The Shameless Expediency of President Trump’s Address to Congress

In the first sentence of President Trump’s joint address to Congress, on Tuesday night, he noted that it was, at least for a few more hours, Black History Month, which he said was a reminder of the fight for civil rights and “the work that still remains to be done.” In the second sentence, he mentioned the recent threats against Jewish community centers and the vandalism of cemeteries, as well as what he referred to only as “last week’s shooting in Kansas City,” saying that they “remind us that while we may be a nation divided on policies, we are a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all of its very ugly forms.” It was, in the most basic sense, proper and welcome for the President to acknowledge such crimes. He and his speechwriters might have been counting on observers being grateful that he had brushed against the bottom rung of decent gestures, with the vague sense that something Presidential had been said. But it is worth pausing at that opening and reflecting on its political utility, its incongruity, its evasiveness, and, ultimately, its shamelessness—qualities that characterized the address as a whole. Each instance in those first sentences has a remarkable context; each, in its way, poses questions about what Trump needs to be reminded of, what he wants Americans to pretend never happened, and our own capacity to play make-believe when it comes to his Presidency.