But it took the president long weeks to make that simple statement, and just a few hours before his speech in the Capitol, he was suggesting to a group of state attorneys general<br />that anti-Semitic attacks might actually have been carried out by people who want “to make others look bad” (in other words, his political opponents).<br />At one point, Republican lawmakers in the chamber leapt to their feet, cheering in sycophantic approval, when Trump announced<br />that he was going to put an end to the “uncontrolled entry” into the United States of people “from places where proper vetting cannot occur.”<br />This is a classic Trumpian stunt, inventing a problem and then promising to fix it.<br />The president talked a lot about national unity on Tuesday night, although I suspect<br />that what he meant was that we should all unite behind his policies, behind his philosophy and, most important, behind him personally.<br />In fact, as Tuesday night’s speech to Congress demonstrated so clearly, the president is actually a master of the art of diminished expectations.<br />There is no free access for refugees to this country — it takes about two years to clear the vetting process —<br />and none of the fatal terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11 have been committed by people from the seven countries Trump targeted with his anti-Muslim visa ban.<br />The Republicans dutifully roared their approval when Trump announced<br />that he had “directed the Department of Defense to develop a plan to demolish and destroy ISIS.” Apparently it had never occurred to President George W. Bush or President Obama to do that.<br />Donald Trump, Master of Low Expectations -<br />First as a candidate, and now as president, Donald Trump has drawn fire for promising the moon<br />and stars without giving the slightest hint of how he intended to obtain them.
