Gergen said on a CNN panel following Trump’s speech that bringing “your campaign speech into the presidency is something presidents rarely do.” He added: “I think this is the most divisive speech I’ve ever heard from a sitting American president.”

He “played to his base,” Gergen added. “He treated his other listeners — the rest of the people who have been disturbed about him or oppose him — he treated them basically as, ‘I don’t care, I don’t give a damn what you think because you’re, frankly, the enemy.’”

Gergen added: “I thought it was a deeply disturbing speech.”