Trump acquitted himself
The Senate finally confirms what the public had long ago decided
President Trump was formally acquitted in the Senate on Wednesday afternoon to the surprise of nobody in particular. Mitt Romney was the lone Republican to support his removal from office. (His nomination at the next convention of the Shadow Republican Party is now assured, if it had ever been in doubt, despite the fact that he voted in favor of only one of the two articles of impeachment.) Despite what some previous reports had suggested might occur, no Democrats broke with their party. Otherwise the outcome was more or less what everyone had expected. There were never going to be enough votes to remove Trump from office, regardless of which pretext his opponents seized upon for his impeachment. He was acquitted long ago.
I mean this in more than one sense. Trump acquitted himself long ago in the eyes of the American people. Despite years of frivolous investigations, his approval rating is roughly equal to Barack Obama's at this point in his term. Public polling suggests that the impeachment process is unpopular even among some voters who otherwise oppose Trump, especially in those states that will be most consequential in this year's presidential election. (The fact that it is supported by another portion who flail omnidirectionally at Trump's every utterance is of little consequence.) He now enjoys all the ordinary advantages of an incumbent president in peacetime. It remains to be seen what additional ones he will enjoy thanks to the monumental folly of impeachment.
Which brings me to the most striking thing about Trump's third State of the Union address. I cannot have been the only person who was surprised that he did not mention impeachment even once. The prospect of a chief executive denouncing impeachment in front of the people who voted for it, in the very same chamber in which they had called witnesses and deliberated, was too bizarre not to look forward to. I should have known better. There was still plenty of distinctly Trumpian weirdness to go around.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
It was not clear at first that things would go this way. For what seemed like hours, Trump recited statistic after tedious statistic in an attempt to argue that the first three years of his presidency have been nothing short of an economic miracle. The extent to which he deserves credit for the lowest average unemployment of any president since we began making official records (and the lowest-ever unemployment rate for African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans, veterans, and those without high-school diplomas) is debatable. But it is an iron law of presidential speechifying that bad numbers always belong to one's predecessor, while anything good is solely the result of one's own carefully thought-out policies. This was a speech that could just as easily have been made by President Obama — or, more to the point, by a hypothetical President Romney.
What followed was somewhat stranger. He introduced a series of guests ranging from a centenarian Tuskegee Airman and his aspiring Space Force cadet great-grandson to Rush Limbaugh, who was presented with a Medal of Freedom by the first lady. It was a spectacle, the presidency reconceived as daytime television, complete with cash giveaways for select guests.
All of these things were amusing, but it would be absurd to pretend that there was anything extraordinary about them. These were not the actions of a tyrant or a subverter of our constitutional order. They were the same tawdry theatrics that had brought him to the White House in the first place. They were greeted by more than a hundred standing ovations.
Trump's record in office, and the modest esteem in which he seems to be held by his countrymen, shows us that he is not a traitor or a criminal. He is a banal politician. Perhaps to the disappointment of many of his early supporters and regardless of whether his opponents acknowledge it, he has been accepted as an ordinary participant in American public life.
Want more essential commentary and analysis like this delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.
-
'Musk's reliance on China draws rising scrutiny'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Biba: the story of a 'legendary emporium'
The Week Recommends Brand's 60th anniversary is being marked with retrospective celebrating the 'iconic shop's cultural importance'
By Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK Published
-
How the Russia-Ukraine conflict has spread to Africa
The Explainer Ukraine is attempting to strengthen its alliances on the continent to counter Russia's growing presence
By Richard Windsor, The Week UK Published
-
Trump, billions richer, is selling Bibles
Speed Read The former president is hawking a $60 "God Bless the USA Bible"
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
The debate about Biden's age and mental fitness
In Depth Some critics argue Biden is too old to run again. Does the argument have merit?
By Grayson Quay Published
-
How would a second Trump presidency affect Britain?
Today's Big Question Re-election of Republican frontrunner could threaten UK security, warns former head of secret service
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
'Rwanda plan is less a deterrent and more a bluff'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By The Week UK Published
-
Henry Kissinger dies aged 100: a complicated legacy?
Talking Point Top US diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner remembered as both foreign policy genius and war criminal
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Last updated
-
Trump’s rhetoric: a shift to 'straight-up Nazi talk'
Why everyone's talking about Would-be president's sinister language is backed by an incendiary policy agenda, say commentators
By The Week UK Published
-
More covfefe: is the world ready for a second Donald Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question Republican's re-election would be a 'nightmare' scenario for Europe, Ukraine and the West
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Xi-Biden meeting: what's in it for both leaders?
Today's Big Question Two superpowers seek to stabilise relations amid global turmoil but core issues of security, trade and Taiwan remain
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published