annual presidential speech<\/a> to Congress on Tuesday \u2014 certainly if Trump’s Republican allies have their way.<\/p>\nDemocrats \u2014 the ones who hadn\u2019t already boycotted the whole affair \u2014 were left with a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don\u2019t choice. Either they could align themselves with a president disdained by their party, or they could become a prop in his campaign pitch.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the great things about the State of the Union is how it gives Americans a chance to see clearly what their representatives really believe,” the president said. Then: “If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support: The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens. Not illegal aliens.\u201d<\/p>\n
With that, the lines of division within the chamber \u2014 and, by extension, the nation \u2014 were drawn. <\/p>\n
The speech as a whole underscored the State of the Union\u2019s potential as theater that only a sitting president can direct \u2014 especially one with Trump\u2019s natural abilities as a showman. Trump celebrated veterans and tied their exploits to the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. He capitalized on the U.S. men’s hockey team\u2019s Olympic gold medal. He offered tear-jerking moments, like the introduction of slain activist Charlie Kirk’s widow.<\/p>\n
But nothing landed as hard as the stand-or-sit dichotomy that the president served up.<\/p>\n
Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson leapt to their feet behind him. So did Republican lawmakers watching from the House floor, adding applause. Almost all Democrats remained seated. Some stared, some squirmed. <\/p>\n
\u201cIsn’t that a shame?\u201d Trump said. \u201cYou should be ashamed of yourself, not standing up.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was a moment of the kind that Trump, a former reality television star, has made integral to his presidency. His next challenge will be harnessing his power of division to help Republicans in the midterm elections, as the party faces an uphill battle to maintain their total control of Congress.<\/p>\n
One could almost sense the moment being marked on tape for \u201cMake America Great Again” loyalists to circulate on social media and store for campaign ads in the upcoming midterm elections. Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff, posted on X: \u201cThe entire Democrat Party disqualified itself from government service in this one exchange. Nothing like it in U.S. history.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is your Democratic Party right here,\u201d host Lawrence Jones said on \u201cFox & Friends\u201d Wednesday. \u201cThe entire speech was riddled with test questions for Democrats.\u201d The problem with Democrats is they don’t see people \u201cwith different stripes\u201d as legitimate Americans, he said.<\/p>\n
On CNN, analyst Van Jones called it a stunt. \u201cIf he would have said \u2018Stand up if you like puppies,\u2019 they would have said, \u2018We like kittens.\u2019 I mean, there was no way they were going to stand up. He was just trying to make Democrats look bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stationed in Saginaw, Michigan, to get the reaction of residents to Trump’s speech, Jones asked a man on the panel what he would have done if he were a Democrat in that position. The man didn’t directly answer the question. Jones asked again. \u201cI would have respected our country and I would have stood to my standards. I would have stayed to who I am.”<\/p>\n
In a Fox News Channel interview Wednesday, Bill Hemmer asked Sen. John Fetterman, a Pennsylvania Democrat, whether or not he stood at that moment.<\/p>\n
Fetterman said he stood when Trump introduced the mother of a crime victim. He stood for Trump’s introduction of a freed political prisoner from Venezuela. He stood for Erika Kirk. He celebrated military veterans. But he didn’t address Hemmer’s specific question.<\/p>\n
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York redirected the question when asked about it on CNN. \u201cWe agree we need to protect Americans,\u201d he said. \u201cHe’s not. By his reckless ICE agency in Minnesota, two Americans were killed. Americans are being pulled out of their car and beaten.\u201d<\/p>\n
The moment illustrated Trump’s skill as a television communicator, honed for years as star of \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d before entering politics, said Robert Thompson, director of Syracuse University\u2019s Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture. \u201cHowever we feel about the politics and craziness,\u201d Thompson said, \u201che has a real sense of rhetorical timing. He can play a room.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats were caught in the rhetorical headlights, filling a role they had been cast in without their knowledge or consent, he said. With more time to think, he said, they could have just rolled their eyes and stood up.<\/p>\n
That may have made sense if Trump had said nothing beyond the role of government is to protect American citizens, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
But he didn’t. Phrasing it as a choice between citizens and “illegal aliens\u201d \u2014 a phrase offensive to many \u2014 changed the equation, she said. The challenge may have been effective with the president’s base of supporters, but independents and Democrats will recognize it as a trap, she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t think the Democrats had any choice,\u201d Jamieson said. \u201cBut here’s a potential implication: You may see a higher number of Democrats not attending future State of the Union addresses.\u201d<\/p>\n
Democrats could not participate in framing any immigrant as less than human, said party strategist Xochitl Hinojosa. While the president got a visual \u201cthat might end up being on Fox News all day,\u201d it does not change the negative consensus many Americans have about his handling of immigration and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement crackdown in Minneapolis, where two Americans were killed, she said.<\/p>\n
David Axelrod, former President Barack Obama’s communications maestro, said Trump’s goal was to bait a response. He downplayed the idea that Democrats made an enduring mistake even if Trump got what he wanted in the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s on the defense now\u201d on the economy and even immigration, Axelrod said. \u201cIt will be interesting to see how it plays out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Antjuan Seawright, a Democratic strategist from South Carolina who sometimes advises House Minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, said the challenge to Democrats to sit or stand was a \u201cdistraction moment\u201d for Trump.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think,” he said, that \u201cthe members who ignored the president did our party a favor.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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