Trump calls Democrats 'treasonous' for chilly State of the Union reception

[February 06, 2018]  (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday accused Democrats of being "un-American" and "treasonous" for their lack of applause during his State of the Union address last week when he spoke of rising wages and historically low African-American unemployment.

"They would rather see Trump do badly than our country do well. That's what it means," Trump said during an address on tax reform at a manufacturing plant in Ohio. "It's very selfish. It was bad energy."

"They were like death and un-American," said Trump. "Somebody said 'treasonous.' I mean, eh. I guess, why not? Can we call that treason, why not? I mean they certainly didn't seem to love our country very much," he said.

Treason is a capital offense and punishable by death in the United States.

Democrats gave Trump a decidedly cool reaction during the State of the Union. While falling unemployment has begun to lift wages, business executives are mixed on how much to credit Trump.

"The freedom not to clap for ideas you disagree with is called the 1st Amendment," Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon said on Twitter.

The two top Republicans in Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, declined to comment.

President Donald Trump delivers remarks on his tax policy after a factory tour of the Sheffer Corporation in Blue Ash, Ohio, U.S. February 5, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Over the past four years, the U.S. economy has added 10 million jobs and the overall unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since 2000. Wage growth, however, has been sluggish, although it has shown signs of picking up recently.

During last Tuesday's address, the president touted his tax cuts and regulation rollbacks as the reason Americans are finally seeing more wages after "years and years" of stagnation.

"Every American should be alarmed by how @realDonaldTrump is working to make loyalty to him synonymous with loyalty to our country," Representative Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, said in a tweet. "That is not how democracy works."

Pelosi's counterpart in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, declined a request for comment.

(Reporting by Katanga Johnson; Editing by Tim Ahmann and Lisa Shumaker)

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