Trump's Address to the Nation: A Winning President, a Golden Age for the Country, and (Non-Existent) Wars

By Armin Sijamić

On Tuesday night into Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump addressed the nation before both houses of Congress. In another show characteristic only of him, Trump celebrated his policies.

The public appearances of U.S. presidents are meticulously planned by a multitude of experts in various fields. Even those among them with the least charisma appear flawless with prepared speeches and are often very convincing, regardless of the topic they are discussing.

In Donald Trump's case, such experts are not needed, which by no means signifies they don't exist or aren't behind his appearances. Trump holds the attention of even those who dislike him during his speeches, and every public repetition seems to generate more news that the U.S. media can put on their front pages. Trump loves the cameras, and the cameras love him.

His second address to the nation from Congress, in his second term, on Tuesday night into Wednesday, was another show with him as the main and often only star. For the United States and the world, it is bad news that he is the president of the world's greatest power.

Old Themes, Same Enemies

Last year's address by Republican President Trump from the same venue was record-long and gave indications of his administration's behavior. This week's address was even longer, a full hour and 48 minutes, and confirmed that Trump is continuing on the path he has set.

The audience interrupted Trump with numerous rounds of applause, and his speech was marked by arguments with Democrats in the audience, exchanging personal insults. He called the Democrats "crazy" for not standing up to applaud after one of his sentences.

Although such a long speech is difficult to summarize, in the briefest terms, Trump conveyed that the Democrats are the worst thing that could have happened to the United States and that he is now saving the world's greatest power and is incredibly successful in doing so. This time too, more than any other high-ranking U.S. official, he described his policies with words like "unprecedented," "historic," "the best," and stated that many more victories lie ahead, even though the United States is already in a "golden age."

Many have disputed numerous claims he made about the state of the economy, taxes, inflation, and healthcare as simply untrue. This is not new for a politician who will go down in history as someone who spent years debunking "fake news" spread by his rivals and the major U.S. media outlets that were not favorable to him during his first term. In his speech, for example, he stated that "more Americans are working today than at any time in our country's history," even though official U.S. statistics indicate that the current employment number is lower than in January of last year when he took office as president.

Among other successes of his administration, he highlighted a record-low inflow of illegal migrants at zero in the first nine months and a record number of deportations, tax cuts, a reduction in the record inflation left by Joseph Biden's administration, an increase in state revenue and foreign investment, improved healthcare, lower prices for medicines and fuel, historic results in the fight against crime, successful military operations in Iran and Venezuela...

Even while the speech was ongoing, many on social media presented evidence that many of these and other claims were untrue.

How to Change Public Perception?

However, it was striking that Trump did not say a word about the infamous Jeffrey Epstein, even though millions of available documents from the case show the scale of the crimes. From parts of the published documents, while his administration refuses to release many others despite a congressional order, it is evident that the country should address various types of crime in this case.

This topic, which has occupied American citizens and a small number of American politicians from both parties for months, is for some reason not a topic for Trump, even though he promised long ago to release all documents from this case, and the richest man in the world and his former close associate Elon Musk claimed that the current president is in those documents. This example shows that Trump directs political and social processes through media appearances, scandal creation, and manipulation of facts, diverting public attention from what is important and what is truly happening.

And that was not the only example that evening. Trump once again repeated the claim that he had ended "eight wars," to which some in the hall responded with laughter, and he retorted that it was not funny, called them "sick people," and continued. Among other things, he stopped the war between Egypt and Ethiopia (which did not happen), then between Serbia and Kosovo (which was not fought during his term), as well as between Congo and Rwanda, and Thailand and Cambodia, where fighting continues.

The real truth is that Trump has attacked more countries in ten months of his term than any other U.S. president in modern history, despite proclaiming himself a peacemaker and promising an end to American military interventions. Since January of last year, Trump has, to the public's knowledge, attacked targets in Iran, Yemen, Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, Venezuela, and Somalia on various grounds, and placed Cuba under economic and naval blockade.

These two examples show that Trump successfully controls the narrative in American and other media, which was not the case in his first term. The news he generates follows one another on the headlines, and the focus is not on the most important processes. In his second term, a good portion of the American media, which criticized him on various grounds during his first term, is helping him in this.

None of this can be accidental. It seems that Trump, despite the opposition of some Western allies, has an agenda he is implementing and is in a great hurry, which is very different from what he advocates in his speeches. The record number of supposedly ended wars is in direct contrast to the record number of attacks carried out around the world and the fact that for months his policy towards Iran has kept the entire Middle East in a pre-war state.