Analysis: Sept. 11 commemoration again tests Trump's uneven record as consoler in chief

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has never quite mastered the role of consoler in chief.

He tried again Thursday as the nation marked the 24th year since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. But even before he arrived at the Pentagon for a memorial ceremony ahead of a scheduled evening appearance at a Yankees baseball game in New York City about 13 miles from Ground Zero, Democratic lawmakers and officials were howling about what they’ve deemed a purposely aggressive and divisive second term.

“We’ve seen it rise again out of the wreckage. We watched unbelievable courage suddenly take form and out of the darkness, we saw the timeless truth of American character shine for the world to see,” Trump said Thursday, referring to the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. “In America, we take blows, but we never buckle; we bleed, but we do not bow; and we defy the fear, endure the flames and emerge from the crucible of every hardship, stronger, prouder and greater than ever before.”

But then, a verbal jab at the Biden administration.

“Last year, we were a dead country,” he said, a contention he makes almost daily. “Now, we have the hottest country anywhere in the world.”

Trump appeared at the Pentagon’s Sept. 11 memorial alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who last week took on the secondary title of secretary of War.

The Republican president’s nod to national unity came a day after his White House had posted a meme on X that read “Democrats want crime” with the message “Period” — hardly a pitch for bringing conservatives and progressives together.

Later Wednesday, he recorded a video from behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in which he blamed the “radical left” — though no suspect has been arrested so far and a motive has yet to be ascertained.

“It’s long past time for all Americans and the media to confront the fact that violence and murder are the tragic consequence of demonizing those with whom you disagree day after day, year after year, in the most hateful and despicable way possible,” Trump said in the video.

“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world’s worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we’re seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now,” the president said, seemingly glossing over rhetoric on the right that has fueled similar attacks against Democrats. “My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity, and to other political violence, including the organizations that fund it and support it, as well as those who go after our judges, law enforcement officials, and everyone else who brings order to our country.”

Last Friday, Trump accused Democrats of having “gone crazy” and gotten “weak,” contending they do not care about working-class Americans.

“The Democrats were for the working people and the Republicans were supposedly for the rich,” he told reporters in the Oval Office. “The Republican Party has taken in millions of people and the Democrats have lost millions of people. They’ve gone crazy.”

“What’s happened to them, I don’t know. … They suffer major ‘Trump derangement syndrome,’ and it’s turned out to be actually a disease, but it’s a disease of weak people and stupid people because all we do is we cut taxes, we create great policy,” he added. “Their policy is so terrible.”

‘Group of people’

Trump blasts Democrats and his political and legal foes on an almost-daily basis, so his words at the Pentagon likely rang rather hollow to lawmakers in the opposition.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Wednesday that Democrats were in a “fight” with Trump and Republicans, one that was “about all of the things, all of the extremism, the parade of horribles that Donald Trump has unleashed on the American people and their failed promises to make life more affordable.”

To be sure, the New York Democrat and a handful of others in his party have opted to combat Trump 2.0 with brash words similar to what he uses against them. The kind of national unity seen in the hours and days after the 2001 al-Qaida attacks seem unthinkable today in a country where just about everything has become political — with a reality television show star in the Oval Office who injects himself and his sharp rhetorical elbows into just about everything.

“America’s falling apart, and as we now see all across the world, things are falling apart on the global stage because there’s an absence of leadership coming from the Republican Party, an absence of leadership from Donald Trump and cult-like behavior from House Republicans, who simply rubber-stamp this extreme failed agenda,” Jeffries said.

Delaware Sen. Chris Coons was more scholarly in his description of Trump’s second term.

“The folks who’ve been confirmed as nominees, the bills that have been passed, the policies that have been adopted by Congress have shown a deference to the president even at his most aggressive and even at his most expansive,” the Democratic senator said in an interview on PBS’ “Firing Line” that aired Friday. “We are in real danger, if the Supreme Court does not draw some clearer lines on presidential authority and use of power, and we are in real danger if we don’t appropriate, if we don’t use our power as Congress to say, ‘We spend the money. We say what you can spend.’”

In a Tuesday fundraising email, Sen. Christopher S. Murphy alleged that Trump has “spent his first eight months in office making corrupt deals in Washington and overwhelming the American people with chaos, lies and illegal action.

“He’s been slashing Medicaid, destroying the economy, and fueling wars abroad — while handing out tax cuts to his billionaire friends and profiting off the presidency for himself,” the Connecticut Democrat said. “He wants us to believe that we’re powerless. … Every move Trump has made in office has been wildly unpopular, and he knows it.”

An Economist/YouGov poll released Tuesday put Trump’s overall favorability rating underwater, with 42% viewing him favorably and 55% unfavorably. Over half (57%) believed the country is on the wrong track, while 35% said it was headed down the right path.

The survey highlighted mounting concerns about the state of Trump’s second-term economy, with 27% saying it was in good or excellent shape, compared with 32% saying fair and a plurality of 39% calling the economy poor. In a July version of the poll, the number of respondents who called the economy poor was 28%.

At the Pentagon on Thursday, as Trump closed his remarks, he again could not resist taking a swipe at his political opponents.

“This morning, we recall the light of America’s best and bravest and the love that they showed in their final moments, in their memory. We make a solemn pledge and a noble promise. We will honor, always, our great heroes, and you are our heroes,” he said, standing before a large American flag on the side of the Pentagon that was hit by an airliner piloted by al-Qaida terrorists.

“There’s a group of people that don’t want to talk about our heroes,” he added. “But we will always talk about our heroes, and that’s the way our country is, and that’s the way the people feel.”