After the tragic shooting of two West Virginian National Guard members deployed in Washington, D.C. last week, President Trump promised to pause migration from “Third World Countries.” Presidential historian and former Biden speechwriter Jon Meacham appeared on MS NOW Friday night to criticize how Trump had supposedly “confused” the office’s voice by irresponsibly tangling together separate issues.
Before greeting her guest, host of The 11th Hour Stephanie Ruhle, of course, framed the topic of discussion as an “anti-immigrant” issue: “In the wake of the horrific National Guard shooting in Washington, we’ve seen a rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric. And it is coming at a time when the administration is threatening more limitations to migration.”
Considering that it was an Afghani foreign national who was suspected for shooting at the National Guardsmen, then yeah, obviously intense debates surrounding immigration would be reinvigorated, regardless of which administration was responsible for admitting and vetting the suspect. One could also imagine scrutiny of the vetting process for Afghanis who were brought over during the collapse.
After making his obligatory condemnation of the shooting, Meacham started his own version of the “consoler-in-chief” critique against Trump:
And one of the issues we have is the Presidency, historically, is an office where the voice from the top at its best has defined and calmed the country. Not to lure it into some kind of false passivity, but to frame an issue, direct our national energies toward resolving a particular problem.
Meacham then referenced JFK and FDR as examples of Presidents who provided a sense of unification for the country.
So, what has the recent unfortunate event revealed about the voice of the Presidency during Trump, you may ask?
“And what I think we're see today with President Trump is in the midst of this reprehensible crime against our uniformed personnel who are there to serve the country, to serve the flag, to serve the Constitution, it's become confused,” he proclaimed
Oh. The President, who had been tough on immigration since he ran for office in 2015, had somehow perplexed the country?
The historian dully portrayed Trump’s messaging strategy (or lack thereof) as carelessly haphazard:
… the President has taken the occasion to launch a kind of fusillade of rhetoric about issues that may very well be important on their own, but, in a way, by putting everything together and by lashing out somewhat indiscriminately, we find ourselves instead of having clarity about this tragedy in Washington, we find ourselves in a kind of swivet nationally.
Apparently, the sum of Trump’s rhetoric was less than its parts.
Even though Trump’s governance has been, shall we say, infamously unconventional, that doesn’t mean he’s subjected the American public to political whiplash.
For Meacham, that reality wasn’t a bug, rather, “a regrettable but all too familiar feature of this particular President.”
Everyone should know that Trump has been unconventional in his communication style and to take him “seriously but not literally.” And after 10 years of Trump with three more to go, it didn’t look like that would change anytime soon.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" read:
MS NOW’s The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle
November 28, 2025
6:52:12 p.m. EST
STEPHANIE RUHLE: In the wake of the horrific National Guard shooting in Washington, we’ve seen a rise in anti-immigrant rhetoric. And it is coming at a time when the administration is threatening more limitations to migration. Joining me now, historian Jon Meacham.
Jon, what is your reaction first to this horrible shooting, but also to the administration's response?
JON MEACHAM: Well, the shooting is reprehensible. The death of the young woman is a source — should be a source of national mourning, and the prayers of the country should be with the victims, all the victims.
And one of the issues we have is the Presidency, historically, is an office where the voice from the top at its best has defined and calmed the country. Not to lure it into some kind of false passivity, but to frame an issue, direct our national energies toward resolving a particular problem. That's the Presidency at its best. President Kennedy called it the “vital center of action.” FDR said that all great Presidents were governing in times when the life of the nation required the redefinition of essential moral issues.
And what I think we're see today with President Trump is in the midst of this reprehensible crime against our uniformed personnel who are there to serve the country, to serve the flag, to serve the Constitution, it's become confused. It's become — the President has taken the occasion to launch a kind of fusillade of rhetoric about issues that may very well be important on their own, but, in a way, by putting everything together and by lashing out somewhat indiscriminately, we find ourselves instead of having clarity about this tragedy in Washington, we find ourselves in a kind of swivet nationally. And I think that that's a regrettable but all too familiar feature of this particular President.
