For ten years, Donald Trump , tired speech with location, occasion, and audience immaterial. Whether at his rallies or interviews, on the global stage or the concrete patio that was once the Rose Garden, the message is the same: American Carnage.has repeatedly given the same
A country riddled with crime, undocumented people waging war on Americans, trans people brainwashing helpless children with gender ideology. Donald Trump’s success requires you to only know danger and sorrow. The strategy is simple: ensure an ever present, exponential danger, push the boundaries of law and power to solve that danger, and, most importantly, remind everyone only he and his allies posses the solution. Every sycophant drunk on power has used the same playbook.
Though consumed with violence, America is simultaneously in a golden age. Prices are the lowest they’ve ever been, opportunities to make money are endless, wars are ending around the world, we are the envy of humanity, and, most importantly, he is the reason for it all.
This was the President’s message at the State of the Union on Tuesday, at last year’s congressional address, his inauguration, in both 2025 and 2017, at the UN General Assembly, and at Davos. The juxtaposition of American Carnage and American Prosperity quite literally defines almost every speech he has ever given. Not only does his base continue feasting on reheated nachos, but beneath the redundancy is the death of classical American politics.
The State of the Union didn’t matter. As one of the few constitutionally mandated communications, the State of the Union represents an opportunity for the President to build political capital. A guaranteed forum before his cabinet, the Supreme Court, both chambers of Congress, and the public can propel or sink an agenda. Yet, Tuesday’s speech accomplished nothing. The political winds remain unchanged.
Fractured members of the President’s coalition didn’t return home. Independent voters weren’t reassured the government values country over party. Republican members of Congress weren’t galvanized to advance their agenda. No Democrats effectively foiled the President’s pageantry. It’s been 10 years of the same disappointing story with no indication a new one is beginning.
By Zeb Taylor – Chief Political Editor
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