President Donald Trump concluded his address to Congress Tuesday with a call for liberty, but his definition of the idea and that of U.S. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park, and Schneider’s guest for the evening, Adam Mulvey, are not the same.
Trump spoke of the U.S. entering a “golden age,” securing borders, returning the Panama Canal to American control, and ending taxes on tips, overtime wages and Social Security benefits, as well as eliminating regulations so businesses can thrive.
“It’s our turn to take up the righteous cause of American liberty,” Trump said. “It’s time to stop the madness and stop the killing.”
Schneider said he looks to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution to define American liberty, with ideas like everyone “is created equal” and the country strives to have a “more perfect union.”
“These are the very ideals of who we are, like the words of Thomas Jefferson that we are all equal,” Schneider said. “(Trump) criticized the power of unelected bureaucrats but he appoints Elon Musk, who is an oligarch.”
Schneider was among a majority of Democrats and nearly all Republican members of Congress listening to Trump’s speech Tuesday in Washington as his guest, Mulvey, made strong statements about some of the president’s early actions.
Mulvey, a 20-year Army veteran who retired in 2019, became an emergency management specialist at the James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago. He lost his job on Feb. 13 as part of Musk’s cost-cutting maneuvers. He was one of 22 guests at the speech who had suffered such a fate.
During his speech, Trump said his executive order eliminating DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) returned the country to a meritocracy. Mulvey said he took issue with that claim since he got stellar performance reviews, but was in his position for less than a year giving him less protection than workers with more than 12 months tenure.
“If it was a meritocracy, I wouldn’t have been fired,” said Mulvey, who served two tours of duty to Iraq and one to Afghanistan.
Taking credit for improving relations between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors through the Abraham Accords in his first term — Schneider is a member of the Abraham Accords Caucus — Trump said he was now in a position to take it further.
“We want to bring back our hostage from Gaza,” Trump said.
With one American hostage remaining in Gaza, Scheider said all should be freed.
Talking about creating a gold card to allow people to buy American citizenship for $5 million, Trump said those individuals would pay taxes in the U.S. but not elsewhere. They will help boost the economy.
“It’s like the green card, but better and more sophisticated,” Trump said. “They have to pay tax, create jobs. They’ll also be taking people out of colleges and paying for them so that we can keep them in our country instead of having them being forced out.”
Disliking the idea of purchasing citizenship, Schneider said Trump is establishing a tax dodge for gold card recipients. Mulvey said he remembers serving with soldiers who were not yet American citizens. He likes the idea of them becoming Americans.
“I can’t believe we’re selling American citizenship,” Mulvey said “I sat with soldiers who were sworn in as American citizens in Iraq.”
U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, D-Naperville, who represents the northwest part of Lake County, also attended the speech.
Two members of the House of Representatives who represent other parts of Lake County — U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Chicago, and U.S. Rep. Jan. Schakowsky, D-Evanston, chose not to attend.
Schakowsky said in a statement Trump continually ignores laws and takes actions that are unconstitutional. Rather than follow the laws and uphold the Constitution, he remains self-centered, she said.
“President Donald Trump has shown us time and time again that he stands for only one thing — himself,” Schakowsky said in the statement. “In the last three weeks, we saw the Trump-Musk crime family vote with Russia and North Korea against a UN Resolution supporting Ukraine.”
Quigley said in a statement that rather than listen to Trump he will spend his time working to make the government better for his constituents by lowering the price of groceries, housing and health care, while improving public safety and climate change,
“This president has set flame to every democratic norm and principle of our government,” Quigley said in his statement. “I cannot in good conscience adhere to the norm of attending his joint address. Donald Trump has undermined our democracy every day since taking office.”