Anticipating Tomorrow's Joint Session Sideshow
On Tuesday, President Trump will be giving his address to a joint session of Congress, with Democrats planning varying degrees of protest.
Trump's speech will begin at 9pm ET, and the Democratic response (delivered by Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-MI) will also begin at that time. There will also be a Spanish language response given by Rep. Adriano Espaillat, D-NY, and a Working Families Party response from Rep. Lateefah Simon, D-CA.
While it's being reported that Trump will be focusing on the economy in his speech, it should be noted that tomorrow, Trump's tariffs on Canada and Mexico (both set to be 25%), as well as China (10%) will go into effect. This caused a stock selloff today, where the DOW Jones Industrial Average dropped roughly 650 points due to concerns around the tariffs.
Democrats are preparing for tomorrow's sideshow in various ways. Here in Washington State, Sen. Patty Murray has announced she will be boycotting the speech altogether, opting for holding town halls with her constituents instead. Democrats who are attending the speech will be bringing former Federal workers who lost their jobs due to Trump and DOGE's mass terminations across multiple Federal agencies.
What I would like to see happen during the joint session address, is Democrats walking out during the speech, or taking direct action to disrupt it. Whether this will happen or not is yet to be seen, as there's no indication of a larger protest at present. I think now is the perfect time for Democrats to make bold moves as a party, to make the American people who are tuned out pay attention to what Trump and his administration are currently doing to dismantle the Constitution and the rule of law. Trump will undoubtedly lie through his teeth hundreds of times during his address, and will go unchecked for the most part, due to Democrats holding their rebuttal concurrently.
This will be political theatre, but it will also set the tone for months to come, as we mark six weeks since Trump took office. It's no secret the levels of corruption and lawlessness he's already brought to the Oval Office in record time. Tuesday's speech will most certainly try to paint a picture of campaign promises kept, and economic strength, when the reality is we have never been more isolated and our economy is on the brink of a recession. I will be posting a write up after the speech concludes and look forward to sharing it with you at that time.