| I grew up with a developmentally disabled aunt. She watched a lot of "The Price is Right," back in the Bob Barker days. |
| President Trump's State of the Union on Tuesday night reminded me of sitting on the couch with her, half intrigued and half bored, as Barker went through the same spiel day after day — the tedious description of the prize, the frenetic joy for every winner, the "Come on down!" |
| Trump had them all, a showman selling grievance and outrage with skill, but also, coming across as weary of his own routine and frankly limp on enthusiasm. |
| Don't get me wrong. He knows how to set a stage. His tie was uniform blood-red, unbroken by pattern and a statement that his power is solid and absolute. (Behind him on the podium, Speaker Mike Johnson's putty-brown cravat screamed at Vice President JD Vance's light blue one, "I am more subservient, you cannot out-grovel me!" Where do you even find a tie that bland?) |
| And he started out bellicose and full of bull, declaring America was in a "turnaround for the ages." I mean, to be fair, it is — we've just turned toward oligarchy, authoritarianism and corruption. |
| But by 6:22 PST, just a few minutes in, I'd written this note: If anyone in America is still watching, more power to you. This is some boring, recycled drivel. Drill baby drill! America is the hottest country! We ended DEI in America! |
| Trump then clearly went into teleprompter-reading mode. It's easy to spot this change: He has a monotone, let's-get-through-this approach to formal speeches. |
| "Today, our border is secure, our spirit is restored," he said. "Inflation is plummeting, incomes are rising fast. The roaring economy is roaring like never before, and our enemies are scared, our military and police are stacked, and America is respected again, perhaps like never before." |
Did he bore himself? |
| Like Barker reading the description of the washer someone's about to win, Trump rolls through the non-inflammatory parts as if the teacher has picked him to read out loud a passage he does not understand, and is frankly not interested in. |
| The cost of chicken butter is down, he rambled, perhaps mowing over a comma meant to separate the two commodities. I don't know what chicken butter is, but apparently I can afford it. |
| "And even beef, which was very high, is starting to come down significantly," he said. "Hold on a little while we're getting it down, and soon you will see numbers that few people would think were possible to achieve just a short time ago." |
| The beginning and end of Trump's speech were given this way, clearly written by someone else and clearly being read by a man who was tolerating the words, rather than embracing them. These, unsurprisingly, were the sections heaviest on our commonalities as Americans, the parts meant to reel independent voters back over the waves of anxiety and anger that have in recent months pulled them into a sea of midterms uncertainty. |
| While he mustered some excitement when listing his exaggerated and sometimes false accomplishments, these passages were in general delivered with so little emotional depth that I was left unconvinced he actually cared if we can afford chicken butter and therefore wondered if they did their intended work with voters. |
| |
A prize for everyone |
| Our first "Come on down!" was the surprise appearance of the USA men's Olympic hockey team, which just won a gold medal at the Winter Games. No women's team in sight. Someone call Flava Flav. |
| In what would become a theme of the night, Trump literally started giving out prizes — in this case, the Presidential Medal of Freedom to goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. Later, he awarded two well-deserved Medals of Honor to a 100-year-old California veteran and a military pilot injured in the recent raid on Venezuela, and a Purple Heart to the National Guardsman shot in Washington, D.C, who miraculously survived though his fellow soldier, Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, did not. |
| These accolades were peppered among other call-outs, including a Venezuelan opposition leader recently freed from prison and reunited live on television with his niece. Very touching. |
| Also present were the loved ones of multiple victims of violent crimes committed by undocumented men, as well as a waitress who has benefited from Trump's tax plan; a child survivor of the Texas floods last year and the hero who saved her; and a woman whose fertility medicine is now cheaper. |
| These proofs-of-life for Trump's policies around immigration, healthcare and more were the most substantial and moving parts of his speech because they were real, and America loves heroes and underdogs. But by the end, I half-expected him to tell the audience to look under the seat for their own special reward. |
| |
The takeaway |
| Despite the spectacle, buried in the policy section of this never-ending story was the stuff that should have grabbed out attention. |
| The big takeaway started almost an hour in when Trump went into his long-running belief (I truly think he believes it) that he was cheated out of an election win in 2020. For those not keeping up, this is false. |
| "It should be my third term, but strange things happen," Trump said. |
| Shortly after, Trump attacked Somali immigrants. He announced the "war on fraud," to be led by Vance, who has previously accused Haitians in Ohio of eating cats and dogs among other racist tropes meant to incite anger at immigrants. |
| Remember, this attack on fraud was what Trump used to justify the ICE presence in Minnesota. It's a dangerous excuse for militarization, now apparently with Vance at the helm. Without a doubt, this "war on fraud," like the "war on drugs" decades ago that targeted Black and brown Americans, is going to be used to justify the expansion of federal power and likely the lockup of more people in those federal detention centers currently being built. |
| Like drugs, fraud is a crime for which we already have laws and enforcement. Trump and Vance are now apparently circumventing that existing structure not for public safety, but for politics and power. |
| How do we know that? Trump quickly went from this new domestic war to another promise to go after sanctuary cities — and demanded elected leaders (meaning Democrats who oppose him) be held accountable for those policies. He screamed that Democrats should be ashamed, causing Republicans to break out in "USA" chants. |
| This led into the SAVE Act — an attempt to disenfranchise vulnerable voters — and more false claims of "rampant" fraud in elections. He demanded proof of citizenship at polls and an end to mail-in ballots, one of the most successful ways voting has been increased. |
| Trump ended this part by again falsely claiming of Democrats that, "they want to cheat, they have cheated … and we're going to stop it." |
| Despite all the game show theatrics, this is the true state of our union — we are looking at a despot wanna-be who is scapegoating Black and brown people in an effort to potentially justify interfering with elections. |
| But I'll end on a hopeful note, from California Sen. Alex Padilla, who delivered the Democrats' Spanish-language response. |
| "This is the history of the United States: rising from periods of darkness into brighter days," Padilla said. "My message tonight is simple: Only the people save the people." |
| Ain't that the truth. If Trump's State of the Union told us anything, it's that the true prize is power, and voters need to peacefully fight to keep it. |
| Keep up with California | Your support helps us deliver the news that matters most. Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times. | | | | | |
What else you should be reading |
| The must-read: Takeaways from Trump's State of the Union address
The deep dive: Trump defends immigration crackdown at State of Union as approval ratings plummet
The L.A. Times Special: In the Midnight Hour, the San Fernando record shop at the center of the Valley's ICE resistance
Stay Golden,
Anita Chabria |
| P.S. Harmeet Dhillon, head of the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights division, posted this during the speech. No way to be certain, but that quote looks like it could be what Donald Trump allegedly told then-Vice President Mike Pence during the Jan. 6 election when Trump wanted Pence to help him overthrow the election: "You can either go down in history as a patriot, or you can go down in history as a pussy." Not concerning at all, from someone closely involved in our elections. |
| —
Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Sign up here to get it in your inbox. |
