Trump’s SOTU Speech a Win, But It’s Not Enough

This article was adapted from remarks that aired on the latest episode of “Get Real” on Real America’s Voice this past weekend.

Trump v. Spanberger: dueling spectacles

Last week the American people were served up two good “let the midterm rumble begin” spectacles: President Trump’s State of the Union address and the Democrat rejoinder from Gov. Abigail Spanberger of Virginia.

I thought Trump’s speech was an improvement over his past performances. There is a reason the opposition looks for reasons to boycott this shared civic ritual: Trump is the P.T. Barnum of “owning” the squad.

President Trump needed a win. The present polling on what “We the People” think about our president and his Republican lieutenants – the early tea leaves – was not boding well for the president and Team Republican. Trump needed a solid performance and he delivered.

The president made his case. He listed his many accomplishments.

He made new promises – promises Scott Jennings will enjoy defending on CNN with Abby Phillip and Co: the SAVE Act, getting Wall Street out of the housing market, launching a War on Fraud, and a ban on congressional insider trading. (“I don’t see Nancy standing. Is Nancy standing?”)

And the president showed needed contrastson bipartisan priorities. The SAVE Act polls are at over 80% – but all Democrat asses were stuck to chairs and arms folded. Not a good look. Like ICE in Minneapolis, this was bad political theater with a long-tail consequence in need of triage management.

Trump ran the clock to 1 hour and 47 minutes – and strutted out knowing he had crushed it.

The governor raised good questions

And then the president was ably followed by a recently elected governor, Abigail Spanberger of Virginia, who has the advantage of low legislative mileage.

The governor gave a good speech and the atmospherics were good. They usually are not. Being chosen to deliver the opposition response is usually the kiss of death. The governor did well. (Just an observation: This is the second time they called in from the deep state bench, but unlike Elissa Slotkin, Spanberger delivered.)

I also think “The Gov” raised “THE” three big questions that ought to be asked and answered by the American people this midterm. Here they are:

Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?

Is the president working to keep Americans safe, both at home and abroad?

Is the president working for you?

These are the right questions.

The answers to those questions favor Trump

Is the president working to make life more affordable for you and your family?

Yes. I think Trump is working at a scale and speed to make life more affordable.

No taxes on tips, overtime, or Social Security, and Trump accounts for newborn Americans with six-figure payouts come college, are real. This is kitchen-table Affordability Economics. Inflation is down. Gas at the pump is down by over half. Prices for drugs are coming down – way down – with TrumpRx. These ain’t nothin’.

In his first year Trump has set the conditions for a restructuring of the middle-class industrial economy after years of bipartisan neglect and hollowing out. A growing industrial economy and growing middle-class wages are his macro solutions to the affordability question. Trump is reindustrializing with gusto.

Is the president working to keep Americans safe, both at home and abroad?

To ask this question is to answer it. Hell yes. American Security Greatness is back. There is a new sheriff in town.

Trump has closed the border to the mass migration that the Biden administration, and American and global NGOs, were facilitating. Crime is down to its lowest level in 100 years. It would be lower without Blue State Sanctuary Cities and the “F*** Ice” Resistance running block-and-tackle, throwing slurs and snowballs.

About our allies

Yes, our allies are angry at us. They are bitching, moaning, and complaining at our populist vulgarity and our requirement that they share in their own common defense. A stronger – albeit offended – Europe is good for us and good for them.

The “Donroe Doctrine” is working – showing an alternative to “neo-conservative” adventurism and America-First isolationism. Trump has brought a narco-state leader to justice and ended eight wars. After giving Tehran an off-ramp for peace that the Supreme Leader did not take, Khamenei is no more and the Islamic Republic is left wobbling. Trump is a peace president who talks loudly and wields a shock-and-awe stick judiciously.

Is the president working for you? That depends on who you are

This is my least favorite question. But its virtue is its selfishness. What are President Trump and his administration doing for me and mine?

If you are a member of the Mamdani and Sanders wing of the Democratic Party, which is sizable, ascendant, and spent Tuesday night glued to chairs or elsewhere with Joy Reid, you are not happy.

The waste, fraud, and abuse political economy of affordability isn’t Trump’s thing. He is pivoting to a War on Fraud, with his vice president set to take the lead on the domestic stage. Tom Homan and ICE officers are pulling back in Minnesota and the JD Vance forensic lawyers and accountants are filing in.

That said, I think those working in the oil and gas industry – and pumping the supply of abundance that’s caused falling prices at the pump – are pumped at the reality and the prospect of the drill-and-build economy before them. The same goes for Sean O’Brien and his brotherhood and sisterhood of union workers. Also, the value of legal Hispanic labor has gotten a Trump-bump raise and their neighborhoods, which were fraying under mass migration, are as quiet as church mice.

Donald Trump is a president that is building an economy, politics, and culture that works for poor, middle- and upper-class strivers. For the rest, he offers a generous safety net but not a hammock.

Trump needs to do more – or rather, the Senate does

All this said – President Trump, the folks who put you back in office want and deserve more. Why? Because more can be done! Tax cuts help but they are not enough. Lower gas prices are good but not enough.

President Trump, you are not the problem. The Senate is.

Those who put you in office, the heads of families that voted for you, are suffering under Obamacare premium increases. Everything you have given is being taken away in higher family health care insurance premiums. Your constituents are suffering. Obama’s mess is now your mess to clean up. And your problem is the U.S. Senate.

Call John Thune. Tell him to tighten up Senate filibuster rules. Make senators show up and stay in their seats. Force them to play their role as the most deliberative body. Pass the SAVE Act and fix Obamacare. Mr. President, keep your eye on the Domestic Prize.

Keep your eye on those who put you there. Hispanic and white working-class men. Young men, striving for more. They have girlfriends, wives, kids, and are on the front line and affected by the cost of everything.

The polls are indicating buyer’s remorse. But today’s leading Democrats are the main drivers of the affordability problem. The Senate must stand up.

Or, Mr. President, it all falls down.

This article was originally published by RealClearPolitics and made available via RealClearWire.