Commentaries and fact-checks about Trump’s speech to Congress last night.
I did not watch the speech last night (Trump to Congress, in the spot on the calendar where the State of the Union speech would usually be), nor have I even read the commentaries and fact-checks thoroughly. But I will list some of the headlines, which are not surprising, and quotation or two.
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The New Yorker, Susan B. Glasser, 5 Mar 2025: Trump’s Golden Age of Bunk, subtitled “In a Castro-length speech to Congress, the President claimed victory, while proving that even the most unhinged address can be boring if it goes on long enough.”
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MSNBC, MaddowBlog, Steve Benen, 5 Mar 2025: Trump’s address to Congress was built on a foundation of lies, subtitled “The problem is not just that Trump lied throughout his national address. The problem is made worse by the apparent fact that he felt like he had to lie.”
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Washington Post, Dana Milbank, 4 Mar 2025: In just five days, Trump has set the country back nearly 100 years, subtitled “The president’s new slogan might as well be ‘We were better off 95 years ago than we are today.'”
Armed with a portfolio of fabricated statistics, Trump judged that “the first month of our presidency is the most successful in the history of our nation — and what makes it even more impressive is that you know who No. 2 is? George Washington.”
Republican lawmakers laughed, whooped and cheered.
Usually, such talk from Trump is just bravado. But let us give credit where it is due: Trump has made history. In fact, it’s not much of an exaggeration to say that, over the course of the past five days, he has set the United States back 100 years.
That is,
Trump on Monday implemented the largest tariff increase since 1930, abruptly reversing an era of liberalized trade that has prevailed since the end of the Second World War. He launched this trade war just three days after dealing an equally severe blow to the postwar security order that has maintained prosperity and freedom for 80 years. Trump’s ambush of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, followed by the cessation of U.S. military aid to the outgunned nation, has left allies reeling and Moscow exulting. The Kremlin’s spokesman proclaimed that Trump is “rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations” in a way that “largely aligns with our vision.”
And our erstwhile friends? “The United States launched a trade war against Canada, its closest partner and ally, their closest friend,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Tuesday. “At the same time, they’re talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin: a lying, murderous dictator. Make that make sense.”
It makes sense only if, against all evidence, you believe, as Trump apparently does, that Americans were better off 95 years ago than they are today.
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Slate, Fred Kaplan, 5 Mar 2025: Trump’s Plans for the Rest of the World Are Truly Unhinged
Just one example:
The second howler of the night was Trump’s characterization of what he is now calling the Golden Dome system, to defend the United States from nuclear attack. He said that President Ronald Reagan wanted to create such a defense but the technology didn’t exist. “Now we have the technology,” Trump claimed. “It’s incredible, actually. And other places—they have it, Israel has it. Other places have it. And the United States should have it too.”
All of those sentences are false. Israel’s Iron Dome program is designed to intercept missiles with a range of 40 miles traveling at twice the speed of sound. The sorts of missiles that would attack the United States would fly at a range of 6,000 miles, traveling at 10 times the speed of sound. The technology required for the one is completely different from the technology required for the other.
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Salon, Heather Digby Parton, 5 Mar 2025: Trump’s speech to Congress makes it clear: They’re coming for Social Security, subtitled “The address was an interminable litany of lies that featured a dull recitation of alleged fraud in Social Security”
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The Atlantic, David Frum, 5 Mar 2025: Trump, by Any Means Necessary, subtitled “Trump tried to steal the 2020 election. He shows no sign that he would accept a loss in the future.”
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The fact-checks.
PolitiFact, 5 Mar 2025: Fact-checking President Donald Trump’s address to joint session of Congress
NY Times, 5 Mar 2025: Fact-Checking Trump’s Address to Congress, subtitled “The president repeated familiar exaggerations and falsehoods about the economy, the Department of Government Efficiency and tariffs.”
CNN, 5 Mar 2025: Fact-checking Trump’s address to Congress
My favorites from these are two.
First, Trump is still claiming that people nearly 150 years old are getting Social Security payments. This was debunked weeks ago, as an artifact of the COBOL programming language that Social Security uses. Does Trump not understand this? I suspect he does understand this, but realizes it’s a good talking point anyway to his dimwit fans.
Second, Trump railed against funding for “transgender mice” because he didn’t understand the word “transgenic.” The research was about transgenic mice, not transgender mice. He certainly doesn’t understand this.
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Meanwhile,
Media Matters, 4 Mar 2025: As Trump wrecks the economy, Fox News pivots to blaming Biden, subtitled “Fox personalities are blaming worsening economic indicators on the previous administration to absolve Trump of responsibility”
Trump/MAGA Republicans are by far the most shameless about this in recent memory, but of course this kind of thing happens all the time: people blame their enemies for whatever is wrong. How to figure out which side is correct? Pay attention to the experts who are not explicitly aligned with either side.
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And consider how things might be different. Better.
NY Times, Thomas L. Friedman, 5 Mar 2025: America Became Great Because of the Things Trump Hates
Trump does not think things through.
I think Musk and his Silicon Valley bros are radical libertarians who want to carry out the fevered dream of the Republican strategist Grover Norquist, whose goal, he liked to say, was to cut government “down to the size where one could drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
I am not against shrinking the government, but I am much more in favor of improving the government. The best way to do that is through a process that considers:
1. What are the biggest economic/technological/educational/health trends in the world in which we are living?
2. How do we maximize our ability to thrive in that world?
3. Therefore, where should we cut and where should we invest to maximize our tax dollars to succeed in this world?
No such process is going on with the Musketeers. All they ever talk about is how much they cut — never how their actions are part of an overall plan that will strengthen our society and better serve Americans. Their joy comes from cutting, not building, just as Trump’s joy in “The Apprentice” came from firing and not hiring.
As I’ve said before, neither party seems to have a plan — the kind of plan a business would have — with goals and strategies to reach those goals. What are the goals? How much would those cost? How to adjust taxes and other revenues to finance those goals? Republicans, in particular, have goals divorced from any kind of planning: cut taxes, spend more on the military, cut “entitlements.” Make the rich richer, at the expense of the poor. That’s their plan. If only in this sense, it would be nice if the government acted like a business.
