Trump Didn’t Help Himself Last Night
The president is losing popularity and the public’s patience.
The longest presidential address to Congress in history last night, and yet you could get the gist from a ten-second interaction before Trump even made it to the podium. As the president came down the aisle, Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury stood silently behind him holding a sign reading “This is not normal.” Seconds later, GOP Rep. Lance Gooden leaned across the aisle and ripped it from her hands. Happy Wednesday.
Why Trump’s Speech Cheered Me Up
by William Kristol
I can’t tell a lie. I didn’t watch Donald Trump’s address to the joint session of Congress last night.
Why make myself miserable by having to listen—for over an hour and a half!—to his lies and boasting, his bigotry and idiocy? Isn’t this, I told myself, why God invented transcripts? The Father of all mercies surely intended for us to read the speech later, with less pain and suffering.
So that’s what I did. I went to sleep unencumbered with visions of Trump speaking. I slept soundly. (Well, as soundly as one does these days.)
And when I was awake and fortified by a large mug of Major Dickason’s coffee, I read the complete transcript. I even watched a few clips to get a sense of how it had looked.
Weirdly, this cheered me up.
Why?
Because the speech was childish, silly, unimpressive—and, I suspect, unsuccessful.
Early in the address, Trump boasted about how well he was doing:
In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency—it’s our presidency—is the most successful in the history of our nation. By many.
And what makes it even more impressive is that do you know who Number 2 is? George Washington. How about that? How about that?
How about that? I guess some true believers will agree that Trump is outdoing Washington. But as Sarah Longwell’s most recent focus groups suggest, many of Trump’s more ambivalent and less cult-like voters seem to have qualms about his performance so far, particularly about his administration’s lack of focus and the constant chaos.
The polling numbers confirm the findings of the focus groups.
Trump’s approval rating has been sinking. Four days after his inauguration, Trump had, according to the FiveThirtyEight averages, an approval rating of 49.7 percent and a disapproval rating of 41.5 percent. Now he’s underwater at 47.6 percent approval vs. 47.9 percent disapproval.
Is last night’s speech likely to have done anything to stop or reverse the trend of Trump losing a percentage point a week?
I don’t see it. If you weren’t already on the Trump train, the speech gave you no reason to jump aboard.
And if, as seems to be the case, the economy is slowing and inflation isn’t; and if, as seems likely to be the case, the kleptocracy and plutocracy of the Trump administration become more and more evident; and if, as will surely be the case, it becomes more and more obvious that in foreign policy Trump is on the side of Vladimir Putin—where are Trump’s numbers going to be in three months?
Lower, I think. Trump could have used last night to try to fix some of the perceptions that have been hurting him in the eyes of the public. Instead, he boasted that he’s doing a better job than George Washington. He barely addressed the issue of inflation—casting off responsibility for the price of eggs to Joe Biden and telling farmers and consumers that their lives could actually get a bit more turbulent. That isn’t going to help him with anyone not already in MAGA world. Nor will it help him to keep on highlighting his sidekick, Elon Musk, whose approval ratings are lower than Trump’s.
To stop Trump from doing the damage he could do to this nation and the world, Congress—especially some Republicans in Congress—will have to stand up to him. These are not strong individuals who are used to doing the right thing no matter what. But opinion polls going in the wrong direction for Trump might make it easier to persuade some of these solons to reconsider at least a bit.
None of this is to minimize the damage Trump can do and is likely to do. And none of this is meant to reassure us that progress towards autocracy will necessarily be checked by some erosion in Trump’s poll numbers. The challenges facing us over the next four years are daunting.
Still, last night made me slightly more hopeful that we can meet them.
Flashing Lights
by Joe Perticone
Elon Musk attended Trump’s speech last night in the guest box in the House chamber. I was across the hall from him and took notes on some of the weirdest and funniest moments.
When Musk first walked into the chamber, he was amazed, scanning the room and staring at the ceilings. That’s normal, it is a grand and important place on a big night. But he didn’t really stop at any point. I saw him on several occasions staring at the ceiling during the speech.
There were other moments, like when First Lady Melania Trump entered the room and walked right past him. Musk was staring elsewhere and didn’t notice. Then, when applause began for her, he looked around and realized it was for the woman right in front of him. At one point, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) blew Musk a kiss from the floor below (he responded with a wave). Musk also whipped out his phone to take a photo or video early on before Trump entered, but was rebuffed by a police officer (photographs and video recording are strictly forbidden inside the chamber except by authorized press photographers and staff). The richest man in the world doesn’t get a pass.
Musk also engaged in a brief back-and-forth with Jason Selvig from the Good Liars, the comedy duo who regularly prank and troll MAGA supporters. What they talked about, we’ll probably find out soon.
Eventually, Musk appeared to grow tired of having to hop up to clap at every made-for-applause line in Trump’s speech. About an hour and half in, he slouched back into his chair, seemingly unenthused by the evening. But when Trump mentioned planting the flag on Mars, Musk leaned forward, stood up and realized that the people clapping in the chamber were actually clapping for him.
He quickly left moments after the speech concluded.
While Musk went through the motions, so too did the Democrats in attendance—albeit wildly different emotions. Some held up signs of protests. Others left the speech entirely.
The most pointed objections to Trump, however, came from Rep. Al Green (D-Tex.) early in the evening. He stood and pointed his cane at Trump, demanding he leave entitlements and the social safety net alone as he rampages through the federal government.
