Merlin Thomas
Appearances
Global News Podcast
Bonus: President Trump addresses Congress
He had a laundry list of his successes and that's how he really started off, talking about how America is back, that this is the revival of the American dream. But he touched on two main focuses of his speech, which were really immigration and also those culture war issues that we heard about.
Global News Podcast
Bonus: President Trump addresses Congress
And on those cultural issues, he spent quite a lot of time talking about how he was cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion issues, cracking down on some of those trigger point issues as well. So when he talked about renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, making English the official language of the U.S.,
Global News Podcast
Bonus: President Trump addresses Congress
As well as then moving on to someone who he has been very keen to emphasize the presence of, Elon Musk, the tech billionaire and unelected advisor, who is leading the mission to reform and reshape the federal government. And he leads DOGE, the Department of Government Efficiency. And President Trump listed off a number of those things that he claims were savings that DOGE had identified.
Global News Podcast
Bonus: President Trump addresses Congress
And it's worth saying that there were a number of misleading statements in his speech. There aren't very transparent figures on Doge's website about the savings that are made. And BBC Verify have actually contacted the White House about those numbers, but haven't received a response.
Global News Podcast
Bonus: President Trump addresses Congress
And the thing that we've all really been listening out for, the issue of Ukraine, we heard him strike a more conciliatory tone. Wir haben gehört, dass Präsident Zelenskyj, der ukrainische Präsident, ihm ein Brief gesendet hat, dass er bereit war, für Frieden zu signen und bereit war, das Mineraldeal jederzeit zu signen.
Global News Podcast
Bonus: President Trump addresses Congress
Aber wir haben auch gehört, dass er auch zu Russland gesprochen hat, weil er sagte, wir hatten seriöse Diskussionen mit Russland. und haben starke Signale erhalten, dass sie bereit sind für Frieden. Das ist wirklich signifikant. Obwohl die Ukraine wirklich in der letzten Hälfte seines Gesprächs war. Es war eine sehr lange Adresse, die längste in der Geschichte.
Global News Podcast
Bonus: President Trump addresses Congress
Aber trotzdem war es signifikant, dass er es betrug.
Global News Podcast
Bonus: President Trump addresses Congress
If he is feeling any pushback, he was trying not to show any of it because he really took a very proud and emphatic tone in how he wanted to say, you know, in his first six weeks in term that Er ist stolz auf das, was er getan hat. Und in Bezug auf diese Figuren auf Doge, ist es wert zu sagen, dass einige der demokratischen Gesetzgeber als Gäste federalen Arbeiter verabschiedet haben.
Global News Podcast
Bonus: President Trump addresses Congress
Das wird also etwas sein, was wirklich ein Punkt der Friktion zwischen den beiden Parteien war. Du hattest auf der einen Seite eine stehende Ovation für Elon Musk, der Mann hinter all diesen Kutzen in der federalen Regierung. Und dann auf der anderen Seite hast du Leute, die verabschiedet wurden, weil dieser Kutze.
Global News Podcast
Bonus: President Trump addresses Congress
Yeah, and I think it's interesting that he continued to talk about tariffs as a central part of his economic vision. You know, we've heard time and time again that they may be being used as a negotiating tactic, as a way to bring countries to the table and use tariffs as a way of leveraging that in areas entirely outside of the economy.
Global News Podcast
Bonus: President Trump addresses Congress
But the fact that he continues to bring it up is also an indication that he sees it as central to his economic vision in ways of growing the US economy and raising tax revenue as well. So It's not just a temporary tactic. It could be something that he believes, and I quote, he said, it protects the soul of our country.
Global News Podcast
Bonus: President Trump addresses Congress
Yes, we saw an outburst of opposition from people like Al Green, who is a Democratic representative, who stood up and was engaged in a long harangue between him and the president when he Merlin Thomas in Washington.