March 5, 2025 - 10:30am
Hours before Donald Trump’s joint address to Congress last night, a White House source told me the speech was written to highlight a laundry list of early achievements — and to provoke damaging reactions from Democrats. About five minutes into the President’s remarks, Democratic Rep. Al Green staged a disruption that prompted House Speaker Mike Johnson to call for his removal by the Sergeant at Arms.
Green was escorted out to jeers from Republicans. The congressman told reporters outside the chamber that he’d been shouting “to stand up against this president’s desire to cut Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security”. Democratic congresswomen staged a silent protest by wearing pink. Some Democrats held up little paddles emblazoned with lines including “FALSE”, “MUSK STEALS”, and “SAVE MEDICAID”. Others left in the middle of the speech.
Trump ploughed ahead, unfazed by the disruptions. “I could cure disease, build the greatest economy, or end crime — and Democrats still wouldn’t clap,” he said. “They refuse to stand, smile or cheer, no matter how great the achievement.” This line may explain why, despite the speech shattering records for length, early polls showed extensive approval. Surveys from CNN and CBS News both reported warm reactions from viewers who watched the speech.
Trump began by all but daring Democrats to make him look good — and they wasted no time in playing into his hands. From Green’s outburst to the comic-looking paddles to images of dour-faced Democrats refusing to applaud popular ideas, the Democrats’ protests did not help their cause.
The speech itself was generic. “Over the past six weeks,” Trump said early on, “I have signed nearly 100 Executive Orders and taken more than 400 Executive Actions to restore common sense, safety, optimism, and wealth all across our wonderful land.” He added: “It has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency is the most successful in the history of our nation. What makes it even more impressive is that number two on the list is the late, great George Washington.” Exactly which list he was referring to, or whose opinion it was, remained unclear.
Trump made no news on Ukraine or tariffs, two fluid situations on the minds of many voters. He front-loaded his speech with celebrations of culture-war victories such as women’s sports, the Gulf of America, border crossings, and DEI. He leaned into DOGE, highlighting Elon Musk and his efforts to cut waste and fraud. At one point, Trump listed examples of waste identified by his administration, including an eye-popping “eight million dollars for making mice transgender”. He even referred to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, seated just yards away, as “Pocahontas”.
Predictably, the President had a number made-for-TV flourishes planned. He signed an Executive Order from the podium to rename a wildlife refuge for a 12-year-old girl killed by an illegal immigrant. He also made a 13-year-old boy with terminal cancer an honorary member of Secret Service. By the time Trump was closing, the mood in MAGA world was jubilant.
These addresses are of much less consequence than the media circuses that surround them suggest. But if the dynamic on display in the Capitol on Tuesday comes to define the politics of Trump 2.0, it won’t matter at the ballot box that Trump continues to ramble about DOGE and calls senators wild nicknames so long as Democrats keep mounting disjointed rebuttals which are even less appealing to voters than the GOP.
Republicans now know this; Democrats do not. It’s why the Russian-collusion narrative was so seductive for the Left as a political weapon during Trump’s first term: Democrats could paper over their policy disagreements and internal ideological battles to focus on the narrow question of treason. It made messaging and organising much easier.
Musk’s involvement in the administration seems like a gift to Democrats flailing for something to cling to right now, and yet the best they could do was wave canes, walk out, and hold up cardboard paddles. What was on display in Congress was not so much brilliance by the President as a Democratic Party that has still not found any way of effectively opposing him.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeHe is calling out the Left on all their ridiculous woke policies. He is forcing them to defend what cannot be defended.
When will Unherd allow contributors to do the same?
It is such an easy target. But in the UK the media have such a stranglehold that all the monstrosities of the Left are left unquestioned. The Labour-Muslim-for votes corruption? Brushed away.
The Pakistani rape gangs? What rape gangs?
Feminism is destroying the UK. Boys suffer in school, in the workplace and Unherd spews out Feminist propaganda allowing no rebuttal.
The Chagos debacle? Silence.
The Tommy Robinson incarceration? Silence.
