Far into the speech, Trump hits his strongest ground: Democrats claimed that we needed new legislation to enforce our immigration laws, but “it turned out that all we needed was a new president.”
Trump does not say the tariffs on Mexico and Canada are going away tomorrow, as Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick suggested that they might in a TV appearance earlier today.
It’s clear that Republicans simply take farmers for granted. Trump is basically promising to destroy their export markets when other countries retaliate against his tariffs, all while telling farmers to “have fun.”
Trump promises “a little disturbance – it won’t be much” with tariffs. Well then, that’s a line pregnant with potential regrets.
“Your CHIPS Act is a horrible, horrible thing,” Trump says to Democrats. “We don’t have to give them money.” He encourages Speaker Johnson to repeal the law that subsidizes semiconductor companies and use the unspent money to reduce the debt. The industrial policy fans in Washington must be fuming.
Notable that current House and Senate Democratic leadership (Hakeem Jeffries, Katherine Clark, Pete Aguilar, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, etc.) are not holding any signs tonight protesting Trump’s speech. Most of the signs (“Musk Steals,” “Save Medicaid”) are being held by progressives — yet another signal that congressional Democrats are still disjointed in strategy as they continue to find their message at the start of Trump’s second term.
The U.S. trade deficit with Canada is about $60 billion, not “hundreds of billions,” as Trump says. And if you exclude Canadian energy exports, which are vital to U.S. refineries in the Midwest, the U.S. has a trade surplus with Canada.
If the trading system is as unfair to America as Trump says, it’s weird that he was the guy who negotiated the trade agreement with two of our three largest trading partners, Mexico and Canada, and said at the time that it was “the most important trade deal we’ve ever made by far.”
@dpino — We would need 200,000+ Gold Card purchases to swing it. Are we offering what Amex Platinum does?
Moments after claiming he wants to balance the budget, Trump talks about his ridiculous gimmick tax cuts (no tax on tips, overtime, or Social Security benefits) that will reduce revenues by trillions. Not to mention, he doesn’t want to touch Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid.