Speaker 1: A short time ago, we were a dead country. Now
Speaker 1: we are the hottest country anywhere in the world, the hottest.
Speaker 2: Full of hubris and bravado. The State of the Union
Speaker 2: address was classic Trump, the showman who knows how to
Speaker 2: work a crowd.
Speaker 1: Our country is winning again. In fact, we're winning so
Speaker 1: much that we really don't know what to do about it.
Speaker 1: People are asking me, please, please, please, miss the president.
Speaker 1: We're winning too much. We can't take it anymore.
Speaker 3: It's an awful long speech. This now set a record
Speaker 3: as the longest State of the Union address in history.
Speaker 3: He likes to set records, and he did tonight. I
Speaker 3: think people turned off after about thirty minutes.
Speaker 1: Our nation is back, bigger, better, richer, and stronger than
Speaker 1: ever before.
Speaker 2: I'm Nicole Johnston and you're listening to seven AM today.
Speaker 2: US journalist Steve Clemens, Editor at Large of The National Interest,
Speaker 2: on the speech and the spectacle. How did Trump's State
Speaker 2: of the Union go down? And what's it all mean
Speaker 2: for the midterms. It's Thursday, February twenty six, Steve. This
Speaker 2: was Trump's chance to lay out his achievements and his
Speaker 2: policy agenda for the rest of his term. It was long,
Speaker 2: It covered everything from the economy to migration.
Speaker 1: Today, our border is secure, the roaring economy is roaring
Speaker 1: like never before.
Speaker 2: But what do you think Trump's real message was here
Speaker 2: to the American people, and was there even one?
Speaker 3: No, his real message is he's the boss, He's in charge,
Speaker 3: and America is better off for that. So, whether it's
Speaker 3: about the economy, whether it's about safety, migration, the wars
Speaker 3: were in or pointing into the galleries of the Congress
Speaker 3: at heroes, everything in America is better under his stewardship.
Speaker 3: That's the message he's getting across. And so while it
Speaker 3: seemed like a sprawl and not very specific, in a
Speaker 3: lot of ways, he's like a security blanket for the
Speaker 3: nation in a lot of ways, which is gauzy and
Speaker 3: all over the place.
Speaker 1: Democrats are destroying our country, but we've stopped it just
Speaker 1: in the nick of time. And then.
Speaker 3: You know, it had moments of his disdain for those
Speaker 3: who don't like him. That was very Trumpian when he
Speaker 3: pointed to the Democrats and he basically mocked them and
Speaker 3: poked them. I think the other thing you know that
Speaker 3: was about it was a kind of narcissism. You know,
Speaker 3: his little side comments that if the rules could be
Speaker 3: changed so that he could get the CongressI Medal of
Speaker 3: Honor or give it to himself, he would be there
Speaker 3: with those great heroes that received the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Speaker 1: I've always wanted the Congressional Medal of Honor, but I
Speaker 1: was informed I'm not allowed to give it to myself,
Speaker 1: and I wouldn't know why I'd be taken it. But
Speaker 1: they ever opened up that law, I will be there
Speaker 1: with you someday.
Speaker 3: He did surprise me in a way that he didn't
Speaker 3: amp up the temperature over Iran. He didn't beat his
Speaker 3: chest a little bit on Venezuela. That was sort of
Speaker 3: a missing element that Bravado wasn't in the speech. So
Speaker 3: that's how it was a little different.
Speaker 1: We can never forget that many in this room not
Speaker 1: only allowed the border invasion to happen before I got involved,
Speaker 1: but indeed they would do it all over again if
Speaker 1: they ever had the chance.
Speaker 2: Trump has build himself as the law and order president.
Speaker 2: And a big part of this State of the Union
Speaker 2: was about migration and the deportations, and there was one
Speaker 2: point things got a little bit fiery, blocking.
Speaker 1: The removal of these people out of our country, and
Speaker 1: you should be ashamed of yourself.
Speaker 2: Then why is it that he's so focused on this?