The response from Unherd readers? What a nice article. Idiots.
“Trump made no news on Ukraine.” The fact that Donald Trump read an apologetic social media post from Volodymyr Zelensky and approved of it was news. The “Debacle in the Oval” now appears to be forgiven and negotiations on a peace agreement in Ukraine can resume. That’s news, good news.
That said. I can’t understand what Donald Trump is so proud of. Apart from closing the southern border, his administration has accplished nothing of any substance, and on balance has done more harm than good. And that doesn’t appear to be about to change. People like Kash Patel, Bobby Kennedy, Tulsi Gabbard, and Elon Musk are disasters waiting to happen.
I’m consistently amazed at just how desperate people are to oppose Trump, regardless of what that entails or how awful they look to their own constituents.
Paddles with “Musk steals” on them when this guy appears to be doing all he can stopping fraud and waste in federal government, making sure taxpayers’ money is used effectively. Looks pretty good to me.
A silly federal employee complaining on national TV about Musk’s “5 things you did this week” email – probably issuing her own professional death warrant in both the public and private sector because who wants to hire someone who isn’t willing to even say what she’s been doing this week?
And agitating against Trump’s plan for peace in the Ukraine. However flawed this plan might be – if you aren’t presenting a better, workable plan, all you are doing by protesting is saying you approve the continuation of the war and more death and destruction, kids getting their limbs blown off and soldiers being fed into the meat grinder of a military stalemate. This is the worst look possible.
Please, just stop the reactionary squealing and just GET A PLAN.
Having watched at close hand for the past 25 years how Elon Musk operates, I’m surprised that people fall for his patter. He talks about fraud and abuse, but as far as I can tell, he hasn’t found any. And what is waste is a matter of opinion. Elon Musk came up with the name DOGE as a joke, and that’s what it is.
Look at the Social Security payments they found going to dead people, for example. DOGE found countless examples of those fraudulent payments, right? Except they didn’t. You wouldn’t know it from Donald Trump’s speech last night, but DOGE didn’t find even one fraudulent Social Security payment. Not one.
And the email to all the millions of federal employees telling them they had to list 5 things they had done the last week or they would be fired. You think that was a legitimate thing, especially for a temp like Elon Musk, to order? (That’s what he is, a temporary government employee who has three other outside jobs and conflicts of interest that should bar him from doing anything.)
Apparently you missed Trump’s recitation of a litany of fraud and abuse, not to mention the OMB’s estimate of half a trillion $ of waste, fraud, and abuse.
OMB merely points it out, Trump and Musk will do something about it.
No, I listened to Donald Trump’s litany of fraud and abuse. I heard his claims, including about Social Security payments to dead people, but I have never heard from him, Elon Musk, or anyone else any evidence to back up a claim of fraud or abuse. Have you?
Do you honestly believe that 100% of the money spent by Government is legitimate and sound?
Do you honestly believe that all of the $350 billion on Ukraine was put to good use and fully accounted for?
Do you honestly believe that 100% of all Medicaid, disability and Medicare recipients are truly deserving of them and that no fraud is taking place?
Do you honestly believe that 100% of the funds earmarked in pork barrel bills that are passed end up going to legitimate and worthwhile projects?
If so, then all I can do for you is feel sorry for you for being so mislead.
Of course there is fraud, waste and abuse in government payments. It’s a big problem, and efforts have been made for decades, even centuries, to find and eliminate that fraud, waste and abuse.
Trouble is, that’s hard to do. But it’s not hard to do what Elon Musk and his band of young engineers are doing. They have no idea of how to do an audit. Coming in, rooting around, making a mess of things, and then claiming without evidence that they have solved the problem. There’s the scam.
I can’t comment on US government internal spending- no doubt it’s as well controlled as every other government’s. But his claim of giving $350Bn is not evidenced anywhere. Highest I could find attested to is $190Bn – still a lot of cash and the biggest single donation of any country and includes the best kit. He did not need to exaggerate the amount it just throws into doubt his other ‘facts’.
Well of course doge didn’t find anything. It’s just 4 letters and letters don’t find things even if they gang up.
