This morning I thought I would read transcripts of recent Trump and Biden campaign speeches, and attempt to summarize what they actually said they would do if elected, as opposed to what they are saying about the other guy, or what the media is saying about them.

I found a transcript of a typical Trump speech given three weeks ago in Reno. I have tried hard to ignore any insults, name calling, or other statements that seem untrue, meaningless or misleading. So, here is what Donald Trump says he would do if re-elected:

• Stop the hoards of illegal alien migrants, and effect the largest deportation in American history (these migrants are criminals, mental institution patients, and terrorists).
• “Invoke the Alien Enemies Act to remove all known or suspected gang members, drug dealers, or cartel members, from the United States, ending the gorge of illegal alien gang violence once and for all.” (This 1878 law is what was used to inter Japanese-Americans into camps during WWII, and allows a president to expel anyone believed to be an enemy or working with one. It was enacted to subdue John Adams’ political opponents, who were sympathetic to the French when there was concern the French would invade after the Revolutionary War.)
• “I will shift massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement, including parts of the DEA, ATF, FBI and DHS, and I will make clear that we must use any and all resources needed to stop the invasion of our country, including moving thousands of troops currently stationed overseas in countries that don’t like us.” (US law makes it illegal to use Federal troops to address domestic policy issues, so it would not be clear how Federal troops could be brought back from overseas.)
• “I will prevent World War Three and we’re very close to World War Three.” He notably doesn’t say how, but I thought this seemed important. We probably are close to WWIII. During his first administration he alienated our allies, so unlike WWII we might be fighting this next world war all by ourselves.
• “We will restore law and order to our communities, and I will direct a completely overhauled DOJ to investigate every radical out-of-control prosecutor in America for their illegal racist in reverse enforcement of the law. I am also going to indemnify all those policemen that were shaking my hand back there.” (He goes on to say that police officers should be able to do whatever they want, and his government would reimburse them for legal expenses should they break the law and be prosecuted for it.)
• “…we’ll work closely with the Democrat leaders of all these failing places [the big cities] to make sure that this rebuilding will be a lasting and compassionate one.” He is proposing to “rebuild” cities to make them safe from crime, which he claims they are not currently. This includes specific reference to Washington, D.C. which he says will be run by the Federal Government [although it already is]. 
• “Under the Trump administration, if colleges and universities discriminate against conservatives, Christians, Jews, anybody, if they attack free speech, we are going to take away their tax advantages, grants, and endowment.” This sounds like McCarthyism to me, but you can decide for yourself.
• We will “end this war on American energy, and we will drill, baby, drill. We’re going to drill.” Since we are currently the world’s largest exporter of petroleum products, and petroleum companies are reaping record profits thanks in part to ongoing Federal subsidies, it’s not clear what he means here other than a subtext for a screed against “tree huggers.” In any event, the US Federal Government has very limited ability to control the petroleum market, so this sounds like a dig at mitigating global warming without actually saying so.
• “I will sign a new executive order to cut federal funding for any school pushing critical race theory, transgender insanity, and other inappropriate racial, sexual, or political content on our children.” I’m not sure that the President has the authority to do this, but you get the idea. This would amplify the current book banning trend.
• “I will fully uphold the Second Amendment. I will protect innocent life and we will restore free speech in America once again.” Gun rights, abortion, and free speech are all conflated here. Making abortion illegal in more places is a wildly unpopular idea. Are we going to shoot the bad moms? It’s confusing, to me anyway.
• “We can handle that if we have the right president, but what’s very difficult are these corrupt communists that we have within our own country.” I pulled out this quote because it so closely parallels the rhetoric of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s. If you don’t know who this is, look him up.
• “Fake news is all you get and they [the press] are indeed the enemy of the people.” Emphasis is mine- this is a quote from Stalin who said it as part of his policy of destroying the free and independent press, so that Russian citizens would not know the truth.
• “And less than three years ago, we had Iran, China, Russia and North Korea in check. They respected us. They were afraid of us.” Again, this is not true. The statement implies that if you elect me, I will make these other countries afraid of us and respect us (again). I am strong and will punch those guys in the face.
• “We will institute the powerful death penalty for drug dealers where each dealer is responsible for the death, during their lives, of 500 people or more. This is the only thing that will work.” Although I don’t think that the President has the authority to do this, nor does it make much sense, it signals that his administration would focus on punishment.
• “With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state, we will drive out the globalists, we will cast out the communists, we will throw off the sick political class.” My translation: we will put my political opponents in jail, or at the least remove them from office. Think Stalin or Mao Tse-tung. The term “globalist” has been associated with anti-Semitism, referring to Jews as “globalists.” I don’t really know what he actually meant by any of this.
• “The great silent majority is rising like never before.” This is a quote from Richard Nixon, the only President to resign under a cloud of corruption. Nixon took the lack of support as a sign that Americans secretly agreed with him.

