State of the Union: Did it unite or divide?
The 360 is a feature designed to show you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories.
Speed Read
Who: President Donald Trump
What: Trump delivered a State of the Union speech for the second time in his presidency Tuesday night — and for the first time before a majority Democratic Congress.
The president’s address had been described by aides as a call for unity across party lines — but hours before his speech, at a lunch with journalists, Trump set a more combative tone when he reportedly called Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer a “nasty son of a b****” and ridiculed former Vice President Joe Biden as “dumb.”
Trump did broadly call for bipartisanship several times in his speech, and there were moments of unity, but Trump also repeatedly touched on the issues that have left lawmakers most divided. He attacked what he called “ridiculous partisan investigations” in a veiled jab at special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, pushed for a border wall to stem the “tremendous onslaught” of migrants, and dove into the abortion debate, slamming the recent legislative changes in New York and Virginia that reduce the restrictions governing when women are allowed to have abortions.
When: Trump finally delivered his speech Tuesday. It was initially scheduled for Jan. 29, but was delayed during the partial government shutdown amid a spat with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said she would not authorize the president to deliver his address until the government reopened.
What next: A large part of Trump’s speech emphasized the ongoing battle over his wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, and lawmakers are now negotiating a deal to avoid another shutdown. Their deadline: Feb. 15.
As the president continues his negotiations, Democrats have so far shown little sign they are likely to heed his call for bipartisanship and to arrive at a compromise with him on the issue.
The morning after Trump’s speech, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, “You can’t talk about comity and working together and give a speech that is so divisive — that just doesn’t fly.”
Fact check
Border wall
Trump: “These (border) agents will tell you where walls go up, illegal crossings go way, way down. … Simply put, walls work, and walls save lives.”
The facts: It’s complicated and there’s no clear way to measure how the existence of barriers affect security.
Middle East wars
Trump: “Our brave troops have now been fighting in the Middle East for almost 19 years.”
The facts: The president exaggerated the length of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The United States sent troops to Afghanistan after the terrorist attacks in September 2001, more than 17 years ago, and the war in the Middle East per se, in Iraq, began in March 2003, almost 16 years ago.
Tariffs
Trump: “We recently imposed tariffs on $250 billion of Chinese goods — and now our treasury is receiving billions of dollars.”
The facts: This is misleading. The revenue is coming largely from from U.S. businesses and consumers.
Wages
Trump: “Wages are rising at the fastest pace in decades, and growing for blue-collar workers, who I promised to fight for. They’re growing faster than anyone else thought possible.”
The facts: This is an unsupported statement, since records for hourly wages for private workers go back only to 2006, not for decades.
Economy
Trump: “In just over two years since the election, we have launched an unprecedented economic boom — a boom that has rarely been seen before. There’s been nothing like it. … An economic miracle is taking place in the United States.”
The facts: This is a vast exaggeration. There has been a mild improvement in growth and hiring during the president’s term in office.
Women in the workforce
Trump: “We have more women in the workforce than ever before.”
The facts: True, but this is due to population growth, not something Trump can take credit for.
Energy
Trump: “We have unleashed a revolution in American energy — the United States is now the No. 1 producer of oil and natural gas in the world.”
The facts: True, if “we” is taken to include Trump and his recent predecessors.
Perspectives
He struck a unifying tone. For now.
“When President Donald Trump’s speech ended Tuesday night, there had to be a question shared in living rooms and saloons throughout the country: Where has this been? … Before Republicans get too excited, they need to remember this is still Donald Trump. What Trump giveth in a 90-minute speech, he can easily sabotage with a 3 a.m. tweet. Someone should take his phone.” – Editorial Board, Colorado Springs Gazette
A home run for Trump
“Last night’s State of the Union address was terrific. A home run. … But we’ve learned that the tone of Trump’s State of the Union addresses and the tone of the rest of his presidency are, at most, distant cousins. … If Trump stayed off Twitter for a week, just as an experiment, it would be fascinating.” – Jim Geraghty, National Review
There was logic behind Trump’s zigzagging speech.
“President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, as it unfolded, was a dizzying and even disorienting experience, a cascade of rhetorical passages that seemed to contradict each other every few moments. … At first blush this all may have seemed like incoherence, as though the speech was a composite of recommendations from warring factions, every zig offset by a whiplashing zag. But taken as a whole, the address revealed a clear strategic purpose — one designed to revive and strengthen the ideological connection between the Trump of 2019 with the Trump who first began his astonishingly effective takeover of the Republican Party four years ago.” – John F. Harris, Politico
He almost appeared almost presidential.
“Despite some jarring moments, he made a passable attempt at a presidential tone, calling for governing ‘not as two parties but as one nation,’ and speaking of a ‘new opportunity’ in U.S. politics for those with the courage to seize it. The question is whether these gestures are to be taken seriously.” – Editorial Board, Bloomberg
Compromise — on his terms
“The state of Donald Trump is unrepentant and defiant. And while he says he’s open to compromise and national unity — it must be on his terms. … The question now is whether the President did anything to help his precarious political position or to narrow entrenched political battle lines.” – Stephen Collinson, CNN
Robert Mueller looms large.
“It was one paragraph in this long, odd, terrible speech that gave away the game. … Trump knows his legal peril grows by the day, and he’s struggling to pry it off him while there might still be time. Robert Mueller wasn’t in the House chamber tonight, but Trump’s odd performance and shambolic affect tells you the president felt the special counsel’s presence.” – Columnist Rick Wilson, The Daily Beast
He failed the challenge.
“The State of the Union address is one of those moments that allows Mr. Trump to play the role of president, with pomp, standing ovations and, sweeter still, a captive audience of his opponents. Even Mr. Trump grasps that, for this one night, he is called upon to rise above partisanship and address the entire nation rather than merely his rump political base.
Beyond the general theme, he nonetheless failed this challenge.” – Editorial Board, New York Times
How can anyone believe a word he said?
“Trump’s incompetent, lurching, scandal-ridden administration wasn’t able to get a unified Republican government to agree on how to repeal Obamacare in 2017— how is anyone supposed to believe that he’s going to be able to follow through on anything he outlined Tuesday night? … Maybe there is one way that Trump united the country during his speech: No one from either party, least of all the president himself, likely believed a word of it. And by next week we’ll have forgotten the episode entirely.” – Harry Cheadle, Vice
The same old demagoguery.
“In a speech that reflected endurance if not eloquence, Mr. Trump offered a thin sheen of ‘unity’ over large helpings of the same old polarizing demagoguery. …’We can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions,’ Mr. Trump declared. If those were truly his goals, he would have committed not to declare a phony state of emergency in order to build his wall against congressional wishes.” – Editorial Board, Washington Post
A wall of resistance from the women in white.
“It was the night that Donald Trump, preaching unity but practising divisiveness found his white minority rule under siege from Nancy Pelosi’s women in white. … When it was over, after an epic 82 minutes, second only in length to Bill Clinton in 2000, Republican Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell patted Trump on the back and Brett Kavanaugh – one of only four supreme court justices in attendance – appeared to say ‘Good job.’ But, by then, the women in white had bolted to the exits with momentum on their side.” – David Smith, The Guardian
Trump’s rhetoric hits his wall.
“Trump could have put his name on shiny new buildings all over the country for a century to come, and we wouldn’t have minded so much. But Trump can only think of one place to sink a shovel, and that’s turning out to be the sinkhole of his administration. He spent only a few lines of his speech Tuesday talking vaguely about other infrastructure projects, with all the enthusiasm of a robocall.” – Matt Bai, Yahoo News
