President Trump used his State of the Union address Tuesday to push many of the issues he campaigned on, just as his predecessors have done before him, and yet many in the news media were disappointed and confused about why he brought them up at all.
Trump’s speech was heavy on illegal immigration, one of his defining campaign issues, the threat of Islamic terrorism and international trade.
But on NBC, “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd bemoaned that those themes were so central in the address, and suggested that Trump should have been more conciliatory toward Democrats.
“I expected a lot more actual outreach,” said Todd. “It was a few things at the beginning, but then it was, you know — he didn’t lead with a conciliatory tone on immigration. He didn’t lead with a conciliatory tone on Gitmo. He didn’t lead with a conciliatory tone even on some things like the infrastructure plan. It was — I felt like he spoke more to his base than I expected him to, particularly on immigration and that could be part of his sales pitch.”
Joy Reid of MSNBC, the network’s cable arm, said in a widely criticized tweet, “Church … family … police … military … the national anthem … Trump trying to call on all the tropes of 1950s-era nationalism. The goal of this speech appears to be to force the normalization of Trump on the terms of the bygone era his supporters are nostalgic for.”
Liberal New York Times columnist tweeted during the speech, “In retrospect, I wish Trump had begun his presidency by pushing for infrastructure. Democrats and Republicans could have worked together in a bipartisan way, avoiding the fights over health care and tax policy.”
Church … family … police … military … the national anthem … Trump trying to call on all the tropes of 1950s-era nationalism. The goal of this speech appears to be to force the normalization of Trump on the terms of the bygone era his supporters are nostalgic for. #SOTU
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) January 31, 2018
Trump, however, campaigned on taking a tough line against illegal immigration, aggressively combating Islamic terror and repealing Obamacare, among other contentious policy issues.
In his State of the Union speech, he announced he was “keeping another promise” and had just signed an executive order that would keep Guantanamo Bay prison open to detain enemy combatants. He also highlighted guests he had invited, among them, two families whose daughters were killed by illegal immigrants.
“Tonight, I am calling on Congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed MS-13, and other criminal gangs, to break into our country,” Trump said. “We have proposed new legislation that will fix our immigration laws and support our ICE and Border Patrol agents — these are great people; these are great, great people — that work so hard in the midst of such danger so that this can never happen again.”
Trump also said that the U.S. had “finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals,” and promised that “the era of economic surrender is totally over.”
The Washington Post editorial board called Trump’s speech “divisive” for its emphasis on what the paper called “hot-button issues.”
“Looking forward, Mr. Trump showed no sign he would budge from his maximalist demands on immigration,” the editorial said. “If this is what he considers compromise, he does not understand the concept. The rest of the president’s vision fell well short of the agenda the nation needs.”
Also in his speech, Trump asserted “We are totally defending our Second Amendment,” and paid tribute to the pledge of allegiance and the American flag, all themes carried over from his 2016 campaign.
Liberal Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank wrote that the speech and its priorities stated were “uniquely depressing.”
“It was the first of several cultural wedges Trump would drive through the chamber over the next hour,” said Milbank, “pitting immigrants against “‘Americans,’ trumpeting his support for the Second Amendment but no other, and reviving racially charged disputes he ignited over the past year.”
