Instant Reaction: Trump Touts 'Turnaround' in State of the Union

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I'm Kaylie lyones alongside Joe Matthew, the President, including his
speech which lasted just under two hours, setting a new
record for a State of the Union address. At about
one hour and forty seven minutes. President Trump now leaving
the rostrum. He will make his way back up the aisle,
probably Joe Matthews, shaking hands as he goes, having concluded
this speech which took us from domestic affairs to geopolitics
and of course, as the President concluded his speech, through
two hundred and fifty years of American history.
That's right, Kayley, as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
and the Chiefs themselves leave the chamber, the President of
the United States wrapping the longest State of the Union
address in American history. As I speak to you live
from Statutory Hall just outside of the House Chamber where
this is taking place, with the live view of the
President still taking selfies there with Kat Camick, We're going
to see all the members stream by. In fact, they're
just now beginning to leave the room. There were a
couple of folks who left early in elon Omar and
some of the other Democrats who are not very happy
about what the President was saying there. That did Kaylee
break into a little bit of a call in response
there as the President feared off the script.
But you're right.
He began with the issue that we've been talking about
every day here on Bloomberg TV and radio for weeks
and months, and that's affordability. The president of the United
States talking about getting prices down. He talked about seeing
gas when he was on the road for less than
two dollars a gallon, which is not something that many
Americans enjoy. Saying that our state of the Union is strong,
and pointing to the end of Dei, among other issues
that he got to very early in the speech, and
then of course got to the tariffs. Kaylee, many of
us were wondering exactly what he was going to say
to the justices of the Supreme Court who was sitting
there in the front row, and he kept his remarks
fairly temperate. He talked about the unfortunate decision, He didn't
call anyone out by name, spent more time calling out
Democrats tonight, Kaylee, for not standing up to applaud him yes.
And telling Democrats that they were to blame for higher
prices Americans are facing, including on healthcare. To your point
on tariff's Joe, after calling the Supreme Court ruling unfortunate,
he also said congressional action on tariffs will not be necessary,
suggesting he will be taking other action at the executive level.
But he did have some specific asss of Congress tonight,
calling on Congress to codify his most favored nation rule
when it comes to drug prices, to pass an investment
ban on firms buying homes, to pass the stock trading
ban for members of Congress. He also wants to the
Congress to pass a law barring any state from granting
commercial driving licenses to illegal alien So he did have
some requests for the legislative branch, even if he largely
spent the majority of this almost two hours Joe talking
about things he has seen himself as achieving at the executive.
Level and pointing to more things that he wants to
get done.
To your point, calling on Congress to pass Save America Acts, Kaylee,
and when he got to that matter, of voter id.
He called out Democrats.
He said, they want to cheat, they have cheated, and
their policy is so bad. The only way to get
elected is to cheat, and we're going to stop it.
He said.
This was a very tough speech on Democrats, most of
whom sat on their hands for most of the night.
And I'll just let everybody know that we did replay
the beginning of the speech from last year.
Al Green, the.
Congressman Democrat from Texas, was escorted from the chamber once again.
He brought a sign with him Kaylee, which does not
make the sergeant at arms or the speaker very happy,
and as he tried to address the president firsthand, he
was taken out of the room by the sergeant at arms.
He went straight to Stathall to start doing interviews.
After that, we turned to our panel that is here
with me on set in Washington, Bloomberg's Jeff Mason alongside me,
as well as Bloomberg Politics contributors at Rick Davis and
Jeanie shan Zeno. So this was perhaps not as long
as some of us anticipated or maybe feared. He covered
a lot of ground, though Rick Davis, as promised, he
said he had a lot to talk about. He certainly
did how to do.
Yeah.
Look, I think it was a different kind of speech
than what we're used to seeing from President Trump. Normally,
he paints a pretty dark picture of the country in
order to say how much he has changed and made
it better. He actually started off with the positive report card,
and at a time when most people are tuned in
the first thirty minutes of this speech, he's going to
get the highest number of eyeballs on the TV. He
talked about affordability, the economy, the things that he said
he has to do to be able to get this
thing reset for the midterm elections. Then the next thirty
minutes he descended into that evil place, attacking Democrats viciously.
