Compared to other presidential addresses to Congress, Trump's was shocking for its its disjointed flow and especially for its brazen appeals to nationalism. It was amateur hour.
In the one moment he ad-libbed -- acknowledging the widow of a slain Navy Seal (in an operation military insiders confess was botched but Trump declared a major success) -- he concluded the ovation was the "best" in the history of presidential speeches. No, the stretched applause was embarrassing because it expressed the collective Republican relief that Trump was on high moral ground for once.
None of our current affairs is recognizable as American. Especially: had a Democratic president behaved as bizarrely as Trump and his staff (Kelly Anne Conway perching on a couch in the Oval Office like a hood ornament: doctored photo, above), the GOP Congress would have already launched serial investigations. (Remember her emails.) Is it really possible the GOP is ignoring evidence that Trump advisors, if not Trump himself, colluded with Russia in the 2016 election?
That topic never made it to the president's speech. What Trump did was to first slap Democrats in the face and then call for unity. Enough.
There is no way to know how many people with legal status to enter the U.S. have been treated as shamefully, as the writer of the letter, below. Many more, one suspects, than the media is reporting. The fear rippling through immigrant communities in the United States is palpable. It is unprecedented and the disgraceful result of GOP White House and Republican Congress that has abdicated its responsibility to provide checks and balances against an unstable president. Down the ranks, lots of damage is being done by smooth talkers who claim to represent the intent of the Constitution. Read this letter:
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