This is how I feel about this man still being in that office, and role, and the ongoing Special Council investigation -- I liken it to one of the many family car trips, "Are we there yet?. . . Are we there yet?. . . Are we there yet? . . . Are . . . we . . . there . . . yet . . . ."
1
I could not watch the Grifter-in-Chief last evening. I decided I would read about it today, but alas what I hoped would have happened did not. I had hoped that The Grifter would announce his resignation for March 30, my birthday.
2
It would be great to know how much of this was written by Steve Miller and/or how much influence he has had upon it. He has Trump's ear and SM's perspectives about immigration run quite contrary to what DT said in his SOTU address about increasing immigration. How much did SM have to do with child separation policy if not being the actual author of it? More media scrutiny of SM is in order. We do not hear enough about him.
2
I switched to something else after the Prez call to strive (or so) for greatness. Is that what he did during his presidency so far ? Is that what compelled him to say a few days ago that many people die in America because of Nancy Pelosi ? (The interviewer let that idiocy pass without any question: we can't bother to inquire about all foul things that come out of Donald !) From this column, I understand that the rest of the speech was the same spectacle of hypocrisy and an insult to anyone with a functioning brain. Will this president ever have a moment in his life when he becomes aware of (and feels contrite about) what an awful human being he is ? (predicate at end, so German of me).
1
….well Trump makes a blunder once again....'it (meaning what..
doesn't work ...that way)…..well of course the law does work
and I think the turning point is when McConnell is going to
turn the tables on Trump...because McConnell doesn't want
to be on team Trump anymore....
Guess there will be more defections from Trump World soon...
and the law ...continues to sweep out the Trump team as
time goes on....The SS Trump has a lot of holes in its hull..
going down to Davy Jones locker eventually.
Ignoring the massive hypocrisy of 8 years of obstruction to anything and everything President Obama proposed; now after 2 years of running roughshod over anything resembling unity or bipartisanship; now Trump (and the G.O.P.) has the unmitigated gall of trying to portray himself as a man who wants to work with those he has labeled as "Enemies" of the American people? You Can`t. Be Serious! The man who make Pinochio look like a paragon of truth; actually is trying to make the Democrats as the ones ; with the help of the sad remnants of a once proud party; as the problem and they are the solution. How pathetic can this farce get.
Trump was reading the words of a speechwriter. So, if we can't tell the difference between that and when Trump goes off script or tweets his own, then we're more gullible and ignorant than I already thought we were.
Let me be blunt: Trump is not to be trusted.
Trump fooled nobody on Tuesday night. His pants should have erupted in flames at his reference to bipartisan relationships. The closest he will ever get to bipartisanship is if both democrats and republicans attend visiting hours in whatever penitentiary he is sentenced to.
2
Do we know who wrote the speech for him?
As gushers of patriotic platitudes were pouring forth from the Fake President’s mouth last evening, you could not fail to think of the complete absurdity of this revolting sham performance by someone who has never in his life acted like a patriot, and who very likely has committed corrupt, criminal acts, possibly treason, against the nation. He is the worst of the worst.
2
Let me just boil this op-ed down to its essence:
Donald Trump is the worst president in U.S. History.
4
Just one word will clarify all this talk about harassment: Benghazi.
1
You can put lipstick on a pig but he's still Donald Trump.
Rather than repeat that nice little rhyme about war & peace, let us repeat this famous phrase: War is hell ! And it is Mr Trump who is always sabre rattling and enjoying his insults and watching the evening news about himself. The pompous narcissist cannot be allowed to declare war on the United States. Divide and conquer is a way of life for him. Sorry, but that's not our way and we should tell him to stop the hatred.
Life is full of themes. Last night we heard a speech about American soldiers liberating Europeans from WWII. Is it possible that he was telling the world that we are the best, Number 1, we rescued them etc. and they should be grateful? Was he crowing about our military might? There were six armies that hit the beaches of Normandy: 3 American, 2 British, and 1 Canadian. Acting together, we liberated Nazi occupied Europe.
Oh, will someone please tell him that Stalin conspired with Hitler to divide Poland among themselves? Stalin killed over 2 million of his own people before turning his attention to the rest of us. Putin's hero was guilty of crimes against humanity and he willingly joined the KGB. Nice friend. It's humiliating to have a child in charge of our foreign policy.
The real story is -- he spouts platitudes, he takes credit for things that happened without him or despite him, obviously ignores most of the problems, many of which he helped create or exacerbated, he points fingers, and half of the people's elected representatives jump and cheer for him like the puppets on a string that they are. And there seem to be plenty of people out there who are still saying, aw, give him a chance, he means well. Help! Are we so stupid now as a country that we can't scratch below the nano-thin veneer of his remarks? My administration has killed more regulations than anybody else's. Yay, U.S.A. Does anybody cheering for that have any idea of what those regulations were, why they were enacted, what damage will occur without them? I worked for the feds for almost 35 years. Yes, there are a lot of regulations that need pruning and/or updating. That's true of the Constitution and federal and state laws too. I went through several Republican-led regulation reviews in my career. Many of the regulations that get tossed or cut down to nothing are simply ones that clamp down on rapacious and/or destructive business practices. Some are actually accepted by industries that are just as happy having the guidance on how they need to comply with a law. But half the legislators and a good chunk of the country jumps up and down with glee because of some dopey numbers game. It doesn't matter any more what he says. We know what he's going to do.
5
It was just another talk show except that the “guests” were not allowed to talk.
3
Look..someone had to step up as the adult and offer an olive branch.
Sure as hell Nancy Pelosi wasn't going to do it.
I'm still not convinced he's a Republican. He speaks conservative as a 2nd language and the Jail Break criminal reform was for what? Who was he getting political kudo's from for doing that? The backwater states that have too many prisoners that are costing taxpayers too much money?
This is like kicking the can down the road.
He's an outsider..anti-Establishment so I expect the NYT and Democrats and Republicans and Bureaucrats to go after him.
Let's see if he can continue to moderate the tone.
If so..he's got a good shot at re-election since the D's appear to now be committed to having the same family fight the R's had 8 years ago with the Tea Party.
1
When this president says this about you, you know that you are doing something right:
"In a preview session with network anchors, he called Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, a 'nasty son of a bitch.'”
We need more such: The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
1
This I Cannot Believe
I cannot believe a call to unity from a man dedicated to disunion at home and disunion abroad.
I cannot believe a call to comity from a man dedicated to condemnation of his countrymen and condemnation of his allies.
I cannot believe a call to prosperity from a man dedicated to immiseration for most everybody else, everywhere around the world.
