A Political Tour De Force

First, a technical point. Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress last night was not strictly speaking a State of the Union address. There is a requirement in the U.S. Constitution, Article II, Section 3, Clause 1 that the president will periodically “give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” The speech is usually given in January or February based on an invitation to the president extended by the speaker of the House.

Custom and practice dictate that the State of the Union address is given only after the president has been in office for a year. It’s something like a report card on how things are going and what comes next. This means Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address in his second term of office will take place early in 2026.

Ronald Reagan began the practice of a newly inaugurated president addressing a joint session of Congress in the first year of his term in 1981, but he refrained from calling the speech a “State of the Union.” Subsequent presidents have continued the Reagan practice. That’s what Trump did last night. Still, it’s an important speech and we followed it closely. It was called Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.

As an aside, presidents did not deliver a State of the Union address to Congress in person from 1801 to 1913. Instead they fulfilled their constitutional obligation by delivering a written report. Woodrow Wilson revived the practice of delivering the speech in person. Future presidents are unlikely to abandon that practice. The platform is too big and the audience is huge. It’s exactly the kind of environment in which Trump thrives.

Trump’s Address: A Review

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson presided over the speech. He was seated on the podium next to Vice President JD Vance, acting in his capacity as president of the U.S. Senate. President Trump stood in front of them facing the cameras and the world.

On the House floor, in addition to the members of Congress, were the Justices of the Supreme Court, members of Trump’s cabinet and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. First Lady Melania Trump and members of the Trump family were seated in the House gallery. Elon Musk, head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was also in the gallery. It was a rare gathering and rare display of practically unlimited power in one room. Trump reached the podium to continuous applause and chants of “USA! USA! USA!”

The Democrats: A Shameful Display

After the initial salutations, Trump turned to the Democratic side of the House floor and asked Democrats to join him and the Republicans in an effort to make America a better place for all Americans. Then he said, in effect, that he knew the Democrats would not cooperate and would not even listen to his speech. With that done, he turned to the Republican side of the House and delivered one of the most powerful and partisan speeches ever delivered in U.S. history.

Trump pulled no punches and gave no ground to his opponents. It was like a campaign speech but it was not filled with promises. It was filled with accomplishments. It was a litany of just how many concrete actions Trump and his team had taken in a mere 43 days.

Trump punctuated the speech with rallying cries including, “America is back!” and “Our spirit is back, our confidence is back.” He said, “The American dream is unstoppable.” And “The Golden Age of America has only just begun.” He then claimed, “We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplish in four years … and we are just getting started!” All true.

Importantly, Trump emphasized that he had a mandate to do exactly what his administration is doing. Trump pointed out that, “We won all seven swing states giving us an Electoral College victory of 312 votes. We won the popular vote. We won the counties 2,700 to 525.” All of these claims were true.

Democrats booed and yelled from their seats, but Trump kept going. Trump pushed back on the Democrats by saying, “America has given us a mandate for profound and bold change.” And “The days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over.” Trump rounded out the opening of the speech by saying, “The first month in our presidency … is the most successful in the history of the nation.” His mandate is real and it’s powerful despite Democrat jeers.

Almost from the beginning, Democrats were rude and highly disruptive. They stood and yelled. Their behavior was not the usual dissent but something much closer to an effort to shut down the speech. This was dumb politics but not surprising coming from Democrats. They have learned nothing from their defeat and still have nothing to offer but name-calling and unhinged rants.

Democrats waved paddle signs with slogans such as, “Musk Steals” “That’s a lie,” “False,” and the like. Some members walked out of the House during the speech wearing black shirts that said “Resist.” Pathological liar Adam Schiff sat stone-faced. Bernie Sanders was seen gritting his teeth. Trump called Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas” while referring to her support for more killing in Ukraine.

Dem behavior soon got so out of hand that the Speaker of the House directed the Seargent-at-Arms to physically remove Democratic Representative Al Green from the House chamber. Green may have thought he was making a point, but all he did was embarrass himself and his party. Trump put a stop to the disruption by declaring, “The people elected me to do the job and I’m doing it.” The Democrats were mostly silent after that.

A Common Sense Revolution

Trump did not shy away from saying exactly what he thought of Joe Biden and the Biden administration. He referred to Biden as “the worst president in American history.” He pointed out that Biden had released “murderers into our country.” Trump highlighted the gross incompetence and needless deaths of American military in the disgraceful withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. He concluded by saying, “It was a failed administration.”

Trump spent nearly an hour going through his administration’s accomplishments in the brief time he has been in office. This list is too long to go into detail here, but it included a freeze on new hiring, a freeze on all foreign aid, withdrawal from the “Green New Scam,” withdrawals from the Paris Climate Accord, the “corrupt” World Health Organization, and the anti-Semitic UN Human Rights Organization (which funds Hamas).

The president went down an expansive list of key policy moves. Trump ended electric vehicle mandates, signed an order making English the official language of the United States, renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America and renamed Mount McKinley from its Obama-named Denali.

