Despite many of the headlines, President Trump has actually moved sharply toward his opponents’ position on immigration, suggests David Frum in The Atlantic. Yet his own divisive rhetoric – on display again in last night’s State of the Union – means reform remains elusive. Why? Frum argues that it’s down to a big weakness of Trump’s presidency: An inability to change people’s minds.
“Leaders of the Democratic Party—and especially the 2020 presidential hopefuls—now seem to regard almost any form of enforcement against people illegally present inside the United States as a racist denial of human rights,” Frum says.
“Yet Trump cannot make a political resource of his opponents’ rising radicalism and intransigence. His trademark truculent imperiousness inevitably casts him as the unreasoning extremist. He cannot forbear falsifying his case even when he is right.”
“[M]ajor changes only happen if they can command broad support from many different constituencies. Donald Trump acts as if he believed his own fantasy that he won a landslide victory in 2016 and—as he said at the opening of his speech—as if he ‘speaks on behalf of the American people.’ Neither of those things is true.”
President Trump’s State of the Union was missing something important, writes Ramesh Ponnuru for Bloomberg View: An agenda.
“Republicans have been wondering what Trump’s infrastructure initiative is going to look like. They’re still wondering now that his speech is done; his comments on the subject were not informative. They have not been sure what form the administration wants paid family leave to take and whether it’s a real priority: Will voting against his proposal cost them? Will there be a proposal? They still don’t know. Ditto for opioids and vocational education,” Ponnuru writes.
“The rap on most State of the Union addresses is that they are ‘laundry lists.’ This time the president, like his administration and party, was listless.”
Chinese media was unimpressed by President Trump’s decision to single out China and Russia as US rivals during his State of the Union address. “China was regarded as a partner and competitor in the Barack Obama era. The Trump administration, from its national security strategy to the State of the Union address, seems to have upgraded its negative outlook on China,” the state-backed Global Times editorializes.
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“Leaders of the Democratic Party—and especially the 2020 presidential hopefuls—now seem to regard almost any form of enforcement against people illegally present inside the United States as a racist denial of human rights,” Frum says.
“Yet Trump cannot make a political resource of his opponents’ rising radicalism and intransigence. His trademark truculent imperiousness inevitably casts him as the unreasoning extremist. He cannot forbear falsifying his case even when he is right.”
“[M]ajor changes only happen if they can command broad support from many different constituencies. Donald Trump acts as if he believed his own fantasy that he won a landslide victory in 2016 and—as he said at the opening of his speech—as if he ‘speaks on behalf of the American people.’ Neither of those things is true.”
President Trump’s State of the Union was missing something important, writes Ramesh Ponnuru for Bloomberg View: An agenda.
“Republicans have been wondering what Trump’s infrastructure initiative is going to look like. They’re still wondering now that his speech is done; his comments on the subject were not informative. They have not been sure what form the administration wants paid family leave to take and whether it’s a real priority: Will voting against his proposal cost them? Will there be a proposal? They still don’t know. Ditto for opioids and vocational education,” Ponnuru writes.
“The rap on most State of the Union addresses is that they are ‘laundry lists.’ This time the president, like his administration and party, was listless.”
Chinese media was unimpressed by President Trump’s decision to single out China and Russia as US rivals during his State of the Union address. “China was regarded as a partner and competitor in the Barack Obama era. The Trump administration, from its national security strategy to the State of the Union address, seems to have upgraded its negative outlook on China,” the state-backed Global Times editorializes.
Back to politics
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