But then he did something that I thought was actually
new to him and a pretty good construct. That is,
he built the rest of his speech around the great
deeds of ordinary Americans, things that they've done to come
back from adversity, challenges they met and one and I
think that that will be part of what people remember
in this speech, with those incredibly important and transformational stories.
And he did one after the other after the other
on topics that were really key to his administration.
Jeff talking about this kind of narrative reset or lack thereof.
Is that what the President was able to achieve tonight
or not.
It doesn't seem like a reset to me. You know,
my job as a White House reporter and all the
other reporters who are covering this tonight would be to
look for the news and usually we look for new policy,
something that he would unveil or suggest this is what
I'm going to work on in the coming year, And
there just wasn't a lot of that in this speech.
I think Rick is right that there was. There was
certainly a nice tone at the end that wouldn't be
applicable to the entire speech, but that there was a
nice tone at the end.
But what was new.
It was mostly a lot of President Trump's greatest hits
and certainly talking about his defense, which we were discussing
before the speech. His defense of his performance is defense
of his administration of the economy that he inherited, which
he blamed on President Biden.
Those are all things that are.
Pretty regular aspects of a Donald Trump's speech. There weren't
at least a lot of major new policies with regard
to the economy, with regard to affordability, even though again
he did address it and he touched on it, but
he didn't offer a vision for how it's going to
go forward.
Joining us now, as you can see if you're with
us on Bloomberg TV is the Secretary of the Interior,
Doug Bergham, mister Secretary, Great to have you with us
yere on Bloomberg TV and radio. I'd like to zero
win on the President's speech with you from your vantage point,
record length and a lot to talk about. What did
he propose for the year ahead that's important to your agency?
Well, start of the top line, this is incredibly courageous,
forward looking talk and celebrating our two hundred and fiftieth
anniversary as a country, going literally back to our founding.
And then tonight, who would have known when you're coming
to hear the speech, you're going to get a opportunity
to be present for the Medal of honor being delivered twice,
one for heroics from a warrior from World War Two
and Korea War who's one hundred years old. And then
someone who just weeks ago was courageously led the charge
as one of our helicopter pilots when they were arresting Maduro.
So it spanned the whole two hundred and fifty years.
But again I would just say it two takeaways. Peace
around the world, prosperity for Americans, affordability. President Trump's policies
turning this country around in the last twelve months.
A lot of focus on energy, as we expected this evening,
as he reminded, drill, Baby, Drill, but also talked about
what he would like to see the ability of the
big tech companies, the hyper scaler having the opportunity to
bring in their own power plants to put aside their
data centers essentially off the grid.
Is that something that.
The Interior Department is in the process of unlocking.
Well, absolutely, through the National Energy Dominance Council that runs
out of the White House that President Trump has asked
Secretary of Chris Wright and I to lead Secretary of Energy.
We're working hard to make sure that we can do this,
have this behind the meter capability byop bringing your own
power because we need power. This is about energy addition.
There is no energy transition. President Trump understands that we've
got to have energy abundance. We've got to be able
to sell ownergy to our friends and allies, including those
that have been dependent on our adversaries. I mean, if
you're getting energy from Iran or Russia and they're funding
terrorism or wars, I mean, we can stop wars and
stop terrorism by having energy abundance from the US, but
enough abundance that we can keep prices for energy here
at home low even with the demand increase, so that
we can win the AI arms race against China, which
part of that race is who can generate the most
electricity because this is the first time in history you
can take a killo wout of electricity and turn it
into intelligence. President Trump understands that his policy is going
to work for both winning the aarms race and for
keeping electricity affordable for Americans.
There's so much there.
Do you worry about some of the concern that people
have expressed about data centers, the NIMBI concerns, the worry
about their electricity bills rising.
Is this plan the way around that?
Absolutely, because if it's off the grid, it's not putting
any burden on the grid itself, and it's not putting any.
Pressure on rate pays.
Matter of fact, in North Dkota, when I was still
a governor, there are just fifteen months ago, we were
completing a one point two billion dollar data center and
the electricity rates were going to go down for all
the people. And that are because you're spreading the cost
across a big industrial buyer in a rural area. So
there are ways where you can add capable add a
big power user like that, and if you do it
in the right way, it actually brings power down. So
it's only people that would be opposed to for other reasons,
including the climate extremists, would come up with a story
that says that that artificial intelligence is going to raise
your rates automatically. That's only with the wrong policies. With
the right policies, they'll stay the same or go down.
