In his first speech to Congress as the 47th president, Donald Trump made it clear that America is back! And the polls reflect it, with CBS News finding that 76% of respondents approved of Trump’s speech. Glenn and Stu discuss why this number may be so high: maybe more Republicans watched, or maybe it was just a great, optimistic speech. But many Democrats in Congress and the Legacy Media still deny that Americans gave Trump a mandate to restore America in the 2024 election. So, Glenn and Stu review the data. Plus, they highlight some other big moments during the speech, including Trump’s decision to list out the many, many crazy things that DOGE found our government is funding.
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: Anyway, he came out and he said, it's unbelievable. America is back! And it just felt that way.
STU: Seems like the audience thought that too.
I mean, the polls. Every guest on the show has mentioned the CBS poll today.
GLENN: Mainly because it's very satisfying.
STU: Yeah. I would say usually those polls typically don't work well for Republicans. Like, who won the debate? It's almost always Democrats, even when it's obvious Republicans won the debate. That was one of the reasons you knew Trump won the debate against Biden so easily. Because the polling actually showed he won it.
Even when -- if it's -- if a Republican wins, it usually just shows Republicans still win those polls.
GLENN: I know.
STU: It's kind of the same feeling I had with this one. And I'm part of it. I think there's several factors. Let me run these by you real quick, on this.
GLENN: Yes.
STU: So one is one of the first things people saw in that speech, was Al Green disrupting it. And people hate that. They --
GLENN: They do.
STU: Yes. The hard-core super AOC fans will like it.
And Al Green will get lots of donations because of his, quote, unquote, bravery. Standing up. Resistance.
Blah, blah, blah. It will work for Al Green. But the incentives here are screwed up. It works against his party. And it works for Donald Trump as well.
GLENN: It had. It does.
STU: So I think part of the reason, a lot of people probably watched the first 15 minutes, and that's it.
And they saw that, and they were annoyed by him.
GLENN: Yeah, they were annoyed. It's the same crap.
STU: Let it go. Let's see what he says.
You're wasting my time!
GLENN: I feel like that on the applause.
I hate the applause. I rather have the cut version with all the applause out.
Because I get it. I get it. I get it.
Just please. I want somebody to say, ladies and gentlemen, the president of the United States. Please save your applause to the end.
STU: Yeah, I would like the first line of that speech to be from the President. To be like, look, I've got a lot to get through. Please, don't applause, but it's hard. It's a trapping of that thing.
GLENN: I know. I know.
STU: Secondarily, people are speculating, just like when we don't really want to watch the Biden State of the Union, maybe a lot of Democrats didn't tune in. So the group watching it were more Republican. CBS did this poll. They should be correcting for that. I have not gone through the methodology of that poll. It shouldn't be the factor. If it is the factor, it's a really sloppy job by CBS. The other thing though is I think what you're getting at, is that number one, it was pretty optimistic. It wasn't the American carnage speech from 2017. It was a really optimistic speech.
GLENN: Right.
STU: You know, as much as we -- you know, as jaded media members get a little tired of, oh, here's 19 people in the audience. Who will tell their stories.
I do think that connects with people. A lot of those stories are really compelling.
GLENN: Those did.
GLENN: And inspiring.
STU: Yeah. So I think it was -- I think he did a good job which was part of it. Maverick and also, I think the democratic opposition as it usually does, backfired.
GLENN: So -- in a big way.
Because this is one of the things they are saying.
This is what Al Green is talking about. He said, he didn't have awe mandate.
That's what he was shouting from the floor. Because I didn't know. Nor, did I know what he was saying.
You don't have a mandate. And I have my cane. And I will scream at the moon, any minute.
But he said, you know, you don't have a mandate. This is something that the left is -- is trying out. That there was no mandate. Listen to Stephen A. Smith, as he schools The View on the mandate thing.
VOICE: And he's been going around with his cronies, touting his so-called landslide and blowout. When? When you get 1.5 percent popular vote, one of the smallest ever. And he won the general election by less than 15 percent. So what kind of mandate is this really?
VOICE: Oh, it is a mandate. And I am going to explain why, and I don't mind the -- I'm no supporter of Trump. I'm a supporter of truth and the facts. And here's the facts: The man won every swing state. He increased in terms of his voter turnout in his favor, from the standpoint of blacks, Latinos, and young voters. He increased his numbers in that regard from 2020. Eighty-nine percent of the counties shifted to the right. That's a mandate. We can sit around play around all we want to. In 2020, they didn't -- Trump didn't win the popular vote. He didn't win the electoral vote. As a matter of fact, the Republicans hadn't won the popular vote if I remember --
VOICE: Twenty years.
VOICE: -- since 2024. But they did this year. So 20 years after they last one a popular vote, they won the popular vote. They won the electoral college vote. The man won every swing state, and on top of that, 89 percent of the counties. Shifted gears. I don't understand how people can look at that and say, there's no mandate. There's a mandate.
VOICE: Well, it's a different definition of a mandate, I guess.
GLENN: It's my definition of a mandate. You know, you've got to go with mandate. We're The View. We make up our own definitions for words.
STU: I mean, I think two things can be true of this too. I think you can recognize, it was a relatively close election. It wasn't Reagan versus Mondale. It's not what it was.
GLENN: Correct.
STU: But it can still be a mandate.
He did shift all these democratic groups.
Firm correctly, every single state, shifted towards him.
Now, that doesn't mean he won all the states obviously.
But the states shifted towards Republicans.
