If you’ve spent any time at all following the headlines since Donald Trump became president again just more than a year ago, or been unable to avoid them, Tuesday’s State of the Union speech offers little suspense.
Between insulting his political enemies and blaming former President Joe Biden for things Trump will falsely say he’s fixed, he’ll debase minorities and immigrants as he points out how real Americans are fabulously happy with everything and, especially, a stock market at 50,000.
No one’s ever seen anything like it.
Two Colorado Democratic members of Congress, Aurora Rep. Jason Crow and Sen. Michael Bennet, might agree. No one has ever seen anything like Trump 2.0, nor have they wanted to.
A growing majority of Americans agree. Trump’s meager approval ratings last year have tanked, hovering near the 30% mark.
To counter Trump’s expected glee over big-fat tax breaks for big-fat-bank-account Americans, Crow said he is bringing, as his State of the Union speech guest, an Aurora restaurant owner whose businesses have been decimated by Trump’s disastrous, and now clearly illegal, tariff tantrums.
Bennet is bringing as his guest a woman who has been fiercely fighting against Trump’s equally lawless torment of minorities and immigrants, his staff announced.
Both Crow and Bennet say their guests offer Colorado and the nation deeply personal and compelling insights into the damage Trump has inflicted on the “Union” in just over 13 months in office.
Crow will sit with Jay Park, who owns restaurants in Aurora and Parker.
“Over the past year, he has seen the price of his imported goods skyrocket, had to pay more for goods for his restaurants, and heard from Coloradans about not being able to dine out because they can’t afford it,” Crow said in a statement. “Mr. Park’s staff, who have been legally employed, have been unfairly targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and President Trump’s mass deportations.”
Park said last year he couldn’t sustain a third area restaurant because of the increased business costs and pressures.
“My small businesses have continued to face rising prices because of tariffs, making it harder to pay bills and make ends meet,” Park said. “Our country’s immigration policies have also unfairly targeted my employees who are in the U.S. legally.”
He said he was obliged to Crow for his defending people who have been hurt by Trump’s economic and immigration bedlam, which includes the vast majority in Aurora.
“I appreciate Congressman Crow for helping to share my story and stand up for Colorado,” Park said.
Crow, who has had seemingly endless battles with Trump and his administration since Inauguration Day last year, said he’s not letting up on any of the numerous fronts in what has become a constant fight against the Trump chaos regime.
“President Trump’s tariffs have raised prices and squeezed small businesses,” Crow said. “As someone who came to this country in search of a better life, and now owns and operates small businesses, Jay shows us how immigrants make our nation stronger. This president’s mass deportations of non-violent people and inflammatory rhetoric not only demonize immigrants like Jay, but also harm our state’s economy.”
Bennet agrees.
His guest at the State of the Union speech will be Andrea Loya, executive director of Casa de Paz. It’s a metro-based nonprofit group that provides a variety of assistance to refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants, helping them especially when they’re released from Aurora’s ICE detention center.
“Loya is an immigrant herself and came to the United States when she was a young child,” according to a statement released by Bennet’s staff. “She navigated the complexities of the immigration system on her own and understands the uncertain, isolating nature of being new to this country.”
Loya said she appreciates the opportunity to offer details about the plight of immigrants amid the bedlam created by Trump.
“The Trump Administration has brought fear and chaos to Colorado and across the country with their cruel immigration policies, leaving community members to pick up the pieces,” Bennet said. “Organizations like Casa de Paz and leaders like Andrea are setting the example for how Coloradans work together, stand up for each other, and protect our neighbors in the face of danger and uncertainty.”
In the hours before Trump’s State of the Union speech, the bravado highlights how the Republican dominated congress has groveled at the president’s real and threatened wrath. The complicity and cowardness has left Democrats to slog through federal courts, and those of public opinion, for meager and often tentative victories.
Congressional Republicans having ceded their arm of government to Trump. So the nation anxiously awaits to see whether the GOP will work to save its ineffectual House and Senate majorities by resisting Trump’s extortion threats to besiege any Republican who defies him.
Given the predictable histrionics and prevarication the nation has come to expect from the Trump shows, the only suspense comes from how motivating stories like those of Andrea and Jay will be for Americans increasingly prepared to watch the president drive his second term off the cliff of history.
Tune in.
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