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“President Donald Trump vowed Tuesday to keep up his campaign of ‘swift and unrelenting action’ in reorienting the nation’s economy, immigration and foreign policy in an unyielding address before Congress that left Democratic legislators to register their dissent with stone faces, placards calling out ‘lies,’ and one legislator’s ejection…
“The president’s address, clocking in at a record 99 minutes, added up to a defiant sales pitch for the policies that Trump promised during his campaign and leaned into during his first weeks back in office. Trump pledged to keep delivering sweeping change to rescue the nation from what he described as destruction and mistakes left by his predecessor.” AP News
The left criticizes the speech, arguing that it was full of misleading claims.
“There were no substantive new initiatives announced, at all; and much of the address and its many human props in the galleries had little or nothing to do with the agenda he’s asked Congress to implement. Tax cuts, the beating heart of that agenda, were barely mentioned… Trump didn’t even bother to repeat his promises not to go after Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid…
“Though he spent inordinate time on demonizing immigrants, he offered absolutely no specifics or timetable for his pledge to deport all undocumented people in the country, and didn’t even mention his radical proposal to end birthright citizenship. And despite his warm endorsement of DOGE, Trump never gave any indication of how far and how fast he intends to ‘drain the swamp’ by firing federal employees and abolishing federal programs.”
Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine
“It may not have been the best possible day for President Trump to declare to Congress that ‘America’s momentum is back.’ Just before he spoke, the stock market fell almost into correction territory… Though he announced that ‘our confidence is back,’ the actual confidence of consumers, as measured by the Conference Board, has fallen by the largest amount since August 2021…
“It’s hard to sit back in silence when the president is firing tens of thousands of government workers without authorization and deliberately causing a break with longtime allies in Europe and North America over Ukraine and tariffs. It’s hard not to shout at the podium when Trump ludicrously claims he will balance the budget, when his proposed tax cuts will help drive the deficit to new heights…
“In-chamber demonstrations may not be the most effective way of countering the onslaught. But it’s hard to blame those who couldn’t stop themselves from shouting at the barrage of misinformation, particularly for those who remember what happened in that same room in 2021, when members had to cower from the violence inflicted by the president’s supporters. Decorum has become a thing of the past.”
David Firestone, New York Times
Some note, “Perhaps the best story for Trump right now is the huge drop in illegal border crossings. Monthly apprehensions on the U.S.-Mexico border in February dropped to their lowest level since at least 2000…
“‘The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying, ‘We needed new legislation. We must have legislation to secure the border,’’ Trump said. ‘But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.’ And the thing is: It’s hard for Democrats to argue with that right now.”
Aaron Blake, Washington Post
The right praises the speech and criticizes the Democratic response.
The right praises the speech and criticizes the Democratic response.
“If you dial up your outrage to an 11 out of 10 every time a Trump-related scuffle really warrants a two, you will have effectively desensitized the public from giving a single damn when Trump actually does jump the shark. So when the choreographed #Resistance began before the president had uttered a single word of his address to a joint special address of Congress, it was made clear that Democrats were doomed…
“It was uncomfortable when [Democrats] would not clap for seemingly obvious statements like ‘You should be hired for merit, not race.’ But it was downright excruciating when Democrats would not clap for the families of the murdered Laken Riley or Jocelyn Nungaray, let alone for the 13-year-old brain cancer survivor in the audience when Trump made him a member of the Secret Service…
“Even when Trump dropped the mic on America to announce that we’re extraditing one of the terrorists responsible for the murder of the Abbey Gate 13 in Afghanistan, roughly only half of the Democrats in attendance raised their hands to clap quietly. Not one could be seen standing in ovation.”
Tiana Lowe Doescher, Washington Examiner
“His biggest policy accomplishment also afforded him his best line of the night. Noting that arrests of immigrants illegally trying to cross the southern border have fallen to record-low levels, Trump quipped, ‘The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.’”
Editorial Board, Washington Examiner
“President Trump delivered a tour de force Tuesday night, putting a coherent and reassuring frame on his insanely busy first weeks in office even as he made viewers laugh and cry…
“All speech long, Trump offered common sense — two genders; hiring and promotion on merit; DOGE shutting down utter nonsense; a border closed without the bill that Democrats had insisted all year was the only possible solution; real prospects for peace with honor in Ukraine…
“He joked and inspired, assured his base and baited the opposition; he spoke to the country and he owned the room. It was one speech on one night still early in his term, but Donald Trump did his cause and the nation’s as much good as he possibly could, assuring America that for all the sound, fury and (for many) confusion of the early going, he’s in total command and he has Americans dreaming.”
Editorial Board, New York Post
A libertarian's take
“As always, Trump's government-cutting zeal was focused squarely on comparatively small pots of money spent on ungrateful foreigners. Unworthy as these causes are of taxpayer support, they pale in comparison to the portions of government Trump either is happy to keep around or is eager to expand. (And as with all DOGE-identified grants to be cut, there's a chance they already have been cut or the actual spending is much smaller than claimed.)…
“It would be great if a president identified, with wry and populist humor, more substantial line items of federal spending to slash. For a few brief moments tonight, Trump seemed like he could deliver a call for such cuts. No such luck.”
Christian Britschgi, Reason
