If there is one thing the pro-MAGA and never-Trumpers can agree on, it’s that President Trump is on a tear to remake our federal government. While his avid supporters will say he is doing this for the 77.3-million voters who filled in the ballot’s oval for him last November, his detractors will tell you he is building authoritarian rule to whatever degree he can reach.
Last Tuesday night, Trump reached 36.6 million television viewers with his address to the joint session of Congress, USA Todayreports, citing the Nielsen TV ratings research firm.
It was not a State of the Union address, as they do not take place in an inauguration year. Trump gave a one-hour, 39-minute address to a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives, in the House chambers, that was more about his accomplishments so far, than of his agenda for the coming year … which, after all, should be rather apparent by now to anyone from full-on political animals to the politically curious.
The political discourse to the right and left of this column is not so much a traditional Hustings debate as it is a discussion about what the Trump White House is and what it wants to get accomplished.
Specifically, contributing pundit Rich Corbett does discuss Trump’s agenda and how he has made progress on it to-date, in the right column, while guest pundit Jerry Lanson’s left column commentary is an appeal to Trump’s supporters to consider how they could be adversely affected by the reality of that agenda.
You can find more of Lanson’s writing here, at From the Grass Roots. More of Corbett’s work can be found here, at My Desultory Blog.
While you are here, scroll down the page with the trackbar on the far right to read our center-column coverage of Tuesday’s joint-session address, with a column by Stephen Macaulay, our right-leaning never-Trumper pundit-at-large in the right column, and quick-take comments by contributing pundits Sharon Lintner and Jim McCraw in the left column.
As always, we welcome reader comments on all this. EMAIL editors@thehustings.news and please list your political leanings in the subject line, irrespective of your position on the issue in question, so that we post your comments in the proper column.
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Reuters Wrong? – Constant readers will notice that guest pundit Jerry Lanson repeats in his left column a Reuters report that President Trump intends to reverse a Biden administration policy that granted temporary legal status to about 240,000 Ukrainians\ who fled their country after Russia’s 2022 invasion. We repeated the Reuters report in this column Thursday.
You would have to leave this civil media site for the social media site, X/Twitter, to read contributing pundit Rich Corbett’s tweet that reposts a response by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt that calls the Reuters report “false.”
Specifically, Leavitt said that the Trump White House has made “no decision” on deportations of Ukrainian refugees “at this time.”
Of course, the Reuters report cites unnamed sources, including a “senior White House official,” for the report. In an update later Thursday, the news organization says that Trump said Thursday “he would soon decide whether to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians.”
If Trump decides to let the Ukrainians stay, the question that probably will remain eternally unanswered is; Did Reuters get it wrong, or did it speak with sources who wanted to see Trump’s plans surface amidst his flood of executive orders and actions, so that it would be reversed?
CORRECTION: Earlier versions of this center column and of Jerry Lanson's "An Open Letter to Trump Supporters" in the left column incorrectly characterized the 240,000 Ukrainians granted temporary legal status by the Biden administration that Reuters has reported President Trump is considering for deportation.
--Todd Lassa