U.S. President Donald Trump sought to shake off the drag of impeachment on Tuesday night with a State of the Union speech infused with an uncharacteristically positive tone — and uniquely Trumpian made-for-TV moments.
In his annual address to a joint session of Congress, Trump pitched voters on the idea of a “great American comeback,” and he heavily promoted the accomplishments of his first three years in office, which he framed as making good on his 2016 pledge to “Make America Great Again.”
“In just three short years, we have shattered the mentality of American decline and we have rejected the downsizing of America’s destiny,” Trump told lawmakers. “We are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago, and we are never going back.”
He spent a significant portion of his speech touting the economic recovery, labeling it a “blue-collar boom,” a descriptor he first debuted at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month. While polls have consistently shown that Trump’s greatest strength is his handling of the economy, he has repeatedly exaggerated and disparaged his predecessor’s economic legacy while overstating the amount of credit he himself deserves for the state of the economy.
But even as Trump honed his reelection message and tried to move past his status as the third president impeached in U.S. history, the proceedings hung over the annual address. Some of the most memorable moments of the night came in a pair of incidents involving House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that bookended the address.
Pelosi stood up immediately afterward and ripped what appeared to be her copy of the speech in half in full view of the camera before tossing it aside.
The president made no explicit mention of impeachment or the Senate acquittal that was expected to happen just hours later. But after arriving in the House chamber, Trump appeared to ignore Pelosi’s attempt at a cordial handshake. The speaker shrugged her shoulders at the apparent snub.
And Pelosi, who spent portions of the address shaking her head and staring downward, stood up immediately afterward and ripped what appeared to be her copy of the speech in half in full view of the camera before tossing it aside.
But the president, a product of the reality TV universe, also packed the address with several of his own theatrics.
In a surprise moment in the middle of the address, Trump presented conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh as a special guest, after Limbaugh revealed his cancer diagnosis on his popular radio program earlier this week. To audience applause, Trump had first lady Melania Trump present Limbaugh with the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the highest civilian award in the U.S — from her seat in the House gallery.
At another point later in the remarks, he recognized another guest in the audience, the wife and children of Sgt. First Class Townsend Williams, who Trump said was in the middle of his fourth deployment to Afghanistan.
U.S. President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address | Drew Angerer/Getty Images
After asserting that he was making good on a pledge to end America’s endless wars and hailing the sacrifices of servicemembers and their families, Trump wheeled out another surprise.
“I am thrilled to inform you that your husband is back from deployment,” Trump said, as Williams appeared at the entrance of the gallery. “He is here with us tonight.” Cheers erupted throughout the chamber, while Republicans began a chant of “U-S-A! U-S-A!”
Trump also brought as a guest Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó, whom the White House and dozens of other countries recognize as the rightful leader of Venezuela, as a foil for Trump’s derision of socialism.
“Please take this message back, that all Americans are united with the Venezuelan people in their righteous struggle for freedom,” Trump implored Guaidó, taking a pointed swipe and previewing what is sure to be a frequently used attack on Trump’s eventual Democratic opponent. “Socialism destroys nations, but, always remember, freedom unifies the soul.”
Aside from theatrics planned and unplanned, the sprawling speech zeroed in on achievements specifically designed to energize traditional Republican voters — his international trade agreements, border-security enhancements, and investments in the military.
But he also talked up initiatives likely to appeal to more reluctant independent and black voters, like his efforts to provide new parents in the federal workforce with paid family leave and the criminal justice reform legislation he signed into law in late 2018.
Such appeals were littered throughout the address, with the president also touting his signing of a bipartisan bill that would permanently fund historically black colleges and universities. He repeated his promise to protect preexisting conditions for health insurance — despite his administration’s backing of a lawsuit that would gut those protections — and his promise to protect entitlements like social security — despite saying in an interview just last month that “at some point” he would reexamine them.
The president did not spare on the oratorical flourishes in his speech, either, casting himself as a historic figure who is successfully building on the legacy of the Founding Fathers.
Democrats in the chamber chided the president when he called on Congress to pass drug pricing legislation, standing up and yelling out the number of a House-passed bill to do just that as Trump tried to continue on over them.
Trump didn’t use the occasion to outline specific policy goals for his potential second term, but he did take the opportunity to crusade against many of the policy proposals put forth by the Democrats vying to take him on this November and the “radical left,” including Medicare for All.
“We will never let socialism destroy American healthcare,” Trump said.
The president did not spare on the oratorical flourishes in his speech, either, casting himself as a historic figure who is successfully building on the legacy of the Founding Fathers.
“Our ancestors built the most exceptional Republic ever to exist in all of human history — and we are making it greater than ever before!” Trump said.