President Trump's Weekly Address, June 30, 2017

Following his predecessors' practice, President Donald Trump has been giving a weekly address that is typically broadcast on the radio. This is the new media age, so the speeches are also posted on the White House website and YouTube.

Donald Trump's weekly address, 6/30/17

Mr. Trump's June 30, 2017 Weekly Address discussed steps that Congress was starting to take to prevent crime by illegal immigrants. The first was Kate's law, which, if adopted, will criminalize the practice of reentering the country illegally and repeatedly. Currently, entering the country without documentation is usually treated as a civil, not a criminal, offense. Trump's argument was that some of these undocumented immigrants are committing violent crimes, and they need to be stopped. In Reaganesque fashion, Trump supported this law with an atypical but very emotional example: "The first bill, Kate’s Law," he said,  "is named for Kate Steinle, who was killed by an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times."

The second, much more controversial, bill that Mr. Trump advocated is entitled the No Sanctuary for Criminals Act (NSCA); it would terminate federal grants to local governments that offer sanctuary to what Trump called in his speech "dangerous criminal aliens." The NSCA is more controversial because it appears to interfere with states' rights, which conservatives have historically held dear. It also causes controversy because many more liberal Christian churches support the biblical concept of sanctuary, which this bill would appear to threaten.

Near the end of the speech, Mr. Trump made a call to action: "I now call on the Senate to take up these bills and send them back to my desk for signature – as soon as possible.  We need security.  We need safety in our country." Every good salesperson knows that it is not enough to persuade people; you must also close the deal. That is why a call to action is so important.

Let us talk for just a moment about how Mr. Trump delivered this Weekly Address. Judging from the video, he probably read the speech right off a Teleprompter or similar device. His oral presentation matched the published text quite precisely. Although he was reading the speech – a practice that I always discourage with my students – he spoke in a conversational and expressive manner: pausing to let words sink in, giving vocal emphasis to words that he really wanted people to remember, speaking slowly and with variety. He spoke calmly and sounded "presidential." Mr. Trump's speech delivery has, in general, been much underestimated. Also, the speech was short and to-the-point. Mr. Trump's Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross, might watch his boss and learn the lesson.

Donald Trump, WH photo

How does the speech fit into our national discourse? A massive political divide afflicts our nation. Judging from the polls, a great many Americans strongly disapprove of Mr. Trump's performance as president. A large minority, however, remains loyal to him. This is, in part, no doubt, because of media choices: Mr. Trump's supporters tend to get their news from talk radio and Fox News, which often under-emphasize Mr. Trump's mistakes and policy failures.

But this is not the entire story. The issue of nationalism and isolationism, on the one hand, and cultural openness on the other hand, is one of America's most enduring conflicts. Henry Clay's famous 1832 speech about "The American System" examined similar issues. The dramatic cultural and religious changes that are sweeping across the nation continue to discomfort many Americans. They worry, not entirely without justification, that these changes might benefit a great many people while leaving them behind, or, worse, harming them and disrupting their lives. Mr. Trump articulated these concerns during his campaign, not elegantly, but pointedly. In the 2017 Weekly Address, he presented anti-immigration ideas clearly and articulately.

Politically, Mr. Trump is fulfilling a fundamental premise of his 2016 presidential campaign. Throughout the campaign, Mr. Trump maintained that illegal immigration was taking American jobs and endangering American citizens. Economists and political scientists debate about whether this was true, but the message resounded with Mr. Trump's voting base. 

So, when 30% or so of the American public thinks that Mr. Trump is doing a good job, they are thinking exactly about the kinds of issues that he talked about in the June 30, 2017 weekly address. Mr. Trump's well-documented problems staffing and running the federal government mean much less to them than to Mr. Trump's opponents. The controversy about Russian involvement in the election will mean less to people who fear immigrants more than they fear the Russians. Mr. Trump is doing something about what they think is the serious problem of undocumented immigration.

What about real life? Statistics show that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. I am the grandchild of immigrants; no one in my family has been a criminal. The fact remains that some immigrants commit some crimes, and this alone is enough to arouse anger against them. So, although I cannot agree with Mr. Trump's policies, which I think are overreacting to a real but overblown problem, Mr. Trump's weekly address fulfilled a promise he had had made to his base voters. He is doing what they elected him to do.

What about the weekly address in general? Does anyone actually listen to these weekly addresses? Does anyone care about them? What difference do they make, if any? I discussed that in an earlier blog post.