Trump to make 'full-throated' case during primetime speech: former presidential speechwriters
President Donald Trump delivers his final State of the Union address during his first term in office, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 4, 2020. (Getty Images)
McGurn called the first speech to Congress from a president after his inauguration "a great opportunity to broadcast their message far and wide."
"He's going to make his case," McGurn forecast.
Trump has been going at warp speed in his first six weeks back in the White House with a burst of executive orders and actions. His actions not only completed some of his most significant campaign promise items, but also enabled the returning president to assert his executive muscle, get quickly settled into the federal government, make substantial reductions in the federal workforce and also resolve some longstanding grievances.
Trump, as of Tuesday, has signed 82 executive orders since taking office on Jan. 20, based on a Fox News tally, well exceeding the pace of any recent presidential predecessors in their first weeks in office.
President Donald Trump signs an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House on Feb. 14, 2025. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
Most of Trump's actions have been contentious, such as threatening to impose tariffs on key trading partners, such as Canada and Mexico, overhauling the country's global agenda and putting foreign aid on ice, as well as a high-profile assault on illegal immigration.
Also making headlines is Trump's newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump appointed Elon Musk — the richest man in the world and the CEO of Tesla and Space X — to lead DOGE.
DOGE has swept through the federal government since Trump took office, eliminating what the White House contends was billions of dollars in wasteful federal expenditure. It has also slashed the federal workforce with a meat cleaver, causing a huge reduction in the number of employees. The actions of DOGE have spurred a string of lawsuits back.
TOP WILDEST MOMENTS FROM PRESIDENTIAL SPEECHES TO CONGRESS
"I would craft it as a victory, and I would craft it looking to the future," said Clark Judge, a one-time speechwriter and special assistant to then-President Ronald Reagan, asked by Fox News Digital what he would say about DOGE were he composing Trump's speech.
After Friday's stunning showdown in the Oval Office between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Trump and Vice President JD Vance, what Trump will say in his speech to Congress about the Russia-Ukraine war will be under close scrutiny.
President Donald Trump, center, meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, as Vice President JD Vance reacts, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 28, 2025. (REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo)
"Absolutely, he's going to tell you how he looks at the world," McGurn said. "Donald Trump isn't afraid of telling you what he believes, so he's going to be saying it with gusto."
Further, he surmised that "there's going to be a lot of Republican support. Democrats, I can't picture, will be on board for anything. So it could be highly dramatic. People will be seeking boos and applause."
Dan Cluchey, who was a senior speechwriter to then-President Joe Biden, had some advice for Trump as well.
"What Donald Trump 'should' do is direct his attention outward toward the American people instead of inward toward himself," Cluchey said to Fox News Digital.
He contended that "Americans are owed an explanation for why he is failing to act on record egg prices, cutting crucial funding for everything from cancer research to weather forecasting, threatening to destroy Medicaid and the Social Security Administration, burning our hard-won reputation as the world's leading defender of democracy, and rushing the strong economy he inherited toward an absolutely unnecessary collapse."
But Cluchey foresaw that "what Donald Trump *will* do, instead, is what he always does: create the record and obsess about Donald Trump."