The reaction of lawmakers to President Trump’s inaugural speech was as divided and conflicted as the nation is just two and a half months after an election marked by unprecedented partisan intensity.
Most Republicans argued that the speech struck an optimistic tone, while Democrats deemed it overly dark and negative.
Democrats suggested the speech was full of divisive rhetoric and failed to unify the nation while Republicans praised Trump for selecting phrases that focused on the plight of all Americans and his promise to return the country to the people’s control instead of government’s.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-S.C. said he liked the speech’s focus on action and the lines in which Trump pledged to strengthen U.S. alliances.
“I think a lot of us want to get to work – I think that reflects the mood in the country and the mood in the Congress – so to me, that was a good theme,” Tillis said. “I think it was unifying – I think if we’re growing the economy and bringing people together, then that’s the best way to bring the country together.”
He especially liked Trump’s lines about strengthening longstanding alliances and building news ones, calling it “a really important message.”
Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, said he thought Trump’s first extended remarks as president sent a strong populist message of empowering people across the country instead of expanding government.
“He really spoke to the people, the people who sent him here to Washington,” he said. “Clearly it was a message that resonated with the populism that has brought him to this office.”
Ratcliffe also liked the direct, succinct nature of several phrases that contrast with the often-soaring political language of modern-day inaugural speeches.
“It was not typical of the type of presidential inaugural addresses that you hear,” he said. “In a lot of respects, I think it was the very kind of direct message that not just the people want to hear, but members of Congress needed to hear.”
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said she liked the speech’s “optimism.”
“I liked when he talked about unity and bringing the nation together and how we need to be strong again – I think a lot of folks will be inspired by that,” she said.
Some House Republicans could barely contain their glee with Trump’s emphasis on shifting the country away from global cooperation and toward putting America’s interests ahead of other nations.
“It was great. It’s a great day for America. I’m very excited,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, remarked. “When he talks about America first that rings true. It touches a place in everyone’s heart. I don’t know how anyone could disagree with it. I think that’s what America wants.”
Democrats had nearly the polar opposite reaction, saying that the speech painted a dismal portrait of the country, as well as Washington lawmakers.
“He spent a lot of time convincing everybody how terrible we are,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. “I don’t mind America First, I mind painting the status quo as something that doesn’t have a lot of positives about it – he just really emphasized the negative, and that was hard to listen to.”
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., labeled the speech a “missed opportunity.”
The speech, he said, would do nothing to bring the “country together to heal.”
Sen. Sherrod Brown, a liberal Democrat, represents the deeply divided state of Ohio that gave a narrow edge to Trump with 51.7 percent of the state’s vote.
“I wish he had acknowledged that the country is very divided and he wants to be president for all of us. And the other thing is, he painted such a dark view of the country,” he said. “He was sitting on the stage with a bunch billionaires who were his biggest contributors as he paints this dark view of the country that everything’s bad.”
“The election is over, although he doesn’t always seem to realize that,” Brown added.
Other Democrats took pains to highlight elements of the speech they liked.
Newly elected Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., said she is very interested in whether Trump will follow up on his commitment to rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure.
“We’ll see if he follows up on his commitment to invest in infrastructure — that’s the biggest concern for my state,” she said.
Asked whether she thought the speech was unifying, she said she was still mulling it over.
Rep. Hank Johnson, D-Ga., said he was encouraged that Trump has “infrastructure and putting Americans back to work” on his agenda.
But, he said, the speech was “typical Donald Trump — failure to acknowledge the fact that this country is much better off economically now than it was eight years ago.
“Frankly, I resent the continued emphasis on the false premise that ‘making America great again,’ when America is already great,” he said.
He conceded that Trump won and “it’s time for us to roll our sleeves up [and] go to work and fight for our values and try to make what’s great even greater.”
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, one of the last true GOP moderates, also said she needed time to digest the message before coming to any firm opinions about it.
One of his biggest and earliest GOP critics during the campaign, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., thought the early part of the speech seemed like a rallying call to his base.
“He was reminding everybody who he is, why he won and what he ran on, which is fine,” Graham said. “Parts of his speech were really good about, we all bleed the same blood and we fight for the same country and we salute the same flag and if you open your heart to patriotism, there’s no room for prejudice – that was really good.”
“But ‘America First’ – I have no idea what that means,” he added. “If it means 1930s isolationism, then the world will continue to deteriorate. If it’s a new version of Ronald Reagan’s peace through strength, maybe it works.”
Critics argued that Trump’s speech failed to clarify his often-conflicting policy statements and whether he will tend to hew to traditional Republican positions or chart an entirely new course as a non-partisan president.
Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., said the speech was unsurprising, just more of the same rhetoric that he used on the campaign trail.
“He didn’t say that much for people to disagree about, and the real message will be what he does in the next week,” Sherman said.
