Firing on all pistons, it seems, President Donald Trump prepares to deliver a formal address to a joint session of Congress and a national TV audience this evening (March 4) at 9:00 p.m. ET. Much like the famous tagline for the show Beatlemania, “not the Beatles but an incredible simulation,” Trump’s speech is not a State of the Union (SOTU) address since he returned to office just 43 days ago but the closest thing to it. And, of course, he is well acquainted with the SOTU, having delivered three of them between 2018 and 2020.
While it might turn out to be memorable, it may in some ways be one of the least necessary speeches in memory. That’s because Trump has been the most transparent president in a lifetime, signing an avalanche of executive orders in front of the media while delivering remarks and answering hundreds of questions almost every day since he took the oath of office for a second time. He has left little doubt through his words and actions where he is headed following a campaign in which he was equally expansive in outlining his revolutionary agenda on a daily basis.
As his second honeymoon with the American people carries on at a speed as fast as Joe Biden’s was slow, the 47th president is at the height of his power. His mind-bending dynamism at 78 years old is the bookend to his equally geriatric predecessor, enough to exhaust a man half his age. Even the Associated Press (AP), no friend of this president, grudgingly admits that Trump has been “wielding unimaginable executive power to get what he wants, at home and abroad.”
Ultimate Bully Pulpit for Trump
SOTU speeches generally feature a laundry list of the chief executive’s accomplishments, policies, and plans, embellished to make the sitting president appear to be the second coming of George Washington. It is the ultimate bully pulpit. One side will feature beaming smiles and interrupt dozens of times with applause, while the other side sits on its hands with long faces. Such speeches generally have a shelf life of three or four days before things return to business as usual. About the only thing of which we can be certain is that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson will not rip the speech apart in his bare hands like Nancy Pelosi famously did following Trump’s SOTU address in 2020 in what many believe was one of the most scornful and disgraceful acts ever witnessed before a national TV audience.
Trump might place his greatest emphasis on what he has already accomplished, such as downsizing and identifying all the wasted tax dollars in the federal bureaucracy at warp speed, closing the border, rounding up criminal aliens, and destroying the culture of DEI. These are all receiving high marks from the public. In the most recent Harvard-Harris poll, Trump sits at 52% approval, with 81% of the public supporting mass deportations, 76% favoring DOGE-related efforts to eliminate fraud and waste in government, and 69% approving reduction of the federal budget by$1 trillion, the DOGE target, by cutting spending instead of raising taxes. Public opinion about his distressing Oval Office argument with the Ukrainian president is as yet unclear, though substantial efforts to end the ground war in Europe that has cost at least a million and a half lives, another of the president’s major campaign promises, is bound to receive broad support.
By going hard at these most popular of his positions out of the gate, the president has forced his opponents to either play possum, per the recent words of Democratic strategist James Carville, or come to the defense of the indefensible. They have chosen the latter. As a result, the Democratic Party has hit rock bottom with 36% approval, which pollster Mark Penn notes is its lowest level since he began polling in the late 20th century.
Mountains Still to Climb
While he is certain to boast of all that he has already accomplished, President Trump will also need to address issues that could turn against him in the long run once his honeymoon has ended. At the top of the list are the intertwined elements of rising prices and inflation. Fixing the economy was one of the foundations of the Trump campaign, and one that cannot be addressed by simply signing an executive order. The 45th president’s tax cuts will need to be renewed by Congress now that he’s the 47th, interest rates will have to be carefully calibrated, and reciprocal tariffs will have to be instituted in measured fashion to avoid even higher prices, at least in the short term. It is fair to say that failure to lower the cost of living and decrease inflation within, say, six months will anger voters and threaten the Republican Party’s hold on congressional power in next year’s midterm elections.
With Trump seemingly at the peak of his power, could his already record-high approval climb even higher? It is possible, though not at all certain. He still has mountains to climb and enemies who will stop at nothing to bring him down. A speech to millions of still-anxious Americans that is both inspiring and realistic, soaring yet grounded, and, most of all, convincing will bring the country one small step closer to believing Trump’s promise of a golden age for America is on the way.
