We Have Trump’s SOTU Guest List. It Puts Trump In ‘Rare Situation’


Pres. Donald Trump and First Not-A-Lady Melania Trump have released names of the people who will be seated with Melania during Trump’s first State of the Union address.

Does anyone believe that Melania has any awareness of this list or the people on it? Doubt it.

I’m not going to be too critical of these people. Even those who don’t seem to realize it are Trump victims. A few things I want to address, though.

  • Trump’s spurious claim that Corey Adams has benefitted from the Trump presidency. He became a first-time homeowner in 2017. And this is to Trump’s credit how? Can’t we attribute this to the Obama economy?
  • Mr. Adams will invest his “extra money from tax reform” into his daughters’ education savings. Maybe. Many working class people try to save, and want to save, but it’s hard when you’re living paycheck to paycheck. This statement on how he’ll use his extra “savings” is a frequent and stupid GOP talking point.
  • God bless these parents who lost their children. Trump deliberately chose the parents of children who were killed by undocumented immigrants. A child lost is a child lost, and a parent’s grief doesn’t discriminate. Trump’s move on Tuesday shows a clear bias to his focus on crimes committed by immigrants. These people are being exploited by Donald Trump, to no one’s surprise.
  • Are Steve Staub and Sandy Kepingler seriously attributing renewed success to a “Trump Bump”? Citing “uptick in sales, employment, and optimism,” their reasons for giving Trump credit are a thin on substance. Nothing that Trump has done to date can account for any success in their business. Maybe the optimism? Great. But data doesn’t support any of their other claims. We wish them much continued success as the result of the Obama economy.

As for the other attendees? I can not say this any better than The Boston Globe did in their article “State of the Union puts Trump into a rare situation: a diverse audience.”

The plush seats of the House chamber and the visitor’s gallery above will be filled not only with ardent Trump supporters, but a potpourri of Trump critics: lawmakers he has name-called on Twitter, Democrats who have called for his impeachment, members of congressional committees investigating his campaign’s contacts with Russia, and women legislators wearing black to support the ongoing #MeToo movement fighting sexual assault and harassment.

It’s awesome that Trump has a nicely diverse guest list because reports say that the chamber will be void of many of the black members of the House of Representatives.

One group who will not attend Tuesday’s speech: several black members of the House of Representatives. Of 11 lawmakers who had announced they will skip the State of the Union to protest Trump by Monday evening, more than half were members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including civil rights legend John Lewis. (via)


Siblings Steve Staub and Sandy Kepingler started Staub Manufacturing Solutions, a contract manufacturing company specializing in metal fabrication, twenty years ago.  Today, they serve as president and vice president, respectively. Thanks to the “Trump bump” in their business, Staub Manufacturing Solutions has seen an uptick in sales, employment, and optimism. They have grown their team from 23 to 37 employees over the last year and recently expanded by acquiring a new building. Following enactment of the tax cuts and reform legislation last year, they were able to give all their employees larger than expected Christmas bonuses.


Preston Sharp was visiting his veteran grandfather’s grave in 2015 when he noticed that other local veterans were not being honored with American flags or flowers. Today, Preston has organized the placement of more than 40,000 American flags and red carnations on soldiers’ graves.


Agent CJ Martinez has spent much of his 15-year tenure working with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations to dismantle criminal organizations, resulting in more than 100 arrests of MS-13 gang members who were prosecuted for crimes including homicide, assault, and narcotics and weapons trafficking.


As an aviation electronics technician in the United States Coast Guard, Ashlee Leppert rescued dozens of Americans during the devastating hurricane season, including lifting a woman and four children to safety in a basket.


Police Officer Ryan Holets and his wife adopted a baby from parents who suffered from opioid addiction, breaking down walls between drug addicts and police officers to help save lives.


David Dahlberg is a fire prevention technician in southern California. He saved 62 children and staff members in July 2017 from a raging wildfire that encircled their camp.


Jon Bridgers founded the Cajun Navy 2016, a non-profit rescue and recovery organization that responded to the 2016 flooding in south Louisiana and 2017’s Hurricane Harvey in Texas, helping thousands of people across the South.


In 2007, Cpl (Ret.) Matthew Bradford stepped on an IED in Iraq, causing shrapnel to immediately enter both of his eyes and blind him. He also lost both of his legs. After multiple surgeries and therapy, Matthew reenlisted in the Marine Corps – the first blind double amputee to do so.


Elizabeth Alvarado, Robert Mickens, Evelyn Rodriguez, and Freddy Cuevas are the parents of Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas, who had been close friends since elementary school, but in September 2016, the two girls were chased down and brutally murdered by MS-13.


Corey Adams, a skilled welder at Staub Manufacturing Solutions in Ohio, and his wife, were able to become first-time homeowners in 2017, and they will invest their extra money from tax reform into their two daughters’ education savings.

 

Featured image via aoc.gov, all images and verbiage via whitehouse.gov

I had a successful career actively working with at-risk youth, people struggling with poverty and unemployment, and disadvantaged and oppressed populations. In 2011, I made the decision to pursue my dreams and become a full-time writer. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.