ROGER KIMBALL: Trump bulldozes through joint address to Congress.
The president presented a bracing tour d’horizon in his opening sally. He ordered federal workers back to work: “They will either show up for work, in person, or be removed from their job.” As I write, the Trump administration is ending “weaponized government,” restoring free speech, underwriting English as the official language of the United States and pursuing a policy of “drill, baby, drill” to exploit America’s energy resources.
Trump also provided an inventory of some of the flagrant waste, fraud and abuse that Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has identified: $22 billion from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens, $45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma, $40 million to improve the “social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants,” $1.9 billion to a recently-created “decarbonization of homes” committee of Stacey Abrams — and on and on.
But beyond the manifold particular achievements was something Trump hinted at often: the change in tone, in energy, in outlook that has washed over the country since 12:01 on January 20. In many ways, that is the most amazing thing; what has been called the “vibe shift,” the new current of directness, the new, self-confident, unapologetic embrace of distinctively American possibility — the “Golden Age of America.”
One sign of this is the total disarray of the Democrats in attempting to respond to Trump. How else can you explain the fact that Chuck Schumer, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker issued video clips with identical texts just hours before Trump’s speech? How do you spell “pathetic?”
Early in his speech Trump, predicted that Democrats in attendance would not stand, applaud or smile no matter what he said or did. “I could find a cure to the most devastating disease,” Trump said, “or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history, or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded, and these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements… It’s very sad, and it just shouldn’t be this way. So Democrats sitting before me, for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America?”
If not America, why not this? Democrats Can’t Applaud a Child Who Survived Brain Cancer.
And it wasn’t just Dems in the room there was also Nicole Wallace, who apparently accurately calls herself a “self-loathing former Republican:”
Nicole Wallace just went after a little kid with cancer, saying “I hope he never has to defend the United States Capitol against Donald Trump’s supporters.”
Even Jen Psaki looks uncomfortable.
— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) March 5, 2025