President Donald Trump is blessed with weak opponents, and that was certainly on display Tuesday night as the Democratic Party flailed through his address to a joint session of Congress.
Trump put on a good show that captured the speed and dynamism of his first several weeks back in office, but he also left many pertinent questions unanswered that Republicans in Congress will have to address soon.
It is hard to recall seeing a political party as ineffective and abject as the Democrats as they sat glumly on their hands through the longest joint session speech ever. Nothing triggered their applause, not even the most touching moments, such as when a 13-year-old boy with brain cancer was made an honorary agent of the U.S. Secret Service.
Less than five minutes into Trump’s presentation, Rep. Al Green (D-TX) rose from his seat, shook his cane at the president, and shouted, “You have no mandate!” At first, Republicans in the chamber responded by chanting, “USA! USA! USA!” But when Green persisted with his disruption, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) gave him two warnings before the House sergeant-at-arms escorted him out of the building. He was the perfect representative of his party, an old man shouting uncontrollably in impotent rage.
The Democrats’ parade of horribles didn’t end there. They refused to stand for the grieving family of a young woman who had been killed by an illegal immigrant despite the fact that the bill Congress passed in her honor was bipartisan. They refused to stand for a young woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury from a man playing women’s sports. They refused to stand for a steelworker from Alabama who is the captain of his local volunteer fire department, a father of seven children, and a foster parent.
“I realize there’s nothing I can say to make them happy, stand, or smile or applaud,” Trump joked in an effective put-down line. “I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history, or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever. And these people will not clap, stand, or cheer for these achievements. They won’t, no matter what.”
The hour-and-a-half speech included a parade of people receiving prizes, including the boy being named an honorary Secret Service agent and a young man being told he had been admitted to the U.S. Military Academy. These were both nice moments but were stronger on showmanship than substance.
On substance, Trump promised many admirable things, including the extension of the 2017 tax cuts and a balanced budget. However, he did not outline anything close to a realistic path to achieving these goals. As compelling as the laundry list of government waste found by the Department of Government Efficiency and highlighted by Trump was, DOGE is not going to bring in enough money to end deficit spending.
Republicans in Congress can’t even find the cuts necessary to pay for the existing tax deductions, let alone Trump’s plan to end taxes on tips and Social Security benefits and make interest on car loans deductible, which is bad policy. Consumers are burdened with huge debt and don’t need subsidies to put themselves further in the hole.
Trump took well-deserved victory laps on ridding the federal government of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, recognizing there are only two sexes and corresponding genders, and ending the electric vehicle mandate. 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.”
As much as Trump has accomplished, there is much to be explained. Trump conceded that his tariff policies will not be a smooth ride. “Tariffs — they’re about protecting the soul of our country,” he said, adding, “There’ll be a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that. It won’t be much.”
REPUBLICANS MUST SLOW MEDICAID SPENDING
How much disturbance? How long will this disturbance last? What will Trump do for those who suffer from his tariffs? We don’t know, and he didn’t explain.
Trump ended on a strong and optimistic note, leaving Republicans in the room ecstatic. But the country needs more substance and clarity. It is nervous about an economy suffering from too much inflation and too little growth.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
