By April Ryan
“He has a lot of explaining to do,” says former Clinton White House Speechwriter Terry Edmonds, when speaking of President Donald Trump hours before his address to the Joint Session of Congress. This reporter asked a few notables about their assumption of Trump’s speech tonight. Jotaka Eaddy, the founder of Win with Black Women says she will not be watching the address. She is opting instead for the 24-hour marathon State of the People Address on YouTube. However, when it comes to the Trump speech, Eaddy says he needs to be a “unifier, to speak to the heart and minds.” That might be hard for Trump as Eaddy believes, “Unfortunately we will get much of the same divisiveness and misinformation.”
Edmonds, the Black presidential scribe who has also consulted with the Obama and Biden administrations, expects the Trump speech to be “a victory lap” of sorts on his perceived wins over the last month and a half. “I don’t know why he [President Trump] is going to take a victory lap,” questions Cornell Belcher, Democratic strategist and NBC Analyst. The pollster also highlights that “presidents tend to get a honeymoon period. It looks like he [Trump] has had the shortest honeymoon period in history.” Belcher says Trump’s approval ratings are “underwater in most polls. “Gallup’s rating on economic confidence stands at -19% Gallup News | Nonpartisan Analysis of Critical Global Issues
Belcher details the country’s economic negatives just weeks into Trump’s second term. He reiterates “Voter economic confidence is going in the wrong direction; the markets are going in the wrong direction and there’s talk of a recession and the Fed [Federal Reserve] is not expected to cut interest rates. ““They are going to tank the economy,” Belcher exclaims! That is a complete contrast to Trump’s campaign for the Oval Office largely focused on reducing the price of eggs. Those prices have gone in the opposite direction with a 61% increase since December 2024. Florida’s egg shortage is a US problem, prices likely to go higher. Edmonds says the 47th president is breaking from norms “domestically and in foreign policy.” “All they have done is attack immigrants and brown people. Stop diversity and roll back discrimination powers,” according to Belcher.
The Trump administration is said to be pausing military aid to Ukraine after last week’s disastrous Oval Office press conference with Voldomyr Zelenskyy. “I would like for him to explain the shift he is taking with Ukraine in a cogent way. I don’t know if he can do that.” Another negative for President Trump going into this speech is Elon Musk. The Musk poll numbers are on the decline. Belcher says that “he [Elon Musk] is the out-front face of it [DOGE] and they are more familiar with him than DOGE right now.”
DOGE is committing to mass federal layoffs by mid-March. Statistics show that 18-19% of all government employees identify as Black or African American. Edmonds, who has a family member “on the bubble” of federal layoffs this month, believes this Trump speech will be “a TV production with surprise guests” as it will be a “must-see TV moment because you never know what you are going to get.”