I cannot believe a call to destiny from a man dedicated to disintegration of our treaties and disintegration of our institutions.
I cannot believe a call to tranquility from a man dedicated to mobilization of extremists at home and used for mobilization of extremists globally.
I cannot believe a call for honesty from a man whose treatment of the truth is total degradation and demonization.
I can believe that we can make our neighborhoods, our communities, our governments and our nation a better place, but I cannot believe that a man like that could ever do so given how often he has given up helping others in the interest of his own comfort.
I cannot believe in him.
I can believe in you.
6
It was no more than a talk show except that the “guests” were no allowed to talk.
I have a feeling voters that did not like Trump or his policies, may have had some "MSM" myths dispelled. He may even have a few converts.
Myth - Trump hates women and children.
Fact - Trump supports paid family leave for new parents. That would be the parents that decide NOT to have their post birth child aborted.
Myth - Trump hates women.
Fact - Somehow he failed to prevent record number of women from entering the work force and record number of women being elected to congress. Yet, he acknowledged both.
I didn't stay up to watch Democrat response, so I can not comment on that. I still don't understand why the Democrats picked some one that lost and has a message of, "They cheated." Not very inspirational. And, it doesn't show any respect to the newly elected women in Congress.
@Mike In fact Mike he does hate women and children (brown ones) else he wouldn't advocate the policy of separation of migrants at the border ; wouldn't say he hates women but he disrespects them , else he wouldn't have boasted to Billy Bush how he grabs them . As far as the record of women elected to Congress ; that shows there was a huge backlash from both men and women at the polls . Paid family leave ? Let me dispel that myth of yours and your horrible insinuation that would be parents have their post birth babies aborted because they don't have family leave . Strange , how people that rail about abortion , don't have a qualm about the death sentence as they do in your mythical republic . Innocent men have been executed in your republic . BTW severe gerrymandering (which is endemic in the Southern states) is cheating .
2
I think the saying is "Actions speak louder than words." Just because this excuse of a human manages to blather out 82 minutes of relatively normal speech, it does not mean he's had an epiphany. An hour after the SOTU he forgot most of what he read out already. Total charlatan, yet some folks still fall for it.
Stressing "Unity" from the mouth of Trump defines the word "Shallowness".
This is the same guy who has, from day 1 since becoming presidential candidate, on almost daily basis, has labeled 'democrats' or 'liberals' as enemies of conservative Americans.
No one is and no one should get fooled by his shamelessly transparent effort to look conciliatory POTUS he ain't.
1
Who writes his speeches, Hallmark? Delivered with the energy of a hibernating sloth and the sincerity of an episode of the Kardashians.
Plus, he is so clueless and eager for attention that he beams in approval at the election of the women that are about to clean his clock because it drew applause....for them.
Young Mr. Trump had the proper reaction. Yawning followed by snoring. Just like all of us at home.
5
How low the bar has been set for this ignorant and inept person posing as our president! He has absolutely no right to represent the American people whether it be on a podium in the chambers of Congress or a position of ultimate power on the world stage. The days of believing he would become more "presidential" once in office have long since passed. And the country wittingly or unwittingly has become more dumbed down and inured to his levels by not demanding that the bar be reset to a higher level, one which has always been standard protocol for all other presidents.
It may very well be too late to change course as his embarrassing mediocrity seems to be the accepted norm in how we expect this president to express himself whether it be in an infantile tweet or a State of the Union address. Let him be mocked relentlessly in the news media and not just on late night t.v. shows.
5
The Liar-InChief's State of the Union speech was a masquerade. It reminded me of a middle-school pep rally. An ill-prepared blowhard student is pushed out to motivate the group, not because he is articulate, knowledgable, or respected by them, but because no one else in the subset felt any better prepared or confidant enough to take on the role. Also, the members of the group feared making an inadequate performance or coming across as stupid. The one who spoke had no fear of failure because he liked being the center of attention.
Furthermore, all of those who pushed the spectacle-loving speaker were curious as to what would happen. They cheered and whooped at the utterances Their Blowhard spewed. If the middle school speaker fell short, the group would possibly have ostracized him or at least taunted him before once again using him as their foil.
But since last night is not middle school, we saw the Republican loyalists whoop and cheer because they are "all in" behind this self promoter. While the speech process was at middle school level, the content was a confused scramble of topics, each carefully selected to solicit cheers and adulation for the performer/speaker. That, people, is the state of our union.
1
There is no way Trump wrote his speech. Just the use of words that do not sound like him indicates it. Some speechwriter wrote it to make him look as though he was interested in "cooperation, compromise, and the common good."
Today he will be back to his old tricks, divisiveness, and intractability.
2
The NY Times branding Trump "an Agent of Discord" in this piece certainly reveals to readers that the Times editors, part of & bought off by the 1% who are always greedy for more slave-wage immigrants (who also vote for Democrats for welfare crumbs), do not want unity or political cooperation in the America necessary to solve our problems. Rather the mass media part of the 1% obviously want to propaganda push the US into a civil war of 'all against all' via their dividing and conquering of American society into ever more, now often invented identity groups, along racial, ethnic, sexual, professional, class ... lines. So that there will be no possibility of a consensus large enough to stop our elite's forced US worker "global labor competition" with the 80% of the world's people that have no rights. First came the no-more-melting pot, cultural diversity, moral pluralism, ethnic 'Gateway Communities' business instigated crusade, then blowing up every unfortunate but inevitable police killing into a race-hate crime, many fake anti Semitic graffiti and hate crime bomb threats made by Zionists and Marxist minority provocateurs, then the anti male MeToo whipped up into a manic celebrity seeking blood sport Inquisition to split society in half again. The 50/50, male/female split calculated to exploit weaker more dependent females who when given all manner of quota preferences - the allusion of power - will ultimately be easier for elites to control than male middle management.
2
The only idea of unity that Mr. Trump has is that it needs to occur around him. Not gonna happen.
3
February 6, 2019
I no longer feel like I am an American but for sure I do acclaim my joy of New York State, NYC citizenship. Our formidable Governor is awesome for his leadership and his tone of communications. Trump put me to sleep - so now having read the transcript I know why I was bored - I can't related to Trumpian alternative 'great American' vision. If one is eternal discord with oneself then how in this instance as President his expression of his cultural can not have or will not until personal and historic remedy be affirmed with deliberate cause for his party and then in conformity with our grater politics he will learn how to speech to t he nation in accord with an agenda that is forge by Republicanism true and blue - and we will then will enjoy this State of Union chat.
1
Unity apparently has worked for the Markets: Trump spoke and they all went down!