Really interesting.
The audience is deeply concerned about the future of that
AI race, what it means for this country. The President
said a bit about that this evening, but clearly it's
one of many priorities that he's pursuing in this new year.
What's the most important way to win that AI race?
Even as the markets start to question some of the
spending that we're seeing from these massive companies, they're the
size of countries.
Mister Secretary, Yes, well, but again this is a recovery
new territory, and we're going to see incredible capital flows
around the world. And those capital flows, record capital flows
are going to go to places that have ample A four,
reliable and secure power and that's going to be countries,
and it's going to be states within those countries. Within Europe,
it may be certain countries as opposed to all of
the EU. Secretary Chris Right and I today met with
twenty one energy ministers from Central and Eastern Europe.
Again, the race is on.
People that have sensible energy policies that focus on affordable,
reliable and secure energy are going to see a boom
in investment going forward. Because it's not just the data center,
it's what follows that advanced manufacturing the physical AI, because
AI will be the greatest productivity increase that humanity has
ever seen. It really is an extension of human capability,
whether it's curing cancer, providing a tutor for every school
kid in the world, or solving the most clipplex problems
that we've ever faced. This is something that we need
in America and the free world needs to make sure
that we're competitive in this aarms race.
And the way we do that is generate more.
Power energy addition, there is no such thing as energy transition.
If you're shutting down seven by twenty four secure base
load and adding intermit unreliable foreign sourced energy, that's energy fantasy.
President Trump's focused on energy reality.
You're not only the Interior secretary, but you're also a
surrogate of the president.
Typically, after the State of the Union, we.
See cabinet secretaries fan out across the country to hit
home to deliver the message that the president began tonight.
Do you have travel plans? What are the next weeks
and months looked like for you?
Well?
Absolutely, and of course all the cabinet sectors will tie
it in with part of their job. So I'm going
to be heading heading out to Western States where we
have a large degree of federal land, a lot of
intersection with those federal assets. What we like to say,
the Department of Materia has got the largest balance sheet
in the world. Five hundred million acres of land, seven
hundred million acres of subservice rich with minerals, three billion
acres of offshore from American Samoa of the US Virgin Islands,
Gulf of America, which represents a huge energy component mix
for our country. But yeah, we'll be spanning out and
delivering the message. And the message is one that's a
forward looking prosperity. When you talk about the policies through
your businessors, we're talking about cutting taxes, massively, cutting regulations.
Record investment incomes are up, inflation is down, interest rates
are down, and affordability of housing is becoming more affordable.
I mean, this is President Trump's right. We are entering
a new golden age of abundance. This first year was
an amazing one hundred and eight degree turnaround. The next
year going forward could be nothing short of an economic miracle.
We'll be watching for you here in Washington on the
campaign trail throughout the midterms. Mister Secretary, thanks for joining
us once again on Bloomberg TJ Radio.
Thank you for being here. Absolutely Doug burning in front
of this great statue. One of the great Martha Cooche worked.
That out for you on the North Dakota statue here
in stat Hall, Kayley, I'll send it back to you
in the bureau.
All right, Joe with the Secretary of the Interior, Thank
you so much, and here with me in our Washington studio.
Still as we run about this evening Bloomberg' Jeff alongside
Bloomberg Politics contributors Rick Davis and Jeanie Shanzano. So we've
now gotten through the speech the Democratic response, both of
which at least in part centered around the idea of affordability.
The question is going to be where that narrative goes
next in the aftermath of this, Jeff, did we really
hear the president saying much today in terms of how
he is going to further advance the so called affordability agenda?
If you will, what's the action we can expect next,
if he wants to get prices down?
Yeah? I think that's I think that's the big question
for Republicans, and it's the question that he had to
answer tonight, and that his administration and his fellow lawmaker
or Republican lawmakers and Congress have to answer as they
go into the midterms. I don't know what the answer is.
