Trump speech clashes with reality
President Donald Trump confronted a divided Congress for the first time yesterday by delivering a dissonant State of the Union address, interspersing uplifting paeans to bipartisan compromise with chilling depictions of murder and ruin.
Calling the situation at the USMexico border ‘‘an urgent national crisis,’’ Trump again called on Congress to approve construction of his long-promised wall – and argued that without the physical barrier, workingclass Americans would lose their jobs and grapple with dangerous crime and overcrowded schools and hospitals.
Trump also sounded an unmistakable threat to the new Democratic House majority over impending oversight investigations into his conduct and personal finances, as well as alleged corruption in the administration.
The president warned that everyday Americans may suffer from what he termed ‘‘ridiculous’’ probes.
‘‘An economic miracle is taking place in the United States – and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics or ridiculous partisan investigations,’’ Trump said. ‘‘If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation.’’
As he delivered his speech from the rostrum of the House chamber, with a stone-faced Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., observing over his left shoulder, Trump stared into a sea of Democratic women wearing bright white in tribute to suffragists who secured women’s right to vote. Together, they formed a vivid illustration of this year’s power shift and the potential political peril for Trump’s presidency.
The tension in the chamber was palpable. As Trump declared the State of the Union to be ‘‘strong,’’ the women in white stayed seated while Republican lawmakers, most of them men in dark suits, stood to cheer.
Rare moments of joint applause came when Trump touted the bipartisan criminal justice law he signed in December, vowed to fight childhood cancer and committed to eliminating HIV in 10 years.
Trump began and ended his 82-minute speech with a unifying tone that was in conflict with many of his own actions and statements, especially over the past month, one of the more contentious of his presidency.
A president who proudly retaliates against his enemies, taunts his political foes with nicknames and considers himself one of the world’s great counterpunchers exhorted Congress to ‘‘reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution and embrace the boundless potential of co-operation, compromise and the common good.’’
Trump added: ‘‘We must choose between greatness or gridlock, results or resistance, vision or vengeance, incredible progress or pointless destruction. Tonight, I ask you to choose greatness.’’
Just eight hours earlier, Trump trashed Democrats – as well as the late Republican senator John McCain – at a freewheeling lunch with television news anchors. He assailed Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., as a ‘‘nasty son of a bitch,’’ ridiculed former vice president Joe Biden as ‘‘dumb’’ for his history of gaffes, and accused Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, D, of ‘‘choking like a dog’’ at a news conference where he denied being in a racist photo on his medical school yearbook page, according to two attendees and a person briefed on the discussion.
It is an annual tradition for presidents to host news anchors for an off-the-record lunch on the day of their State of the Union speech, but Trump did more than preview his address. He held forth with stream-ofconsciousness commentary – including about McCain, who died of cancer last year. The president remarked that the late senator’s final book, a capstone to his life in public service, ‘‘bombed.’’
In fact, The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights and Other Appreciations, published in 2018, became a New York Times bestseller.
Trump’s speech came at one of the most acrimonious moments of his presidency. Both parties are deeply divided over his demand to construct a border wall – and leaders still are reeling from the partial government shutdown that ended late last month, which at 35 days was the longest in U.S. history.
The battle over Trump’s wall at the US-Mexico border is ongoing. With Democrats refusing to meet his demand for construction money – which Trump had long said would come from Mexico – the president is on the cusp of declaring a national emergency in an attempt to reallocate other federal funds, including perhaps from the Pentagon, to build the wall without approval from Congress.
Though he made no mention of an emergency declaration in his speech, Trump said in recent days that he has ‘‘set the stage’’ for one, while administration lawyers are preparing for immediate legal challenges.
– Washington Post