3
"Together, we can break decades of political stalemate, we can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions and unlock the extraordinary promise of America’s future.” "And climb every mountain ford every stream, follow every rainbow. til you find your dream"..
Promises made but not kept by Donald J. Trump. .... and the music plays on......
5
The editorial board opines: “it’s impossible not to cling to a hope that he might yet rise to the office and do something for his fellow Americans. “
Talk about leaning so far backwards that one falls over.
5
@John Brews ✅✅ Yup! Insanity is defined as believing that the outcome can change when the same old stuff is repeated again and again. I am not and never have been a Klingon.
1
“A Message of Unity From an Agent of Discord”
Shorter DJT:
Hypocrisy!
4
Does anyone notice the praise deserved of the WW 11 prisoner of war contrast the prisoner of Vietnam John McCain as a loser. How obvious to me the true character of this President what ever suits him is good is good. I see no difference in the solider of either generation.
3
So Mr. "Lock Her Up" doesn't like partisan investigations? Why is this not the headline in this newspaper? Perhaps because this newspaper was complicit in assisting him carry out that stuff.
3
Come on New York Times, At least give a shout out to the speech writers: Kellyanne Conway for the overall call for 'comity' and end to the politics of 'resistance'; Ivanka for all things 'feminist'; Jared for all things Israel; possibly Bolton and co-speech writer Pompeo for doomsday foreign affairs, and last but not least the mastermind of fear mongering and darkness, Stephen Miller. Donald just had to keep his eyes on the teleprompter and deliver this poor excuse for inspirational and presidential discourse without mispronouncing his cues.
5
where is an accolade for the wise gray eminence who insisted Trump spend so much time lauding America's WWII heroes, the elderly and mostly white backbone of his base? this goes to the nostaligic heart of Trumpism, the yearning
for a supposedly better golden age that existed before most Americans were born. it reveals the beau ideal of the gop: a return to white, Chriatian antebellum glory based on slavery and exclusion. ps, ever notice how Trump's palatial hotels nd gold courses aremodeled onplantation design? I look forward to the new Trump Tara National Exclusive Country Club.
A few warm and fuzzy lines from a speech writer won't change what we've seen from Mr. Trump for years. "Many will see the speech as an exercise in cynicism coming from a soulless leader who will say and do whatever is needed to keep a firm grip on power. This was a night of the Big Lie ... " (David Gergen, CNN, 6Feb2019) "Before the pundits speculate about a possible pivot ... it is worth remembering that just [on the day of the SOTU speech], ... the President reportedly insulted former Vice President Joe Biden, saying he was 'dumb' and he dismissed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer as a 'nasty son of a bitch' ... " (Julian Selizer, CNN, 6Feb2019)
1
The editorial board opines in a burst of unwarranted enthusiasm: “it’s impossible not to cling to a hope that he might yet rise to the office and do something for his fellow Americans.”
Such a hope for Trump falls outside the Pollyannaish.
As James Thurber cautioned following one of his tales: “You might as well fall flat on your face as lean over too far backward.”
4
If there is gong to be democracy and opportunity, there cannot be demagoguery and corruption. It just doesn’t work that way! When the Republicans stood and applauded Mr. Trump last night, they clearly expressed their preferences.
If the Democrats run a salamander for a seat in Congress in 2020, vote for the salamander. He or she will surely have more compassion and integrity and have a greater interest in the wellbeing of our nation than a Republican.
7
This viewer felt no sense of unity or comity in the president's words. He attempted a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down, but many of the words were chilling to me, especially his line about increasing our vastly bloated military/"defense" budget. I see nothing in his words to cause me to have any hope to cling to - rather a call to action to try to reverse course with all deliberate speed.
8
The short version of Mr. Trump's call for unity:
"One people, one realm, one leader"
8
Let's just pray that the next stock market crash comes on his watch, not the Democrat who replaces him.
3
I wish all coverage and analysis of this could be reduced to "Trump tells Congress whatever is convenient for him, regardless of facts or ability to follow through."
For a sub-header, you could add "Did not say anything openly bigoted".
4
Know him by his deeds! Trump used his SOTU speech to do what he always does; lie, exaggerate, and pass disinformation to those unfortunate enough to believe him at face value. He was hateful and dark as usual, continues to push his unpopular agenda that only about 30% of the country agree with. He can read all the platitudes about unity and bipartisanship from a prepared speech written by someone else from a teleprompter but it is the same old, tired and phony spewing he is known for!
7
Trump could not even provide a smidge of respect to Speaker Pelosi by allowing her to properly introduce him into her House for his speech. The buffoon has broached custom and protocol around the world in his short time in office but I was hoping for some respect at this SOTU.
And of course I was the chump for having any hope Trump would do the right thing, much like his supporters currently doing their taxes only to find promises from Trump are meaningless. 2020 cannot come soon enough.
2
GOP outreach for unity.
1. Additional billions for millionaires and billionaires.
2. No infrastructure jobs.
3. No affordable health insurance.
4. No affordable higher education.
5. Fake voter fraud crisis.
6. Fake caravan invasion crisis.
7. Speaker of the House "doesn't mind human trafficking."
8. No increase to federal minimum wage.
9. Useless wall demand, with American workers held hostage.
10. No clean energy jobs.
6
President bone-spurs said if we clean, educated, patriotic Americans continue to investigate, convict and then jail his felonious crew, it might hurt President Obama's economy.
And?
Some people think bringing criminals to justice is more important than money.
We call those people Americans.
5
Every time I hear Trump's voice my gag reflex is activated. And what a joke, State of the Union?
Trump has no idea what life is like for the majority of Americans.
3
Editorial writers make no mention of the most important words of his speech, “ we will never be a socialist country.” Amen!
1
My sentiments exactly...actions speak louder than words so we shall see. He is a performer above all else and this showed last night as he tried to appear more presidential. But I don’t expect a pivot. He has attempted to fool us many times with this Mr. Conciliatory act. How long do we give him...24 or 48 hours...before his tweet fingers blast out some divisive derogatory questionable truth?
Why isn't the Editorial Board lambasting Trump for that travesty of a speech filled with lies and manipulation?
5
Trump’s mouth forms that little “O” when he speaks as if he’s blowing smoke, which he is; while his right hand makes that little zero which he is. The pageantry of monkey see-monkey do as some hesitated then gave in to the requisite standing ovation was living the lie, but Nancy’s deadpan paper shuffling was heart warming. When Trump said Mexico is trucking its own immigrants to our border I gave up and retired to the bedroom to reread “The Tao of Pooh.”
3
An agent of chaos: yours, mine and America’s.