So, you know, that's a big movement.
And I think a mandate is fair in this context.
He did win every swing state. Again, those swing states weren't blowouts.
It wasn't a 12-point victory in Michigan.
VOICE: 89 percent of the counties moved his way.
And look, you have to add one thing to this.
And that is, that's after an eight-year period of everyone, with any kind of voice or power, saying, he's a criminal. He's a sex abuser.
Whatever they could come up with.
That's all they said about him.
And his support grows!
STU: Yeah.
GLENN: Can you imagine if they would have just treated him, like they treated Ronald Reagan. Which they treated Ronald Reagan poorly. She's stupid. He didn't get it.
Blah, blah, blah. But he never did this. Nobody has ever gone through this. For that to move and him to grow. And him to have the whole thing just kind of switch over. Win the popular vote.
Win the electoral college. That is a mandate.
STU: I think that's totally fair.
You know, I think if you look at it. I think Biden won in 2020, the popular vote by something like four, four and a half percent, something like that. And it moved to 1.5 percent for Trump. Six-point move.
The current American system, which is pretty polarized when it comes to party. That is a massive shift. That is not a tiny little thing. And I think that totally qualifies as a mandate. That doesn't mean, it wasn't a close election.
Again, Trump had to win, one of those blue wall states. The biggest blowout of the blue wall states was 2 percent. We could have been stuck with Kamala Harris right now. That was not crazy. It was close.
That can said, what he's done here, and I think how -- the way he did it, which was as Stephen A. Smith points out, moving a lot of demographic groups, that don't normally consider Republicans, as part of that large move toward him. I think it would be silly to deny him. They want to do that because they want to deny that anything happening is supported by anyone, other than evil Nazis. But that's not the reality here.
GLENN: Yes. And it's not even Donald Trump. You know, you could say some of that movement came because the Democrats are so out of step with reality.
STU: Yeah. I think it's a big part of it.
GLENN: People are like, I can't vote for the other side.
STU: I think that's a huge part of it.
GLENN: I think that's huge, and they're just doubling down on it again.
STU: And we're talking about an election, where we have, what? A two-seat majority in Congress.
You know, it's close, relatively close in the Senate.
This is -- you know, we're at a very divided time in government. And I don't mean that, as far as -- everyone is polarized.
I mean, like, it's close. We are in a close period.
And that's kind of one of the things, that's been remarkable about this first six weeks.
He's been able to get through a lot.
Maintained his popularity, generally. Even though, we're in a situation that is that divided.
And that's one of the most impressive parts of the first six weeks.
GLENN: Let me show you, again, one of the reasons why I think he was so effective last night.
He's not -- he's not vengeful.
He's not making enemies lists. He's not doing anything like that.
He's just speaking the truth.
Listen to this, where he's talking about Joe Biden.
DONALD: And we've ended weaponized government. Where as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent, like me. How did that work out? Not too good. Not too good.
GLENN: I mean, that is fantastic. Fantastic.
He -- the other thing I think is -- was so good. And I want to play both of these on my sheet. It's cut 24. Trump lays out some of the waste DOGE is discovered. I want to play this. Because I think the guy could be a comedian, and a really good comedian.
His timing is so incredibly good. His ad libs are hysterical. Listen to him talk about the waste.
DONALD: Just listen to some of the appalling waste, we have already identified. $22 billion from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens.
$45 million for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Scholarships in Burma. $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants. Nobody knows what that means.
$8 million to promote LGBTQIA+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.
GLENN: This is so good.
DONALD: $60 million for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America.
GLENN: Afro-Colombian.
DONALD: $8 million for making mice transgender. This is real.
$32 million for a left-wing propaganda operation in Moldova. $10 million for male circumcision in Mozambique. $20 million for the Arab Sesame Street in the Middle East. It's a program. $20 million for a program.
$1.9 billion to recently created decarbonization of homes committee, headed up, and we know she's involved, just at the last moment. The money was passed over, by a woman named Stacey Abrams. Have you ever heard of her?
GLENN: I think they're going to investigate. I think she might go to jail.
DONALD: A 3.5-million-dollar consulting contract for lavish fish monitoring. $1.5 million for voter confidence in Liberia. $14 million for social cohesion in Mali. $59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City.
These are real state -- he's done very well. 250,000 dollars to increase vegan local climate action innovation. In Zambia. $42 million for social and behavior change in Uganda. $14 million for approving public procurement in Serbia. $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia. Asia is doing very well with learning.
(laughter)
I don't know what we're doing. We could use it ourselves. And $101 million for DEI contracts at the Department of Education. The most ever paid, nothing even like it. Under the Trump administration, all of these scams and there are far worse. But I didn't think it was appropriate to talk about them.
GLENN: It's -- it was an amazing, amazing list that common sense ruled the night, including when he talked about the border. Listen to this.
DONALD: The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying, we needed new legislation. We must have legislation to secure the border.
But it turned out, that all we really needed was a new president.
(laughter)
GLENN: Unbelievable.
STU: The listing quickly of all of the different things went on and on and on and on. And it reminded me of Family Guy. You know the cartoon Family Guy? There's a scene where there's a dead frog in his room. He's trying to scoop it up, and push it out the window like a piece of cardboard. And every time he does it, the frog kind of flops off and keeps coming down. And it goes on and on and on and on. And after a while, it just becomes so funny, because it goes on so long. And that's how I felt in that moment. He could have used three of those examples, and made a point. But he just beat it into your head. This is insanity and it has to stop.