Trump recited the fact that he had ended DEI policies, removed the “poison of critical race theory from our schools,” and signed an executive order banning men from women’s sports. Trump said, “There are only two positive genders – male and female” and he promised that “Our country will be woke no longer.” Trump then proclaimed a “common sense revolution.”

Trump continued a tradition of recognizing invited guests seated in the House gallery who personify certain admirable behavior, talents or accomplishments that exemplify the administration’s goals and policies. Among those guests was Riley Gaines, a highly competitive college swimmer who lost a women’s championship race to a man posing as women. Riley Gaines became a leader in the national movement to ban men from women’s sports, which Trump has now implemented by executive order and with proposed legislation.

Other gallery guests who received recognition included Peyton McNabb, an outstanding volleyball player whose career was ended when she was smashed in the face by a volleyball spiked by a man pretending to be a woman. The sister and mother of Laken Riley who was brutally beaten, raped and murdered by an illegal immigrant were in attendance in recognition of Trump’s signing of the Laken Riley Act requiring the detention of illegal alien criminals so they cannot roam the streets.

Other guests included Robert Ortiz, a border patrol officer who risked his life in a gunfight to protect a fellow officer, Stephanie Diller, wife of an NYPD officer killed by a criminal with over twenty prior arrests, Marc Fogel, an American hostage in Russia who was released through Trump’s efforts and the family of Corey Comperatore, a fireman killed during the attempted assassination of Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. All were either heroes or family members of innocent victims of illegal aliens or criminals.

The most touching moment was when DJ Daniel was recognized. DJ is a 13-year-old brain cancer survivor whose ambition is to be a police officer. Trump announced from the podium that DJ was now officially a member of the Secret Service. The head of the Secret Service presented DJ with his badge and ID live from the gallery. The applause was sustained, yet even at this joyful moment the Democrats just sat on their hands.

One of the best lines of the evening was when Trump explained that the Democrats had insisted on legislation to fix the border. Trump said we didn’t need legislation. “All we really needed was a new president.”

On a forward-looking basis, Trump promised to end income tax on tips, overtime and Social Security benefits. He said he would make interest on car loans tax deductible “but only if the car is made in America.” He called for the death penalty for anyone who murders a police officer. He said he would “resurrect the U.S. commercial shipbuilding industry.”

Trump pointed out that over $1.7 trillion of new investment in the United States has been announced since he was sworn in including $500 billion from Apple, and hundreds of billions from Taiwan Semiconductor and Honda Motors.

On foreign policy and national security, Trump said categorically that “My administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it. … The Carter administration gave it away for $1.00 … We’re taking it back”

With regard to the people of Greenland, Trump said, “We strongly support your right to determine your own future and if you so choose, we will welcome you to the United States.”

On Ukraine, Trump simply said, “It’s time to stop this madness, time to stop the killing.”

Trump’s vision extended beyond planet Earth. He promised, ““We’re going to plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond.”

There was even more to the speech than we have time to capture here. It was a political and historical tour de force.

Perhaps what was most remarkable about the speech was not any particular policy proposal but Trump’s overall demeanor. Trump is 78, just three years younger than Joe Biden, but their presentation styles could not be more different. Biden tripped up stairs, fell off his bicycle and could barely walk in the sand toward his favorite beach chair. He mumbled words, did not know where he was, rigged his press conferences (which were few) and showed every sign of steep cognitive decline.

Trump was vigorous and crisp in his delivery of the speech. Regardless of your views on Trump’s policies, he showed stamina, mental toughness and a clear grasp of the issues. We all get older but we do not show signs of age at the same pace. Trump has the strength and focus of a much younger man. That’s important. He’ll need that focus to fend off the continual attacks of the Deep State, the legacy media and the Biden-Obama appointed Federal judges standing in the way of his policies.

The speech lasted almost two hours and Trump’s energy and tempo seemed actually to increase as the night went on. Trump’s presentation in this address to the joint session of Congress shows he has the strength to see things through and the determination to do so.

Trump Gets The Last Laugh

Finally, we can’t pass up the opportunity to share a bit of reporting on the speech from Byron York of the Washington Examiner. In his pre-speech column, he reminded readers that after Trump’s 2020 State of the Union address, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who was in plain view of the world audience, took her copy of the speech, tore it up in a flamboyant fashion and lightly tossed it in the air.

It was a conspicuous insult to Trump and took place the night before the Senate was going to vote to remove Trump from office based on the impeachment of Trump that Pelosi had engineered. Pelosi embarrassed herself and the House by taking a cheap shot at Trump in an effort to damage him politically.

Here we are five years later. Pelosi is 84 and limping with a cane after breaking her hip by falling down a flight of stairs and needing emergency hip replacement surgery. Trump is president of the United States. Pelosi was nowhere in sight on the House podium tonight.

As a fillip, the Trump administration just released a list of over 400 federal office buildings it plans to sell to the private sector. Included on the list is the Nancy Pelosi federal office building in San Francisco. No doubt the buyer will want to change the name. As the proverb says, “He who laughs last, laughs best.”