God help us.
4
Even your own reporter said that the trump worshippers in the trump "Emolument Violation" hotel last night muted the Democratic response rather than listen. Unity? Ha!
3
Thank you Nicole. That’s awful just so sad
Trump proposes spending $ 500 million, over ten years, on childhood cancer research. Over the same ten years, the US will send $ 38 billion to Israel. Apparently, children don’t have a lobby.
2
No mention of climate change and no mention of gun control...let’s do smart immigration and move on!
2
No actual policy proposals, lies about his record, and hypocritical as he is the Divider in chief.
4
Saying doesn’t make it so ...
3
Nope, Don, the #1 Threat is not caravans (with or without camels).
The #1 Threat is climate change.
The #3 Threat is nuclear war.
The #2 Threat? Climate change deniers like you.
5
#45 has no more idea how to unify the country than he does of how to run a business. His cliche-ridden, Stevey Miller-scripted speech was the usual "ongepotchket" one expects from a person who loathes reading and seeking knowledge to solve problems. I, for one, look forward to #45's indictment, prosecution and conviction as the bet way to right our foundering ship of state, and to save viewers and listeners the embarrassment of his horrible, divisive and phoney rhetoric.
2
I think the premise of their viewpoint here, that the government is 'bitterly divided' and in a 'state of discord' might simply be wrong. From what I understand, there's more bipartisan legislation now (at around 70%) than there has been in decades. The partisan discord on full dispay here and in other mainstream media venues is, to a large extent, self-created - for obvious commercial purposes and to consolidate their control of the public.
1
@carl bumba,
Link please comrade...
1
Last? It didn't get out of the gate.
1
Much of the nasty investigation non sense facing the country was totally ginned up by the Democrats. The bellicose nasty anti Russia noise coming from the congress is pointless. Trump has lowered the level of political discourse and raised the profile of such groups as the KKK. His efforts to end regulation of friends places the planet on an course to find out how really bad global warming can be. But the economy booms. The huge tax cut passed by the GOP congress has certainly helped himself and his friends. Corporate America has gone on a stock buy back frenzy which does nothing to help their companies keep themselves at peak efficiency. The economy continues to boom though.
2
@c harris,
Tell that to:
1) George Papadopoulos
2) Paul Manafort
3) Rick Gates
4) Michael Flynn,
5-20) 13 Russian nationals and three Russian companies
21) Richard Pinedo
22) Alex van der Zwaan
2
My only hope lies here: investigate, investigate and investigate!
5
His heavy, monotone delivery reveal a “low-energy,” which, apparently, according to recent reports, he has really low energy on any given day in the White House.
Childhood cancer? AIDS? Yes, his words do ring hollow.
2
Quite frankly I wonder what it was the Editorial Board was watching and hearing. It bears no resemblance to anything I heard.
1
I can't believe people actually got their hopes up and watched the horror show. Here is my I told you so and a shoutout to Three Dog Night's or WIlson Pickett's Momma Told Me Not to Come.
3
Unity - together we can break the political stalemate. As I told my dear friend Nancy, Unity is when you do what I want. We can end my shutdowns, build my wall, say nice things about me on TV and even in the fake New York Times, and all live happily ever after. Unity, that's all I want. Believe me. Oh, that and Lock Hillary Up! - DJT
4
In addition to the insulting speech he had to show us his smirking 30 year old "statesman" son in law and his deer in the headlight daughter. Oh for the days of Henry VIII.
2
Another hyper-nationalistic diatribe by 45. The smug look on his face reminded me of Mussolini giving one of his speeches. The near constant chant "USA" by his overwhelmingly male minions underlined the theme of an uber-America. Then there was the constant, yet theatric, militarist theme supposedly to please those who think he is ignorant in that arena. Finally the pandering to Israel and its supporters. Too much for me. He has richly earned the reputation of a mean spirited, right wing demagogue.
4
"Given how bitterly divided the government is, how wounded and uneasy the nation is, it’s impossible not to cling to a hope that he might yet rise to the office and do something for his fellow Americans."
Two things...
Want to practice your football kicking?
We are not his fellow Americans; we are his rubes, his suckers, his marks, his investors, his chumps, his fools.
3
Shouldn't waste time listening to a liar.
Unless you think you can somehow put his lies to use to legally remove him from office.
2
I found the message a pathetical performance, shallow, hypocritical and full of inaccuracies. In summary, a fake message by a fake individual.
3
No one else mentioned it but I found it humorous how Pence popped up every once in a while like a jack in the box to applaud an inane comment by Trump. Reminded me of a marionette with someone pulling the strings
4
The proudest man in America is Senator Schumer. To be called a nasty name by President Donald J. Trump only means that you are exceptional at your job. One can only wonder how he refers to Robert Mueller when he is meeting with his crooked cronies?
4
@Sean
Yes. An insult from trump should be proudly displayed.
I remember when trump mentioned Colbert who was proud to be insulted by this POtuS.
2
The headline here says it all: Trump is a mean, wounded grizzly bear, having attempted last night to leave his messy cave and sing to an aria.
1
Unite with people who get off on tearing little children from their parents and chucking them in cages?
Don't hold your breath trump and company.
4
He's a liar, been proven over and over. His lie count is in the thousands, if not tens of thousands. I will not believe a word he says. I will not put my faith in any good he promises. He is a malignant force whose damage to this country will take decades to repair. I reject him categorically.
2
The two biggest threats to America are climate change and easy access to military grade guns. Not a single word was spoken on either topic. Sad!
MAGA!!
4
Platitude, platitude, platitude, fear, rape, murder, platitude, boasting, boasting, exaggerating, misstating, threatening, obstructing justice, xenophobia, whining, platitude, false feminism, false patriotism, false piety, platitude, self congratulation, platitude. Good night and God bless.
4
2/15 will offer a reality check on this dog and pony show and its disingenuous paean to comity and unity.
1
It's obvious that ann coulter really got under president bone-spurs', shiney, brittle, translucent skin when she called the wimp a wimp on Bill Maher's show right after the shutdown ended.
3
The "man" who turned the once mighty United States of America into a shattered, irreparably divided, joke.
If you trumpets thought we flew over your insolvent joke states before...just wait Cletus and Ellie Mae...just wait.
3
Trump oozes disingenuity Last night was no different. I honestly did not care what he said because he is seldom involved in activity which benefits blacks and foreigners. On the contrary. For a man whom acted his way out of Vietnam he uses and abuses armed forces and their commanders at will. White racist America put him there and they will have to remove him
His pretentious empathy while exposing a kid's brain cancer was particularly distasteful. That male is rotten to the core
1
His rump political base. Nice. So truer
I swear that picture says it all .. a splitting image of Mussolini .. that stupid smug look ... all hail el duce .......
