The revealing pointlessness of Trump’s primetime speech

When a president gives a primetime televised speech, it is typically about something of serious import: to make the case for a major new policy or to announce the beginning of a war.

President Donald Trump’s speech on Wednesday night had no grave significance. In fact, there didn’t seem to be much of a point at all.

The speech was a jumble of his usual false or even impossible claims — like a promise to reduce prescription drug costs by an impossible 400 percent — smashed together in no particular order. The speech began with a discussion of the cost of living, a subject he would drop and then return to as if just remembering that it was the number one reason his polls were low. Even the delivery was weird: Seemingly under network time constraints, the president read off the teleprompter angrily and quickly, speaking with the motormouth intensity of a 20-something banker who just discovered cocaine and now has a really great idea for a new restaurant.

So why am I writing about it at all?

Because the fact that it happened at all tells us something much more important: that the Trump administration is sinking, and his White House has no idea what to do about it.

The haphazard presidency, in one crystal clear moment

Earlier this week, I described the president’s second term governing style as “haphazardism.” Trump has basically authoritarian aims — he wants to wield untrammeled power — but has no clear plan or strategy for securing it. So what has happened so far is a series of individual abuses of power, each dangerous and damaging to democracy, but ultimately adding up to less than their parts in that they have not helped build a durable authoritarian model of governance. 

Ultimately, haphazardism has put his presidency on the pathway to failure. Because the main guide to policy is Trump’s own instincts, which are changeable and inconsistent and often just weird, he does things that do serious damage to his own political position. The most notable example is tariffs: a policy that has clearly contributed to his biggest problem, a high cost of living, and thus a significant driver of his collapsing poll numbers.

For the White House, this is a very hard problem to solve. While actual policy on many issues is delegated to advisers like Stephen Miller and Russell Vought, the ultimate foundation of their power is the charismatic authority of Donald J. Trump. They cannot contravene him on his personal obsessions, like tariffs or prosecuting his enemies, without risking defenestration. So getting Trump to back off entirely from some of his most self-defeating moves is off the table.

Yet the White House is staring down abysmal poll numbers, a series of schisms inside the GOP and among the conservative elite, and looming midterm elections where Democrats appear poised to make massive gains. So what can they do?

Try other stuff and see if something, anything, might work to turn the ship around. Like, say, a televised address where the president just talks — yells, really — at the country for 20 minutes

Under normal circumstances, no White House would ever greenlight such a move (and, frankly, the networks probably wouldn’t go along with it). But things are looking desperate, and the Trump administration still retains a capacity to threaten private sector actors with the kind of persecution they’ve directed at places like Harvard. So why not demand some time on TV and see if a weird pseudo-stump speech will move the dial?

I’m not saying it’s a good approach. It’s not: It reeks of desperation.

But the fact that they needed to try such a desperate move at all is notable. It is the latest sign, among many, that the wheels are coming off the Trump train.