Trump's Challenge is to Unify the Nation?

I don't think so.

If he could rally his base with red meat he'd be better off in the long run. As we saw with the left's reaction to the administration's offer of legalizing 1.8 so-called "Dreamers," nothing's going to satisfy the fanatical hate-addled left.

But see David Fahrenthold, at the Washington Post, FWIW (via Memeorandum), "Trump's steep challenge in his first State of the Union address: Uniting a fractured country":

President Trump will give his first State of the Union address at 9 p.m. Eastern time, talking up the U.S. economy and calling for bipartisanship — after a year in office during which his aggressive, mercurial politics often overshadowed the former and undermined the latter.

“For the last year we have sought to restore the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government,” Trump plans to say, in a speech excerpt released by the White House on Tuesday evening.

In another excerpt, Trump will say “This is our New American Moment. There has never been a better time to start living the American dream.

Trump also intends to use the speech to call for a bipartisan deal on immigration. On Thursday he proposed a deal that would allow “dreamers” — young immigrants brought to the United States illegally as children — to be given a path to citizenship, in exchange for an increase in border-security funding and large cuts to legal immigration.

“So tonight I am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, to protect our citizens, of every background, color, and creed,” Trump will say, according to the excerpts.

That tone will be markedly different from the one that Trump used in a Twitter messages earlier last week, in which he taunted the Senate’s top Democrat, Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) for not agreeing to a bipartisan immigration deal. That tweet came after a short-lived government shutdown, which ended when Democrats backed down.

“Cryin’ Chuck Schumer fully understands, especially after his humiliating defeat, that if there is no Wall, there is no DACA,” Trump wrote. “DACA” is an acronym for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, an Obama-era program that allowed some “Dreamers” to avoid deportation.

And Trump’s call for bipartisanship and an end to division seemed unlikely to change the tone in Washington — where, in the hours leading up to Trump’s address, lawmakers seemed more divided than ever. One major cause was the fight over a House Intelligence Committee “memo” that purportedly raises questions about federal investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Many Republicans have used that memo, which was written by staff members of the committee chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), as a reason to question the validity of scrutiny of Trump and his staff by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

The divisions over immigration will be visible in the gallery that overlooks the House chamber. More than 50 Democratic lawmakers have invited “dreamers” to attend as guests to dramatize their demand for legal status. In response, Republican Rep. Paul A. Gosar (Ariz.) tweeted that he had asked the Capitol Police to check all guests’ IDs, and arrest “any illegal aliens in attendance.”

In Trump’s box, he has guests who will highlight the threat posed by MS-13, a criminal gang active in both the United States and Central America. Trump’s guests will include a federal immigration agent who has investigated the gang, and two sets of parents whose children were killed by MS-13 members...

More at that top link.