Correct me if I'm wrong, but not one word, I believe, on conservation and the environment. And the only mention of public schools was to undercut them with a nod to "choice."
Mr. Trump: "If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn't work that way."
Really?
The Constitution says Congress will hold "all legislative powers" of government.
The founding fathers envisioned lawmakers investigating matters as part of their responsibility to legislate and courts have long upheld that role.
George Mason of Virginia said at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 that members of Congress "are not only Legislators but they possess inquisitorial powers. They must meet frequently to inspect the Conduct of the public offices."
Congressional investigations date back to 1792 when the House passed a resolution to examine the St. Clair expedition.
Speechwriters, a little more research, please.
1
Trump is simply carrying on with the Republican tradition of instilling mistrust in government. Reagan called government the problem rather than the solution. The Norquist guy wanted to make government small enough to drown in a bathtub. The Republicans have been quite successful in dividing the country into camps where each camp considers the other to be a mortal enemy. Republicans can't govern.
6
Trump's SOTU address was nothing but a performance, read in a flatline monotone, reading words from a teleprompter that he did not write and that he does not believe at all.
It was purely for show, which is how he is running things for the country. It's all glitz, lies, photo ops. The Donald on center stage, basking in the attention.
I was going to boycott his speech and just watch Stacey Abrams, but I felt I owed it to my country to watch, to be a witness to history.
I am glad I did. Nancy Pelosi's expressions as she sat behind him were worth the price of admission. Go get 'im, Dems. You'll be holding Trump's feet to the fire for the first time in his life. It's about time.
4
Any decent abuser can appear calm and conciliatory when it suits his/her purpose. Saying whatever works in the moment, manipulating facts despite obvious contradictions, gas-lighting people in their orbit to keep them off balance—all are tried and true techniques of a sociopathic, reptilian mindset wholly fixated on rewarding itself.
4
When it says President Trump attacks “Mexican immigrants” or immigration in general, the Editorial Board is sticking to it principle that when one lies, it should be a big lie, and one should stick to it. Trump actually attacks illegal immigrants and illegal immigration. The Immigration and Naturalization Act and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act require him to stop illegal immigration and deport illegal immigrants.
1
@William Case
Hmmm. I guess I missed the part of his speech where he talked about the need for a northern border wall to secure the US border with Canada, which annually documents about 7x the number of illegals entering the US with criminal histories than from the South.
1
@Jane Doe
If the same number of illegal immigrants crossed the southern border as the northern border, we wouldn't need the Browder Patrol. About 90 percent of illegal immigrants are from Latin America.
Donald Trump asking for unity is the epitome of irony, it is the equivalent of Putin giving a speech embracing human rights. All Trump does well is fight, fear monger and insult, it is what his base loves and that’s all he’s got.
1
Even if he did "rise to the office", who would actually believe anything he says, both on the right and the left? He has a right-wing following, but they regularly claim he tweets/says things for effect.
He may blunder into a win in somewhere like N. Korea due to similarities in character with Kim Jung Un, but would who follow him out of a burning building?
He is toast as a leader because has no credibility in the US, or outside of it.
2
It was more like one of his political rallies than a State of the Union address.
We can't hear what you're saying: what you are shouts to loud.
1
Like an accomplished con man, Trump is all lip service.
You tell people what they want to hear, and then let them wait. And wait. And wait.
Remember how he said he'd help the coal workers of West Virginia with good, "clean coal" (of which, there is no such thing)? Those people are still waiting. Those who still have jobs.
Remember how he said he was going to come up with health care that covered preexisting conditions? And what has he done? His administration is asking a federal court to rule Obamacare’s ban on preexisting conditions unconstitutional.
This will last another ten days. And as soon as the House refuses his yet another attempt to build his wall, everything he said last night will be exposed for what it is.
A con man's folly.
2
Quantity is never a substitute for quality. The ninety minute droning in this case is an unfortunate example of this.
But it gets worse. For example, praising that child for raising money to treat her cancer. He ignored the fact that the treatment would have been free to her if she lived in Canada, or England, or France, or Germany, or Spain, or Cuba, or Sweden, or Denmark, or Finland, or......
2
@Bob in NM
It's not "free" in those countries, it's not free anywhere. It's provided through taxation. And while you tout the wonders of socialized medicine, my European friends that come here legally, marvel at our healthcare, the quality of our Drs and nurses and the ability to get an appointment when they want/need. there are not overjoyed to have to wait, often in pain, for many months to get their "free" appointment. Yes we have issues around availability of our world leading services but don't spread falsehoods about costs. It's just not right.
1
@Norville T. Johnson I
I said free to her, not just free. Of course it is supported by taxes. Better than building yet another nuclear submarine, or a useless wall. I've talked to some who live in those countries. And, despite the flaws, they prefer the certainty of having health coverage there that the risk of losing it here due to something like a job layoff.
The only time both sides of the Isle applauded (non-ironically) was when he condemned socialism. I think that's the way going forward if the USA wants to consolidate another center-ground (i.e. as an anti-socialist nation).
"Eccentricity." Is that what we're calling it now?
1
Actions speak louder than words, Mr. Trump.
2
Just do everything Trump wants and we'll have unity.
1
His speechwriter was obviously attempting to channel that other salesman-in-chief, the soft-spoken purveyor of hate and divisiveness Ronald Reagan, embroidering a doily of pretty words to cover up a stained armchair of ugly truths.
"Given how bitterly divided the government is, how wounded and uneasy the nation, it's impossible not to cling to a hope that he might yet rise to the office and do something for his fellow Americans." Sorry, but that train left the station two years ago. Who in their right mind still clings to the hope that this charlatan would ever be willing or able rise to the office that he takes pleasure in debasing on a daily basis?
1
All I heard from Trump was, "See, we could all get along if you would just give me what I want and stop investigating all my wrongdoings.". A narcissist doesn't want unity and equality. A narcissists wants to abuse others and profit off their distress.
2
“We must reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution—and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good.”
You first, Mr. President. You first.
1
"If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation." Have to believe Trump, channeling Johnny Cochran, scribbled this bit himself. You'll know for sure when he works into his standard stump rant, along with "no collusion!"
1
I did not watch, but read the transcript. I can’t say his words were one of unity. They read the ramblings of incoherent staff laced with the president’s well-worn lies, half-truths and delusional country and world view. It reads like Nixon trying to postpone the coming personal storm, one that healed the nation, not further undermined it.
