Just six weeks and two days after his return to the Oval Office, Donald Trump made his way back to the Capitol, the venue of his recent swearing-in ceremony, to repeatedly declare his victory—over Joe Biden, foreign adversaries, and even Canada. During his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, Trump asserted that his “rapid and relentless action” in the initial weeks of his come-back exceeded that of any President in history, including George Washington.
A torrent of words ensued, so much so that Trump, channeling his inner Fidel Castro, shattered the modern record for a Presidential address to Congress, which was previously held by Bill Clinton’s hour-and-twenty-eight-minute speech in 2000. Yet, aside from a moment of excitement when Texas Democrat Al Green was ejected from the chamber for protesting, there was little news to glean. Trump made scant effort to clarify his disruptive maneuvers to dismantle America’s traditional alliances and challenge the federal government domestically. Instead, he opted for a familiar repertoire of highlights from his campaign rallies, coupled with criticism directed at his predecessor, whom he labeled “the worst President in American history.” Much of Trump’s rhetoric was inflammatory, radical, and risky, yet it bore a familiar stamp—his typical blend of bravado and self-pity, along with partisan venom and blatant falsehoods. In reality, even the most unhinged Presidential speeches may begin to feel tedious if they drag on long enough.
There’s no denying that Trump has compiled a rather unconventional list of achievements to brag about in just six weeks—largely due to enabling the world’s wealthiest man to drastically overhaul the federal government, slashing hundreds of thousands of federal jobs and unilaterally halting federal programs and contracts worth billions in direct defiance of Congress. The chaotic antics of the second Trump Administration have already impacted everything from park rangers in America’s cherished national parks to the longstanding foundations of the transatlantic alliance.
However, one would hardly infer this from Trump’s nearly one-hundred-minute monologue, which largely consisted of standard Fox News culture-war rhetoric and alpha-male assertions of American superiority. (For example: “Wokeness is trouble. Wokeness is bad. It’s gone. It’s gone,” he proclaimed. “Don’t we feel better?”) To put it mildly, his address was a stark contrast to the detailed policy discussions that Biden tended to favor. Trump’s major legislative proposal for his second term centers on making permanent the tax cuts passed by Republicans during his first term; his notable announcements included plans for an “Office of Shipbuilding” at the White House and a promise to balance the federal budget, an outcome that few expect to materialize. The night was punctuated with theatrical gestures, such as Trump’s mid-speech signing of an executive order to rename a national wildlife refuge after a twelve-year-old homicide victim, a thirteen-year-old cancer survivor being acknowledged as an honorary Secret Service agent, and a young man in the House gallery discovering his acceptance to West Point from Trump.
Yet, no theatrical distraction could obscure the pervasive sense of chaos that Trump has stirred worldwide, whether he acknowledged it or not. The day of the speech commenced with a plunge in the stock market prompted by Trump’s implementation of the previously threatened twenty-five-percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Before Trump addressed Capitol Hill, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a dramatic televised appeal “directly to the American people,” stating, “We don’t want this. We want to work with you as a friend and ally. We don’t wish to harm you. But your government has chosen to do this to you.”
Trudeau’s appeal encapsulated the moment’s bewilderment—how can one individual affect so much globally? And what has prompted Trump to transform Canada from America’s closest ally into an adversary? “The United States launched a trade war against Canada, their nearest partner and ally, their closest friend,” Trudeau, frequently derided by Trump as the would-be “governor” of America’s “fifty-first state,” lamented. “Simultaneously, they’re discussing positively engaging with Russia while appeasing Vladimir Putin, a deceitful, murderous dictator. Can someone explain that?”
Trump can’t and won’t. The extraordinary aspect, as highlighted by Tuesday’s speech, is that he doesn’t seem to believe he needs to.
Before his address, there were hints from Trump’s team that perhaps he was once again indulging in a familiar Trump tactic—a scare-tactic followed by a rapid retreat—a strategy I’m unfamiliar with in any legitimate diplomatic manual but likely resonates painfully with many of Trump’s former business associates. On Tuesday afternoon, Howard Lutnick, a Wall Street associate and significant campaign donor now holding the position of Commerce Secretary, suggested during a Fox Business broadcast that a compromise with Canada and Mexico was on the horizon. “Trump is very, very fair and reasonable,” Lutnick asserted, adding, “I think he’s going to work something out with them. It’s not going to be a pause—none of that pause stuff—but I think he’s going to find a way to say, ‘You do more and I’ll meet you halfway,’ and we’ll probably announce that tomorrow.”
However, during the speech, Trump extolled the virtues of tariffs as instruments of national power. “Tariffs are not merely about safeguarding American jobs,” Trump stated. “They are about safeguarding the essence of our nation.” Instead of hinting at a forthcoming agreement to resolve the impasse with America’s two neighbors, the President cautioned his supporters to prepare for “a little bit of an adjustment period” and later for “a little disturbance,” which constituted his closest acknowledgment of the looming risks of surging prices and tumbling stock markets that economists have forewarned. In fact, Trump vowed to intensify tariffs, declaring that on April 2nd, reciprocal tariffs would be imposed on every nation that levies duties on American products. So much for Wall Street’s traditional wisdom.
As for the geopolitical fallout of alienating allies, disregarding Ukraine, and reshaping U.S. foreign policy towards a distinctly pro-Putin perspective, Trump scarcely touched on it. On the eve of the speech, the Trump Administration announced the immediate cessation of any remaining aid to Ukraine—an apparent consequence of the shocking televised altercation between Trump and Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, in the Oval Office. But Trump wholly omitted this move in his address, instead recalling a conciliatory letter Zelensky had sent him and presenting himself as a potential mediator. It was one of those tree-falls-in-a-forest moments with Trump; if he dismantles the liberal international order but fails to explain why America is now aligning with Russia, how is anyone to recognize it happening at all?
Prior to the recent tumultuous days, Trump was already facing unfavorable public sentiment. According to FiveThirtyEight, he held a net disapproval rating close to two percent at present—worse than any other President in modern memory at this stage of their terms, aside from his own initial term when he was already six points underwater at this same point in March of 2017. The significance lies not merely in Trump’s unpopularity but in his role as one of the most polarizing figures imaginable. Tuesday’s speech was akin to being struck repeatedly with this reality, as half the members of the House chamber applauded enthusiastically at Trump’s words while the other half remained stoic, as if the world had come to an end.
That is why, for me, the defining moment of the night occurred even before Trump began his address. As he walked down the aisle, he was momentarily confronted by New Mexico Democratic Congresswoman Melanie Stansbury, who held up a small, handwritten sign that read: “This is Not Normal.” Almost instantaneously, Texas Republican Congressman Lance Gooden snatched the sign from her hands and tossed it into the air. This encapsulated the new normal of the Trump era, where members of Congress behave like toddlers on the House floor while Putin relishes the greatest self-inflicted wound in modern history. It’s a golden age of absurdity. ♦