He talked a little bit about tariffs, He talked about
the tax cuts from the Big Beautiful Bill. He again,
as I said before, defended his record or praise his
record really from the first year as something worth running on.
But he didn't come out and say this is part too,
this is my next sort of goal for working on
affordability going forward. He talked a little bit about healthcare,
but otherwise not a whole long list of policy ideas
for the next several months.
Well in healthcare was one of the areas Rick in
which she was making a specific ass to Congress codify
my most Favored Nation rule. He also asked them to
ban investment firms from buying homes in an effort to
obviously address the housing and supply issue we have in
this country. But given that it is an election year,
the midterms are getting closer with every day that passes,
are we actually going to see legislation in that regard
or any others?
Yeah, I don't think there's really going to be an
appetite in Congress to spend a lot of time legislating.
You know, this is a year where they go back
to their districts and they try to win reelection. So
certainly the energy that the House had to pass his
you know, big beautiful bill and other items and the
first year agenda is just not going to be there
this time. Plus, even their margins are slimmer than they
were at the start of the last year, and I
too was prize that he didn't spend more time on
healthcare in the sense that, you know, this is the
cause of the greatest longest government shutdown in history just
a few months ago, and yet he really just sort
of retreaded the same rhetoric that he's done before. So yeah,
I mean, I think there's something in there that he
could campaign on. These are not programs that are necessarily new,
but if he actually stuck with it and talked about
these housing issues, talked about some of the drug pricing activity,
you know, talked a little bit about you know, what's
going on with healthcare, and of course really dug in
on some of these affordability issues, that could actually be
a platform to go forward. I don't think it's so
much he needed something new today, but like, can he
actually sustain the rhetoric that he gave to the American
people tonight longer than one night?
Well that is the question, and not just of course,
his remarks on the economy, but on what is supposed
to be his other strongest issue, Genie, which is immigration.
Knowing he delivered this speech with the Department of Homelands
Security still shut down, calling for Democrats to fund it, Yes,
But did you sense a president that is any closer
to reaching some kind of compromise with Democrats on reforms
to ice and in immigration enforcement.
No.
And this was another area I was surprised, and I
was surprised by because the President seemed to double down.
He talked a lot about the border, and then he
consistently kept talking about the fact that the immigrants are criminals,
something that we know is not true, and the people
they are deporting our criminals. Even his own government says
that is seven to fourteen percent of the people deported.
And it doesn't work for him in any way. It
is not true, and it doesn't address the problems that
Democrats have raised or the problems quite frankly, the American
public have raised, and the Democrats would like nothing more
than to keep talking about this.
It's the first time.
And I know that Rick knows this issue so well
that Democrats probably in decades, have been on the popular
right side of immigration. They are thrilled and they want
to stay there. So he did him a favor.
I also thought it was interesting how Governor Spanberger addressed
both that issue and the economy. I think it's probably
a little bit of a playbook for how Democrats are
going to address these issues in the coming months. She asked,
is the president working for you? Is the president helping
on affordability? She named or she didn't name check that
the two people who were killed in Minneapolis, but she
mentioned that Ice agents had killed Americans on the streets
of the United States. Those are pretty salient points that
she made in a much shorter speech that I imagine
we'll be hearing Democrats repeating in the coming months.
And we just have less than a minute left, Jeff.
But the President did touch on Iran this evening, saying
he would prefer diplomacy, but saying he will never allow
the world's number one sponsor of terror to have a
nuclear weapon. By the time this week is out, could
we very well have see the President decide that diplomacy
will not work.
It's hard to say.
I mean, this is a decision that we've been looking
for and waiting for for some time now. He talked
about it, as he said, but he didn't really give
an indication of the direction that he's going. Saying that
he wants diplomacy is something that he has said before.
So we'll see if they are able to come up
with a deal.
Talks in Geneva on Thursday. Meantime, it's almost Wednesday here
in the United States. As we found out the State
of the Union evening, we're approaching midnight. Bloomberg's Jeff Mason
and Bloomberg Politics contributors Rick Davis and Jeanie shanzena with
us throughout the coverage this evening. We so appreciate you
joining us, and we thank you for joining us on
this special coverage of President Trump State of the Union.
I'm Kaylee Lines alongside Joe matth