2
"If there is to be peace and legislation
...there can be no war or investigation"
Alternative facts require honest alternative rhyming...
No lies and obfuscation?
No scapegoating immigration?
No denigration of allies friendly to our nation?
No trade wars and nuclear verification?
A useless SOU address. Useless, irredeemable trump IOUs.
Judge the man by what he does and not what he says. This SOU an institutionalized oxymoron. A show and tell of invited guests who have suffered, responded heroically, nobly. Suborned by an individual to deflect from the suffering he has caused. A paean to his wastrel life and presidential greed, self promotion, lies, ignobility and anti-heroism.
Punctuated by rants of Republican clapping. Trained seals can be taught to clap for scraps of fish. Far cheaper and more honest.
Have the pundits nothing better today than to sort through the garbage to find bits of meaningful innuendo.
Calls for bipartisan unity? The divisive, untruthful, grotesque uttered with impunity.
We are better than this. We are not this. I cannot, will not listen to this man and his lies. We have serious work to do.
3
A message of "unity"?
Perhaps...especially when cameras zeroed in on Tiffany Trump during the speech, who just happened to be dressed in, of all things, a white dress...
One cannot help appreciating the irony of such moments like this.
2
This message of "unity" isn't one that bears any resemblance to the actual definition of the word. By "unity", he means buckling to his will/demands, submitting to his hostage taking, acceding to his bullying and surrendering to his terroristic threats. He doesn't mean unity. He means submission. Capitulation. Gimme the money and nobody gets hurt. A thuggish concept of unity from a thug. Add to that the wild inconsistences within his "message" (unemployment is at an all time low, but immigration is taking away good jobs that should be reserved for citizens; our economy is growing at twice the rate it was when he took office and is the envy of the world but asylum seekers are decimating it; our military is strong, but we fear everything and everyone, including small children seeking refuge from violence and deprivation). A tiny, out of touch, incurious, ignorant coward, surrounded by only those of his ilk, who won't even let him read -- or more accurately watch -- anything that contradicts his view, which he creates from whole cloth. Good grief. When will we awake from this nightmare?
2
Using "Democrat agenda" in the very sentence he introduces his desire for bipartisanship sums up how false he is. Furthermore the craven MSM, including The Times, failing to call him out on it shows once again how they will do their best to keep him as host of our nation's nightmare reality show.
4
" ... he is called upon to rise above partisanship and address the entire nation rather than merely his rump political base."
A Freudian typo? If a typo, it's a darned good one.
"Given how bitterly divided the government is, how wounded and uneasy the nation is, it’s impossible not to cling to a hope that he might yet rise to the office and do something for his fellow Americans."
Oh, it's possible, trust me.
Have we forgotten in the course of a single exercise in rank insincerity exactly why he and his co-conspirators in the White House felt compelled to obstruct justice in plain sight with a call to end a crucial, legally commissioned investigation by the Department of Justice?
This man has all the earmarks of a Russian asset. His actions in furtherance of the Kremlin agenda have already wreaked grave damage to this country. A couple hours of duplicitous rhetoric don't change anything for the better. No one should be lulled into laxity in any degree by last night's farce. Be real.
2
Message of unity? How is it unifying to threaten no legislation if there is investigation? Sorry, NYT editors, but this was a far cry from a conventional State of the Union address.
4
Trump's makeup team is slipping.
President bone-spurs is beginning to look like the upper left panel of Andy Warhol's colorful Marilyn Monroe pop art portrait.
2
76% of the people watching this SOTU address viewed the speech favorably. The NYTs, of course, views the Trump's words as hollow. Your main objections appears to be the Trump does not agree with you, hence he governs divisively. Really? The NYTs, standing with the left in this country,. accuses everyone who supports Trump as racist, misogynists in league with Putin and supports socialism and unrestricted abortion., Trump supporters want our immigration laws enforced, borders protected, reasonable abortion restrictions and a strong economy, essentially main stream positions. Just who is divisive here? This paper continues to promote the leftward lurch of the Democrats who clearly are out of touch with main stream America and common sense. The behavior of Democrats is increasingly authoritarian as well. Agree with me or we will destroy you. The Kavanaugh hearing is clear evidence that the left has lost its moral compass. Again, just who is divisive, you or Trump?
1
The ultimate cynical heartstrings move, parading Holocaust survivors. With any other President, I would find the gesture to be moving, paying tribute to these incredible historical survivors. But it rings flat when you consider this is a leader who cautiously refrained from alienating Neo Nazis, with “fine people on both sides”.
3
Trump didn't believe a word of what his teleprompter told him to say. Period.
4
If Trump had claimed the non-partisan middle ground for himself from Day One, he might have governed better and his high-minded rhetoric might mean something. As it is, his malice, incompetence and insincerity render his words meaningless.
2
Don't hold your collective breath.
2
Really? After two years of this presidency, the editorial board is waiting to see if he will work with the other side?
5
@Charles Pack
NYT won’t even call him a liar. They use terms like “misstatement” or “factually incorrect.” Quislings!
1
While a democracy cannot function well without both parties compromising, from where I've sat for the last 70 years, the only party willing to compromise has been the Democrats. Since Newt, however, Democratic compromise has felt more like surrender than compromise and we're done with it. Republicans don't negotiate in good faith. They cheat, they lie, they bully, they power grab. And we're done with that. This is not the time for the Democrats to compromise on any important issues Americans face today. Compromise with Republicans who are basically mean spirited cranky old rich white guys will lead this country to further decline. The "president" is a disgrace.
3
@Marjorie
You might be done with it, but cirporate Dems certainly are not.
While Kavanaugh was yelling about his love for beer, Chuck Schumer helped Mitch McConnell get FIFTEEN of Trump’s federal district court judges through Senate confirmation in just 3 days.
Today’s Intercept is reporting that Pelosi is already promising Blue Cross that she’ll kill Medicare for All.
Remind me again why they should get your vote? With “friends” like this...
@Jane Doe
Agreed, but first things first. We do have a better Congress now.
Veracity of the speech's elements aside and the both flagrant and annoying whipping up of nationalist pride, this was a good speech for Trump and no doubt his supporters loved it. I keep thinking back to Steve Bannon's statement:“The longer they talk about identity politics, I got ’em,” he said of Democrats. “I want them to talk about racism every day. If the left is focused on race and identity, and we go with economic nationalism, we can crush the Democrats.” How long will it take for the Democrats to understand this? Our whole lives we've been indoctrinated to be good, little capitalists. We care about our families' livelihoods and futures--because we know no one else will.
