WASHINGTON (AP) – what if the President of the United States does not want to or cannot be present at the important moments? The President Donald Trump will shine by their absence at the funeral of Senator John McCain as the McCain family has asked him not to attend, although even if they had not asked, it is unlikely that Trump had appeared to praise who was one of his staunchest critics.
Photo: AP but the absence of Trump is not due only to the animosity between the two politicians. The failure of this President to use the unifying role of his office, for moments of celebration as the darkest, both could well alter a traditional characteristic of the office and the expectations that Americans will have its leaders politicians.
“There is a loss,” said Julian Zelizer, Professor of political history at Princeton University. “Many of the things that makes (Trump) become standard, that is the power of the Presidency. There is the precedent that a President can behave that way”. The American Presidency has always been tinged with political pressures. The most recent Presidents have been chosen by narrow margins, after bitter campaigns in which messages to the core supporters is emphasized. Like Trump, his predecessors tended to prefer speeches front supporters, and was bothered by criticism of his opponents.
Photo: AP but former Presidents knew that the position also entailed some ceremonial role. Not only had to deal with the Government, also had to be national leaders, give comfort in the midst of a tragedy, leading the applause in the triumphal hours. In the days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, then-President George W. Bush, despite being Republican came to New York, overwhelmingly democratic, haranguing the present from a pile of ruins where they were before the towers twin, and then throwing the ball at a Yankees game. Barack Obama, still a Democrat, went to places of strong Republican such as Missouri and Alabama presence after natural disasters. It helped ease tensions in South Carolina when he began to sing a religious hymn “Amazing Grace” at the funeral of the victims of a massacre at a black church.
Photo: AP McCain asked both to Bush as Obama who gave some words at his funeral at the National Cathedral in Washington. Trump will be in the White House, within walking distance from there. The absence of Trump could create a vacuum to other political leaders, including some that could challenge it in the 2020 election, to offer a sharp contrast. On Thursday at a ceremony in honor of McCain in Phoenix, the former Vice President Joe Biden recalled “a code different, old, outdated” that McCain is respected, in that “honor, courage, character, integrity, sense of duty, was the most important thing”. Trump was astonished even to Republicans during the campaign, mocking McCain for having been captured in Viet Nam. The relationship between the two never healed, and McCain became one of the most vitriolic critics of Trump within the ranks of his own party. Even after the death of McCain, Trump refused to pay tribute to him and only under pressure and reluctantly issued a statement honoring him.
Photo: AP the interesting thing is that Trump was elected despite the fact that few Americans believed that he had the skills to meet the traditional obligations of the Presidency. A survey by the Pew Research Center just before the election showed that 66% of the population did not believe that Trump would exhibit an exemplary moral standard as President. A survey released a few days ago, also of Pew, shows that 71% believe that Trump has not paid in that aspect. Many Trump supporters argue that this was chosen precisely to challenge conventions and change the expectations of the Presidency. Indeed, that same Pew poll shows that 60% of the supporters of Trump say that his personality and character is one of the things that more like him.
Photo: AP but even some of his supporters suspect that the President is losing a great opportunity. Senator Lindsey Graham, close friend of McCain and a Trump ally, urged the President to “be at the height of his post”.” John McCain was a man of great heart, appropriate for a country with big hearts. “Mr President, you must be the great man that the Presidency needs”, said Graham on CBS channel. There have been moments in which Trump has tried to be unifying, as for example when he went to Puerto Rico after the impact of Hurricane Maria, but offended the Mayor of San Juan and the image that lingers from that trip is the Trump throwing rolls of toilet paper into a multi tud. He called the mother of a soldier fallen in Niger to offer condolences, but he engaged in a dispute with a legislator who told Trump told the family that the soldier knew that he could die.
Photo: AP most of the time, Trump simply is absent. It is said that when passed away Bárbara Bush, matriarch of one of the most prominent Republican families, they asked Trump to not go to the funeral. Usually when a sports team wins a Championship, it is received at the White House, but Trump has had to cancel these events because many athletes don’t want to approach him. Similarly, Trump has absent from the awards from the Kennedy Center, where prominent artists are decorated, because many of them do not want to be in his presence. Doug Heye, Republican strategist who has been critical of the President, said that the important thing is not whether Trump can rescue these ceremonial functions of the White House, but sui can unify the country in times of need.
Photo: AP “if we need a single national response, and we are not United, this makes more difficult the work of the President to do the right thing”, said Heye. “At the moment, that does not seem possible”. In this note: United States Washington Donald Trump John McCain
