Trump’s State of the Union Speech Was Crass & Racist Yet Trump showed he is still a master of retail politics.

The U.S. President showed the demagogue’s favorite method of holding up part of the population for hatred, including “illegal aliens,” “crazy Democrats,’ and “corrupt” Somalians in the USA.
 
Adolf Hitler did the same thing against Jews in the 1930’s and during World War II.  It was, and is today, a vicious way of achieving support.
 
Still, Trump used his ability as a performer at the podium in his State of the Union address, to play on the heart strings of those attending the joint session of Congress and people watching on television.
 
He welcomed into the galleries members of the gold medal winning men’s hockey
team. The team members had prominent USA initials on their jerseys and Trump had special praise for goalie Connor Hellebuyck who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
 
Answering criticism that the U.S. Women’s hockey team, also recipients of Olympic gold medals, were not invited to the joint congressional session, Trump said the women’s team will soon be coming to the White House.
 
President Trump singled out victims of violence, such as Erika Kirk, the sad widow of the assassinated political advocate Charlie Kirk, or the wounded veteran of the attack to capture Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro, or the 100-year-old Navy Captain, E. Royce Williams who took 263 bullets to his plane during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. At the end of Trump’s speech Capt. Williams was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honour.
 
Those introduced by the President no doubt appreciated the gesture, but there was something unsavory about him holding them up for scrutiny. He did much the same thing at the Republican Convention in July 2024, where he again went for the heart strings, singling out rather defenseless “heroes”.
 
Many Democrats sat silent during Trump’s speech, but some did not. Ilhan Omar, of Somali origin, a member of Congress, who Trump had previously mocked for her hijab, heckled the president during his speech. As noted previously in Against the Flow,  Omar is the courageous person who stood her ground after being attacked in Minnesota by a syringe-wielding man spraying her with a foul-smelling substance.
 
Trump had previously said of Omar: “Throw her the hell out! She does nothing but complain.”

Ilhan Omar, front, Dem. (Minnesota) and Rashida Tlaib, Dem. (Michigan) heckle “You’re a liar” at Trump’s speech.

A black congressman was escorted out of the Chamber when he shouted and carried a sign saying that African Americans Are Not Apes, as former President Barak Obama and his wife Michelle were depicted in a White House caricature.

Keeping up his attack on Democrats in the Chamber, Trump challenged them to take part in a standing ovation, when he said that the first job of American government is to protect American Citizens. When they did not, he labelled them as “crazy.”

The Trump address was full of various types of hyperbole, such as saying: “Our nation is back…bigger, better, stronger than every before…This is the golden age of America.”
 
Trump said that his precious tool of ever-changing tariffs is bringing in “hundreds of millions of dollars and might some day eliminate the need for income tax.”
 
After sending the National Guard into Washington DC, he said there is no crime in the capital city. “Murders are down 100 per cent from a year ago.”
 
Trump’s tariffs have contributed directly to the animosity that many Canadians now feel toward the U.S.A. Canadians, who have long prided themselves as being the best friends and allies of their neighbour to the south, have indicated in a recent poll that 55 per cent of Canadians consider the USA to be the greatest threat to this country.
 
This finding by the credible pollster, Nik Nanos, also showed that just 15 per cent of those polled consider China to be the biggest threat to this country compared to just 14 per cent identifying Russia as the biggest threat. Nanos described this deterioration in the US-Canada relationship as a “gut punch.”
 
Nonetheless, Trump’s record-length speech of nearly two hours, and his ability to touch the heartstrings of listeners, show that he is no slouch and is still a force to be reckoned with, even at age 79.
 
Still, his determination to move ahead by dividing his nation and turning the majority against the few may eventually come to haunt him. The forebearers of many Americans travelled to that country as immigrants.
 
The words on the Statue of Liberty in New York City come from the 1883 sonnet "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus. A bronze plaque in the pedestal is inscribed with the famous lines: "Give me your tired, your poor, / Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore".
 
The Trump name is believed to be of German origin or Trumpf. The Trumps could easily be the Somalians of an earlier era. In today’s world they, too, could be dismissed as “illegal aliens.”​

President Donald Trump at the podium with Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson at the rear.