Donald Trump’s Washington reaches a new partisan peak

“The next president of the United States will only be the president of a party,” Thomas Jefferson predicted as George Washington, with his singular stature, ceded the office. In the modern era, that cramped vision of the presidency has never been as starkly on display as it was on March 4th, when Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress for the first time in his second term. At least within the chamber that evening, he was the president of worshipful Republicans, and the scowling, leaderless Democrats seemed relevant only as his foil.

Mr Trump’s own vision for America under him was as grandiose and imperious as ever. “We are going to forge the freest, most advanced, most dynamic and most dominant civilisation ever to exist on the face of this earth,” he pledged in closing, having earned at least one superlative by delivering the longest presidential speech to Congress, at about 100 minutes, in recorded history. Yet as he extolled his imposition of tariffs on allies and adversaries alike, declared victory over “wokeness” and “unelected bureaucrats” and renewed pledges to obtain Greenland and the Panama Canal, he held out little hope that Democrats would join in creating his civilisation. For their part, they made clear they had no interest in doing so. They stayed seated or stood with backs turned as Mr Trump made his way into the chamber, shaking Republican hands and patting Republican backs.

Anticipating this stony reception, Mr Trump came prepared to beat Democrats over the head with their own silence. “Once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realise there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud,” he said. Staring down at them, he asked, “For just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America, for the good of our nation?”

As Republicans leaped to their feet to applaud Mr Trump or chant his name, Democrats played the role he expected, making themselves seem ineffectually partisan by waving little signs printed with words like “false” or “that’s a lie”. Some walked out, wearing shirts that read “resist” on the back because they just couldn’t, unfortunately. One, Congressman Al Green of Texas, was ejected for trying to shout the president down. Few ever clapped, and then wanly, even when Mr Trump, in one of the evening’s few new disclosures, said Pakistan had delivered into American custody the terrorist behind an attack that killed 13 American soldiers during the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.

In fairness to Democrats, Mr Trump was the fiercest partisan in the room. His speech was short on new agenda items for his second term, usually the main matter of such addresses. He spent more time extravagantly boasting about the last election and his achievements in his first days back on the job. He asserted that Elon Musk’s cost-cutting initiative had identified “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud”, an amount in excess even of Mr Musk’s own poorly substantiated claims. Mr Trump declared “it has been stated by many” that his first month in office was the most successful in American history. “You know who number two is?” he asked. “George Washington.” He called his predecessor, Joe Biden, “the worst president in American history”.

As a candidate Mr Trump promised to lower prices on his first day in office. Lately he has talked less about high prices. Before Congress, he blamed Mr Biden, saying he had inherited “an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare”. After two days of falling stock prices in response to 25% tariffs Mr Trump imposed on Canada and Mexico, Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said before the speech that Mr Trump would “probably” announce a reduction on March 5th. But Mr Trump gave no sign he intended to back down, insisting tariffs were “about protecting the soul of our country” and making it rich. “There’ll be a little disturbance,” he said. “But we’re OK with that. It won’t be much.”

Mr Trump had also promised to end the war in Ukraine on his first day. He offered no new details on what a peace might look like. But he said he had received a letter from Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, pledging support for “a peace that lasts” and indicating he would sign a deal to extract Ukrainian minerals that Mr Trump has sought. “I appreciate that he sent this letter,” Mr Trump said, suggesting a possible thaw.

A bipartisan need

As during the campaign, Mr Trump repeatedly warned of dangers posed by illegal immigrants admitted under Mr Biden. While Democrats had said they needed new legislation to secure the border, Mr Trump said, “it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.” Later, however, he called for legislation himself, urging Congress to supply money to prevent the smuggling of fentanyl. The speech was surely effective, at least for those inclined to support Mr Trump, thanks in part to moments that seemed designed to be shared on social media. Singling out guests in the gallery, Mr Trump made a young boy with cancer an honorary agent of the Secret Service, and told another young man who longed to attend West Point that he had been admitted.

Delivering the Democratic response, Elissa Slotkin, a newly elected senator from Michigan and former CIA officer, executed the thankless task with rare crispness, particularly given the Democrats’ muddle. She spoke of serving both Democratic and Republican presidents and of bipartisan American support for a strong middle class and strong national security. While Mr Trump was cutting programs to finance tax cuts for billionaires, she said, “Grocery and home prices are going up, not down, and he hasn’t laid out a credible plan to deal with either of those.” It’s a message that might work if prices stay high, and if Democrats ever come up with a credible plan themselves. ■