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| Members of congress wear white to honor the women’s suffrage movement and support women’s rights. Photograph: Win McNamee/Getty Images |
In Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress this evening, his first as president, he declared a “new chapter of American greatness” as he stayed on script and avoided the rambling, shambolic speeches he is known for.
- Trump spoke of “a new surge of optimism” and “national pride” with his election, a contrast to his gloomy “American carnage” inauguration day speech. “I am here tonight to deliver a message of unity and strength, and it is a message deeply delivered from my heart,” said Trump.
- He did not mention the hundreds of thousands of people who have protested around the world since he took office, including the Women’s March and rallies against his executive order travel ban.
- Trump said “the time for trivial fights is behind us”, despite his own trivial fights about inauguration crowd size, Saturday Night Live skits and media coverage since his inauguration.
- He called on Congress to support a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which was lukewarmly received by both sides of the aisle.
- He also called on Congress to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, although he did not specify how it should be replaced (although he offered five “guidelines” to follow).
- Trump announced a new office in the Department of Homeland Security called VOICE (Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement), for the victims of crimes committed by immigrants. It’s unknown if that will cover all immigrants or undocumented immigrants. “We are providing a voice to those who have been ignored by our media, and silenced by special interests,” said Trump.
- Unsurprisingly, Trump staff saw the speech as a hit.
- In the Democrats official response, former Kentucky governor Steve Beshear (seemingly chosen for being a conservative white Southern Democrat who would appeal to Trump voters) spoke about how dangerous repealing the Affordable Care Act would be, since the only alternatives offered by Republicans so far would result in millions losing coverage. “This isn’t a game. This is life or death for people,” he said.
- Democrat women donned white to protest Donald Trump’s treatment of women and to honor women’s rights and the Suffragettes.
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| Members of congress in white. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images |
It was a moment that stood out during Donald Trump’s first joint address to Congress: a standing ovation for Carryn Owens, the widow of Chief Petty Officer William “Ryan” Owens, as she cried and looked skyward for her husband.
Owens, a navy Seal, died in Yemen on 28 January, in the first military operation Trump authorized as president. His legacy is “etched into eternity”, Trump said on Tuesday night.
While the president paid tribute to Owens, questions persist about the fateful mission in which the serviceman lost his life. In the hours before the speech, Fox News broadcast an interview with Trump in which he appeared to distance himself from the operation.
“This is a mission that was started before I got here, this is something that was, they wanted to do”, Trump said, referring to “my generals”, before adding, “and they lost Ryan.”
Carryn Owens attended Trump’s speech but her father-in-law, William, told the Miami Herald he had declined to meet with the president. William Owens said the government “owes my son an investigation” and questioned the need for the raid.
“Why at this time did there have to be this stupid mission when it wasn’t even barely a week into his administration? Why? For two years prior there were no boots on the ground in Yemen — everything was missiles and drones — because there was not a target worth one American life. Now all of a sudden we had to make this grand display.”
The most shocking part of Donald Trump’s speech on Tuesday was that there was nothing shocking at all.
Speaking before a joint session of Congress to an audience of senators, congressmen and women, supreme court justices and generals, Trump mostly stayed on script. He did not really brag about the size of his electoral victory (except to declare that in 2016 “the earth shifted beneath our feet”). He did not attack the media or go on any of his frequent verbal detours.
But Trump’s speech is not likely to change the political landscape. We have been here before, where he has seemed presidential on one day and launched a 6am tweet storm the next, making any gains in gravitas temporary. But the occasion did show how divided the country and this Congress is.
When Democrats won’t even stand or clap when Trump is talking about a fallen soldier, it’s not likely that they will be willing to make deals on infrastructure, let alone controversial topics like immigration reform.
It does not matter what Trump says or how formal the setting within which he speaks. No matter what words come out of Trump’s mouth, Democrats are only going to ever hear the echoes of “lock her up”.
From Democrat New York Senator Chuck Schumer, in response to this evening’s address.
Schumer elaborated in a statement:
President Trump’s speech had an air of unreality because what he said tonight was so different than how he has governed in the first 40 days. He’s proposed nothing on trade or infrastructure, which might help working families; and his budget seems to cut education and medical research, which he talked about improving. The president is simply using populist rhetoric to cloak his hard right, anti-middle class agenda.
