At the first Presidential Address to a Joint Session of Congress in his second term of office, President Donald J. Trump was, as my sons would say, ‘in his bag’ as showman-in-chief. Beyond the jokes, antics, and partisan division belying the historic decorum of the Chamber, the tradition of storytelling through special guests—popularized by President Bill Clinton—has become a project in propaganda. This time it both exploited and commodified our children.
Commodifying Child Welfare for Personal Gain
In a segment of his speech focused on tariffs as an economic strategy, the President meandered into an aside on the child welfare system. Trump glowingly introduced Jeff Denard, a steelworker, father, and volunteer firefighter who, alongside his wife Nicole, had raised seven children and fostered another 40. Parenting is the joy of so many of our lives, and the Denards’ commitment to providing a stable home for children was rightfully applauded. According to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), 368,500 children lived in foster care in 2022—the year for which the most complete federal data is available. Every one of them deserves a permanent, nurturing home.
But, in the address, the Alabama family was just a rhetorical bridge from economic policy to economic self-interest. The foster care reference was simply a transition to First Lady Melania Trump’s “Fostering the Future” initiative. The effort only exists on for-profit websites that focus on selling clothing and jewelry, secondarily asking for corporate sponsorships and donations without program information. Last year, several media outlets investigating the so-called charities were unable to find a trace of the required charitable reporting for Trump’s efforts and questioned whether these were examples of grift.
No matter what the reporters find, as President of the United States, Mr. Trump is called to do more than shine light on promising stories or engage in pet projects that extract personal gain from the child abuse and neglect that often lands children in the child welfare system. He should, rather, have been speaking to Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is accountable for federal engagement with foster and adoptive care. With interest in the well-being of the children placed in the Denards’ care, he could direct the Secretary to accelerate the reforms of the bipartisan Supporting America’s Children by Strengthening Families Act signed into law at the beginning of this year to keep young people from being separated from their families. In a rare turn from self-centered praise and partisanship, the power of the bully pulpit could have congratulated Republican Congressman Darin LaHood (IL-16) and Democratic Congressman Danny Davis (IL-07) for reaching across the aisle to get this historic reform done.
Exploiting Children’s Health to Raise Questions About Vaccines
In what many have called the most touching moment of the President’s Address, a 13-year-old cancer survivor, named Devarjaye “DJ” Daniel and his father, Theodis, were introduced. In his ambition to be an officer, prior to the congressional address, Devarjaye had been sworn into honorary service more than 800 times and came dressed to serve and protect. Miraculously, DJ has fought a rare cancer of the brain and spine since being diagnosed in 2018. DJ’s desire to serve others and make neighborhoods safe seemed as pure and joyful as his rounded eyes when surprised with an honorary Secret Service badge. Such aspirations are the wholesome providence of childhood.
Unfortunately, in co-opting DJ’s story, Mr. Trump left out or was ignorant of the ways federal research funding—which he is slashing—to the National Cancer Institute within the National Institutes of Health made the life-extending supports which brought DJ into the Chamber, years after diagnosis, possible. Perhaps worse, he leveraged the lived experience of this young American to promote Secretary Kennedy’s “Make America Healthy Again” Commission without a concrete commitment to eliminating childhood cancer, which is the leading cause of children’s death from disease.
Even worse, in an inexplicable shift that could only be explained by a mind map, mentioning Mr. Kennedy and children’s health caused Mr. Trump to speak of autism. When speaking of a rise in autism diagnoses, the President compared statistics from more than 50 years ago (1 in 10,000 children) to current rates (1 in 36) to suggest an untoward spike. Here, the President echoed prior musings from Secretary Kennedy about an unfounded link between vaccines and autism, thus preemptively setting the stage for Mr. Kennedy to use his authority to eliminate children’s access to life-saving vaccines. No word, of course, about the measles outbreak in Texas, which has already claimed a young life.
Another president, miles away, in another time, suggested, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.” If President Mandela was right and President Trump is America’s standard bearer, we have some soul-searching to do.