Before President Trumps address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night I asked several Republican operatives professionals who both opposed and supported Trump in the GOP primaries to let me know what they thought.
A good speech and most importantly it was better than any thought it would be emailed Curt Anderson who ran Bobby Jindals presidential campaign.
Trump said My job is not to represent the world my job is to represent the United States of America AND THE DEMOCRATS DID NOT APPLAUD.
Just think about that for a moment. This simple sentence captures the heart of Trumps appeal. And it is also the Achilles heel of the Democrats.
Outstanding speech said Ryan Williams who worked for Mitt Romney in 2012. By far his most presidential uplifting disciplined and dignified speech. I hope to God that he doesnt ruin it tomorrow morning with a 7 a.m. Twitter rant. This speech wasnt big it was colossal! wrote Barry Bennett who worked for both Ben Carson and Trump and has now formed a new consulting firm with former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski. Tonight millions of doubters saw the president.
Bennett meant that there are a lot of Americans who are not in full not-my-president mode but who do question Trumps presidential stature. Polls will tell more but it seems possible that on Tuesday night some of them saw Trump as more of a president than they did before the speech.
Some were predicting a bump in the polls for Trump even before he finished. About half an hour into the speech another Republican political strategist Alex Castellanos tweeted
With this speech @RealDonaldTrump fav rating will go up 6 to 8.Before the speech a number of analysts and strategists urged Trump to spend a lot of time talking about jobs. Yes the unemployment rate is down a lot from the worst days of the economic downturn but people are struggling to keep up. They want to know that Trump will work to create jobs so they can finally get one or if they are employed so they can get a better one. Trump delivered mentioning jobs a dozen times in the speech. Among them:
- He is going to bring back millions of jobs.
- His coming infrastructure proposal will create millions of new jobs.
- Hes working to massively reduce job-crushing regulations.
- His approval of pipeline projects will create tens of thousands of jobs.
- Since his election big companies have taken actions to create tens of thousands of new American jobs.
- He has already withdrawn from the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership.
- Immigration reform must have as its goal to improve jobs and wages for Americans.
- And more. Overall a huge part of Trumps speech focused in the broadest sense on improving Americans economic well-being and on his promises to restart the engine of the American
economy.
- from terrorism
- from criminal illegal immigrants
- from violent crime in general
- from job-stealing economic policies
- from the failures of Obamacare and more.
- Trump used some form of the word protect seven times in the speech.
- That illegal immigration reduces wages for American workers. He said those who come to the U.S. ought to be able to support themselves financially.
- That there should be less low-skilled immigration. And then Trumps offer:
- I believe that real and positive immigration reform is possible as long as we focus on the following goals: to improve jobs and wages for Americans to strengthen our nations security and to restore respect for our laws he said.
What no one seemed to consider in all the pre-speech hyperventilating was why Trump would cavalierly and with almost no notice or preparation break one of the most passionately repeated promises of his campaign. The answer was he wouldnt.
In the end the speech was all about jobs and safety and that one simple Trump declaration that Curt Anderson noticed:
My job is not to represent the world. My job is to represent the United States of America.Noting those Democrats who stayed seated and silent Anderson wrote I could win A LOT OF ELECTIONS on this. I cannot imagine a Democrat in a tough race who could defend their opposition to this. There was some snickering in the room when Trump announced that The time for trivial fights is behind us. Doesnt the president read his own Twitter feed? But the fact is Trump used the highest-profile moment of his presidency so far to go big that is to focus on the voters most deeply-felt concerns. If a speech could capture the whole theme of a presidency Trump did it on Tuesday night.
