After President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) outlined what has become a common critique of the President: that his sweeping, optimistic speeches have little bearing on his policies.
“The speech and reality have never been more detached in a presidential speech,” Schumer said on MSNBC. “It doesn’t matter what he said.”
Schumer said that, contrary to his campaign rhetoric, Trump had not designated China “a currency manipulator.” And while Trump lauded the survivor of a rare disease during his address, Schumer continued, “his budget that he proposes is going to slash” medical research.
The Senate minority leader also described Trump’s administration as “filled with, if you will, swamp creatures.”
Schumer later pointed to reports that Trump was open to a “compromise” on immigration reform as likely another split between Trump’s statements and his eventual actions.
“Three weeks ago he said it and then his government, the people around him, the right wingers, said ‘You can’t say that,’ and he backed off,” Schumer said. “And from what I’m told they’re already backing off what he said this afternoon, and that’s the whole problem. What the President says and what the President does are almost at opposite ends.”
