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Four Things to Help you Detox from the SOTU [1]

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Date: 2025-03-05

I didn’t watch the SOTU because I would rather stab myself repeatedly with poison darts.

But it has been especially difficult to avoid his ugly face and the face of his ugly VP and house speaker this morning. As well as the retelling of his lies.

Here are four things that made me feel much better. First this amazing response from the wonderful Senator from MI:

Second Rep. Stansbury bravely holding this sign

Third, this from Dan Pfeifer

A Speech Trump Will Come to Regret

Trump is High on His Own Supply A high-profile speech like this should lay out an agenda, but more importantly, it's a once-a-year opportunity to shape the political environment. Doing so successfully means understanding the current voter mindset and anticipating which way the political winds are blowing. Trump did neither. This is willful ignorance borne of insecurity and self-aggrandization. Storm clouds wait on the horizon. There are some real warning signs about the economy. Inflation remains stubbornly high, GDP projections are gloomy, and the markets reacted negatively to Trump’s tariff policies. The S&P 500 has dropped below its Election Day level, erasing the so-called “Trump Bump.” On the political front, Trump’s approval numbers are down, and voters are concerned about his priorities. On the economy, Trump is making the exact same mistake as Joe Biden. He is trying to tell people that everything is going great when they don’t feel that progress in their daily lives. As anyone who watched focus groups in 2024 knows, voters have a viscerally angry reaction to being told that everything is hunky-dory when it isn’t. Voters remain concerned about inflation — and think Trump isn’t paying enough attention to it. These speeches matter less than they used to. The State of the Union polling bump doesn’t exist. Changes in media consumption and increased polarization mean the audience is made up almost entirely of super fans and haters. The swath of the country who decides elections will likely consume little of the speech. However, these speeches are a window into a President’s strategic thinking. They are a test of whether the President understands the politics of the moment and has a plan for success. And despite all of the plaudits from the pundits, Trump failed this test miserably. This speech was a waste. Trump won the presidency because of inflation. He talked about it incessantly on the campaign trail. It was a focus of his campaign ads. None of that populism was present last night. Trump thumbed his nose at voters’ biggest concern. In the longest joint address to Congress in history, Trump spent about two minutes on inflation. That’s a decision that he will come to regret.

and finally, this self inflicted wound — a huge mistake

The Stupid: "I have created the brand new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Perhaps. Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight," Trump said during his speech. Only one problem. That’s not what the Justice Department has been telling judges in litigation involving the Musk-led effort to privatize government. They’ve been doing everything they can to claim Musk is not in charge of DOGE, including telling the judge that a woman named Amy Gleason, who was on vacation in Mexico when they made the representation to the court, is the Acting Administrator. It didn’t take lawyers long to point that out. Trump was barely finished when Kel McClanahan filed a “Notice of New Evidence” in Lentini v. DOGE, one of three cases that have been consolidated to hear claims about DOGE’s legality in the District of Maryland. McClanahan argued that Trump’s statement about Musk “conclusively demonstrates that expedited discovery is urgently needed to ascertain the nature of the Department of Government Efficiency and its relationship to the United States DOGE Service.” The best outcome for Trump, following his epic foot in mouth, is that Judge Jia Cobb grants the motion to expedite which would make this the first case where pro-democracy lawyers would gain access to information about the inner workings of DOGE, likely a treasure trove that would further underscore the lawless manner in which Trump is acting. The worst case is that someone gets held in contempt, either civil or criminal. That would open an entire can of worms about how the courts enforce their orders against a Trump administration that has at least suggested it might not comply with ones it doesn’t like. But that fight is, inevitably, coming, and judges don’t like it when parties lie to them, especially when it’s so explicit and when it’s the government doing it, here, rather uniquely, with the president’s involvement.

Keep strong everyone.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/5/2308057/-Detoxing-from-the-SOTU?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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