By Benjamin Solomon, Staff Writer
On Tuesday, January 30, President Donald Trump gave his first State of the Union address. This was different from most of his ordinary speeches – in a good way.
The president delivered a speech prepared ahead of time, which is a good thing. It was structured and relatively easy to understand.
Some people might care about how many dozens of times the president made a specific hand gesture, or his weird speech patterns.
That is not really important to the quality of this event in light of the generally nonsensical nature of Trump’s past speeches.
The president got through the event without real controversy. There were no real gaffs or absurdities.
Instead, Trump essentially listed his accomplishments and his goals, along with the context of his entry into office.
This was not significantly different from former presidents Barack Obama nor George W. Bush’s first State of the Union addresses.
Maybe he bragged a little bit more, but that is to be expected from him.
At first, hearing everything the president said made me want to nitpick and disagree with every concept mentioned. But after thinking – everything was mostly mainstream, conservative talking points.
Any opinion on those concerns and goals really reflects a different ideology. I am not going to bother with every issue brought up – there are too many.
Also, trickle-down economics, for example, may not really work, but that’s not an issue relevant to this president so much as a belief held by a huge portion of the country. Debating the entirety of conservatism is not productive or new.
In summary, what President Trump said came off as fairly moderate, maybe even boring. This is odd.
That is why I hardly believe any of it.
Since the beginning of the 2016 election cycle, Donald Trump has challenged tradition. He has insulted and belittled as many people and groups as possible. He has suggested the most unreasonable policy moves.
Obviously, the president has speech writers – every president does. But it is a real stretch to believe that this president feels any affinity for the words he uttered.
That seems harsh to write, but I don’t think it is inaccurate.
Donald Trump lies constantly. By November of 2017, “President Trump [had] made 1,628 false or misleading claims over 298 days,” according to the Washington Post.
The man throws out blatant lies like old ladies give out hard candy. This would be great if we were instead talking about old ladies, but I don’t like the obscuring of the truth very much at all.
In addition to this, Donald Trump demonstrates his lack of qualification for the office of president daily. According to members of the US Senate, he is easily persuaded by basically anyone.
The same people claim that he gets confused about what specifically he is trying to get through Congress.
He has often appointed people who are his friends or political allies, rather than qualified candidates. For example, trying to appoint judges who have never tried a case, or advisors who do not really have roles. He is not trying to get things done, just get brownie points.
This president does not know what he is doing – this much is clear. He operates on improvisation and whim.
His State of the Union address went well because he did not come up with it.
Donald Trump will not feel accountable to the claims he made in this speech – because he doesn’t feel accountable to anything he has said before.
They are not really interesting claims, either. For these reasons, the State of the Union address seems pretty worthless.