Rep. Mike Thompson doesn’t feel like he missed out on much by watching President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address from the comfort of his home-away-from-home in Washington, D.C. As the “designated survivor” for House Democrats, Thompson was asked not to attend the event.
But there were times, the North Bay representative admitted, when it might have been nice to be sitting in the congressional chamber.
“When (Trump) said things such as, ‘We love Social Security and Medicare, and we’re gonna protect them, and protect Medicaid,’ I looked at the couch and said, ‘He just cut it by a trillion dollars!'” Thompson told The Press Democrat in a Wednesday-morning phone interview. “If I were on the floor, I could have turned to whoever I was sitting next to.”
Thompson, reflecting on a presidential address that he characterized as self-aggrandizing, partisan, frequently inaccurate and very… very… long, said “Our misery needs company.”
Like most Dems, Thompson didn’t care much for Trump’s State of the Union speech — at 1 hour, 47 minutes, the longest address by an American president to Congress ever, eclipsing the 1:40 Trump spent talking to lawmakers last year.
“The fact that he was belching accolades about himself, and how great he is, it was disrespectful,” Thompson said. “It was disrespectful to the Supreme Court members in attendance, and to half of the chamber. And it was disrespectful to the American people, by neglecting to address the things that are important to them.”
A couple of issues Thompson believes Trump ignored Tuesday evening:
“In our lifetime, agriculture has never been facing the challenges we’re facing now, in our district and across the country,” Thompson argued.
He cited a letter submitted Feb. 3 by 27 former U.S. Agriculture Department officials and leaders of farm trade groups, warning that current economic conditions and Trump government policies could result in “a widespread collapse of American agriculture.” It was a bipartisan coalition that included members of the Reagan and Bush administrations.
The letter, addressed to ranking members of the House and Senate agriculture committees, called on Congress to relax ag-related tariffs, expand international markets and restore funding for agriculture research, among other goals.
“He never once mentioned the problems our farming families and communities are facing,” Thompson said of Trump.
The president described the American economy as booming, the envy of the world. And he insisted supermarket costs were on the decline.
“The price of eggs is down 60%,” Trump said. “The cost of chicken, butter, fruit, hotels, automobiles, rent is lower today than when I took office, by a lot. Even beef, which was very high, is starting to come down significantly. Just hold on a little while.”
But that description doesn’t jibe with what most Americans report paying for grocery staples.
“A few weeks ago, he called affordability ‘a Democratic hoax.’ But you can’t go to the grocery store, or look to buy a house or car, and think anything is affordable as a working-class American,” Thompson said. “A majority of the people I represent, and a majority of Americans, know the affordability problem is real.”
Thompson also called out Trump’s tariff wars, the “rogue immigration agents terrorizing people and communities,” and “dangerous” military action conducted without congressional approval.
“He stood in front of the American people, and in front of Congress, and refused to talk about any of that,” Thompson said. “He embellished, obfuscated and patted himself on the back.”
The 4th District representative acknowledged that Trump put Democratic lawmakers on the defensive as he honored war heroes, sports icons like the U.S. Olympic Men’s Hockey team — “he called out and praised everyone but the women’s Olympic hockey team,” Thompson quipped — and families of crime victims.
Trump called on the chamber to stand, forcing Democrats assembled in the room to choose between acquiescence and appearing not to care about the sacrifices these invitees had made.
Thompson emphasized that if it were up to constituents in blue districts, those Dem lawmakers might not have been there at all.
“I can’t tell you how many emails and phone messages I got from my district, with people saying, ‘Don’t go to this thing.’ And I also got emails demanding that I stand and turn my back the whole time,” Thompson said.
“But I can tell you unequivocally, the heroes pointed out (Tuesday) have the respect and admiration of not only my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, but of the American people.”
Typically, the night of a State of the Union address belongs to the president. Love them or hate them, it’s the chief executive’s words that end up ringing in the air. Trump, in particular, seems most in his element before a live, captive audience.
But his popularity numbers, and public approval of many of his policies, are crashing less than nine months out from key midterm elections.
It is the weeks ahead that will determine the direction of American politics, Thompson said, not one bombastic, meandering speech. With that in mind, the St. Helena native is co-sponsoring the American Affordability Act, which aims to bring down the cost of things like housing, energy and health care.
Next up: legislation to ensure that any rebates of money collected by the Trump administration on tariffs will go not to the corporations that felt the initial brunt, but to everyday Americans who ultimately had costs passed down to them.
“The corporations that have paid the tariff rates are already starting to get in line for those dollars,” Thompson said. “My legislation provides for a 100% tax on any corporate refunds for costs they passed off to the consumer.”
It’s a more nuanced argument than the incendiary accusations lobbed by Trump on Tuesday night. But a winning argument nonetheless, Thompson believes.
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