I’m not against for the most part.

But I don’t believe that America “will forever be safe and strong, and proud, and mighty, and free” as long as Mr. Trump is our president.