Speaker 2: And don't most Americans think by now that ICE has
Speaker 2: actually gone too far? So this could end up hurting
Speaker 2: Trump come the midterms.
Speaker 3: You know, he didn't mention ICE in this speech. If
Speaker 3: you go back to many other speeches, ice was a
Speaker 3: central feature. You know, I was surprised at Christy Noom,
Speaker 3: the Secretary of Homeland Security, was in there because they've
Speaker 3: been trying to send a different signal of this as
Speaker 3: a warmer and fuzzier way of dealing with America's migration crisis.
Speaker 3: He did have that line in there, which was one
Speaker 3: of the longest applause lines, as do you support this statement.
Speaker 1: If you agree with this statement, then stand up and
Speaker 1: show your support. The first duty of the American government
Speaker 1: is to protect American citizens, not illegal areas.
Speaker 3: And Democrats didn't stand up, and he mocked them for
Speaker 3: that in that.
Speaker 1: SHA be a shamed of yourself not standing up. He
Speaker 1: should be a shamed of you as health.
Speaker 3: But I think the real issue here is that when
Speaker 3: it comes to the safety issue of law and safety,
Speaker 3: Americans care most about the economy, about inflation. But you
Speaker 3: can't deny the fact that before he came in there
Speaker 3: was a concern about security in the US. There was
Speaker 3: a concern even in democratic cities about over immigration and
Speaker 3: the failure of the Biden administration to do much on that.
Speaker 3: And Donald Trump milked that very successfully because it was
Speaker 3: a bipartisan issue. And I think that the safety and
Speaker 3: law and order issue. Even though many people have huge
Speaker 3: problems with the deployment of National Guard the way they're
Speaker 3: doing it and the death of US citizens at the
Speaker 3: hands of these ice agents and others, Americans have a
Speaker 3: lot of contradictions that they carry. They want safety. Donald
Speaker 3: Trump may not be delivering it, and we know from
Speaker 3: polls they're very dissatisfied with the way Donald Trump is
Speaker 3: deploying those forces around the country. But it doesn't change
Speaker 3: the fact that the rhetoric about lawn safety can still work.
Speaker 1: Last year, the United States military obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons
Speaker 1: program with an attack on a radian soil known as
Speaker 1: Operation Midnight Hammer.
Speaker 2: Steve, we didn't get a lot of detail from Trump
Speaker 2: on foreign policy, even though the US has assembled its
Speaker 2: largest naval a Martyr in the Gulf since the two
Speaker 2: thousand and three Iraq war. Everyone's asking what will Trump do?
Speaker 2: Will he attack? Is he going to find a way
Speaker 2: to back down?
Speaker 1: My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But
Speaker 1: one thing is certain. I will never allow the world's
Speaker 1: number one sponsor of terror, which they are by far,
Speaker 1: to have a nuclear weapon. Can't let that happen.
Speaker 2: Do you think that he hasn't made up his mind
Speaker 2: or could he be having second thoughts about striking i Ran?
Speaker 3: I think Trump is unpredictable in some ways. But we
Speaker 3: also know that Donald Trump is on record with his base,
Speaker 3: the Maga bass as not wanting to commit the same
Speaker 3: kind of wars that previous administrations did. That he said
Speaker 3: that wasn't going to be him. He wasn't going to
Speaker 3: engage in regime change and do all of this stuff.
Speaker 3: And to be honest, the wars that if you want
Speaker 3: to call them, the twelve day conflict with Iran was
Speaker 3: a polite war. It was in and out. He stopped
Speaker 3: Israel from doing more bombing what we did in Venezuela,
Speaker 3: saying how how could Donald Trump go into Venezuela, whom
Speaker 3: he called America's great friend in the speech? But yet
Speaker 3: he basically did a grab and go with the president
Speaker 3: and left the entire power structure of Venezuela in place,
Speaker 3: So he's not really committing regime change. So my sense
Speaker 3: is Donald Trump gets a lot of muscle and then
Speaker 3: does something small. It would be uncharacteristic of everything we
Speaker 3: know of Donald Trump thus far, with all of the
Speaker 3: military power there, to do something that's gargantuan. But he
Speaker 3: may still do something dramatic, and he may do something
Speaker 3: that's surgical, which could you'll have tremendous ramifications for the regent.
