On 2/28/17, the President will address a session of Congress. Usually such addresses are to paint a broad picture of goals and direction, along with a call to unity.
Somehow, I have a feeling this is not going to be that.
My guess?
Trump is going to use it to focus on first year goals and enlist Congress to partner up with his people. It will be a velvet challenge with brass knuckles inside.
Twenty percent of the country has gone visibly bananas , so he could care less about them.
He will be there to sell what he is doing to his voters and maybe another twenty percent, especially blacks who work and reluctant Hillary types.
While the Media and the Never Rights wait for Trump to ‘act Presidential”, he is redefining what that means. Acting Presidential will now mean delivering what you promised or die trying.
A curious concept for establishment types.
What do you folks in the community think he will do on 2.28/17?
NEW YORK – 1960: Catcher Yogi Berra #8, of the New York Yankees, poses for the camera at Yankee Stadium in New York in 1960. (Olen Collection/Diamond Images/Getty Images)
Pace the whining of the RINOs and left-libertarians, Trump will verbally slap Congress into action. Not what they envisioned when they began pimping Jeb! two years ago.
The future ain’t what is used to be.
Respectfully disagree. Each day Congress becomes more entrenched in the status quo and thwarting the President at each turn.
As near as I can tell John Boehner still runs the House.
What this may do is provide a stark contrast between President Trump and the asshats in Congress. If the speech is of the same substance as his inaugural the contrast will be stark and motivate a mid-term revolution from the right.
Brent, my prediction was on what Trump will do. If I read you right, it seems you are moving on to how Congress will respond, which I have not ventured a guess on , unless you are disagreeing about something else I missed.
I think Boehner is a spent force who just collected about $50K to open his mouth, which the media put on every front page. Another tool of the Progressives, who use the Never Rights and the wounded GOPe like fools.
It will come down to Ryan deciding on where his bread is buttered the next four years. McConnell will deliver whatever lets him keep the Senate and not a bit more.
If the GOP Congress splits from Trump they are even stupider than I imagined, but also that would not surprise me.
TKC1101, I am with you on Trump, but the reality is that absent substantial Congressional action there are limits to what Trump can do on his own.
Trump can, and he is, slow the bleeding. It will take us longer to bleed out, but we are still going to bleed out. He is doing what he said he would do.
Now comes the hard part. Getting Congress of dead center. Jim DeMint had it correct – why will they not pass the exact same Obamacare repeal they did 6 times when Obama was still in office?
I absolutely 100% expect Congress to stall and thwart Trump ever bit as egregiously as they did Obama. Will they appear stupid? Not really. We returned incumbent Republicans with the highest certainty rate in maybe forever. They think they are invincible. Until a bunch of guys lose primaries in 2018 they are not getting the message.
*it
It depends on the meaning of is.
The key to Trump’s success will be if the economy turns around. The stock market has been good. If more people start to work and people have more confidence. The PC stuff won’t matter so much.
Trump has realized that he does not need the press and this drives the press crazy. Instead of Trump’s credibility being questioned, he is questioning theirs. They have to cover him bad mouthing them. Delicious.
Yes, the economy and the animal spirits. If Trump can induce optimism, the economic activity will take care of itself. Even lefties appreciate a rising stock market.
Twenty percent visibly bananas? Seems like more to me.
Sound and fury, signifying nothing.
I assume the Media is trying to make it look like more.
My concern right now is that the WH may be operating in a bit of chaos right now. Granted, only a month in office, but the administration seems to be forming two distinct factions:
1. Bannon & Co who appear to be pushing the president to continue “nuclear” political behavior.
2. Priebus, Conway, and son-in-law Kushner who prefer a more conventional approach.
3. Conway is in the middle.
Mitch McConnell commented publicly that Trump is pushing a great agenda but he has to control his mouth and slow down just a little. Normally, I’d ignore anything McConnell says (although he is married to the fab Elaine Chao), but now even Newt Gingrich is publicly supporting McConnell’s observations. Newt is a close friend and early supporter of Trump so I tend to listen to him carefully.
Granted, the Weekly Standard is no Trump fan, but it has reported that Trump is exhibiting some Bill Clinton-esque types of behavior by allowing factions to develop and entertaining everybody’s ideas.
What is abundantly clear is that he is not allowing his Chief of Staff Priebus to control the mob as Rumsfeld and Cheney and Baker did when they held that position for Ford and Reagan. Trump has to do this in order to succeed; he has a huge and very important agenda to implement and he must resist the temptation (as all business owners do) to micro-manage.
ET, all valid concerns. My experience is a matter of where a team choses to focus and not focus. When I had a new operation, the people were very good at removing the chaos from the things we needed to do right away and the things we had to achieve to deliver, but that always left many areas where things came unglued and not nailed down.
The team’s priorities are so different from the normal DC priorities that I expect some friction.
I also expect some learning and it either smooths out or it begins to bleed. They have ninety days to get this under control.
Normal DC priorities are to have all externals nailed down and delivery of change postponed.
Thank you for this analysis, TKC. I’ll tolerate 90 days.
You’ve calmed me somewhat because there is nobody in this country who wants Trump to succeed more than I.
FYI, thanks for the Yankee picture. For what it’s worth, that will always get my attention because I love winners. :)