By The TRUTH HOUND
Stop the Presses News & Commentary
By The TRUTH HOUND
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, even ABC News, a frequent Trump antagonist, had to admit that Donald Trump sounded more presidential than ever Tuesday night, Feb. 28, at his first address to Congress. One key remark by Trump that surprisingly earned some media recognition right after the address was: “My job is not to represent the world; my job is to represent the United States of America.”
Not that this signals a sudden, enduring truce by the media in its attitude toward Trump. Still, in a world harmed by attempts to abandon the nation-state and consolidate and centralize power in fewer and fewer hands—a process which the big media has long supported—it’s ironic but welcome that Trump’s pledge to back away from a world imperium and put “America first” is earning him some media accolades.
When Trump reiterated to Congress and the nation that America need not lead such an imperium—and should instead put national interests first, as is a natural tendency for all nations—a question from TRUTH HOUND blog editor Mark Anderson on the Feb. 28 edition of UK Column News, on whether Trump would again take a step back from globalization in his congressional speech, was answered. [Use the above link or scroll to bottom of this article for You Tube of the same UK Column broadcast].
Trump’s first clear call for a reduction is U.S.-led globalization came in an almost forgotten 45-minute speech last Friday, Feb. 24, at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. There, President Trump went a lot further in backing away from a U.S.-led world government. He did so by stating the following words, as showcased in this enlarged quote:
Global cooperation, getting along with other countries, is good; it’s very important. But there is no such thing as a global anthem, a global currency or a global flag. This is the USA that I’m representing. I’m not representing the globe.”
Trump’s assertion to Congress that he’s not a would-be world ruler followed his observation that, for way too long, America’s struggling middle class has been tied to the whipping post while the U.S. government has pursued expensive, often dead-end global projects, such as spending $6 trillion in the Middle East over 15 years. In the process, Trump said that the U.S. has protected every nation’s borders but its own.
While it’s interesting that President Trump felt the need to make such anti-globalization remarks in the first place—suggesting that he and his advisors may sense that a public jaded by rampant globalization is reverting toward national self-determination—Trump clarified to Congress in the process that past U.S. efforts under other administrations to be the world’s governor have led to real problems, such as leaky borders.
And that, he said, has allowed drugs to pour into the U.S. at record amounts, leading to crumbling inner cities and spiking crime.
Now it’s a question of whether Trump can clear the additional hurdles that the big media and its deep-state allies will place in the path of Trump’s stated America-first credo for national reform. And it’ll soon become evident just how sincere Trump is about rolling back globalization.
For now, we can carefully observe the scene and compare words with actions, coming from a president who also used his Congressional speech to repeat that he plans to follow through on all his campaign pledges promises to the voters. Time will soon tell.
We all bleed the same blood; we salute the same flag; and we are all made by the same God.” — President Trump
Covering various policy areas, Trump also said to Congress that he planned to:
- Continue arresting and deporting illegal aliens who commit crimes while finishing the border wall—while saying he’ll introduce a program called VOICE (Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement) to ensure support for Americans who are victims of criminals in the nation illegally. Surviving family members of police officers and others who died at the hand of criminal illegal aliens were in the House chamber as Trump spoke.
- Repeal and replace Obamacare while covering pre-existing conditions.
- Support NATO but make sure the other alliance members a larger share of the costs.
- Support free but fair trade, while he recalled Abraham Lincoln’s approval of protectionist economic measures.
- Ensure Constitutional purist Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court.
- Make sure veterans get the medical care they deserve.
- Spend a trillion dollars on crucial infrastructure upgrades—though such upgrades could have been done two or two times over with the money frittered away in Middle East military misadventures.
- And finish the Dakota and Keystone oil pipelines, although Trump has been silent on the fact that many Nebraskans, South Dakotans, tribal members and others have strong concerns that a burst pipeline could pollute the Ogallala Aquifer and other bodies of water, not to mention property rights infringements that have occurred and will continue to occur as pipeline sections are laid.
While Trump did not directly mention U.S. relations with Russia—a nation that the collusive mainstream media-intelligence apparatus insists, without evidence, is an implacable permanent enemy of the U.S.—he did reiterate that “radical Islamic terrorism” is a foe that he will vanquish, though he shied away from lambasting Iran. A chief challenge for Trump is how he’s going to pursue better Russian relations—a goal suggested in general terms by his CPAC remarks—while at the same time crushing ISIS within the borders of Russian allies like Syria.
Trump, who also pledged to reduce excessive domestic regulations that hamper economic growth, stole a lot of thunder from Democrats in Congress and beyond by calling for paid maternity leave and making sure women can get capital to start businesses.
And with Trump pledging to put millions of Americans gainfully back to work—at a time when Democrats are already a minority in both chambers—the Democratic Party’s traditional image of working-class hero is being transferred to the GOP under Trump, a seismic shift that likely will weaken the Democratic Party even more as it tries to live down the “Hillary syndrome.”
“I’m not sure I’ll ever be a Democrat again,” a Bay City, Michigan resident told NBC’s “Today” show the morning of March 1, in a segment called “In Trump They Trust” that sounded quite upbeat compared to the usual dire media fare about Trump served to the American people. Even a two-time Obama voter with progressive values told NBC that he liked Trump’s speech to Congress, both in content and in its “regular-guy” tone. The background was Bay City itself, a former industrial powerhouse in a state of relative decline. The Bay City residents interviewed by NBC believe their city will see a rebound under Trump.
One Bay City guy told NBC that he even sees some parallels between Trump’s economic views and the views of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). And interestingly, while Democratic members of Congress (especially women members wearing white during Trump’s speech to symbolize their defense of women’s rights) stayed seated and rarely cheered Trump’s points, Sanders, a former Democratic president candidate, was seen clapping when Trump pledged to make it a lot easier for U.S. companies to stay here and create jobs and make it a lot harder for them to leahttp://www.thetruthhound.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=291431&action=editve the U.S.
In a philosophical vein, Trump concluded, “We all bleed the same blood; we salute the same flag; and we are all made by the same God.”
UK COLUMN YOU TUBE FROM FEB. 28, 2017