In his first address to Congress since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump emphasized his campaign to restrict transgender athletes, and culture war favorites such as renaming the Gulf of Mexico and Mount Denali, for nearly 20 minutes before turning to pocketbook issues that are frustrating so many Americans.

For Trump, this became a night to address his faithful base rather than to talk to the rest of an American public. When the president got to affordability, he emphasized waste in government, higher tariffs and how he would somehow balance the budget that is now hopelessly in deficit, while simultaneously lowering taxes.

If the financial markets were hoping for hints of retreat on tariffs and trade wars with other countries around the globe, they were surely disappointed. Tariffs, Trump said, is a “beautiful word.” He promised “trillions” in new tariff revenues to boost the economy. Tariffs are basically taxes that economists widely believe get passed onto the consumer in the form of higher prices. For those who think that what the world needs is more taxes, this was your speech.

Trump’s battle on inflation was disturbingly centered on billionaire Elon Musk and his nascent Department of Government Efficiency. Downsizing a federal workforce that hasn’t substantially changed in decades is not fertile ground to alter the economic future of everyday Americans. Yet Trump and Musk have made widespread layoffs of federal workers the centerpiece of Trump’s first 43 days in office. Tuesday night was no exception.

The Democrats, prepared with various circular cards, raised the one that said “FALSE” during Trump’s reciting of entitlement horrors. It’s a reminder of our two Americas, the one that must believe what the president says, the other that doubts the same words.

In many ways, this address was an extension of Trump’s campaign for president rather than a pivot. He claimed his predecessor, Joe Biden, remains “the worst president in American history” and is responsible for the economic problems that continue to plague the country, such as the price of eggs. He blamed the former president for flying undocumented immigrants into the country to places like Springfield, Ohio. This was the city made famous in his September debate with Kamala Harris as the place where the immigrants were eating the dogs and cats.

It’s equally telling what Trump chose not to emphasize. There was nary a peep about Medicaid, and the massive cuts that congressional Republicans are planning to health care for millions of Americans. He waited more than 90 minutes for brief mentions of Gaza, Europe and Ukraine. He mentioned as some victory a letter Tuesday from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and from Russia, “strong signals that they really want peace.”

Rather, this was a night to paint a canvas of a bright new dawn sweeping over the country. “America’s momentum is back,” Trump said. “Our spirit is back. Our pride is back. And the American dream is surging bigger and better than ever before.”

Our commander in chief should be America’s greatest cheerleader. It is one thing that all presidents hold in common. They all have moments when they are factually challenged, though Trump leverages fiction more brazenly and comprehensively than his predecessors.

Yet Trump, contrary to years of Republican orthodoxy, now posits tariffs as a boon to American consumers despite an battalion of economists who disagree. He’s breaking global alliances that Republican heroes like Dwight Eisenhower, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan swore by. As he always does, Trump said a lot on Tuesday that sounded wrong, felt wrong and could be very wrong for American voters and consumers. Americans elected this man because they liked what he said. Fair enough.

In the end, Trump’s presidency will rise or fall on his actions. Already, he is steering the country in a direction that no president has done before.

The Sacramento Bee