A buddy pointed out there were quiet periods where certain of Mr T's remarks brought no audience response whatever. Now that I think of it, we were hearing the sound of one hand clapping.
1
Nice to think there is hope, but given the man speaking the words and based on his past discourse and behavior I do not feel hopeful, That speech was as boring, hollow and dispassionate. as they get. He was standing up there going through the motions to fulfill a "class assignment" and basking in the forced adulation.......................
2
President Trump has long been a highly skilled master of media communication. I suspect the few moments of the State of the Union address that seemed unscripted were actually anticipated and planned. To paraphrase the famous expression, some of the pictures from last night are more powerful than the thousands of words of fact-checking.
1
@Jeffrey Freedman
Oh, yes.
Oh m, yes. We all remember witnessing his masterful communication skills, which were captured by a hot mic on the Access Hollywood bus.
Skilled master communicators always forget they are wearing a live mic, I suppose.
1
Trump was absolutely right when he said you can't have peace or legislation while there's an ongoing investigation. I'm glad that he finally realizes that he has to resign. Or, as the late Johnny Cochran would have said: "If you're not legit, then you must quit.
8
If Mr. Trump wants to fight childhood cancer, as he indicated in his SOTU address, he should strengthen the EPA and its ability to reduce Americans' chemical exposures. Newborns in the U.S. now carry over 200 synthetic chemicals in their bodies, such as BPA, a hormone-disruptor that causes tumors in animals and is generally considered carcinogenic. The research on this (sponsored mostly by EWG) has now appeared in Scientific American, Newsweek, and a CNN online article.
6
Now if Trump hadn't offered a call for unity, I'm sure the editorial board would have criticized him as uncaring and autocratic. Sine he did offer a call for unity, the critique is that it couldn't possibly have been sincere. In other words, he had no chance of pleasing the editorial board short of offering an agenda shaped on progressive talking points. The Democrats have done little to bridge the partisan gap. In fact, their focus seems to be on removing Trump and reversing the 2016 election. Hardly non-partisan. The speech was well written by someone, probably multiple someones, and was adequately delivered by Trump who only ad libbed a couple of times. Let's see where he goes.
@Paul Stenquist Forget the editorial board for a second. If you've been following his tweets and interviews, what do YOU think? Do the things he says sound like unifying words? Are they respectful of the representatives of Americans who have a different point of view? To my ears, they sound like fighting words. They are full of personal insults, blame for the other party, and bullying any and all who don't agree with him. Would you call that a "unifying" message?
95
Simple Paul. Talks cheap and as my mother always said “tell me who you go with I will tell you who you are”. Actions louder then words. Glad you see it your way but his actions belie his words.
9
I missed the address, but I have been scanning the reviews. Nowhere have I seen any mention of the most significant emergency facing the US and the World, Climate Change. Effective intervention time is fast disappearing.
This must be the top issue in the 2020, elections, and I'll support whoever pledges to take urgently needed action, regardless of party.
Where is the public outcry? We need to demand urgent action, by governments at all levels, business, industry, philanthropy, education etc.
Agree?
6
@LT - I took it as even worse than trying to intimidate them. To me, it seemed like a pretty blatant statement that he was perfectly willing to quite literally go to war against (take your pick) North Korea, Iran, Canada - anyone will do - to distract from the investigations.
2
Let’s be honest. If we want to get rid of Trump, the best thing that could happen would be the derailment of his so-called economic miracle. All those jobs he spoke of are real. And there have been wage increases, though not enough. Trump hasn’t created a miracle. But he was there when things improved. If he’s there when things blow up, he will be history. I have to confess that, if that happens, it will truly be a GREAT recession.
2
Honestly, I think Trump would have been better off just dropping any reference to unity, working cooperatively, and rejecting the politics of revenge. No one with a pulse could take that seriously coming out of Trump's mouth, and all it did was turn the whole thing into a surreal and disorienting spectacle.
6
"If Mr Trump's words ring hollow"? Of course they do. He does not write the speech, skilled speech writers do. All he has to do is approve it and read it with some semblance of understanding what he is saying and a bare modicum of sincerity. He is ready to close down the government again if he doesn't get his way.
3
Like fifty or so of my friends, I saved wasting Airtime on watching a SOU that would inevitably deny the ACTUAL state of the union.
I saved it for a response from a Woman whose transparency and respect for the overall citizens of the United States of America would lift the malaise felt across this nation. Hypocricy running rampant needs to be avoided at all costs. THAT is transparent!
I am willing to work to RETURN TO our nation its time-honored Democratic values and to demand that our governing leaders do more than be ERASERS to the Intelligence within their respective cabinet posts. Our PLANET deserves to be treasured for future generations. Who will best help us to achieve this? WE know!
3
Good comment
1
Since Trump came down the escalator in 2015, he has shaken America into a state of divisive paralysis that has now permeated the nation. America is unhappy and miserable, even though the economy is better than ever. Something does not compute, yet Trump is oblivious to what most Americans know is obvious. In his SOTU address, Trump reported to a divided America that “The State of our Union is Strong.” Other than Trump himself, few believed him. After two years of lies, corruption, and dysfunction, Trump reassured Americans to “keep FAITH in America’s Destiny.”
Most of us have given up on Trumpism and its concept of winning is everything; on Trump’s belief that hate and anger and name-calling is good. Nevertheless, Trump doubled down, praising his vision of America as “the HOPE and the PROMISE and the LIGHT and the GLORY among all nations of the world!” It was Trump at his evangelical best, telling us the opposite of what we know to be true. For two years now, Trump has done his damnedest to convince us that black is white, up is down, and divisiveness is good. In the end, his State of the Union message fell flat with the majority of Americans, even the ones smiling and nodding. The sad reality slowly seeping in across the country is that Trump has failed America on its most essential core value: the pursuit of happiness. Unless he is able to convince us (soon) that misery is happiness, Trump’s future is not promising -- and his re-election in 2020 is a fleeting dream.
5
"Let's See How Long It Lasts."
It will last about as long as Democratic acceptance of the 2016 Presidential results.
2
Add to this analysis the predictable but nevertheless glaring omission of climate change from the speech, a problem this boy president ignores to the detriment of life on this planet.
9
Trump's encomium to unity may have been political theater of the absurd, but that does not mean that we are not, in fact, unifying or that Trump himself is not the unwitting agent of that unity.
Americans are unifying as never before in opposition to everything that Trump stands for: bigotry, sexual abuse, privilege, corruption, authoritarianism, environmental negligence, radical income inequality.
The only wall Trump is building is the wall of opposition to the radical Right's agenda.
