Of course, much of it was going to be bullshit just like his 100-minute address to Congress last March.
True to form, Trump told some whoppers.
He claimed that America was raking in trillions in tariffs from foreign government when in reality it is paid by American importers and passed onto consumers.
He claimed to have ended 8 wars when the U.S. is not party to most of these ceasefires or peace agreements.
He claimed America had record inflation under President Biden. In fact, America had much higher inflation both after the end of WWII and during the Watergate scandal.
He claimed America saw the sharpest drop in its murder rate in history. Except that the study didn't include either Jackson, Mississippi or Birmingham, Alabama which had the highest murder per capita rates in the U.S. in 2024. Even so, the murder rate has been declining for years save for a spike during COVID in 2020.
He claimed the price of eggs have declined by 60%. Perhaps the wholesale price, but not the retail price.
He claimed to have obliterated Iran's nuclear program but wants to go to war with them because their nuclear program is still in operation.
But then it got ugly.
Trump claimed corruption was plundering America and laid all of it at the feet of "Somali pirates" in Minnesota. Says the President who is using his office to profit to the tune of nearly $4 billion off crypto schemes.
Well, President Reagan had the War on Drugs.
Well, now Trump has started the War on Fraud and is appointing JD Vance to lead the charge.
You know the guy who created stories about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs.
What could go wrong?
Based on what's already gone wrong, I shudder to think about that.
Trump castigated Democrats for not funding DHS claiming they were impeding snow removal. Yeah, well here in Massachusetts, Governor Healey declared a state of emergency and called in the state National Guard. She didn't need Trump to take action.
This isn't to say that Trump didn't reward genuinely good deeds as he did with 100-year-old Navy Captain Royce Williams for his service in Korea bestowing him with the Congressional Medal of Honor. But like always, Trump made it about himself and said he wanted to give himself a Congressional Medal of Honor. Indeed, a few days ago, Trump said he should have received a Congressional Medal for visiting Iraq during his first term in 2018.
So why did I give 107 minutes of my time to a bullshit artist?
Because it is my duty to do so as an act of citizenry. If we are to effectively criticize Trump, then we have to remind ourselves of what he tells us and what he intends to do so no matter how nonsensical it is. Like it or not, Trump is President and that makes him a dangerous man. We need to shine a light to that danger and do everything in our power to make that danger stop.
In her SOTU response, Virginia Democratic Governor Abigail Spanberger noted:
In his speech tonight, the President did what he always does. He lied, he scapegoated and he distracted. And he offered no real solutions to our nation's pressing challenges, so many of which he is making actively worse. He tries to divide us. He tries to enrage us. To pit us against one another, neighbor against neighbor. And sometimes he succeeds.
With that said, I would have preferred it if Democrats showed up and then walked out en masse as he was decrying Somalians. It would have made for compelling drama.
At the same time, decades pass in days. Chances are very few people will remember what Trump said tonight. Some, of course, have tuned him out. But others among us because he will have said and done so many other egregious things. When you flood the zone with shit, some of it will remains and its stench will linger.
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