Why Democrats fear a successful inaugural address from Trump

After a shocking upset over Hillary Clinton in early November to capture the presidency, Donald Trump experienced a brief political honeymoon and uptick in his approval rating. A month following the election he was viewed favorably by half the country, despite being the least popular major party presidential nominee in recent history.

Early December was the apex of Trump’s likeability and the last month has largely been a trainwreck for the president-elect. A late December tweet from Trump alluded to such frustrations, “Thought it was going to be a smooth transition- NOT!”

{mosads}Following numerous recent controversies, Trump currently possesses an abysmally low approval rating of 40 percent.  This pales in comparison to the numbers of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, who similarly received less than 50 percent of the popular vote after hotly contested races.

Trump’s upcoming inaugural address before an audience of possibly 50 million will offer the opportunity to again get in the good graces of a majority of American voters. A successful political transformation is certainly possible, but will require some unorthodox tactics and  genuine outreach to former political adversaries.

Delivering such a speech is a tremendous departure from Trump’s transition behavior, but would send political shockwaves in the direction of Democrats, many of whom have already looking ahead to 2020.

Aides providing assistance to the inaugural address should remove the teleprompter shackles. Trump previously poked fun at Obama and Clinton, yet he decided to use one during his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention and it suffered accordingly.

He should emulate the crisp 1,366 word count of John F. Kennedy’s revered 1961 address. A laconic speech in the 10-15 minute range wouldn’t require a teleprompter and allows Trump to be more comfortable and relaxed on a day usually fraught with nerves.

Ronald Reagan is the last president to forgo the use of such technology and his 1981 speech similarly won high praise. Trump will no doubt be looking to eclipse the record audience of 42 million that watched Reagan’s address and if debate ratings are any indication, he’ll have an excellent opportunity to do so. 

Trump should devote a small portion of his speech to making amends with former political rivals Obama and Clinton. Trump finally declared in September he thought Obama was born in the United States, but never offered a formal apology for all the years of heartache caused by an attempt to delegitimize the country’s first African-American president.

As the recent controversy involving Congressman John Lewis demonstrates, this remains an extremely sore subject and should be rectified immediately.

According to exit polls, Trump won less than 10 percent of the African-American vote and this needs to improve as he becomes president of the entire country. Obama leaves office with a 60 percent approval rating and has bit his tongue on several occasions during the transition period. A brief nod to his accomplishments and progress over the last eight years would be a deft move.

It was announced recently the Clintons have RSVP’d to attend the inaugural address.

Hillary tallied almost 3 million more votes than Trump, who received barely over 40 percent support from female voters. George W. Bush went out of his way to acknowledge Al Gore during his 2001 speech and Trump should similarly recognize her formidable campaign challenge and  graceful exit from the political stage.

Trump said in November he didn’t want to hurt the Clintons, but reverted back to campaign mode recently by calling her “guilty as hell” on Twitter. Inaugural addresses provide new presidents the opportunity to stress unity and reconciliation for a common good.

Trump doesn’t need to channel Gerald Ford and pardon Clinton, but he should subtly make clear to Jason Chaffetz and others her private e-mail server is now in the rear view mirror and that Congress should spend their time improving the lives of Americans.

Friday’s speech offers Trump a clean slate and if properly executed could enable the recalibration of his presidency after a tumultuous transition period. Democrats and most political observers predict continued defiance, but he should instead echo the election night victory speech and take the high road.

Announcing that he will nominate Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court is obviously a bridge to far because of social conservative fervor, but offering a detente to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer instead of referring to him as “head clown” would be a great first step.

His cooperation is needed to pass Trump’s trillion-dollar infrastructure package that could put millions of Americans back to work. Trump should rise above the fray and surprise all by an extending an olive branch to anxious Democrats, which ironically is what they should fear most politically.