Yes, but…
The problem with the ‘five things’ emails is the legitimate fear that Musk will use them to start firing people. There’s a good chance that he would let some AI program make the choices for him; just dial in a ‘% of reduction’ and start spitting out pink slips.
And???? Being employed by government rarely, if ever gives you 100% job security.
I sincerely doubt he’d root out people randomly using AI. What I think is possible is that some tasks may be automated going forward – and then the people whose jobs are replaced will be let go or put somewhere else. Again, a fully legitimate move, both in the public and private sector that aims to benefit taxpayers/stakeholders.
Sorry, the whinging about this just isn’t washing with me.
Best regards,
A person whose livelihood was eaten by AI already and just had to get on with it without whinging on CNN
Honestly based on the work I’ve witnessed a family member doing for government contractors, I have to believe AI will replace most of them. The entire DOGE may simply be a public relations side show to draw attention away from the real agenda, which is replacing massive numbers of overpaid bureaucrats and paper pushers, people who mostly vote Democrat and live in the extraordinarily wealthy counties around D.C., with AI. The AI will probably do a better job and be orders of magnitude cheaper. In many ways, this is about the worst time to be a college graduate of minimal talent who has gained a generic desk job by virtue of the minor achievement that college graduation actually represents these days. AI is coming for them the same way offshoring and automation came for factory workers in past decades. A whole lot of college indoctrinated liberals who love to tell factory workers that their jobs ‘aren’t coming back’, may get to walk a few miles in the other man’s shoes.
My condolences to yourself of course, as I can tell you aren’t in the above designated group. If your livelihood was already eaten by AI, I’ll hazard a guess that you did minor graphic design work, like logos and such. AI has pretty much gobbled that one up already given that much of it was done in piecework by various individuals working independently, thus had no lobbying power, union, or political interest group to stave off the grim reaper.
I don’t have a plan to end the war in Ukraine, but I still think it’s fair and helpful for me to criticize Donald Trump for cutting off all military aid to Ukraine because its president didn’t say thank you enough times to please JD Vance.
“Reactionary squealing.” Marvelous!
Or don’t.
Trump is trashing the US economy, and with it much of the rest of the world’s too. If in doubt, look at what’s happening to stock markets in the US and beyond. Just like Liz Truss, except the people of the US can’t do anything about it. Let’s hope he gets to grips with his tariffs strategy or “we’re all doomed, Mr Mainwaring.” Otherwise, great to see POTUS and his successor taking the battle to the wokerati.
Preach. I have no idea what the Democrats are thinking at this point. I mean they know they lost right? They’ve been doing these kinds of hyperbolic overreactions for eight years and that tactic has demonstrably failed. He got elected again, the same way as the first time, by exploiting the public’s discontent with status quo politics and the failure of mainstream politicians to address it. They still refuse to acknowledge the public mood. I’m beginning to wonder how many times they will have to be taught the same lesson before they internalize it. We’re reaching the point where they’re failing not only at leadership and politics, but basic reasoning skills.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, they make it worse by with this holier than thou attitude towards Trump and Trumpism. By refusing to engage Trump at all, they alienate huge swaths of the voting public that they will never get back. People act vicariously through the leaders they vote for, particularly if they feel strongly about a particular candidate. When opponent politicians belittle, demean, persecute, and harass that person above and beyond the normal, that vicarious effect leads voters to internalize the disapproval. In short, personal attacks on the politician become personal attacks on his voters. This is basic psychology and Trump is exploiting it. Presumably any psychology student could tell these politicians that they’re walking into an emotional trap, but at this point they’ve been walking into the same traps set by the same man for a decade. Do they lack even the basic self-discipline to hold their tongues and sit quietly when it is advantageous to do so? Is their hatred of Trump and MAGA so deep and virulent that they cannot control their own reactions? Are they completely unaware that they are alienating large portions of the electorate, portions they will never be able to reach again? Do they not understand the art of persuading other human beings or are they simply refusing to practice it out of some sense of self-righteousness and moral superiority? I have no clue, but they’d better get one or they’ll be on the receiving end of still more defeats to come.
