‘There is absolutely nothing I can do to make them happy’
Donald Trump made history on Tuesday by giving the longest speech of any president to a joint session of Congress. He touted his “swift and unrelenting” efforts to restore “common sense” in the first month of his presidency, which he hailed triumphantly as “the most successful in the history of our nation” second only to George Washington. “We’re just getting started,” he said. “The American dream is surging bigger and better than ever before.”
Democrats apparently disagreed. They were bitter throughout, clinging to protest signs. They refused to stand or applaud during the address and frequently interrupted by shouting “lies” or “you’re lying.” The signs read “False” and “Musk Steals,” referring to immigrant billionaire and White House adviser Elon Musk, who saluted from the gallery as Republicans cheered and former Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi fidgeted with an umbrella in her seat, looking peeved and somewhat human. Al Green, the 77-year-old Democratic congressman from Texas, was forcibly removed for jeering obnoxiously and waving his cane after Trump bragged about winning the popular vote. Several others exited the chamber after standing up in black shirts that said “Resist” on the back. Some didn’t even bother showing up. Others, according to CNN’s Manu Raju, chose to “color coordinate their outfits,” with several Democratic women wearing “pink for power.”
It wasn’t a great look. Even former Biden spokesman Ian Sams, one of the biggest failures in the history of American politics, thought the Democratic plans to disrupt Trump’s speech were some “dumb shit.” Speaking of which, a bunch of leading Democrats posted bizarrely identical videos on social media ahead of the address in which they said “shit that ain’t true” and screamed into tiny microphones. Many agreed that it wasn’t any less dumb watching their protest plans come to fruition. “Why are democrats just sitting there?” wrote MSNBC host and former Kamala Harris adviser Symone Sanders. “The signs are not landing. It is giving bingo! Sigh.”
Trump invited Democrats to join Republicans in “celebrating so many incredible wins for America.” He already knew they would decline. “There is absolutely nothing I can do to make them happy,” he said of his partisan antagonists. They proved him right by refusing to applaud during the highlight of the evening, when Trump announced that DJ Daniels, a 13-year-old boy who survived brain cancer and dreams of being a police officer, would become an honorary member of the U.S. Secret Service. Daniels even received his own badge, which he displayed triumphantly to thunderous applause as his father lifted him up from his seat. MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace, in the running for the liberal network’s most unhinged personality following the departure of Joy Reid, said she hoped Daniels would grow up to be a cop who doesn’t kill himself after having to “defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump’s supporters.”
Democrats also remained seated when Trump informed another guest, Jason Hartley, a high school senior who lost his father, that his application to West Point had been accepted. Daniels walked over and gave him a high five, adorably. It wasn’t immediately clear how these touching moments were eerily evocative of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. Trump also welcomed the family members of female victims murdered by illegal immigrants who entered the country on Biden’s watch. Democrats didn’t applaud them either, obviously. Trump delivered his most memorable line of the night while discussing his administration’s success in reducing illegal border crossings to record levels, scolding former president Joe Biden and his Democratic allies for insisting it could only be done with legislation. “It turned out all we needed was a new president,” Trump said.
Trump slammed his predecessor as “the worst president in history,” which Democrats didn’t like either. Perhaps they were suffering some post-traumatic stress related to Biden’s final State of the Union address in March 2024. After the speech, Democrats and their journalist friends went on television and proclaimed that the octogenarian was sharp as a tack and perfectly capable of serving another four years. He was not, which is something to consider when evaluating their reactions to this speech. CNN host Jake Tapper, for example, dismissed Trump’s address as an angry “campaign speech” with some “touching moments.”
Trump said the Biden administration left him with “an economic catastrophe and inflation nightmare” that would take time to reverse. He promised to “make America affordable again” by reducing energy costs, cutting taxes, and eliminating government waste, rolling off a list of “appalling” examples, including millions of dollars for LGBTQI+ initiatives “in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of,” and millions more “for making mice transgender,” which he insisted was “real.” He pledged to “end the tyranny” of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. “Our country will be woke no longer,” he said. “Wokeness is trouble. Wokeness is bad. It’s gone.” He referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.), best known for pretending to be Native American, as “Pocahontas.”
The president didn’t just promote his accomplishments and lay out his vision for a second term. He also broke news, revealing that CIA intelligence had assisted Pakistan in the capture of a senior ISIS commander, Mohammad Sharifullah, believed to have plotted the deadly Abbey Gate bombing during the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. He went on to divulge that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was willing to sign an agreement giving the United States access to revenues from Ukrainian minerals and was eager to negotiate an end to his country’s war with Russia. Journalists and other Democrats had spent the last several days berating Trump over his contentious meeting with Zelensky in the Oval Office last week.
Even then, Democrats still weren’t happy. They had a rough night, but it could have been worse. Axios reported that Democrats were mulling a plan to win back working class voters by walking out en masse when Trump discussed his ban on male athletes competing in women’s sports. Fortunately for them that didn’t happen. Alas, the #Resistance continues.
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