Trump bulldozes through joint address to Congress

We’ve been told that President Trump’s address to Congress tonight would dilate on the theme of the “Renewal of the American Dream.” And so it did. But for short hand, two ideas predominated. One was “Woke No More.” The other was “common sense.”

Both were themes of Trump’s inaugural address. I have expatiated on the theme of Trump’s embrace of common sense in a talk I gave to the Connecticut outpost of Hillsdale College at the end of January. The irony is that what should be common to all has been so uncommon in an age marked by perversity and ideology. Together, the attack on wokeness and the reinstitution of common sense go a long way towards summarizing the extraordinary achievements of Donald Trump in his first forty-two days. 

Has it only been forty-three days? I exaggerate. It’s actually been forty-three days. But what a whirlwind it has been. This wasn’t officially a “State of the Union” address because, after all, Trump has only been in office for fifteen minutes. Or so it seems. Since January 20, he has signed nearly 100 Executive Orders and taken some 400 actions “to restore common sense, safety, optimism and wealth all across our wonderful land.” 

Many commentators have said that Trump 2.0 has accomplished more in six weeks than other administrations accomplished in four, six or even eight years. It is true.

Tonight, the president provided a detailed inventory of his initiatives. Within hours of taking office, he designated illegal immigration a national emergency. Trump noted that Democrats kept saying that new legislation was needed to fix the border. But in fact, he said, “all we really needed was a new president.” Trump declared war on inflation and took steps to undermine the deep state and its racist DEI initiatives, thus restoring merit and race- and colorblind justice to their proper place in the economy of American values. He also took a page from the Book of Genesis, and articulated the non-woke, matter-of-fact truth that there are only two sexes: male and female. The crowd (but not the Democrats) cheered at that bit of common sense. 

The president presented a bracing tour d’horizon in his opening sally. He ordered federal workers back to work: “They will either show up for work, in person, or be removed from their job.” As I write, the Trump administration is ending “weaponized government,” restoring free speech, underwriting English as the official language of the United States and pursuing a policy of “drill, baby, drill” to exploit America’s energy resources.

Trump also provided an inventory of some of the flagrant waste, fraud and abuse that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has identified: $22 billion from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens, $45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma, $40 million to improve the “social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants,” $1.9 billion to a recently-created “decarbonization of homes” committee of Stacey Abrams — and on and on.

But beyond the manifold particular achievements was something Trump hinted at often: the change in tone, in energy, in outlook that has washed over the country since 12:01 on January 20. In many ways, that is the most amazing thing; what has been called the “vibe shift,” the new current of directness, the new, self-confident, unapologetic embrace of distinctively American possibility — the “Golden Age of America.”

One sign of this is the total disarray of the Democrats in attempting to respond to Trump. How else can you explain the fact that Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker issued video clips with identical texts just hours before Trump’s speech? How do you spell “pathetic?”

Early in his speech Trump, predicted that Democrats in attendance would not stand, applaud or smile no matter what he said or did. “I could find a cure to the most devastating disease,” Trump said, “or announce the answers to the 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… It’s very sad, and it just shouldn’t be this way. So Democrats sitting before me, for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America?” 

A good question! As Trump walked into the chamber, Republicans stood and cheered; Democrats to a woman stayed seated and pondered their shoelaces. Variations on that dynamic continued throughout the evening. Early on, Congressman Al Green disrupted the proceeding and was removed by the sergeant-at-arms. The rest of the Democrats sat holding up little signs with legends like “Musk Steals,” “False” and “Save Medicaid.” It was pathetic. I almost felt sorry for the Democrats. Emphasis, I should add, on the adverb. 

Another subject that floated above the speech was the war in Ukraine. On Friday, President Zelensky came to the White House, ostensibly to sign a rare-earth minerals agreement with the US that would have included a ceasefire with Russia and, the hope was, peace in a war that has claimed the lives of many hundreds of thousands. “It is time to stop this madness,” Trump said. “It is time to halt the killing. And it is time to end this war.” He then uttered a sentence that exemplified the common sense he has been championing: “If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides.” That was the goal of the meeting with Zelensky in the White House. As everyone knows, that meeting did not go as planned.

But tonight, Trump read from a letter he had just received from Zelensky. “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” Zelensky wrote. “Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time and in any convenient format.” 

Trump’s speech was an amazing performance. The Democrats didn’t like it. But their surly behavior, so reminiscent of the behavior of spoiled toddlers, reminded me of that old Arab proverb: “The dogs are barking, but the caravan moves on.”