Trump's State of the Union speech — the union is in a state

…Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
— Macbeth, speaking in Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth

Getting up at 4am local time (fortified by some very strong espresso roast coffee enabling me to watch this year’s State of the Union speech by President Donald Trump), what instantly came to mind were lines from Macbeth’s famous soliloquy, “Tomorrow and tomorrow”, on the meaninglessness of so much of life.

I come here to report that the president’s speech was filled with sounds and furies — along with the usual gross exaggerations, juvenile swagger, smarminess and bathetic plays to patriotism and baser instincts. Being a speech by Donald Trump — and something of a warm-up for lines to be used in the run-up to America’s mid-term elections — it was highly partisan and largely humourless. There were no surprises.

By the same token, it was short on inspiration and any but the briefest expressions of any national higher purpose, let alone generosity of spirit, or guidance on how the country might rise to embrace those angels of its better nature.

Weirdly, when he spoke of someone overcoming personal difficulties or dangers from combat or crime who was seated in the gallery, and there were many of those threaded through his speech, Trump seemed to luxuriate in descriptions of the goriness of their injuries and images of blood. That was pretty bizarre for a State of the Union speech, and it seemed the aural equivalent of illustrations from a noir graphic novel. There was something disturbing about it.

Early in the speech there was the arrival of the victorious US men’s Olympic ice hockey team and throughout the bestowing of various military medals, but mostly his speech was cheerleading for the state of the economy and restrictions on illegal immigration as gifts from the Trump Administration – and, of course, excoriating his predecessor. There were few reaches across the partisan divide. Rather, there was frequent denigration of Democrats’ patriotism.

Much of this State of the Union message was dedicated to self-praise of a new golden era with falling prices — petrol and eggs are now cheaper than ever.

‘Nation in crisis’

“I had just inherited a nation in crisis with a stagnant economy, inflation at record levels, a wide open border, horrendous recruitment for military and police, rampant crime at home, and wars and chaos all over the world... [It has been] A turnaround for the ages.” Moreover, foreign investment is just pouring in, as the world knuckles under to Trumpian demands due to an existential threat of a national death by tariffs.

By his logic, the success is so extraordinary, the nation’s citizenry is begging: “Please, please, Mr President we are winning too much, we can’t take it any more.” Or as he boasted: “Our nation is back. Bigger, better, richer, stronger than ever before,” even if polling clearly indicates a substantial majority of the nation disagrees about Trump’s economic and immigration policies.

While Trump offered some muted criticism of the Supreme Court’s most recent decision overturning much of the tariff structure the administration had enacted, rather less angrily than he had earlier, he insisted alternative legal avenues would be pursued for a global 10% or 15% tariff that would withstand legal tests.

He also asserted, as a true believer in the sanctity and perfection of tariffs, that he hoped tariff revenues would eventually replace other taxes and balance the budget, easy peasy. There clearly remains a blind spot in the White House about the fact that tariffs ARE a tax on American consumers and importers, and not on foreign exporters. But consumers notice, thus their disagreements with tariff policies.

However, much of that vaunted economic progress has been overstated. For just one example, the White House’s own website notes foreign investment is half the figure the president used in his speech, and even that number includes investment from prior years and pledges for the future, rather than actual cash on the barrel-head. So it went, in more than an hour and a half of speechifying.

There were promises to give everyone a $2,000 (about R32,000) benefit to purchase healthcare, as opposed to the supposed disaster of the Affordable Care Act’s actual support for medical plans for many. Yes, health costs are a major issue for Americans, and costs continue to climb, but let’s be real, here. Two thousand dollars is never going to fix that. Further, his self-praised measures aimed at lowering drug costs are being seriously exaggerated with regard to their actual impact for people. But if he says it is true, then it must be, is the guiding rule.

Curiously, there was very little in this long, long speech about foreign policy, save for Iran. Aside from that boast about ending eight wars and saving 35 million people from nuclear annihilation in South Asia, he touched very lightly on the recent capture of the Venezuelan president, and brushed right past the Russian invasion of Ukraine and destruction of vital infrastructure in that nation, now at its fourth anniversary of fighting. And truly surprising, the very names “China”, “Israel” or “Gaza” were not mentioned at all, unless I drifted away for a moment. (Come to think of it, neither were “Epstein” nor “files”.)

Yes, there was discussion of Iran and the fact that major American naval and air forces are poised to attack Iran if a satisfactory result in negotiations — the “secret words, ‘no nuclear weapons’,” per Donald Trump — over that country’s presumed nuclear ambitions is not achieved. Oh, and there was a brief mention of the many thousands of protestors killed by Iranian government forces. (In recent days, the Iranian government seemed to be edging towards just such a non-nuclear pledge, however.)

Political fallout

But crucially, the president failed to deliver a coherent case as to why the massive military force may be used – along with the inevitable death and destruction – if ongoing negotiations fail. But a nation does not go to war lightly, without making a case for the necessity of such an action to its people. Yet this is something this administration seems unwilling to do, so far. (The White House should do a serious recon concerning the political fallout from failing to do just that for conflicts in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan – before the missiles fly – especially since it was just a few months ago that the president told the nation that Iran’s nuclear facilities had just been obliterated in an earlier raid.)

Naturally there was a harsh critique of the Somali immigrant community for pillaging the nation’s wealth, and an astonishing claim that if such fraud was ended the government could balance the federal budget. The illegal immigrant rhetoric was inevitably laced with gruesome depictions of murders carried out by such migrants. And so it went, on and on.

We also had a brief stopover in “Donroe Doctrine” country as the president explained that his administration was building national security through its actions in the Western hemisphere, even if the rhetoric was short on explaining the way this is actually occurring.

Never mind; by now, the Republican congressmen and senators must have become tired of rising to applaud, even as a steady stream of Democrats had already fled the venue.

Rebuttal

Over an hour-and-a-half later, it was Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger’s time to speak. She delivered her remarks from the chamber of the House of Burgesses in Williamsburg, Virginia, the first representative government assembly of the American colonies. Spanberger has only recently been elected governor after a career, among other things, as a CIA analyst. She spoke for only 12 minutes, but Democrats may well have found their “poster child” to make their best case in the upcoming midterm elections.

Spanberger skewered the president’s trade policies, claiming that these reckless efforts were costing every family in America $1,700 per year (although some analysts argue the cost is somewhat less than that). And she scorched the results of the newly passed massive tax and budget measures as forcing the closure of rural medical facilities across the nation.

Further, she added, the Trump administration’s immigration policies were doing terrible things like sending five-year olds into internment and killing American citizen protestors. Her take was that the broken immigration system was something to be fixed, not extolled. Or, as she said: “Every minute spent sowing fear is a minute not spent investigating murders, crimes against children, or the criminals defrauding seniors of their life savings. Our president told us tonight that we are safer because these agents arrest mothers and detain children. Think about that.”

She ended with what may become a November tag line for Democrats, saying: “You can demand more” of your government than what we see from it now. DM