President Trump painted an uplifting, “America First” vision for the country during his State of the Union address on Tuesday. Filled with recognitions of American patriotism and savvy political moves, the president pledged that America’s future “will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder, and more glorious than ever before.”
While Trump’s address was certainly as pro-America as it gets, there was something particularly notable about the speech that is unlikely to get a lot of attention. That is, many of the accomplishments that the president rattled off have come as the result of his executive action — and not from the GOP-controlled Congress.
From shutting down the Biden-manufactured invasion at the southern border to ridding the government of racist DEI ideology, the president achieved most of these wins on his own.
That’s both an indictment of feckless Republicans’ failure to codify Trump’s agenda into law and a warning signal to the president that many of the policy items he proposed Tuesday night face strong headwinds in the months to come.
Throughout his speech, Trump called on Congress to pass bills that ban insider trading for members of Congress and “make sure violent and dangerous repeat offenders are put behind bars and, importantly, that they stay there.” He also asked lawmakers to approve a bill (the “Dalilah Law”) “barring any state from granting commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens” and the SAVE America Act, which would implement voter ID and proof-of-citizenship requirements in federal elections.
Taken collectively, these are common sense proposals that the majority of voters are likely to get behind. Their passage into law, however, can only happen if Trump uses his political capital to pressure Republican lawmakers into making it happen.
While Trump has often waged public pressure campaigns against the Freedom Caucus and more conservative members, he’s largely abstained from deploying the same level of pressure against the GOP establishment — many of whom he’s endorsed for reelection in the decade he’s led the Republican Party. With history favoring a Democrat victory in November, the time for a pressure campaign against the latter is now.
Trump’s address offered Americans a compelling and promising vision for the country. But that vision can only become reality if he’s willing to put the screws to the GOP hucksters to enshrine it into law.
