For days just before his speech to Congress on Tuesday night, President Trump took a chain saw at government agencies, launched a trade war, cut off weapons to Ukraine, and laying down brutal authoritarian Russian President Putin.
But visitors arriving from a distant planet who heard Trump's speech in front of an enthusiastic audience of Republicans would not have sensed the scale and intensity of the disruption over the past 44 days, and the deep concerns it created.
Trump revived familiar debate from his campaign rally to justify his actions – waste and fraud of federal officials, the dangers posed by immigrants illegally entering the country, the injustice of the global trading system, and the need to end a bloody war – something was missing.
He never argued that the potential benefits of the mess he triggered, “nothing but quick and relentless action.” He never addressed the fears of investors who hit the “sell” button amid the escalating trade war or allies reaching for the panic button to ensure Washington coincides with Moscow. He didn't talk about why he was inflicting more financial pain on his allies than his enemies.
“They'll be a bit of a hindrance,” he admitted his reaction to his move, and in that case he was the closest to talking about his sudden tariffs.
When he briefly looked at the war in Ukraine towards the end of his 100-minute speech, it was mainly about asking the question, “Would you like to continue it for another five years?”
He never addressed the question of what a fair peace would look like, or whether the US or its European allies would ensure that Ukraine remains an independent state. And he never suggested that Putin might have to give up anything in return.
In short, it was a speech that was oddly detached from the questions that hit Washington since Trump began issuing waves of executive orders after he insisted on controlling Greenland and the Panama Canal and rebuilding Gaza without Palestinians.
Certainly, Trump never stayed on policy. His first semester was presented with a set of options to address complex communication problems, declaring, “This is really boring.”
However, given the severity of Trump's recent actions, it was not unreasonable to look to his speech for insight into where his American instincts are robbing the country and the world as he seeks to abolish some of the Western-dominated systems of laws and regulations leading nations led by NATO or the European Union.
No such was offered. In some respects, this speech was pure Trump and was designed for applause rather than deep inspection. And all the theatres of it were impressive, in the order of Al Green's Mike Johnson, the 77-year-old representative of Texas Democrats, leading up to the removal.
It turned out to be the only discussion of Medicaid evening among the most politically explosive issues facing the administration and Republican-controlled Congress.
But it was pure Trump to go beyond the slogan of moving forward with what he called the “common sense revolution” and celebrate the chaos he caused without explaining its long-term purpose. He did not discuss in detail how he would take on America's biggest global challenges, such as expanding China's reach, expanding nuclear weapons, or strategies to strip Russians and Chinese people from one another.
In fact, he made little mention of America's two biggest nuclear-armed superpower competitors, but their work was much less.
Nor did he dwell on his order for a “freeze on all foreign aid,” a step that has profound human consequences: the inevitable deaths of the world's poorest, who had been dependent on American food or medicine that was suddenly locked away in warehouses across Africa and the Middle East, or the paralysis of a program to fight AIDS that President George W. Bush says was the crown jewelry of his Republican administration, because it saved millions of lives.
He also did not talk about how the US would replace the role USAID played in countering its terrorist roots, or how it planned for the risk of hacking in the lesser known portion of the energy sector of the National Nuclear Safety Administration, which keeps America's nuclear stockpile safe.
Trump has welcomed the overture from Ukrainian President Volodimia Zelensky and appears to have returned to the trajectory with discussions on peace talks and mineral trade. However, Trump has resigned from banning further weapons or other major aid.
And in trade, he gave no hints on Tuesday that he would return to the higher tariffs imposed on China, Canada and Mexico, and he provided a dizzying series of explanations of what he was doing.
He said Canada and Mexico had to do “more” to keep the drug flow down, but he didn't give details. However, his Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, previously suggested that tariffs could be lifted at largely rapid speed, preventing them from turning into taxes on American consumers.
But Trump stuck to the demand for “control” of the Panama Canal. He is already approaching this week by selling two Chinese ports to American investment groups. He sounded like he didn't listen much to martial arts about buying Greenland or forcing it to take it.
All this leaves zigzags, of course, confused, and unsettled traditional American allies, and left them suspicious. Canadian exit Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is currently making a joke about turning the country into a 51st state, saying he believes the intent of the tariffs imposed on his country is to tickle the country.
“What he wants is a complete collapse of the Canadian economy, because it will make it easier to annex us,” he added: “It's never going to happen.”
Perhaps surprised by what Magazine strategist Steve Bannon calls the “multiple speed” of actions and orders, Democrats struggled to deal with the disconnect between what Trump talks and what workers are seen when fired.
But in her response to Trump on Tuesday, Michigan's newly elected Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin began trying to sort out the debate.
She focused on the Trump administration's critique of Elon Musk, the world's wealthiest man at the heart of Trump's efforts to reduce the federal workforce. Musk saw the president's speech from the House Gallery.
“Is there anyone in America who can use his computer server to slam his tax returns, health information, or bank accounts?”
Americans were OK, she said, “The heartless layoffs of people who work to protect our nuclear weapons will ensure our planes don't crash and we'll conduct research to find cures for cancer.
Slotkin, a former CIA officer and moderate Democrat elected in November in the swing state that Trump went to, tried to overturn Musk's claim that he is bringing relentless private sector efficiency to the government.
“The American CEO couldn't do that without being fired immediately,” she said.
