Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:37 pm
In the kick-off rally to his post-election “thank you tour,” Donald Trump said that the country needs to unite behind him and Americans must come together. The president-elect claimed he will be the person to bridge those divides.
Trump’s call for unity came just moments after he slammed Hillary Clinton, which ignited a disturbing response from the small crowd in attendance.
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Trump: We had “a lot of fun fighting Hillary, didn’t we?â€
Crowd: “Lock her up! Lock her up!†https://t.co/SvJsIEiHw8 https://t.co/b2GIB20HLz— CNN (@CNN) December 2, 2016
“I’m going to discuss our action plan to make America great again. Although, we did have a lot of fun fighting Hillary, didn’t we?” Trump said, which encouraged the crowd to break into a raucous series of “lock her up” chants.
Later in Trump’s remarks, Trump went off on a long and rambling tangent against the media, calling them dishonest and attacking their portrayal of him and his chances up until the election. He even bragged about making one reporter cry.
Pointing to the back of the arena, Trump calls out "the extremely dishonest press" https://t.co/rNmUSohAjM pic.twitter.com/IHht5kOJWJ
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 2, 2016
Trump’s ramble against the press continued to the point where he started complaining about how long it took news outlets to call certain states on Election Night.
Trump is now complaining about the media not calling Pennsylvania in a timely manner on Election night.
— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) December 2, 2016
The president-elect also took shots at Republican leaders who were opposed to him during the campaign, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich and third-party candidate Evan McMullin, who tried to run as a conservative alternative to Trump.
He called his victory on Nov. 8 a “landslide,” despite the fact that Hillary Clinton now has a popular vote lead of over 2.5 million votes – a landslide for Clinton, if anybody.
Renewing a top campaign promise, Trump vowed to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which has provided health insurance to over 20 million Americans. This despite signaling behind closed doors recently that he will keep key parts of the law that he has suddenly decided are actually pretty good.
Ultimately, the first rally in Trump’s self-congratulatory tour gave us was the same divisive Trump that we witnessed on the campaign trail for well over a year.
For Americans hoping that Donald Trump would strike a more unifying tone after the election, his Cincinnati rally on Thursday was a deeply disappointing spectacle.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