He said a lot of other stuff! The overall tone of it is that this country is horrible – crime ridden, corrupt, run by criminals, being overrun by foreigners, schools are ruining our kids, we are seen as weak by our enemies, world war III is imminent, inflation is rampant, other countries are taking advantage of us, the press is lying to you (except for Fox, I guess), and worse. The way back to strength, integrity and wholeness is to elect me. This campaign strategy has worked well for other autocratic national leaders in the past, although the eventual outcome was often bad for the people in their countries.

What are the key actions that he specifically said he would take if elected? a) impose tariffs that would increase prices for average Americans; b) admit fewer workers into the country, which would increase prices by forcing wages up for unskilled jobs that Americans generally don’t want; c) put undesired aliens into camps; d) enable more gun violence by relaxing gun safety legislation; e) enhance the micro-managing of school curricula, including book banning; f) punish his political enemies, which appears to include spilling over into anyone who exercises free speech about government problems; and g) transform the Department of Justice to allow for more efficient retribution against political enemies, whoever they might be.

He does not mention that he specifically has not agreed to abide by a legitimate election outcome should he lose, and he refused to say that he would not run the country as a dictator. He also said he would pardon those who have been convicted of insurrection on Jan 6.

Now I need to do this same analysis for Biden.

Oops! I read his first campaign speech, given at Valley Forge, and it said in essence: “I am not Donald Trump. I stand for democracy, so vote for me if you don’t want Trump but you do want the ideals of George Washington and our great country.” He is specific about many anti-democratic things that Trump stands for, but not so much about policies or actions that he would take if elected. The good news is that it is coherently written, with no wandering, no word salads, no random items thrown in the way Trump’s speech was, and I did not spot anything that was obviously untrue. So, based on the two speeches, I’d say that Biden wins the “Does this old person suffer from cognitive impairment?” contest. 

This felt incomplete, so I read a transcript of his second campaign speech of 2024, given at the historic Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. He made these points specific to what he would do if elected:

• I will continue to make drugs more affordable, as I have already done;
• I will continue to make health health insurance more affordable- for example, I’m going to make sure that Medicare can negotiate lower prices for all Americans;
• I am going to make childcare and eldercare more affordable, and when I did this for childcare with a tax credit, the other side blocked it;
• Although I did not get a police reform law passed (the other side blocked it so I had to implement an executive order), I will renew the fight to reform policing with legislation if you elect me so that the police obey the law;
• I will work to prevent housing discrimination ;
• We will continue to invest in HBCUs so that they have funding comparable to other Universities- note what I have already done to reduce student debt, an issue that impacts African Americans disproportionately;
• Every single lead pipe in America is going to be taken out and replaced, another problem that impacts African-Americans;
• I will do whatever it takes to make guns safer so that there are fewer injuries and deaths, and without violating the second amendment (the other said of a recent shooting “you have to get over it” but I say “We have to stop it”);
• I will continue to appoint more Black women to Federal Circuit Court;
• My administration will look like America, tapping into our full strength as a nation.

The tone and content are appropriately focused on the issues faced by the congregation of a Black church, which was the audience for this particular speech. For these issues, he is very specific about what he will do. In other words, each of his two speeches was crafted to suit the audience; he did not just rattle on with a generic stump speech. While he points out the contrast between his goals and those of his opponent (see the item on gun violence, for example), he does not use name-calling but rather just repeats what the other guy said. Sentence structure and ideas are carefully presented, grammatically correct, and the flow makes sense.

He closes with a few words specific to the founder of the Emanuel Church, including appropriate language from the Bible that the parishioners would relate to, and would seem to reflect that President Biden is familiar with Christian scripture. He ends with: “May God bless you all, and may God protect our troops.”

AND THEN: the CNN anchors discuss the speech, and they ignore almost everything of substance that he said regarding what he would do if elected. They talk about the “divisions within the Democratic party” and other aspects they seem to think would bear on strategy between the two parties. If all you heard was the commentary, you would have no idea what a next Biden administration would intend to accomplish, or why you should vote for or against it. One of the CNN journalists emphasized what he personally said to SC Congressman Jim Clyburn (who introduced Biden), giving the Congressman advice on what the journalist thought the campaign needed to do to win. I’m sure this made the journalist feel important, but was both distracting and unhelpful to voters.

Reading these transcripts was an exercise in attempting to find out who would make a better national leader based on what they actually say they will do if elected. Did it work?

Here are links to the transcripts that I read:

Donald Trump Rally in Reno 12/17/23 Transcript

Biden Marks Jan. 6 Anniversary with Speech on Democracy

https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/se/date/2021-10-21/segment/01.