During his address to a joint session of Congress, President Donald Trump took the opportunity to tout his alleged achievements, criticize his adversaries, and propagate misinformation covering a range of topics from Social Security to immigration.
As is customary for significant speeches like this, he included a number of applause-worthy lines for his dedicated supporters in what has become an unrecognizable Republican Party. However, one statement particularly caught my attention:
“As you’ve heard me say many times, we have more liquid gold beneath our feet than any nation on Earth, by a large margin. And now, I fully empower the most skilled team ever assembled to go and extract it. It’s called drill, baby, drill.”
You might remember Trump using this line before. He has tweeted it numerous times, referenced it during his three presidential campaigns, and even repeated it during his inaugural address in January. Indeed, “drill, baby, drill” is a crowd favorite. I should know; I introduced it in a speech to the Republican National Convention on a September night in 2008 to enthusiastic applause.
I’ll be frank: the president is misapplying it.
I understand this may be difficult for some to accept, but that convention occurred over 16 years ago. The world has changed significantly.
The energy landscape in America was different as well. Crude oil production was at one of its lowest levels in 65 years. Just two months prior to my speech, the United States experienced the highest average gas prices in history when adjusted for inflation. Only one electric vehicle model existed, and there were just 430 charging stations across the nation—a stark contrast to the approximately 61,000 available today.
Not that this concerns Trump, a man who dismisses facts and context with the same reckless abandon he shows towards public servants.
It doesn’t matter to Trump and his entourage of sycophants that domestic oil production reached record levels under President Joe Biden, who also advocated for parallel policies aimed at developing and promoting alternative fuel sources.
His commitment to “drill, baby, drill” wasn’t motivated by any genuine concern for everyday Americans.
And Trump hopes you will overlook that his commitment to “drill, baby, drill” stems not from a noble concern for the average American, but rather from loyalty to the big oil industry that backed him during the 2024 campaign.
Let me make one thing clear: I do not regret coining the phrase “drill, baby, drill.” It reflected a political position that addressed the realities we faced at that time.
What is regrettable is Trump’s continued tendency to throw around phrases without awareness of their context, disguising such empty sentiments as policy. On Tuesday, he did with “drill, baby, drill” what he has done with terms like “patriot,” “freedom,” and even “conservative”: drained its meaning and repurposed it for his own self-serving agenda.
Don’t succumb to it. To borrow a phrase, “think, baby, think.”
For more thought-provoking insights from Michael Steele, Alicia Menendez, and Symone Sanders-Townsend, watch “The Weekend” every Saturday and Sunday at 8 a.m. ET on MSNBC.
Evan Brechtel contributed.