Great comment, Steve.
Democrats have become like the French taunter in the Monty Python skit who “menaces” his opponent by threatening: “I fart in your general direction.”
There are not enough upticks in the universe for this comment. Brilliant!
Trump missed several opportunities when he introduced obvious American heros while the Dems sat on their hands. He could have said: “Do you hate me so much that you can’t applaud a young black kid recovering from cancer?” and for several others.
The spectacle of seeing the sour, dour and sometimes sleeping faces of very old and decrepit politicians such as Bernie Sanders, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Steny Hoyer and a whiole host of other ancient legends of the leftist grifters was too good to be true. If all they have left is little paddles with mindless platitudes, they are toast for a generation.
Just imagine if that was the vacuous and mind numbing Kamala up there last night! Cackling and rambling on about absolutely nothing that anyone with a cerebral cortex can understand or figure out. Mindless and completely incorrect statements, such as Congress must act to change our broken immigration system in order to stem the flow of illegal immigration. No other solution, such as enforcing existing law, can possibly work! Rewatch her last “60 Minutes” interview and you will thank the Lord Almighty that she lost.
He did better to let the visuals speak for themselves. If he called it out, he would make it a partisan issue to the viewer. Leaving it as he did made it an issue of human sympathy. And I, for one, found the Democrats to be appalling, I have elsewhere in the comments said I saw them as members of a psychopathic zombie death cult. Pretty successful for Trump.
I watched the whole thing, which I NEVER do, mostly to see the crowd reactions and any fireworks. I thought the speech decent but not great, but I am not a fan of Trump’s speaking style as he “Weaves” all over the place rather than get to the point. Works for some people and he seems proud of it, but it drives me to distraction.
But for me, the Democrats just assassinated themselves. Sure, don’t applaud Trump’s statements, even popular ones— I get that. But those stupid little paddles, REALLY?
But mostly, I saw a psychopathic zombie death cult that could not muster polite applause for two mothers of murdered daughters, a 13 year old brain cancer survivor, a young man getting his dream of a West Point admission fulfilled, an innocent man rescued from Russian prison and his 95 year old mother, and plenty more. People like that may pretend to care about my Social Security or my grandchildren’s education, but they do not. They are, bluntly, in service to a psychopathic cult.
Whatever humanity those 260 odd Democratic congressmen and senators once had, they have surrendered in pursuit of power and wealth and death. They are horrid people, the nation should be ashamed and appalled to have spawned them
Psychopathic zombie death cult.
This. I’ve no great love for Trump and I’d love to support some viable alternative, but no such alternative exists. The Democrats continue to demonstrate through repeated actions why they are even more unfit for leadership and power than Trump is. They’ve managed to make Trump look like the reasonable adult in the room, and that’s a sentence I thought I’d never utter. He set an obvious trap for them with his parade of sympathetic characters and practically dared the Democrats to show their disapproval to such obvious sympathy sinks. He set the trap and laid a carpet down, and they walked right into it like, well, zombies. What other logical conclusion can we draw other than that they are utterly consumed by ideology.
Yes, and an ideology that is disconnected from rational representation of the majority of ordinary people. The profound problems and threats of our time will not be solved by using the correct pronouns nor by loading the progressive trebuchets with more cash to fling into the air.
Another great comment. You put my thoughts from last night into words.
Well said! This is what hate does, it slowly and surely robs your soul of any compassion or feeling, except for your perceived wrongs. 263 soulless ghouls representing almost half of the nation. Perfect encapsulation of the present state of the Democratic Party.
“From Green’s outburst to the comic-looking paddles to images of dour-faced Democrats refusing to applaud popular ideas, the Democrats’ protests did not help their cause.”
They came off as petulant children, and I say this as a former lifelong Democrat. Despite clear, consistent feedback from sane American voters, progressives in particular seem willfully clueless about the inappropriateness of their policies and posturing. In their refusal to engage reality rather than promote ideologies, they’re simply becoming more laughable and less relevant.