Not the Usual Presidential Address to Congress


President Donald Trump’s early-year speech to Congress Feb. 28 was the fifth one I’ve covered from the House Press Gallery. This one was different.

For one thing, you could feel a tension in the press corps, rather than their usual cool competence. No one knew what to expect. Speculation was rife about what would happen if Democratic members spoke out and the known-to-be-thin-skinned president responded petulantly.

Would he follow the written speech? Would the press corps even receive a written speech before the talk began (as is customary)? Would the Democrats applaud at all? Sit in stony silence? Boo? Who wouldn’t attend?

There were surprises right from the start. Many of the some 63 Democratic congresswomen wore only white — representing the suffragists. They sat together in an impressive white block in the middle of the Democrats’ section.

However, the women in white did not sit in the once highly desirable two columns of seats next to the aisle where the president enters and exits. No Democrat did. For the past eight years Democratic representatives — especially African American ones — would camp out for hours to save those seats, which offered the best opportunities for shaking hands with or even being kissed by President Obama; now they avoided them like the plague.

The parade of senators down the aisle, led by Vice President Pence and Republican and Democratic Senate leaders, was greeted with polite applause, as was the entrance of five of the eight Supreme Court justices: Roberts, Kennedy, Breyer, Kagan and Sotomayor. The absence of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was perhaps not such a big surprise, as she has spoken out often against Trump. The press missed the annual amusement of watching her struggle to stay awake and upright, with frequent subtle nudges from her friend Justice Breyer.

During the president’s entrance, he directed almost all his attention to the Republican side of the chamber, shaking hands with supporters. His speech was restrained in tone, especially when compared to the bombast of his address — with almost the same messages — to the Conservative PAC conference on Feb. 24. Just as some reporters were wondering if he was following a script, printed transcripts of his speech were distributed to the press gallery. To our surprise, and like President Obama, President Trump barely deviated from the written text.

It was agreed that the older Republican members of Congress like Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) — not to mention Sen. Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) — must have tired after more than an hour of constant standing and cheering. Surprisingly, there were moments when Democrats also felt they had to stand and applaud — especially at the mention of American veterans. The only untoward negative movement was a loud spontaneous groan from the Democratic side when the president announced he was creating an office in the Department of Homeland Security to serve American victims of crimes ostensibly committed by illegal immigrants. It was given the acronym VOICE: Victims Of Immigration Crime Engagement.

But that was one of the only things that Trump said about immigration in his speech, which many in the press had thought would focus on the legalization of millions of unauthorized immigrants now threatened with deportation. Instead, the president announced an initiative to move legal immigration toward a merit- and skills-based system as in Canada.

The speech ended with an aspirational touch. “The time for small thinking and trivial fights is over,” the president said. “America will be empowered by our aspirations, not burdened by our fears.”

As soon as he finished, the entire Democratic side fled to the exits, even as Republicans stayed on applauding and smiling, some with obvious relief that everyone (including the president) had behaved themselves. Several in the press corps reluctantly concluded that the speech was “better than they had expected.”

“He talked a good game about things should be made in America,” admitted new Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez in an interview after the speech in Statuary Hall. “But why didn’t he produce his Trump products here?”

“All fake premises,” Deputy Chair of the Democratic National Committee Keith Ellison grumbled.

“He was all over the map,” said the new Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland). “If he’d focus on a few issues like comprehensive immigration reform, we could maybe work with him. But he won’t.”

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