Trump addresses Congress: "We are just getting started"
In a speech to Congress on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump set out his goals and policies: "We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplish in four years or eight years - and we are just getting started," Trump declared at the start of his speech. He only briefly touched on Ukraine towards the end of his 100-minute speech. Europe's media draw conclusions.
Opposition in a state of shock
Trump's opponents are failing to come up with a response, Jutarnji list observes:
“The Democrats come across as disoriented, shocked and paralysed, which makes them look incompetent and merely exposes them to new attacks. Clearly the Dems are still having a hard time coming to terms with just how badly they were beaten by the Republicans and still haven't grasped that they're no longer even playing the same game or by the same rules. The opposition is stuck in the era of condemnations on X and pointless protests, while the government is churning out executive orders which not only change the settings of US democracy, but also of the entire world order.”
Soviet-style promises
Writing on Facebook, human rights activist Alexander Podrabinek is reminded of the grandiose proclamations of former times:
“At the end of his speech to Congress, Donald Trump said that he would now implement his programme 'The golden age of America has only just begun'. This reminds me of my childhood, when Communist party leaders promised: 'The current generation of Soviet people will live under communism'. They even set a deadline: 20 years, so by 1980. In my childish naivety I believed the promises and was very happy that I would live to see such golden times. And 20 years later I was sitting in a Soviet gulag, savouring all the delights of communism. I wonder what the Americans will say 20 years from now?”
The war as an annoying minor issue
Trump's position on the war in Ukraine is disastrous, Rzeczpospolita fumes:
“What we know from the first 43 days of this presidency has been confirmed. Vladimir Putin's imperialist war is low on Trump's list of priorities. And he doesn't see it as a fundamental issue, a conflict on which the architecture of European security in the coming decades could depend, but as a matter to be dealt with as quickly as possible because it's expensive and Trump doesn't like to spend money that doesn't yield a quantifiable return.”
Not a hint of criticism of Putin
Trump is much harder on the Ukrainian president than he is on the Russian leader, The Times criticises:
“There was something troublingly missing from Mr Trump's speech. There was not a single mention of Vladimir Putin, not a hint of criticism for the individual wholly responsible for the war in Ukraine. In response to his critics that he is soft on Russia, the president's muted response was 'if you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides'. There is an increasingly stark contrast between the hostile approach Mr Trump has adopted towards Mr Zelensky and the absence of anything but lukewarm words from his administration towards Russia.”