A Night of Triumph for Trump
Even without the Democrats’ assistance, the president’s stemwinder would have been remembered as a defining moment in his political career.
President Trump had hardly begun speaking last night when the Democratic Party imploded. As the president recited the facts of his electoral victory last November, Democrats burst into jeers. Rep. Al Green of Texas literally stood out from the throng of hecklers as he tried to shout over the president when even other Democrats had quieted down a bit. Speaker Mike Johnson warned Green; when he continued to try to filibuster the president’s address, Johnson instructed the sergeant-at-arms to remove him.
The Democrats tried to treat Congress as if it were a college campus, where angry activists could shout down and “cancel” a speaker they didn’t want to be heard. Johnson treated them the way more college presidents should treat disruptors. He enforced the rules and shut them down. Once Green was escorted out of the Capitol, the rest of the opposition mob took note. They weren’t silent during the president’s speech, and they scowled all the way through it. But they didn’t dare try to derail it again.
If the president had said nothing the rest of the night, he would already have been assured of a favorable reception from the American public. The Democrats had shown themselves to be both petulant and impotent. They frowned, and some held up little paddle-shaped placards with brief messages written on them. These were grown adults—indeed, many looking positively cadaverous—trying to protest like undergraduates, and failing. Far be it from me to advise Nancy Pelosi and friends how to conduct a protest, but common sense ought to tell would-be protesters to agree on a common message beforehand, at least. The slogans were a cacophony.
Other forms of protest, such as some Democratic women wearing pink in solidarity with one another, also fizzled, since only a handful of women joined in, and they failed to sit together in an unbroken bloc. Pelosi wasn’t wearing pink. What exactly was the logic behind who participated and who didn’t? A viewer couldn’t guess. The Democrats just seemed to be literally in disarray.
Even the pouting and frowning backfired after Trump early on said,
I look at the Democrats in front of me and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud. Nothing I can do. I could find a cure to the most devastating disease, a disease that would wipe out entire nations or announce the answers to greatest economy in history or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded, and these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements.
The Democrats gave Trump everything he could have asked for in his opposition. They didn’t stand when Trump paid tribute to the family of Laken Riley, a 22-year-old student murdered by an illegal alien. They apparently didn’t even stand for the 13-year-old cancer patient who was made an honorary Secret Service agent during the president’s talk. (I say apparently because I didn’t catch a camera shot of the Democrats during the boy’s spotlight, but social media reports leave little doubt about what happened.) The Democrats all night came off as the party of the miserly and miserable.
To be sure, such a speech is a humiliating experience for the party out of power, which is expected to sit quietly while the president boasts about his agenda and achievements and lectures to members of Congress in their own halls. Trump’s address to Congress was not officially a State of the Union address, since he’s only been back in office a short while. But it was the same setup. Democrats were at a natural disadvantage, just as Republicans had been during Joe Biden’s White House years. But with a weak hand, they gambled on obstreperous protest and visible seething, and lost what dignity they had left.
With enemies like these, Trump was guaranteed a good night. In fact, however, he didn’t need the inept opposition to make him look good. His remarks were long—a solid two hours—but they did not consist of the usual rhetorical fluff and vague promises. Instead, the president reiterated most of the themes and policies he’d outlined in his inaugural address, adding some accomplishments already won and expanding on many items still on his agenda. Dismantling the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) regime, expelling illegal immigrants, fighting gangs and cartels, and affirming that there are only two sexes (or “genders,” if we must) were among the objectives duly enumerated, as were tariffs, tax cuts, and “drill, baby, drill.”
What this speech had that the inaugural address didn’t was the presence of guests whose stories illustrated the importance of many of Trump’s topics, especially getting tough on crime and keeping women and children safe from transgenderism. Trump told, for example, the story of Payton McNabb, “an all-star high school athlete, one of the best, preparing for a future in college sports. But when her girls’ volleyball match was invaded by a man, he smashed the ball so hard in Payton’s face, causing traumatic brain injury, partially paralyzing her right side and ending her athletic career.” Also present was January Littlejohn, who along with her husband “discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly socially transitioned their 13-year-old little girl. Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband while encouraging her daughter to use a new name and pronouns. ‘They/them’ pronouns actually.”
There was also a heroic Border Patrol agent and a young man whose admission to West Point the president announced on the spot, among other guests who added emotional heft to the evening. The inclusion of such people in a State of the Union address is routine, of course, but rarely has a president from either party used the technique to such effect. Again and again Trump dispelled controversy from his policies by highlighting individuals whose experiences made the case for them emotionally irrefutable. Here too the Democrats’ antics helped Trump by reinforcing the impression conveyed by the guests’ testimony. Only a party of lunatics would support the radical policies that had hurt these people and their families, and Democrats last night acted the part of lunatics perfectly.
Trump once again stated his intention for the U.S. to acquire the Panama Canal and Greenland, though he struck a softer note on the latter subject. “The Panama Canal was built by Americans for Americans, not for others,” he said, “we gave it to Panama, and we’re taking it back.” Greenland, however, was up for negotiation—maybe. “We strongly support your right to determine your own future,” he addressed to the people of Greenland. “And if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America.” He also said, humorously yet perhaps not altogether unseriously, “one way or the other, we’re going to get it.”
If Trump ruffled doves’ feathers with those remarks, he upset warhawks more with what he had to say about the war in Ukraine, describing himself as “working tirelessly to end the savage conflict” in which “millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded… with no end in sight.” When Democrats and some Republicans cheered for the continuation of the war, Trump rejected their calls and singled out Sen. Elizabeth Warren (referred to as “Pocahontas” for misrepresenting herself as an Indian) for censure: “Do you want to keep it going for another five years? Yeah? You would say. Pocahontas says yes. 2,000 people are being killed every single week—more than that. They are Russian young people, they’re Ukrainian young people. They’re not Americans, but I want it to stop.”
His discussion of Ukraine and Russia built naturally to the climax of the speech. Among the guests in the audience was Marc Fogel, an American imprisoned in Russia during the Biden years. Fogel, as it happens, was born in Butler, Pennsylvania, the scene last year of the first attempt on Trump’s life. After acknowledging Fogel and his 95-year-old mother, Trump recalled his near-fatal experience in Butler and the death that day of Corey Comperatore, whose widow and two daughters were also in the audience last night. “I believe that my life was saved that day in Butler for a very good reason,” the president said. “I was saved by God to Make America Great Again.”He wrapped up by returning to the theme of “a new golden age of America” that had featured in his inaugural remarks as well. The peroration’s celebration of “countless modern wonders sculpted out of iron, glass, and steel” and a general spirit of technological progress— “We are going to conquer the vast frontiers of science”—perhaps betrayed lead Trump speechwriter Ross Worthington’s background as a former wordsmith for Newt Gingrich. The former House speaker’s characteristic interests in futurism and patriotic praise of American history supplied the notes on which the president’s speech ended. What was most characteristic of President Trump himself, however, were his humorous ad-libs throughout the night and the speech’s pugnacious character. This is an administration on full offense, yet only Democrats are offended, to judge by the highly positive public response to the speech. Trump and his team have found a way to turn combativeness into attraction, leaving the president’s unhappy foes nothing to do but shout and pout.
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