TRUMP’S 1st SOTU SPEECH: JUST MORE MANURE

 

…Pretty much says it all

 

Democrats did not stand, when Trump made his bogus plea for national unity.

 

As we have all learned since Trump came down the escalator in Trump Towers to announce his candidacy, Trump is no stranger to straight-up false claims, and his first State of the Union speech was no exception.

 

As examples, Trump said the United States is “now an exporter of energy to the world.” Wrong. He said Congress passed and he signed “the biggest tax cuts and reform in American history.” Wrong. He said, “We have eliminated more regulations in our first year than any administration in history.” Because available records don't go back beyond a few decades, we don't know if that is true. Trump even claimed that his tax cuts were leading to bonuses — many of which were “thousands and thousands of dollars per worker.” The most publicized bonuses, were at the most, no more than $1,000.

 

But these are part of Trump's everyday talking points, so hearing them in this speech wasn't out of the ordinary. But it is notable that the White House is using bogus and unproven claims even on this giantstage which is witnessed around the world.

 

Trump’s speech was the longest State of the Union on record since the 1960s except for President Bill Clinton's in 2000. That speech was just under one hour and 29 minutes. Trump's speech didn't exceed that, but it did seem that it might. The final clock on Trump's speech was more than one hour and 20 minutes, which was the third-longest on record, according to the American Presidency Project.

One Republican strategist commented afterwards that the speech was too long, boring and it wasn’t about any visions for the future of the country.  He also said it was just Trump glorifying in his own rhetoric, and it contained many miss-statements and out and out lies.

 

“Americans love their country, and they deserve a government that shows them the same love and loyalty in return,” Trump said at one point. He added: “For the last year, we have sought to restore the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government.” He even at one point said he supported a proposal to allow Cabinet secretaries to remove government employees who “fail the American people.” Trump and his supporters are increasingly pointing to alleged bias in law enforcement and the president has made it clear that he wants to get rid of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and special counsel Robert Mueller.

 

The SOTU speech began with dozens of Democratic members of Congress not even present because they were boycotting. And for much of the speech, it seemed as though the rest of them might as well have stayed home. Even as Trump hailed nonpartisan things such as rising wages, millions of jobs created and a new low in the black unemployment rate, Democrats didn't stand. When Trump made the above plea for unity, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) total disbelief practically leaped out during a brief cutaway on CSPAN's cameras.  Of course,

 

Before he got to the details of his immigration proposal, Trump spent a very lengthy period of the speech focused on crime committed by illegal immigrants. He even spotlighted four parents of teenagers who were killed by MS-13 gang members. 

 

To explain, MS-13 was originally formed in Los Angeles in the 1980s by refugees from El Salvador escaping their civil war. The abbreviation stands for Mara Salvatrucha, which roughly translates to “Salvadoran street posse.” The government has said that it is has an estimated 10,000 members across the country, though that figure has been widely disputed.  In Long Island, New York, 17 murders have been attributed to the MS 13 gang.

 

The reference to the MS 13 gang seemed aimed at immigration hawks that Trump isn't going to be soft by allowing "Dreamers” a path to citizenship. But Democrats viewed this as an effort to demonize all of the undocumented population, and by the time Trump talked about specific proposals, the Dems were having none of Trump’s proposals.

 

Trump’s SOTU speech was a waste of time for him and for those of us that watched it.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2018