Donald Trump's Calm, Rational Speech and Consensus-Building Meeting about the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018

Signing of America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018

Amid all the confusion and horror - vitriolic rhetoric, mail bombs, murders - the United States government actually accomplished something. Congress passed the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 by a vote of 99-1. The infrastructure that enables American prosperity has been crumbling from neglect for many years: our roads, drinking water, electrical grid, and yes, waterways, need multi-trillion-dollar attention. Many people falsely think that tax cuts are the secret to pro-business government. Commerce cannot function, however, unless businesses can transport goods and services, unless reliable energy is available, unless the population has abundant safe food and water, and unless business can operate without facing flood dangers. Overall, the nation must be able to support its industry and people. Infrastructure development was one of President Donald Trump's campaign promises, and the Water Infrastructure Act partially fulfills his promise.

President Trump gave a brief signing speech in the White House that did not resemble the wild, angry speeches he gives at political rallies. His speech was calm, rational, and conciliatory. Instead of taking all the credit himself, he spread praise around the room. It was, in short, a presidential speech given in presidential tone.

After a brief introduction, President Trump praised the members of Congress who guided the bill's passage:

"I want to thank every member of Congress who helped pass this crucial legislation.  I especially want to thank Senators John Boozman, John Barrasso, Ben Cardin, Tom Carper — see, we got bipartisan on this one, folks.  Don’t be shy."

He then tied the new law back to his America First campaign theme, but acknowledged the help that Democrats had given him:

"Under this administration, we are living by two simple, but very important rules: Buy American and hire American.  After years of rebuilding other nations, we are finally rebuilding our nation.  And as far as infrastructure goes, I have a feeling that the two gentlemen on my left, two great senators — they happen to be Democrats — we’re going to be doing a lot of infrastructure together."

While I have heard many Republicans ridicule the idea of infrastructure improvements (which they often consider to be big-government boondoggles), President Trump emphasized how important this project was: "As a candidate, I called for a great rebuilding of America’s crumbling infrastructure." In this respect, President Trump veered away from Republican orthodoxy, and signed a bill that received strong bipartisan support.

Next, the President involved his audience (an excellent speech method that I often recommended to my students). In a style that the news usually overlooks, Trump had gathered quite a few of the law's leading advocates. Not only did he recognize and thank them, regardless of whether they were Republicans or Democrats, but he gave them chances to talk briefly: "So with that, again, I’d like to thank you all.  And maybe I’ll ask a few of you to say a few words." He called first on Republican Senator John Barrasso:

"Well, yes.  Thank you very much, Mr. President, for your leadership on this.  You’ve called for this in the State of the Union.  We have delivered it in a big bipartisan way — the House and the Senate working together for infrastructure."

Mr. Trump next called on Senator John Boozman, a conservative Republican from Arkansas, who echoed Barrasso's sentiments. He then recognized Senator Tom Carper of Delaware, a Democrat who represents a state that depends heavily on beach tourism and port traffic. Carper commented, in part:

"I’m from a little state, Mr. President — Delaware.  And, for us, and for Delmarva, where Ben and I are from, we have great concerns for the quality of our drinking water.  This legislation goes a long ways toward a partnership — furthering a partnership between the state and the federal government to provide more clean drinking water for people to drink."

Clean drinking water is, of course, a major liberal talking point. Several other members of Congress then spoke, as well as the Corps of Engineers' Lietuenant General Semonite.

The entire event displayed a cordial, positive tone. No one called anyone else names. No one raised a voice. No one spread weird conspiracy theories. This is exactly the kind of presentation that a president should give.

Spreading around the credit probably strikes many Democrats as non-Trump-like. But anyone who has been following President Trump's routine presentations should know that he is a proficient leader of business-type meetings and can use these meetings to build consensus and success.

The questions still come up: who is the real Donald Trump? Is the real Donald Trump the crazed lunatic who spouts off bizarre conspiracy theories and wild accusations during political rallies? Or is the real Donald Trump the calm, charming, consensus-building business executive? Those are false questions, and it is a false dilemma. Life is complicated. Both Donald Trumps are real.

Random comments:

1. If President Obama put forward an infrastructure project would Republicans have supported it? (Answer: he did, and Republicans did not.)

2. Is this law as good as it appears? No, of course not. In the fine print, most of the funding has to come from state governments, many of whom have very stretched budgets. That means that the richer blue states will probably get more benefits than the lower-income red states that put Mr. Trump in office. C'est la vie. 

3. Democrats and the mainstream media often have trouble figuring out why Trump gets so much support. One reason, obviously, is that many people respond to Trump's fear appeals and conspiracy theories. Another reason, easily overlooked, is that Trump can turn on the charm and get things done. He hasn't gotten as much done as he promised, and he hasn't gotten as much done as he claims to have done, but readers of my blog (here, for example) should know that this skillfully-run meeting was typical of many of Trump's public appearances.

Image: from Senator John Barrasso's Senate website.