CNN commentator Van Jones called President Trump’s joint address to Congress a “good show,” but accused the president of ignoring reality Tuesday night.
“Trump is the master showman,” Jones said. “I thought he used his time well, all two hours of it. It’s like ‘Lord of the Rings’ — it’s long.” When one of his fellow commentators compared the length of Trump’s speech to the 160-minute runtime of “Wicked,” Jones noted, “The problem is, like ‘Wicked,’ you go [see it] and it’s a fantasy, and then you come back home and you got to deal with reality.”
He went on to break down how Trump’s remarks in his joint address conflicted with his presidential actions over the past six weeks. “In the speech, he loves the military. In reality, he’s cutting VA [funds] and throwing veterans out of work. In the speech, he loves cops,” Jones explained. “In reality, he’s pardoning everybody from Jan. 6 who beat the hell out of cops. In the speech, he holds up this cancer kid who everybody fell in love with. In reality, he’s cutting cancer research.”
You can watch the full CNN segment in the video below.
In the moments following Trump’s speech, Jones also called out the president’s contradictory comments about the economy and America’s public health plan. “In the speech, he talks about a strong economy. In reality, it’s tariffs and the stock market is in free-fall,” Jones added. “In the speech, he’s got MAHA — Make America Healthy Again — and my good buddy Bobby Kennedy Jr. But in reality, there is measles ripping through Texas. There is more measles cases in Texas than there are transgender athletes in the country.”
Finishing up his brief monologue, Jones again returned to his initial fantasy analogy. “There is a speech which is fantastic fantasy, and then there is a reality that is getting worse and worse,” he continued. “Democrats have to figure out some way to close the gap in public perception.”
Jones said that Trump has so far provided “zero answers” about how he intends to improve America’s economy and address the country’s rising consumer prices. “You are not talking about the price of eggs and taking responsibility for things getting worse,” the CNN personality concluded.
