| | | | 6 takeaways from Donald Trump's first SOTU speech | | President Donald Trump delivered his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, a (very) lengthy speech in which he largely revisited his accomplishments over his first year in office and offered a handful of proposals he'd like to see considered in the coming year. While it's important not to over-analyze what the speech means for Trump's presidency -- his first year in office suggests what he says one day means very little for what he will do the next -- I did jot down a few takeaways from the address. They're below.
1. America First: Trump ran -- and won -- on the idea that he would always put our country first. And boy did he make good on that promise in his State of the Union address. For the first hour of the speech, Trump talked about nothing but domestic policy. Tax cuts. The economy. Trade. Regulatory reform. Immigration. Nary a mention of America's place in the world until after 10 p.m. ET. The signal was clear: Trump is not just using "America First" as a piece of rhetoric; he's heavily focused on making it a policy reality as well.
2. Bipartisanship just ain't happening: In the early moments of Trump's speech, he made several calls for the country and the Congress to come together. "Tonight, I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground, and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people we were elected to serve," Trump said at one point. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's reaction to Trump's mention of the need to come together for the good of the American people tells you everything you need to know about the chances of that actually happening.
3. A greatest hits album. Most State of the Union addresses are roughly evenly split between a touting of past accomplishments and the laying out of a vision for future governance. Trump's speech was 80% celebration of what he has done and 20% talking about what he would like to do. (In truth, the percentage might have tilted even more in the direction of Trump's recitation of his greatest hits.) It was almost an hour into his remarks that Trump first mentioned a proposal -- a massive infrastructure bill -- that he wanted Congress to take up.
4. Trump as the Obama eraser. Much of Trump's pitch as a candidate was as the anti-Barack Obama. And, Republicans -- who, in Obama, saw everything they disliked about big government liberals -- ate it up. Trump has spent his first year governing as the anti-Obama as well. Or, more accurately, the Obama eraser. He jettisoned DACA. He pushed for the repeal of the individual mandate. He has stripped out regulation after regulation put into place by Obama. And on Tuesday night, Trump announced his plans to keep the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba open -- a direct rebuttal to Obama's long-made and long-failed pledge to close the prison.
5. The great unmentioned. Nowhere in Trump's speech did he address -- even obliquely -- the special counsel investigation into Russia's attempted meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with members of his campaign. In fact Trump uttered the word "Russia" only once.
6. Stagecraft was top notch. Perhaps not surprising for someone who has lived his life in the spotlight and who built a life on image and brand, the stagecraft of Trump's first State of the Union was outstanding. From the families who lost loved ones to the MS-13 gang to Otto Warmbier's parents to the North Korean defector and his crutches, the visuals -- and the stories they told -- were haunting and memorable.
Read my full take here.
--Chris | | IN THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED | | | Lots of great shots from inside the room where it happened, before it happened (courtesy of CSPAN's Howard Mortman, who flagged some of these moments on Twitter). | | Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III gave the Democrats' response to the State of the Union address from a technical school in Fall River, Massachusetts on Tuesday night. During the speech, he was critical of President Donald Trump's administration, tying the turmoil from the last year to his presidency.
"This is a difficult task. Many have spent the past year anxious, angry, afraid. We all feel the fault lines of a fractured country," the Democrat said. "We hear the voices of Americans who feel forgotten and forsaken."
CNN's Daniella Diaz wrote about Kennedy here and also his speech. And in case you are curious about the SOTU response tradition, CNN's Ryan Struyk wrote this great piece about the curse of the SOTU response. | | As CNN's Juana Summers, Sara Ganim, Sunlen Serfaty and MJ Lee reported: "Eager to keep discussions about sexual harassment front and center at Trump's national address, some lawmakers honored the growing 'Me Too' movement by coordinating what they wore and bringing guests that represent the effort. Some wore black, a move that echoes the women of Hollywood that wore black in solidarity with sexual misconduct victims at the Golden Globes earlier this year, while others invited victims of harassment and misconduct, as well as activists, to attend the President's address as their guests." (Read more here).
Meanwhile, some female Republican lawmakers dressed in red, white and blue in support for the US military. Rep. Mimi Walters, of California, wore a red sweater. She told CNN ahead of the speech that female Republican lawmakers had decided on the color coordination as a group. "We want to show patriotism to our country," Walters said. | | ALL EYES ON FLOTUS (AND HER GUESTS) | | | Per CNN's Allie Malloy: First lady Melania Trump and President Donald Trump welcomed beneficiaries of Trump's tax cuts and families who have lost loved ones at the hands of the MS-13 gang to the State of the Union address Tuesday night. The first lady sat with the 15 guests in her own box in the Capitol, the White House announced Monday. Guests of the first family have long been a tradition at State of the Union addresses. The first lady, who opted to ride with the invited guests to the address, wore an all-white ensemble to the event. | | #2020 WATCH: THE GUEST LIST | | | Here's a look at who some of the #2020 presidential contenders took as their guests to Trump's SOTU this evening. CNN wrote up a full list of lawmakers guests here. BTW, not everyone was happy about the DACA guests, given the current immigration standoff in Washington. As CNN's Daniella Diaz reported: Earlier on Tuesday Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar had asked Capitol Police to arrest undocumented immigrants at SOTU. | | THE BOYCOTTERS & NO SHOWS | | | CNN's Sophie Tatum reported a list of lawmakers who planned on boycotting Trump's #SOTU. As of Tuesday afternoon, a total of 14 Democrats said they would be skipping the event. They included: Reps. Yvette Clarke, Juan Vargas, John Lewis, Maxine Waters, Barbara Lee, Frederica Wilson, Pramila Jayapal, Earl Blumenauer, Gregory Meeks, Danny Davis, Jan Schakowsky, Bobby Rush, Steve Cohen and Albio Sires. Read more about why in Sophie's full story here. Also not present? Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was speaking in Rhode Island at a "fireside chat" at Roger Williams University's law school and a temple in Providence, CNN reported. | | CNN's Doug Criss and Emanuella Grinberg reported that on Monday, a handful of celebrities -- including Cynthia Nixon, Michael Moore, Rosie Perez and Mark Ruffalo -- came together for the "People's State of the Union." The event took place at The Town Hall, a historic theater in New York built almost 100 years ago to support the women's suffrage movement.
On Tuesday, activist and actor Alyssa Milano led a digital initiative called "#StateoftheDream." "Our digital #StateOfTheDream address will support our dreamers and immigrants, call for a DREAM Act, lean into the Senate, fundraise for United We Dream, and express our vision for a more inclusive, progressive America," Milano wrote in a document she shard on social media. As part of the social media drive, people were asked to create and post 60-seconds or less videos describing their dream for America, what they hope for and what inspires them. Ruffalo was one of the participants who shared a video. | | | While State of the Union was the big politics news of the night, here's what you might have missed during the day: | | | Goodnight! Hope you enjoyed the special #SOTU edition. Tell everyone you know to subscribe to The Point. | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Follow this link for daily coverage of the world's top stories, savvy market insights, an insider's look into the media, and more. Our authors for The Point are Chris Cillizza and Saba Hamedy. Send your tips and thoughts via email to Chris or Saba. Follow on Twitter: Chris and Saba. | | | | | | |
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