The state of the union is strong, in the words of President Donald Trump, but it is also dangerous and dangerous.
What was not mentioned in Trump’s speech this week was that “America’s golden age” requires a clear-eyed understanding of the threats the nation faces and the drastic measures needed to protect it.
Undocumented immigrants hiding in the country are looking to rob and kill, the president said. Foreign enemies are ready to kill American soldiers who are fighting to protect the sovereignty of the country.
To illustrate this point, Trump has released harrowing accounts of suffering and death intended to amuse his audience and evoke a visible reaction that will build support for the solutions he has in mind.
Trump often punctuates his speeches with images intended to grab and hold the listener’s attention, and Tuesday’s speech was no exception. His first speech in 2017 set the tone. The newly elected president said the country has become a hub of “rusty industries scattered like tombstones in our country.”
“This American carnage stops here and it stops right now,” he said at the time.
Jeff Shesol, Bill Clinton’s White House speechwriter, said of Trump’s speech: “He’s always been tempted by that” — meaning a gruesome image.
This time, Trump is talking about the shooting of Andrew Wolfe, a member of the West Virginia National Guard who was nearly killed in November while on duty in Washington, DC, as part of Trump’s efforts to curb crime in the city. Another member of the guard, Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed in an ambush near the White House.
Trump described the phone call he had with Wolfe’s mother while her son was lying in his hospital bed, “all covered in blood.” The story ended on an encouraging note, with Wolfe demonstrating the speech and the general pinning the Purple Heart to his paper.
Left unsaid is the timeline. In October, Trump declared that Washington is “crime free.”
“It took 12 days to solve this problem,” Trump said at the time.
However, the city they claimed to protect was not safe enough for the two members of the guard who were guarding it the following month.
In stark terms, Trump also described the wounds of Eric Slover, who was part of the military strike last month that captured former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.
Leading the American attack force in a Chinook helicopter, the warrant officer was hit by gunfire, “very badly, in the leg and hip, bullet after bullet,” Trump said.
“He absorbed four painful shots, and broke his leg into many pieces,” he added.
Blood was “flowing,” Trump said, “flowing back down the aisle” of the helicopter. Slover told his pilot to take over, that he was “going to pass away,” Trump said.
“It was unbelievable what happened to his legs,” Trump added. “All those who were in the back of the helicopter knew because they saw the blood flowing on the road.”
In the end, the campaign succeeded, Slover survived and Trump used the speech to award him the Medal of Honor.
Perhaps the most poignant story Trump has released involves Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old refugee from Ukraine who was killed in August aboard a commuter train in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The killing has received national attention and has become a turning point in the hotly contested Senate race in North Carolina, a battleground state that is key to Democrats’ chances of taking the upper chamber.
Trump said that “a vicious animal who had been arrested more than a dozen times and had been released without bail stood up and slashed his neck and body with a knife.”
“No one will ever forget the fear on Iryna’s face when she looked at her attacker in the last seconds of her life,” he said. “He died instantly.”
Trump said he “escaped a brutal war, until he was killed by a stubborn criminal who was allowed to kill in America. He entered through open borders.”
A fact check from the Charlotte Observer said Trump’s claim that the suspect, DeCarlos Brown, entered through “open borders” was untrue. The newspaper reported that Brown was born in Charlotte, according to his Facebook page, and his mother said he graduated from high school.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment on the “open borders” reference.
For years, Trump has sought national security attention by highlighting crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. Trump used the State of the Union to contrast his tough border policies with those of the Democrats.
He talked about the death of a 16-year-old high school student during the administration of President Joe Biden. Lizbeth Medina didn’t make it to the Christmas show as expected, she said. His mother went home to find him and found him “lying in the bathtub dead, bleeding profusely after being stabbed 25 times.”
“Lizbeth’s killer was an illegally detained alien who broke in brutally, and brutally extinguished the brightest light in her family’s life,” he said. “With violence and cruelty.”
His mother’s presence in the House chamber was a reminder of “why we are chasing illegal criminals … and getting them out of here quickly,” he said.
Trump blamed Democrats for not supporting his attacks on immigration, saying they should be “shameful.” This comment caused a conflict with other members of the Democratic House, who called him a “liar” and said he should be ashamed.
Macabre though Trump may have sounded, moments of joy punctuated the evening. He borrowed from the game show “The Price Is Right” in inviting mysterious guests waiting outside the House gallery to come through the doors and surprise the audience. The gold medal winning hockey team, “for a price.” Venezuelan political prisoner Enrique Marquez, “please come down.”
Trump called the hockey team into the House gallery to congratulate them on winning the gold medal amid thunderous applause. He celebrated Coast Guard rescue swimmer Scott Ruskan, who saved dozens of lives in the Texas floods last year.
The nation saw Marquez reunited with his nephew.
“He has put us on our feet, driving veterans from five different wars, parents, mothers, children and Olympic gold medalists,” said Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., in an interview after the speech. “That was at least a positive.”
