Trump’s joint session speech. Let’s talk about it. Or rather, the reaction surrounding his speech to Congress last night. 

I’m not going into the actual content of Trump’s speech because 1) it was merely a watered-down version of his past speeches made over the last month or so and 2) I can fact check falsehoods and half-truths until I’m blue in the face, but frankly there’s a bigger picture here.

Anchors and pundits alike were a little beside themselves to see President Donald Trump acting so, for lack of a better word, “presidential.” Turns out the bar is so low that as long as Trump doesn’t mention Twitter or “fake news,” he is treated like one of the greatest orators of our time.

Trump has all the makings of a wannabe dictator – but he’s missing one crucial skill. Trump is a terrible public speaker. Like, comically terrible. His speeches would be a lot funnier if the content wasn’t so horrifying. 

What we saw last night was teleprompter Trump. If his speech Tuesday night showed us anything, it’s that the president of the United States can stand and read off a teleprompter for 60 minutes without letting his insecurities get the best of him.

I mean, hey, he didn’t brag about his electoral college win. Or straight up grabbing womens’ genitals during a joint session to Congress. 

Nice work, sir. Gold star for you.

Ah, too soon?

Speaking of families of fallen soldiers, by far the biggest applause of the night was given in honor of Carryn Owens, one of Trump’s guests and the widow of Ryan Owens, a Navy Seal who was killed in a Yemen raid in late January.

It was a genuinely heartfelt moment shared between a president and a grieving widow. At least, it would’ve been if it wasn’t for those pesky facts that always seem to be tripping up Trump and his team.

As many as 30 civilians were killed in the Jan. 29 raid, including a number of children. A $70-million aircraft was destroyed and two service members were injured in the crash. It remains to be seen how much useful intelligence was gathered from the raid.

Despite the mixed results, press secretary Sean Spicer doubled down on the White House’s assertion that this mission was a success.

Here’s what Spicy said on Feb. 9:

“It’s absolutely a success, and I think anyone who would suggest it’s not a success does disservice to the life of Chief Ryan Owens.”

Now, this is a pretty incredible statement coming from the White House. Spicer is trying to set the standard of when it’s acceptable to criticize U.S. military operations. Mind you, he’s not trying to control criticism of service members themselves, but rather the act of taking a hard look at the decisions coming out of the Trump administration. In Scary Spice’s mind, to critique these operations is somehow crossing a line.

Now, that was the administration’s position until Spicy realized journalists weren’t going to back down from challenging his feeble attempt at censorship.

Here’s what Ginger Spice said on Feb. 27:

“As I mentioned before, I think you can’t ever say that when there’s, most importantly loss of life and people injured, that it’s 100 percent successful. But I think when you look at what the stated goal of that mission was, it was an information and intelligence-gathering mission and it achieved that — its objectives. … And so, we’re very comfortable with how the mission was executed and, you know, we’ll let the Department of Defense go through that review process and then see where that leads us.”

Sidenote: Spicer appears to have contracted whatever illness his boss has that prevents him from speaking in complete sentences. The above quote didn’t even kind of answer the question. 

Trump continued to lay the blame heavy on generals, even though he approved the mission, being the president and all.

Appearing on Fox and Friends some weeks after the raid, Trump saw the high road ahead of him, panicked, and dug himself a hole instead.

“This was something that was, you know, just — they wanted to do,” Trump said. “ And they came to see me and they explained what they wanted to do, the generals, who are very respected.

“And they lost Ryan,” Trump said.

Notice a word that’s missing?

Wikimedia Commons

There may be no “I” in ‘Trump,’ but there’s one in ‘president’

And as a president, Trump needs to own up to the responsibilities of the job he signed up for. This includes being held accountable for the choices he makes while in charge.

There’s a lot of responsibilities you have, Mr. President. Lots of ’em. They’re all a pretty big deal.

Service members’ lives depend on on you doing your job so they can effectively do theirs.

Which brings us back to that standing ovation made in honor of Owen’s widow during the joint session and why this whole thing is more convoluted that it appears.

Trump supporters saw that moment as was proof that Trump leading us to the promised land of a glorious Trumpmerica, and is worthy of our unadulterated adoration and praise. That in itself isn’t surprising.

But even CNN’s Van Jones, a vocal opponent of the Trump administration, reacted positively, calling Trump “presidential” for the first time.

Trump wanted to inject a little drama into an otherwise average speech to invoke praise, no matter how grudgingly it was given.

Don’t get me wrong, past presidents have done similar things in their speeches too. Presidents love anecdotes involving ‘real Americans’ to make a grander point about their policy-making.  From Obama to Bush to Clinton to Reagan and beyond – it’s like a rite of passage.

But when the leader of this country refuses to take blame for Owens’ death, when he passes that responsibility onto generals or even the previous administration, Trump loses that privilege to score political points with the American people.

Especially with service members and their families. They know what sacrifice is and what it takes. Trump has demonstrated over and over that he does not.

We’re only about two months in. If he can’t take the blame for one death, how can we expect Trump to be held accountable for any military intervention moving forward? We can’t.

If we as citizens can’t reach even this basic, fundamental level of trust with Trump and the military, who are we going to trust instead?

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