Across the great divide: Trump rides the Crimson Tide in Alabama as Kamala emerges to split opinion again

Irish Times

03-05-2025

There is no turning back now. The
United States
has passed the symbolic 100-days-in-office touchstone of
Donald Trump
's second term. As of this weekend, the countdown clocks will show that there are just 1,357 days of Trump's presidency remaining.
Neither Trump's fervent Maga base nor the May Day crowds who gathered across the country to protest against the administration can reasonably guess as to the state of their nation when the day-counter hits zero, and the 48th presidentinaugurated.
The week offered an unsettling reprise of the choice that Americans made last November. After months of invisibility, Democratic candidate
Kamala Harris
gave her first consequential political speech since the crushing night when a resigned silence presided over the election party headquarters at Howard University.
'Some people are describing what has been happening in recent months as absolute chaos, and, of course, I understand why and it's certainly true of those tariffs,' she told her audience in San Francisco.
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'But, friends, please let us not be duped into thinking everything is chaos. What we are in fact witnessing is a high-velocity event. Where a vessel is being used for the swift implementation of an agenda that has been decades in the making.'
As ever with Harris, opinion was split on the quality of the performance.
Her supporters could point to the calmness, her poise, the essential optimism. Those who believe that Harris was the wrong candidate will once again shake their heads at the slow-paced delivery during a time when her party colleagues – and she herself – are shouting 'fire!' and warning of a constitutional crisis.
Former US vice-president Kamala Harris delivers the keynote speech on Wednesday at the Emerge 20th Anniversary Gala in San Francisco. Photograph: Godofredo A Vasquez/AP
On Thursday, a day after Harris's address, Trump gave a commencement speech for graduate students at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. It was the same day as
he relieved Mike Waltz of his role as national security adviser
, quickly naming him as UN ambassador while handing
Marco Rubio yet another portfolio to juggle
.
On Thursday night, Rubio made an appearance on the Sean Hannity show to discuss, among other matters, the looming realities of the
US trade tariffs
stand-off with
China
.
'They've been ripping off the world,' Rubio said of the Chinese.
'People forget that the factories where all these shirts and shoes and clothing and all that stuff that comes from China – those are all Chinese jobs. When they say that the containers, that the factories are not going to be sending things to America, that means they are out of a job. This is hurting the Chinese economy badly.
'I think there's two questions. Can we reach some sort of short-term accommodation with them? That's what they want. ... But I think there is a broader question... that we truly need to be a country that can make more things in America and not be as dependent on China.'
If Rubio watched the show back, he would find himself confronted with the disconcerting fact that Trump muted is a more eye-catching performer than he himself is at full volume.
But circumstances were extenuating. As Rubio spoke, the split screen showed Trump break from his standard podium-posture into an animated and, while silenced, alarming type of physical mime. He grimaced, bared his teeth and raised his hands to convey a person struggling under a great weight – the world itself, perhaps – and then quitting, with a shrug.
A few seconds later, he repeated the gesture, but this time he raised his arms triumphantly above his head. It turned out Trump was describing, for the students, a weightlifting contest between a biological woman attempting a record lift and a transgender competitor.
For the second time in a week, Trump revelled in the adoration of a loyal crowd. Although college Democrats held a protest against his visit, the mood in the big arena, where he was introduced by revered NFL coach Nick Saban, was enthusiastic. Poking fun at the
administration's war with Harvard University
, Trump told the students that 'history will not be written by the Harvard Crimson but by the Crimson Tide', the latter being a reference to the Alabama college's sporting teams.
The line pleased Trump. He remains ebullient. The White House could point to a strong jobs performance in April, despite the tariff turmoil. Democrats will warn about a proposed $163 billion (€144 billion) cut to government funding in health research, climate change and education in the upcoming budget plan.
Meanwhile, social media founding father
Mark Zuckerberg
, a newly pledged member of Trump's eclectic fan club, made a bleak prediction on a podcast. He admitted that there is a statistic floating around that he considers 'crazy'.
'The average American has fewer than three friends – three people they consider friends. And the average person has demand for meaningfully more ... I think it is like 15 friends or something.'
His consolation was that while nothing tops human connection, the era of
AI
friendships is imminent and that his fellow Americans will 'find the vocabulary as a society to be able to articulate why that is valuable and why the people who are doing these things, why they are rational for doing it, and how it is adding value for their lives'.
And in a week when the schism in American life was more pronounced than ever, that was the good news.