When Democrats Make Donald Trump The Normie In The Room, They're Losing

<![CDATA[Donald Trump has had, without question, a first fourteenish months in office that is hard to top in any other administration of my lifetime in accomplishments. And to be fair, it would also be correct to say that no president has stirred up more angst and controversy among his detractors than any other administration in a similar time period. After last week's press conference at the White House a day after the Supreme Court's 6-3 decision on the tariffs case, Donald Trump's contempt for the majority opinion was so palpable that one of the questions going into last night's State of the Union was how soon and how hard the President would rhetorically apply the Trump tattoo to the justices present in the joint session of Congress. Trump certainly had words, but they were tempered and not made personal. In fact, for virtually the entirety of the address, which came in a few ticks under two hours, the speech was about the best speech Donald Trump has ever delivered. At times, establishing the narrative that real progress has been made on economic problems created and/or exacerbated by the Biden Regency, and at other points a celebration of American excellence, whether in sports, or bravery, courage, and resilience in all walks of life, this was simply a State of the Union speech unlike any other we've heard. And that is a very, very good thing. Regardless of who occupies the building at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the State of the Union address, as the saying goes, always devolves into a laundry list of spending requests or new government programs that sound and feel good at the time, but don't have a prayer of getting passed or funded, because of the huge national debt we're carrying. This speech was not that at all. Unlike all previous affairs, Donald Trump did not mention one new spending program he wanted Congress to pass. Not one. What we got instead was a grand tour of the absolute best of America. Donald Trump, when he had won all seven swing states and the popular vote on the first Tuesday of November 2024, said in interviews and press conferences in the days and weeks after that America's success would serve as his ultimate revenge. Never Trump, Inc., whether it be Resistance media, elected Democrats, and/or neurotically broken former Republicans that can't come to grips with the fact that Donald Trump survived them, convinced themselves that Trump would be a dictator and an authoritarian, and for the next four years, it would be a nightmare retribution tour. The fact that Donald Trump gave a speech delivering on what he promised, succeeding by recognizing the greatness and successes of others, drove them crazy. Ever since Donald Trump came down the escalator at Trump Tower in Manhattan in 2015, the attempt by Never Trump, Inc. was to marginalize him as being unstable and crazy. And Donald Trump has certainly provided antics over the years to give that criticism backing. But last night, Donald Trump really de-emphasized himself in the spotlight, which is what knocked so many Democrats off their footing. He put the spotlight on heroes. He brought in the U.S. Men's Hockey team. The President, just days after the Olympics in Milan, posted his own medal count of six - two Congressional Medals of Honor, one Presidential Medal of Freedom, two Purple Hearts, and a Legion of Merit. Trump recognized and honored survivors of violent crime by illegal aliens. He honored philanthropists who have gotten the Trump Savings Accounts off the board and into reality for a whole new generation of Americans. It was Donald Trump demonstrating his love for the country by showing off Americans, young and old, of all ideological and racial stripes, revealing the character of the country. Democrats, with really only one notable exception being Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman, used what is probably the opening battle in the 2026 Midterms to make Donald Trump look like the normie by comparison. And whenever that happens, Democrats are headed for electoral disaster.Whoever is in the White House has the advantage with these addresses. They have weeks or months to prepare and stagecraft it. They have a built-in television audience. Unless the speech is a complete clunker and the writers commit malpractice, the president's party gets a win for the night. The goal for the opposition party should always be to take the loss and minimize the damage. You do that by not trying to upstage the president and looking like jerks in the process. Could the Democrats do that? Nah.There were two shadow Democratic events planned and executed to serve as places of refuge where the more radical Trump-hating members could go and hang out and not get themselves, and the party, into  too much trouble by disrupting the speech and looking horrible to the American people. The problem was that a sizeable amount of the radical members of Congress stayed in the chamber anyway, and they had much more elbow room to spread out and really have at it, while at the alternate sites, members showed up on stage with people in animal costumes flanking them. One of several takeaway moments of the State of the Union was when Donald Trump baited Democrats into a trap they should have seen coming, telling them to applaud the protection of young people from being captured by the trans lobby. Trump introduced a young woman who escaped that lifestyle and received a long ovation. When Democrats sat on their hands, this is what happened. ]]>