President Trump did something Tuesday night that he has rarely done since taking office: He used the presidential bully pulpit to reach beyond his hardcore base of supporters to make his case to the American people as a whole.<\/p>\n
Speaking from the Oval Office for the first time during his presidency, Trump embraced our country\u2019s tradition as a nation of immigrants, declaring \u201cAmerica proudly welcomes millions of lawful immigrants who enrich our society and contribute to our nation.\u201d He then offered a cogent explanation for why he believes we face what he called \u201ca humanitarian crisis \u2013 a crisis of the heart and a crisis of the soul\u201d along our southern border.<\/p>\n
He pointed out the human cost of our broken system to illegal migrants themselves, expressing compassion for the \u201cchildren (who) are used as human pawns by vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs\u201d and the \u201cwomen (who) are sexually assaulted on the dangerous trek up through Mexico.\u201d He shared heartbreaking stories of Americans killed by criminal aliens who had no right to be here.<\/p>\n
And he laid out his solution, which he explained was \u201cdeveloped by law enforcement professionals and border agents\u201d and includes funds for cutting-edge technology, more border agents, more immigration judges, more bed space and medical support \u2013 and $5.7 billion for a \u201cphysical barrier\u201d that he called \u201cjust common sense.\u201d Without naming her, Trump responded to the absurd charge from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that a wall is \u201cimmoral.\u201d Democrats voted repeatedly for physical barriers until he was elected president, he noted.<\/p>\n
If a wall is immoral, Trump asked, \u201cwhy do wealthy politicians build walls, fences and gates around their homes? They don\u2019t build walls because they hate the people on the outside, but because they love the people on the inside.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president did not unilaterally declare a national emergency. Instead, he called for compromise and said, \u201cTo those who refuse to compromise in the name of border security, I would ask: imagine if it was your child, your husband, or your wife, whose life was so cruelly shattered and totally broken?\u201d<\/p>\n
He was, in short, presidential.<\/p>\n
Democrats insisted on equal time, which is highly unusual for presidential addresses other than the State of the Union. It was a mistake. In contrast to Trump, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer came across as small and intransigent.<\/p>\n
While Trump spoke calmly and rationally from behind the Resolute Desk, the Democratic leaders accused him of \u201cpounding the table\u201d and having a \u201ctemper tantrum.\u201d While Trump told human stories, they complained about process. They accused him of arguing that the women and children at the border were \u201ca security threat\u201d when he had just explained to the American people that they were victims, too. They charged him with using the \u201cbackdrop of the Oval Office to manufacture a crisis, stoke fear and divert attention from the turmoil in his administration.\u201d They were partisan and petty, while Trump came across as reasonable and even compassionate.<\/p>\n
To normal Americans watching in the heartland, and who are not steeped in Trump hatred, the president must have seemed like the adult in the room.<\/p>\n
And, most important, Pelosi and Schumer failed to use the one word that millions of Americans were longing to hear \u2013 compromise. But Trump did. That is why the president won the night. Schumer and Pelosi appealed to their base, while Trump made an effective appeal to persuadable Americans.<\/p>\n
Until now, Trump has owned the government shutdown that prompted this address, because he\u2019s the one who started it. But if Democrats continue to attack him, and won\u2019t entertain any compromise, soon the shutdown will be all theirs \u2014 because they\u2019re the ones who have refused to end it.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MARC A. THIESSEN Washington Post Writers Group WASHINGTON President Trump did something Tuesday night that he has rarely done since…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[362],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093606"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1093606"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1093607,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093606\/revisions\/1093607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1093606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1093606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1093606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/604713825632292864\/jbR-MqmW_400x400.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n