Speaker 3: But we don't know what he's going to do. So
Speaker 3: you know, if I were iron, I would probably be
Speaker 3: looking at Donald Trump as a serious threat, particularly for
Speaker 3: their leadership, and try to negotiate something. So Donald Trump's
Speaker 3: strategy here, if it is muscle trying to move the irridiance,
Speaker 3: is not stupid.
Speaker 2: Coming up? Is the economy really roaring back? Steve? There's
Speaker 2: also Trump's favorite tool, tariffs. Last week, the Supreme Court
Speaker 2: ruled that most of Trump's tariffs last year were unlawful,
Speaker 2: and the New York Federal Reserve they found that the
Speaker 2: tariffs are pushing consumer prices up and that the cost
Speaker 2: of them is being paid for of course inside the US.
Speaker 2: So what is it that Americans think about these tariffs
Speaker 2: and how they're hitting their back pocket and why is
Speaker 2: it that Trump just seems to keep doubling down on them.
Speaker 3: Look, Trump is a true believer in tariffs. Tariffs are
Speaker 3: taxes on Americans, and that is what essentially the Supreme
Speaker 3: Court ruled, and that the emergency powers that Trump was
Speaker 3: referring to and applying these massive tariffs, you know, in
Speaker 3: very erratic ways around the world, you know, were was
Speaker 3: not legal. That he could not do that. And he
Speaker 3: looked at the Supreme Court justices and says that was
Speaker 3: a very unfortunate ruling, an unfortunate ruling, you know, and
Speaker 3: and where you could sort of feel the seething nature
Speaker 3: of it.
Speaker 1: And as time goes by, I believe the tariffs paid
Speaker 1: for by foreign countries will, like in the past, substantially
Speaker 1: replaced the modern day system of income tax, taking a
Speaker 1: great financial burden off the people that I love.
Speaker 3: Now, my view is Donald Trump doesn't understand tariffs very well.
Speaker 3: Because Donald Trump throws tariffs around like you know, you know,
Speaker 3: a wet rag. You know, he won to use them
Speaker 3: for everything, not just for the economy. He wants to
Speaker 3: punish nations that are doing business with Iran, or punish
Speaker 3: India for doing deals with Russia and energy that have
Speaker 3: nothing to do with the US economy. So Donald Trump
Speaker 3: loves tariffs. He's going to be at tariffs. Are going
Speaker 3: to find a way to do it. But at the
Speaker 3: same time, I think it was very important to hear
Speaker 3: how he essentially had an affordability streak through that entire speech.
Speaker 1: We are doing really well. Those prices are plummeting down.
Speaker 3: With about the price of eggs.
Speaker 1: The price of eggs is down sixty percent, Madam Secretary.
Speaker 3: Thank you of various things that Americans wanted to buy,
Speaker 3: about the price of gas being down, and asserting that
Speaker 3: prices were plummeting now, which is not true, but trying
Speaker 3: to basically convince Americans that tariffs are nothing. The stock
Speaker 3: market is high, kitchen table economics have never been better,
Speaker 3: and Americans just don't feel.
Speaker 2: That was there actually any substance in what he had
Speaker 2: to say about the economy. You know, he said it
Speaker 2: was roaring back. Is that fair any of it?
Speaker 3: No, Because we know that the economy slowed dramatically, much
Speaker 3: slower than people expected. In the last quarter, so it
Speaker 3: was like a point and a half percent or something,
Speaker 3: which was much slower than people thought. We're also seeing
Speaker 3: something that he didn't discuss, and I think most economic
Speaker 3: projections are going to see robust economic growth for the
Speaker 3: United States in twenty twenty six, but an almost jobless growth,
Speaker 3: so economic growth without jobs growing, and that is something
Speaker 3: that's going to haunt Trump a bit.
