At the heart of the speech
In Tuesday’s address to Congress, President Donald Trump did what a president is supposed to do. He discussed his plans for the country, laid out goals, honored the widow of a Navy SEAL killed in action and even denounced prejudice, which Trump previously had been slow to move on.
Yes, there is comfort in watching a president behave like a president, not a reality show host or a huckster. That’s why Trump received solid reviews for his delivery of this speech — subdued, sticking to script and lacking obvious clunkers. As The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof tweeted, “This was the best speech I’ve seen Trump give, an exceptionally low bar. It was vetted and he stuck to the teleprompter and avoided disaster.”
Trump did, to his credit and the country’s relief. But delivery is not enough. Citizens must go beyond style and delve into substance.
Because while the president was speaking words of unity, he chose his first speech before Congress to continue to stigmatize immigrants. Three guests at the speech were invited because they had relatives allegedly killed by people in the country illegally. There were no similar immigrant guests who had performed good deeds, won college scholarships or started businesses. No, the message from Trump continues to be that certain immigrants are dangerous and here to hurt us.
Trump did indicate that he would be open to some sort of comprehensive immigration bill, “so long as there is compromise on both sides.” As always with this president, there were few details, and those that were in the speech are worrisome. Trump restated his directive that the Department of Homeland Security establish the office of Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement, or VOICE — more of his emphasis on the “bad” immigrants and the harm they cause.
Another part of his executive order on immigration calls for collecting reports about crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. Not to overuse comparisons to the Third Reich, but Adolf Hitler ordered publication of a list of crimes committed by Jews. Setting a group aside as the “other” is dangerous and puts lives at risk. Peter Beinart of The Atlantic writes, “What’s the point of publicizing crimes that illegal immigrants commit, except to incite hatred them against them, and those Latinos legally in the United States who get mistaken for them?”
Conservative Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations remained skeptical that this more sober speech is truly a new Trump. “Even though his congressional address was delivered in a more uplifting tone, it included little in the way of specifics about his policies and it contained plenty of the same old anti-trade and anti-foreigner rhetoric buttressed by ‘alternative facts.’ ”
Boot, writing on his blog at the Foreign Policy site, cautioned that, “… despite his foray into respectability with one speech before Congress — there is good cause for skepticism as to whether Trump can govern in a more responsible fashion. He may not drink alcohol, but he is addicted to misinformation. His brain is filled with questionable premises — trade deficits are bad, Vladimir Putin is ‘strong,’ allies are freeloaders, foreigners are taking advantage of us — that form the core of his worldview and therefore of his presidency.”
Trump’s speech, in other words, changed little. Despite a more positive tone, Trump still targeted immigrants and foreigners and failed to offer solid details. How will he replace “Obamacare”; what kinds of tax cuts; and how will he pay for infrastructure spending? Still, Trump did show discipline enough to prepare and deliver a solid speech. That’s an improvement, but not nearly enough to make us forget the ugly message in the core of the speech.