OPINION:
It was a partisan speech. It was an optimistic speech. It was a speech that laid the blame for inflation and the massive number of migrants and illegal drugs that entered the country during the previous administration at the feet of Democrats. It was an uplifting speech about the future. It was a deliberately divisive speech regarding policies pushed by the Democrats as opposed to policies endorsed by Republicans. It was, at times, a funny speech as President Trump pointed to Democrats and the silly signs raised by some, blasting them for all sorts of things when they had the power. It was a long speech. One commentator said it eclipsed the long-winded speeches of President Clinton.
It was also full of empathy for victims of migrant crime. Mr. Trump brought some of the widows and daughters whose husbands and fathers were taken from them by gang members who had repeatedly committed crimes but were let go after being arrested in Democratic-led states with “sanctuary cities.”
As if to rile Senate Democrats, none of whom would vote for a bill protecting women’s sports from men who claim to be transgender, Mr. Trump invited a woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury when she was hit with a volleyball by a biological man playing with women on the opposite team.
Perhaps the sweetest moment of the night was when Mr. Trump authorized the Secret Service to bestow the title of “agent” on a boy who was given five years to live after a brain cancer diagnosis. He always wanted to be a police officer. The boy hugged the agent, who gave him an official identification card. His proud father lifted him for all to see.
Incredibly, all the Democrats remained seated and stoic and would not applaud anything, not the boy with brain cancer, not families of murder victims, not even the first lady when she entered the chamber. So deep is their hatred for Mr. Trump, who is running circles around them with the speed of his policy initiatives. Some held signs reminiscent of that TV ad for a pharmaceutical company that treats depression. The woman in the ad carries a round sign with an upside-down smiley face. That appears to be the face of today’s Democratic Party. Mr. Trump is beating them at every turn. Polls show the public is mostly with him, especially in his quest to downsize the bloated government.
That’s where Democrats are these days. They participate in a political ad that looks like a video wall with everyone saying the same thing about the still struggling economy and throwing in a vulgarity as if that will win them votes. The video looks like an expanded version of the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list we used to see in post offices.
A lowlight for Democrats was when Rep. Al Green of Texas began yelling and interrupting Mr. Trump’s speech. Mr. Green, who has filed articles of impeachment against Mr. Trump that are going nowhere, was escorted out of the chamber by the sergeant-at-arms as Speaker Mike Johnson pounded his gavel and called for decorum.
It is supremely ironic that Democrats were criticizing the economy when the previous administration caused inflation and accompanying high prices. It took Ronald Reagan two years to turn around President Carter’s bad economy.
The headline was kept until almost the end of the speech. Mr. Trump announced he had received a letter from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying he is ready for negotiations to end the war with Russia, including the mining of Ukrainian minerals to help repay the U.S. for its $350 billion contribution to the war. Mr. Trump said he had heard “strong signals” from Russia that Vladimir Putin was “ready for peace.” We’ll see about that.
It was a good night for Mr. Trump and congressional Republicans. All the Democrats and their media allies could do was look like they were attending a funeral. They have nothing else to show the country except policy failures from the past four years.
• Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book, “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).
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