Republicans were seething. The most angry was Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Tex.), who was bright red in the face and repeatedly screamed, “Get him outta here! Get his ass outta here!” From where I was sitting in the press gallery, Jackson seemed to be on the verge of tears. He was hardly the only one hissing and screaming at his colleague, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen rage like that on the House floor.
As Green persisted, the sergeant at arms staff began making its way over to escort him out of the chamber. I watched Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.) as she lightly grabbed the arm of one of the officers and said, “Don’t hurt him.”
Green eventually left on his own without being physically dragged out by police, but it was hard to look at. Just an entire branch of government that has fully deteriorated.
Quick Hits
BROTHER, MAY I HAVE SOME FISH OIL?: With measles spreading rapidly through unvaccinated communities in West Texas, Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the longtime anti-vaxxer, has finally been doing the grudging bare minimum: Acknowledging, as he did this weekend deep in a Fox News op-ed, that vaccines “not only protect individual children from measles, but also contribute to community immunity.”
In a follow-up interview yesterday, Kennedy repeated the point: “If you do get vaccinated, you’re protecting [people who can’t be vaccinated] from a possible spread.”
Seemingly worn out by that much responsible talk, Kennedy couldn’t help but indulge in a little homeopathic freestyling too. Per the New York Times:
Texas doctors had seen “very, very good results,” Mr. Kennedy claimed, by treating measles cases with a steroid, budesonide; an antibiotic called clarithromycin; and cod liver oil, which he said had high levels of vitamin A and vitamin D.
While physicians sometimes administer doses of vitamin A to treat children with severe measles cases, cod liver oil is “by no means” an evidence-based treatment, said Dr. Sean O’Leary, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases.
Dr. O’Leary added that he had never heard of a physician using the supplement against measles.
Look, we’ll make a deal with RFK Jr.: Tout as much snake oil as you want. Just make sure you talk up vaccines first.
THE CANUCKS PUNCH BACK: While we’re on the subject of major political speeches: You’ve got to check out the address outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered yesterday, vowing to meet Trump’s tariffs head-on with retaliatory tariffs of his own.
His tone was sorrowful, not angry. And he spoke directly to the American people: “We don’t want this. We want to work with you as a friend and ally, and we don’t want to see you hurt either,” Trudeau said. “But your government has chosen to do this to you.”
Trudeau vowed that Canada wouldn’t allow itself to be bullied. And he accused Trump of using a “bogus” pretext—Canada’s supposed inability to stop an imagined flow of fentanyl over its border—to plot “a total collapse of the Canadian economy because that will make it easier to annex us.”
“That is never going to happen,” Trudeau said. “We will never be the 51st state.”
Trump responded the only way he knows how: Lashing out with more belittling insults and further threats: “Please explain to Governor Trudeau, of Canada, that when he puts a Retaliatory Tariff on the U.S., our Reciprocal Tariff will immediately increase by a like amount!”
Meanwhile, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was taking a more conciliatory tone, telling Fox Business that he thinks Trump will meet Mexico and Canada “in the middle” on tariffs. What the “middle” is, who knows. But Lutnick this morning said we would hear from Trump today about it.
LOVE IT OR LIST IT, FED EDITION: Yesterday afternoon, the Trump administration announced that hundreds of federally owned buildings deemed “not core to government operations” were for sale. Initially, the General Services Administration put 443 offices on the market—of which 152 were located in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia. Included in this initial tally were the headquarters for the Department of Justice and the Department of Labor.
We at The Bulwark immediately started pulling from our 401ks to try and get the money together to buy HUD’s office. But by the time we began preparing the paperwork for a formal bid on Tuesday evening, 123 office buildings were taken off the list—including every property in D.C., and most buildings in Maryland and Virginia.
The result: A majority of the office buildings which the GSA has listed as for sale are now in states which Trump won in November. These include 17 buildings in Georgia, 26 in Michigan, and 24 in Texas.
In Pennsylvania, a dozen properties are listed as “not core to government operations” including three units in Luzerne County where Trump won by more than 19 points. The Oklahoma City Federal Building—rebuilt following the 1995 domestic terrorism attack that killed 168—is also included on the list, as is the Dick Cheney Federal Building in Casper, Wyoming.
The GSA claims these offices are either empty, underutilized, or face significant maintenance costs. However, it is a good reminder for congressional Republicans, who have long characterized the federal workforce as faceless, deep state bureaucrats deep in the swamps of D.C., that less than 20 percent of the federal workforce is based in the DMV. If Republicans hold town halls with their constituents affected by these shake ups, they’ll quickly learn that the federal employees at Stars Child Care Center in Austin, Texas and Martinsburg Childcare Center in West Virginia have a face—just not a smiling one. —Brendan Hartnett
Cheap Shots
"Isn’t this, I told myself, why God invented transcripts?"
100%. I'm not even going to read the transcripts, I'll wait to watch Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, etc.
So where was this Sergeant at Arms when Taylor Greene and Boebert were loudly heckling Joe Biden?
Didn't watch a second of it. I just quietly listen from the comfort of my blue bubble, coastal elite vantage point to the sound of an imperfect but once great Republic collapse around us because 49.8% of the voters thought this was a better choice. I also enjoy the sound of Trump voters crying as they lose their jobs, prices go up and they begin to get it good and hard.