Iraq 'to be removed' from travel ban list
Associated Press reports, citing unnamed officials, that Iraq will be taken off the list of seven predominantly Muslim countries affected by the travel ban under the promised revision to the executive order.
The Guardian has not yet been able to confirm this.
AP reports:
US officials say President Donald Trump’s new immigration order will remove Iraq from the list of countries whose citizens face a temporary US travel ban.Four officials say the administration’s decision follows pressure from the Pentagon and State Department. They had urged the White House to reconsider Iraq’s inclusion given its key role in fighting the Islamic State group.Trump is expected to sign the new order on Wednesday. It is designed to replace an earlier Trump order that was blocked by federal courts.The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the order before it is signed.They said six countries Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen - will remain on the travel ban list.
Trump’s original travel ban remains suspended since a federal district judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order against it in early February. The injunction was upheld by the ninth circuit court of appeals in San Francisco. Trump later announced that a new version of the ban was on its way.
CNN has reported, however, that the signing of the fresh executive order might be pushed back from Wednesday, after “positive reviews” of Trump’s speech tonight:
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The billionaire Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross donned some fancy fashions to this evening’s speech:
Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross wore $600 slippers by Palm Beach @Stubbs_Wootton, with a custom Commerce Dept logo, to Trump’s speech tonight.
The former president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, can always be counted on for some snap Trump analysis:
.@realDonaldTrump this is the wall I would pay to get it done as fast as possible. #FuckingWall #JointSession
New DNC chair Tom Perez wasn’t impressed with Trump’s speech this evening:
More in the category of Things Trump Did Not Say:
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Senator and former presidential would-be Bernie Sanders has been delivering his response in a Facebook live video (see him still going here).
There was a lot he didn’t hear from the president, it turns out.
On the environment, for one:
Perhaps most astoundingly … I did not hear President Trump say one word, not one word about the need to combat climate change … In fact, he pledged to increase our dependence on fossil fuels.I had a difficult time not laughing out loud … on this very, very day he signed an executive order rolling back President Obama’s clean water rules.
And on crime and justice:
I did not hear President Trump say one word on how he was going to fix a broken criminal justice system.
And on education:
At a time when we need the best educated workforce in the world … I did not hear President Trump say one word, not one word, about the need to lower the cost of college.
Not one word about making colleges more affordable, not one word about addressing the crisis of student debt.
Trump did mention draining the swamp, Sanders points out:
The swamp big time is now in his administration, which has more millionaires and billionaires than any administration in history.
Democrats response to Trump's call to repeal Obamacare: 'this is life or death'
Former Kentucky governor Steven Beshear gives the Democrat’s response to Trump’s joint address, focusing mainly on the call to repeal and replace Obamacare, noting that “this isn’t a game.”
He sits in a diner in Lexington, Kentucky, with a group of Democrats and Republican “neighbors” (all white) behind him. He seems specifically chosen to appeal to Trump supporters, noting that he grew up the son and grandson of Baptist preachers, has been married for 38 years, and that his family ran a small business.
He notes that as governor he found healthcare for over half a million Kentuckians.
We did that through trust and mutual respect...We put people first, and politics second.
He speaks to Trump directly, noting that the president:
...picked a cabinet of billionaires and Wall St insiders who want to eviscerate the protections that most Americans count on and that help level the playing field. Thats not being our champion, that’s being Wall Street’s champion.
Beshear agrees that the Affordable Care Act “needs some repairs” but “so far every Republican idea to replace the Affordable Care Act would reduce the number of Americans covered, despite your promises to the contrary.”
This isn’t a game. This is life or death for people.
Beshear then comments on Trump picking fights with institutions such as the courts, intelligence agencies and press.
President Trump also needs to understand that people may disagree with him from time to time – but that doesn’t make them his enemies
When the president attacks the loyalty and credibility of our intelligence agencies, the court system, the military, the free press and individual Americans – simply because he doesn’t like what they say – he is eroding our democracy. And that’s reckless.
Look, I may be old fashioned, but I still believe that dignity, compassion, honesty and accountability are basic American values.
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