Trump's pomposity
Or, watching the clock, one hour and thirty-nine gruelling minutes
Donald Trump is a pompous man. The pomposity was on full display for the full one hour and thirty-nine minutes of his speech before Congress on the evening of March 4. Most of it was about his domestic agenda, most replayed his electioneering on illegal aliens, out-of-control crime, the Washington swamp, and his culture wars. He is a vexed man.
There was little on US foreign policy. Mexico came in for a bit of a bashing about being a state under the control of gangs and cartels. Canada (ever heard of it, he asked?) got very little air-time beyond Trump’s reiteration about the beauty of tariffs and the big bucks it will bring in. He was emphatic that he will go ahead with his tariff threats because the US has been “ripped off” for decades. The US, he claimed, pays “subsidies” to Canada and Mexico—hundreds of billions of dollars worth! He threatened reciprocal tariffs on April 2. Back and forth it will go, he said. There was the repeat of the completely bogus claims about fentanyl and drugs pouring across the Canada border into the US. Somehow you don’t need facts to execute national emergency laws.
No mention of making Canada the 51st state, but take no comfort in that. There was, instead, real clarity that the US under Trump intends to turn itself into an autarkic economy, manufacturing, mining and growing everything it needs within its own borders. This will include cars. It will include “drill baby, drill.” Autarky will make America great again. Beggar your neighbour, and the global trading system, but who cares. America First.
There were annexationist threats against the Panama canal—“we are taking it back” he told his Republican cheerleaders. Greenland, Trump said, is needed for US and international security. Why wasn’t clear. Menacingly, he said “I think we are going to get it—one way or another.”
He spent time telling Congress that he is working to end the war in Ukraine, mentioning that he had received a letter from Ukrainian President Zelenskky. He said nothing about the content of the letter, but made it sound fawning, Trumpian fan mail. No mention of the US cessation of military aid to Ukraine.
What Zelenskky’s letter did say was that Ukraine was proposing a release of Russian POWs and the cessation of long range drone and missile strikes against Russian targets, along with a truce at sea. This would be a “pathway” to peace, the Ukrainian president said, but only if Russia agreed to do the same. [1] That’s a very big if.
As for Donald’s view of Putin, he said he has had “strong signals” that Russia is ready for peace. I think Putin is, instead, ready to win, with Trump’s help.
Trump is a dangerous man. His ideas are dangerous for Americans, certainly for the world. He believes that the world is with him, his common sense revolution is sweeping the globe. Messianic that. But there was one more clue hiding in plain sight in the speech to Congress. Referencing the assassination threat against him on the campaign trail, he said that be firmly believed that he had been “saved by God to make America great again.”
Be careful about self-proclaimed messiahs. Be careful about a crowd that chants “USA” in a cadence that reminded me, chillingly, of “Sieg Heil.”
[1] Marc Santora, “Zelensky offers terms to stop fighting, assuring U.S, that Ukraine wants peace,” New York Times, March 4, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/world/europe/ukraine-us-trump-military-support.html
The " USA " chants did give the place an eerie 1920s beer hall ambiance. The US is marching toward a full fledged autocracy and we need to be prepared for the worst.
That was the WORST speech in the history of American speeches. I was watching the clock too, and I think the hands crawled backwards, just to troll me. It was 80% lies and conspiracy theory. If you don't think he has NPD at this point, you need to reassess how you analyze his speeches. Due to the tariffs, America First is going to be America Last.