2025 Speeches Round-up

There's been a flurry of activity in the political world over the past few months as President Trump began his second term.  His various speeches have underscored his personality and the sense of political capital he's gained from his election to a second term.  I feel that he often conveys himself in speeches in not the best way, sometimes even being as forceful as a bulldozer to get his point across, although I agree with the principles behind what he says.

As I listened to his inaugural address in the US Capitol rotunda had lots of glowing language.  He referred to the time at hand as the "Golden Age of America".  While certainly some of his policy changes are going to take the USA in the right direction, in contrast to the previous administration, I recognize that many people aren't sharing in that sense of celebration and it's not feeling so "golden" for them.

I think it's unnecessary to change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.  Furthermore, I don't think there's a pressing need to switch Denali back to Mt. McKinley, although maybe there's a way to make the two names interchangeable and both equally valid.  On both points, it didn't seem to fitting to include those details in his inaugural address because they're rather off-topic.

One talking point I was glad to hear was his firm declaration that the federal government would now recognize only two genders, male and female.  The trends toward promoting a spectrum of genders isn't helping our society and leading to some rather bizarre acts, like the DEI activities, so it's refreshing to hear the President of the USA steer us back to something that's common sense.

After the inaugural ceremony concluded, he made off-the-cuff style remarks to the crowd in the US Capitol Visitors' Center, and it was kind of nice to hear him engage with the crowd in a more light-hearted way.

About a month later, Governor Pritzker gave his annual State of the State and Budget Address to the Illinois General Assembly.  During the speech, he talked about keeping finances in sound shape and continuing to provide social services to meet he needs of people, a topic he often mentions in his annual speeches.  One policy topic he mentioned that got my attention was for the General Assembly to pass legislation requiring that all public school districts in Illinois have a policy governing student use of cell phones/mobile devices, which is part of a bigger conversation gaining traction about managing the use of these devices by students to help steer them from adverse effects.  He took plenty of jabs at President Trump, and I didn't feel they were all in good taste, because they weren't balanced with a vision of responding with more edifying action.  Toward the end, I was rather taken aback by his brazen comparison of President Trump with Adolf Hitler and the rise of the Nazi Party.  While President Trump can be forceful, I don't think it was right how Governor Pritzker made that comparison, and even a couple of prominent Jewish people in Illinois criticized those remarks.

Next month, on March 4, President Trump gave a presidential address before a joint session of Congress.  I felt it was too long, but again, he made many worthwhile points, including about policy, that I agreed with and needed to be said.  He highlighted the story of a mother whose daughter was secretly transitioned to the opposite gender, and used that to underscore his opposition to transitioning procedures.  He then shifted to stating that the US government won't promote woke DEI efforts, which is a great opportunity for us turn our attention away from something that isn't substantially helping bring our society together, doing more harm than good.

It was interesting how he actually went through a list of wasteful expenses uncovered by DOGE.

Furthermore, he underscored that no matter what good things he does in office, the Democrats will continually oppose him, and then we saw that actually happen in the chamber.  At many points, there were standing ovations, even for touching stories that President Trump highlighted, but the Democrats remained seated and wouldn't react, like the teen who was made an honorary member of the Secret Service.

Senator Elissa Slotkin gave the rebuttal after the speech.  She was concise in making her point, criticizing the seeming overreach of DOGE and suggesting better ways to address government inefficiency.  Tellingly, she didn't address much in the way of social issues, perhaps because Donald Trump is spot on and there's not much Democrats could do as effectively in rebutting him.  It was a strategic move for the Democrats to choose her because she was elected from an area of Michigan that largely favored Donald Trump in the 2024 election.

Overall, Donald Trump is, again, acting like a bulldozer, moving with immense determination in seeking to clean up government waste, making functions more efficient, and putting the US back in better moral standing.