Snapshot: A Night of Nastiness and Lies

In this time of crisis, I longed for more disruptions of Donald Trump's address to a joint session of Congress

(Photo by Sha Hanting/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

It was a mean speech, full of lies and blame, false promises and ugly attacks. This address before Congress will soon be forgotten as just another example of Donald Trump dividing the country, falsely attacking former President Joe Biden (calling him “the worst president in U.S. history”), falsely insisting that he inherited “an economic catastrophe,” dismissing the impact of his tariffs and foolish trade war (“there will be a little disturbance”), hypocritically making a spectacle of a 13-year-old boy who has survived brain cancer (while cutting funding for child cancer research), lying about the scale of U.S. investment in Ukraine (no, it’s not $350 billion), hypocritically and falsely attacking “radical left lunatics” for undermining law and order and the justice system, and even slurring Sen. Elizabeth Warren (again) as Pocahontas.

On the day when the stock market was tanking from his new tariffs with our neighbors Canada and Mexico, the measles outbreak is expanding and consumer confidence is plummeting, he boasted that “we are going to create the highest quality of life, build the safest and wealthiest and healthiest and most vital communities anywhere in the world.”

But there were four things that I’m mostly likely to remember from last night’s long (100 minutes), painful and stomach-turning event. One was Texas Congressman Al Green speaking out loudly in the early minutes after Trump falsely proclaimed he won “a mandate like has not been seen in many decades.” In response, Rep. Green yelled, “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid!”

For anyone who grasps the country is facing an authoritarian crisis, this was no evening to follow the usual forms of courtesy. I was encouraged by Green disrupting the proceedings, even as an irritated House Speaker Mike Johnson banged his gavel, the petulant Vice President JD Vance gestured with his thumb to get him out, Republicans jeered and chanted “U.S.A! U.S.A!” and the Sergeant-at-arms was called to remove the Texas Democrat.

While a number of Democrats left at different points during Trump’s speech and others held up signs, it was disappointing that most of those in attendance chose to stay and sit silently while Trump flooded the Capitol with his lies and attacks. Green later told reporters that his protest “was worth it to let people know there are some people who are going to stand up” to Trump. We need more of that, including more coordinated disruptions by elected officials.

The second thing was Trump devoting a sizable section of his speech to lie that Musk and his “government efficiency” team is “identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors.” He then detailed at length previously disproven examples of millions of people from 100 to 360 years old receiving Social Security payments. That sure sounded like Trump is expanding the justification for a coming slashing of Social Security, no matter how much he declares that he has no intention to touch it.

The third thing was Trump’s cavalier discussion of his willingness to invade another country, which attracted applause from the slavish Republicans. “We need Greenland for national security and even international security,” Trump said, calling the country “a very, very large piece of land and very, very important for military security.” And, “I think we’re going to get it—one way or the other. We’re going to get it.”

Lest we forget, this appalling boast is about a land that is part of Denmark, which is a member of NATO. So what Trump is saying is that he’s not only ready to invade another nation, he’s willing to attack another NATO nation. (Article 5 of the NATO treaty pledges each member to assist another member who’s under attack.) This threat should be taken seriously.

And lastly, it was nauseating to witness the numerous times that JD Vance and Mike Johnson were laughing—laughing about invading Greenland, laughing about Trump’s slurs, laughing about all the “appalling waste” in foreign aid that they’re ending. This included “$60 million for Indigenous peoples and Afro-Caribbean empowerment in Central America” and $8 million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.” So funny.

Of course, Vance and Johnson and plenty of the Republicans found all this quite hilarious. Their involuntary laughter showcased their cruelty and hostility toward people who are different than them. They are now in power, free to revel in their bigotry, free to engage in easy humiliation and hate. I guess this is what Donald Trump meant when he concluded by talking about “the golden age of America” just beginning and promising that “it will be like nothing that has ever been seen before.”

There is much work ahead of us.

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