Donald Trump calls for a renewal of American patriotism

Donald Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night was the most powerful, rousing and pointed of any presidential address in decades. “America is back… and we are just getting started,” it began, capturing the theme of the night. The address ended with a peroration that his administration would “take up the righteous cause of American liberty” and “fight, fight, fight for a country our citizens’ believe in and deserve.” Our country’s “Golden Age,” he said, ”has just begun.”

Dozens and dozens of applause lines were planted throughout the speech as Trump laid out his ambitious agenda and his accomplishments so far. It was not the dull laundry list of programs most presidents present to Congress.

There was an upbeat coherence to the address. It included plenty of specific proposals, but they were not the focus of the speech. The emphasis was on a renewal of American patriotism — a new “Golden Age” — illustrated by his achievements so far. The leitmotif was his recognition of citizens in the gallery who underscored those themes. They embodied both our country’s virtues and its tragedies, the result of policies gone horribly wrong. He pinned those tragedies on Joe Biden and the Democrats.

The result was a bravura performance for the president, a pep rally for congressional Republicans and a train wreck for the Democrats, who sat glumly in their seats, holding signs up attacking the president and booing his applause lines.

The Democrats’ self-inflicted humiliation began as soon as Trump started. Congressman Al Green, who introduced a bill to impeach President Trump shortly after he took office, rose with a cane in hand and started yelling at the president, refusing to be silent or sit (when asked by House Speaker Mike Johnson) and ultimately had to be removed from the chamber.

That kind of boorish behavior played right into Trump’s hands. Throughout the speech, he attacked the failures of the Democratic Party and the Biden administration, calling out their disastrous programs and introducing people in the gallery whose lives had been crushed by those failures: notably children murdered by illegal immigrants who entered the country thanks to Biden’s open border policies.

Trump stressed that he had reversed those policies and that, as a result, illegal border crossings had reached historic lows. He added that these effective policies didn’t require new legislation, as Biden falsely claimed. He claimed 20 million people had entered illegally under Biden, many from organized gangs, which he has designated as terrorist organizations. With the border now closed, Trump said, he had launched a comprehensive program to remove illegal immigrants, beginning with gang members and violent criminals. The aim, he stressed, was to restore law and order and to get fentanyl off the streets.

No one would expect Democrats to cheer this brutal criticism of Biden’s policies. But you would expect them to applaud the sacrifices and achievements of ordinary Americans when Trump recognized them — and to sympathize with those who had suffered tragedies. They seldom did. They sat immobile, scoring another “own goal” for a Democratic Party in disarray.

Why such self-defeating behavior? Democrats are so enraged by Trump, so determined to oppose his presidency at every turn, that they sat frozen and frowning during what should have been heartwarming moments for the whole nation. They refused to clap when Trump declared war on drug cartels. That’s political malpractice. Instead, they held signs reading, “this is not normal” and “Musk steals.”

They showed signs of life only when they booed the president, which they did often. They seemed determined to play the desultory title character in an old Saturday Night Live sketch, “Debbie Downer.” For a party that has sunk to historic lows for approval ratings, that’s no way to win back voters.

The speech itself touched all the themes Trump has emphasized in his second term. Deregulation; “drill, baby, drill,” DoGE and reductions in the federal workforce; idiotic public expenditures (Trump rattled off a long list); reducing regulatory burdens; ending taxes on tips and social security; getting men out of women’s sports; ending DEI and restoring merit-based hiring.

Other proposals included returning shipbuilding to the United States, building a “Golden Dome” to defend the country against missile attacks, and selling $5 million “golden” versions of “green cards” to wealthy immigrants, giving them a path to citizenship.

Trump also made one “breaking news” announcement, saying that the terrorist responsible for killing thirteen Americans and seriously wounding forty-two others during the botched Afghan withdrawal had just been captured and was being returned to the US. He thanked Pakistan for its help.

His comments about the Middle East were vague and didn’t mention Gaza. His real focus was on ending the killing in Ukraine. He indicated Zelensky now seemed ready to sign a deal for mineral rights and begin negotiations with Russia. But that, too, was vague.

Trump made clear he wants to take back the Panama Canal and bring Greenland into the US — in both cases for security reasons. Neither was a new idea but reiterating them in this speech will have been noticed by Panama and Denmark.

On the economy, Trump made two broad points. The first was to reiterate the need to pass a major bill cutting taxes, alongside his call to reduce regulations and increase energy production. He didn’t signal a preference for either “one big, beautiful bill” or two bills.

The second was his emphasis on tariffs and more products “made in America.” Part of his sales pitch is that America is being ripped off by countries that charge high levies on our products despite our low levies on their products. That, he said, would stop on April 2. We would insist on reciprocity.

The question remains whether Trump’s threats to raise tariffs is a negotiating lever or a desirable goal in its own right. As a negotiating tool, America would raise tariffs as a way to get other countries to lower their levies. In the case of Mexico and China, the other goal is to stop their central roles in the illegal drug trade. Alternatively, Trump has spoken warmly of high tariffs as a way to return more production to the US, regardless of what other countries do.

Important as these proposals are, they were not the real message of the speech. The real message echoed Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America.” It was the first line President Trump uttered that framed the whole speech. “America is back… and we are just getting started.”