Speaker 2: Steve. All of this is gearing up for one big event,
Speaker 2: as we know, the November mid terms. Now, the last
Speaker 2: time Trump was president, the Republicans narrowly won the House,
Speaker 2: but there was that big backlash on issues like abortion.
Speaker 2: What are the issues you think we should be looking
Speaker 2: at this time round? What is it the Republicans will
Speaker 2: be trying to drive home where they think they can
Speaker 2: struct a win.
Speaker 3: Look, I think the Republicans are going to try to
Speaker 3: drive home the same messages that we heard in the
Speaker 3: speech tonight. The Donald Trump is the savior of the
Speaker 3: American worker by getting immigrants out of the country and
Speaker 3: deporting so many people that the nation is allegedly more safe,
Speaker 3: even though we've seen the kidnapping at least of Savannah
Speaker 3: Guthrie's mother in Tucson, Arizona. People are talking about, oh,
Speaker 3: are we rarely that safe? You know, with what's going on.
Speaker 3: You're going to have the Republicans trying to say that
Speaker 3: the economy is still roaring back, and these are very
Speaker 3: positive signals. But I think that they're going to have
Speaker 3: trouble because what we see in polling right now is
Speaker 3: frustration about ongoing you know, impressions of inflation, that the
Speaker 3: cost of just surviving in America is going up, that
Speaker 3: jobs are disappearing, that AI is coming on and displacing
Speaker 3: lots of people, and they're not sure where that's going.
Speaker 3: They see a government in WAYU. Washington obsessed with building
Speaker 3: ballrooms and trophies that Donald Trump is putting his name on.
Speaker 3: And then you see the Ice story, and the Ice
Speaker 3: story has probably been the one that's most riveting. And
Speaker 3: those videos of alex Pretty, a nurse essentially being murdered
Speaker 3: by ICE agents, which led to the massive reaction. But
Speaker 3: remember we not only had the murder, we had the
Speaker 3: Secretary of Homeland Security and others looking at the video
Speaker 3: and trying to gaslight Americans and say, oh, that's not
Speaker 3: what happened. This was a radical waving a gun, et cetera,
Speaker 3: et cetera.
Speaker 2: This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop
Speaker 2: a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers committed
Speaker 2: an act of domestic terrorism. That's the facts.
Speaker 3: Those videos, in those statements are going to haunt every
Speaker 3: Republican in every race. The question is it's easy for
Speaker 3: Democrats to run against Trump right now and against those
Speaker 3: kinds of policies. It's not clear what Democrats stand for,
Speaker 3: and I think that is going to be one of
Speaker 3: the interesting questions. Is just being against those kind of
Speaker 3: things enough? Is the way that he's scared the Hispanic
Speaker 3: community from showing up places? Is that going to be enough?
Speaker 3: And I think that right now it's not looking good
Speaker 3: for Republicans for the House and maybe even the Senate.
Speaker 3: But I would say the Senate's tough for Democrats to win,
Speaker 3: but there is a path. But at the same time,
Speaker 3: you look at Senate leadership and what they stand for,
Speaker 3: and it's very hard to define what their message is.
Speaker 2: Steve, Thanks for chatting with us, my pleasure. Also in
Speaker 2: the news, the evacuation of the Prime Minister from the
Speaker 2: Lodge on Tuesday has been linked to the intimidation of
Speaker 2: a classical Chinese dance group banned in China. The Shenyang Group,
Speaker 2: which is due to tour Australia this month, was sent
Speaker 2: a threatening email. It falsely claimed that explosives had been
Speaker 2: placed around the PM's residence and would be detonated if
Speaker 2: the shows went ahead. And New South Wales police are
Speaker 2: set to patrol places of worship, protests and public buildings
Speaker 2: after a unit created following the Bondai terror attack was
Speaker 2: made permanent. About two hundred and fifty officers will make
Speaker 2: up the dedicated hate crime unit, equipped with long armed
Speaker 2: firearms and rapid response vehicles, but the greens worn it
Speaker 2: could place protesters at risk of greater harm or violence.
Speaker 2: I'm Nicole Johnston. This is seven AM. Thanks for listening