President Donald Trump is, at root, a reality TV star — and a reality TV producer. And, boy oh boy, did that experience and expertise shine through during his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night.
Time and again, Trump produced shareable moments on issues where 80% or more of the public agrees with him.
A few examples:
He blasted biological males playing women’s sports — and singled out a girl in the crowd that had been injured when she was struck in the face by a volleyball hit by a biological male
He rattled off a long list of government spending — totaling in the hundreds of millions of dollars — on ridiculous programs (like creating transgender mice) that the Department of Government Efficiency had uncovered
He touted the Laken Riley Act, which came in response to the murder of a girl in her 20s by a undocumented immigrant who had committed several previous crimes. That Riley’s mother and sister were in attendance at the speech made it even more poignant.
He named a nature sanctuary after a 12-year old girl who had been abducted and murdered by two undocumented immigrants. He did it during the speech itself — showing off the executive order while the girl’s mother mouthed “thank you” to him from the gallery
He made a 13 year old boy who had brain cancer an honorary Secret Service agent — badge and all. The boy, who, yes, was in attendance, was shocked and thrilled.
He announced that a high school senior in the crowd had achieved his dream of being accepted to the United States Naval Academy.
He singled out a mom whose daughter had been counseled to make a gender transition at school without her parents’ knowledge or consent.
Pure political theater? Absolutely. A bit on the hokey side at times? Yup. Effective? Extremely.
In the two post-speech polls, Trump received rave reviews. More than three in four people who watched the speech, which tilts toward those who already like Trump, said they approved of the speech in a CBS News poll. CNN found that 7 in 10 had a positive reaction to the address including 44% who had a very positive reaction.
Now, did Trump lie? You bet. His claim about people coming illegally to the U.S. from mental institutions has been repeatedly debunked. His assertion that people over 150 are being paid Social Security is false.
But here’s the problem: The average American is NOT going to seek out a media fact check of the speech. They will see some viral clip of Trump saying people over 200 years old are in the Social Security database, roll their eyes at the government’s dumbness and move on. Point Trump.
You can hate that reality — I know I do. (Facts should still matter!) But it is reality.
Before I end, I wanted to say a word about Democrats during the speech: They did exactly what they shouldn’t have.
Texas Rep. Al Green’s decision to stand and shout at Trump was bad for a whole lot of reasons:
It came in the first 10 minutes of the speech when the most Americans were watching
Green’s shouting was inaudible on TV so you couldn’t even hear what he was saying
An older man waving a cane around and shouting at the president, who earned the right to give that speech by winning the election, is a very bad look for Democrats
And then the little signs that lots of Democrats held? Come on, man! What is this, an auction? It made them look small and petty.
Democrats should have sat on their hands, grinned and beared it and then gone out to the media and said “We disagree vehemently with the agenda Donald Trump outlined tonight. And here is our alternative.”
Instead, all anyone who didn’t watch the speech live is going to see today is Al Green shouting and waving his cane before being escorted out of the chamber.
In sum: Donald Trump won the night. Bigly.
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