6
He could not possibly have written what he spoke. Others, knowing how to handle this situation, put words in his mouth and, in this instance, he more or less stuck to his script.
As someone who believes every lie he utters, who really thinks he is doing a great job, who has no capacity for analysis, critical thinking, adjustment in actions, or even a small amount of self-analysis, he could just as well have read a speech from a famous plan. He actually didn't make any yuuugge mistakes.
Blames and threats, boasts and bragging, thinly veiled in marketing. I'm sure many in his base loved the speech. Those of us who rue the day the man was elected saw through the charade. Watching Pence and Pelosi behind him was priceless. Pence, the perfect Ken doll, occasionally woke up and looked as if a human being lived inside the rigid facade. Pelosi, mostly, keep her face quiet, and poor Bernie Sanders withstood the "we don't want to be socialists" and the booing, stoically.
I didn't watch. I didn't even watch the after-party of news analysis except for a few minutes. I won't read what he said. I avoid the man. If only the press would cover him as minimally as possible. He loves the limelight and it would whither him to be ignored. I know, not possible, but it would be such a relief. Thank God for the comedians! They make it all tolerable....even though what they make us laugh at is hardly laughable!
Two more of these to go. Yuk!!!
4
The "acid reality" is that one of the facts Trump has correct is that "Trump is for it = Democrats are against it". There has been opportunity for bi-partisan cooperation from the start of Trump's presidency. The Democrats choose to "resist". The Times fans the flames with hyperbole and ungrounded fear mongering day in and day out. Blame yourselves if you want to assign accountability.
1
@Daphne
“I have one objective: to make Barack Obama a one-term President.”
Remind us....who said that?
1
No one should believe his scripted message of unity. He's an actor, which means he can be very convincing, and he's also a serial liar, and we've been through this with him before.
4
Once again, Trump wins.
And the MSM demonstrates what shallow, ratings driven suckers they have become.
All news outlets spent the last three days speculating ad Nauseum about what The Oracle might have to say, praying for sound bites.
The obsession with ratings over news, with controversy over substance, went a long way to getting Trump elected.
Yet, the MSM has learned nothing.
Trump got nonstop attention in advance of a predictable and pedestrian speech.
Trump won. Will he get his wall? Who knows. But he certainly suffered nothing by holding the nation hostage.
3
@Thomas Nelson
100%
Pelosi et al only know how to say "No" to our President's desire to fund enhanced border security. and the security of our Nation.
Pelosi believes "No" is a solid strategy because it "worked" for the previous shutdown. However, continuing to say "No" and offering nothing else towards our President's desire for stronger security on our southern border will only "work" once.
Our President has made multiple concessions to Pelosi/ the Dems in order to bring them back to the table and work out a deal - with zero response, other than "No".
So if there is another shutdown it will all be on Pelosi/Dems who did not negotiate in good faith, (nor did they ever have the intention to) even though this is what they wanted from our President when he reopened the government after 35 days.
@Thomas Nelson- "The Oracle?" I'm laughing. Thanks. G
2
@DB "No, no, no, no" worked quite well for Republicans when Obama was president. I guess Democrats finally learned something from the masters of obstruction.
2
The SOTU address was a charade, another Trump attempt to act like a president. He expressed concern for children, while his administration has separated children from loving parents, placed them in cages with cold, concrete floors. Appallingly, they now report that they are not able to effect reunifications. Again, he spoke of infrastructure, but has done nothing to address the issue. He used false figures when speaking about our border. The sheriff in El Paso was moved to defend his city and set the record straight. Stacy Abrams, who gave the Democrats response made the point that the president owes us the truth.
Trump does not have a fleeting acquaintance with the truth. He lives in a fictional world, but his lying and rancor are our reality. Our trust and hope are being eroded by the onslaught of his pervasive corruption.
7
American voters usually are exposed to a variety of clever political demagoguery, obfuscations, deceptions, and a spectrum of lies from little white ones to whoppers. With Donald Trump’s bombastic style, a new glossary of terms is needed to understand his evolving policies and predict his way of leading and governing if elected. The new glossary would include words and concepts in addition to bombast, such as puffery, sarcasm (Cruel at times), overt insults, crude personal verbal attack, hyperbolic impulsive statements to focus large group attention, paradoxical intention, mixed simultaneous use of an object as symbol and reality. (I.e. an actual wall, a wall as the need for clear national boundaries and rules of behavior and the inner psychological mindfulness that comes with ego strength). And, extemporaneous free associations about the powerful emotions beneath political issues, ambivalent political relationships and evolving policy statements.
2
Nobody really cares what Trump says anymore. His credibility and effectiveness is shot, and he is a lame duck, constantly running for reelection.
2
You cannot make it yourself. You cannot remake it yourself. Not when absolute power is in your face.
I have suggested to people that a more hardline approach might be necessary. People cringe, and they run screaming down the street on fire that the conservatives are coming, the conservatives are coming.
They're already here, and they own every rock, every lost cure, every pay-off, every child at the border who dies, every plumber, every break in, every hidden tax return, every smokestack emitting poison to the winds, every broken bridge, every chemical company located alongside some anonymous creek, every government shut down, every school failure, every goon dressed to appear as celebrity-politician, every gun, every form of greed, every military ready, willing, and able to do the bidding of evil itself.
Rome burned, too, Many times.
We revere our founding fathers as gods. And they could see this coming. Some of us live on steak, and as individuals, their inflated individual greatness. Some of us live on rice and beans if we can afford them and social security which has a very taught rope made from toilet paper on a shoe.
We have no guts to render the monster irrelevant. A bi-partisan consensus means we have an enormous, outdated, sick, suicidal, grasp of the very social and culture systems that have brought us to the chewing of our nails. We bemoan the next erasing of constraint. Americans are afraid. If we look the other way, we can heal anything.
But not this.
2
Trump is not going to change and become a better version of himself. And we've seen that the GOP voters love the bad, destructive Trump. They are willing to see the country implode as long as they get the rhetoric of racism and hatred.
Try appealing to members of the Trump cult with reason and logic and you will find that our democracy is doomed.
7
@Bob Garcia
If you could reason with Trump supporters, you wouldn’t have to.
Relax. Go read some of the tweets from the Trump base who just finished filing their taxes. Highly entertaining.
1
Where did the 45-minute State of the Union go? Isn't an 1 hr 20 min speech a little long?
1
Simple, Trump wanted to have the distinction of giving the longest SOTU .
The Democrats may have responded with a set of guests but I watched the whole speech and was not made aware of it. I should have watched it on MSNBC perhaps.
I like your subtitle - "Let’s see how long it lasts." It didn't last to the end of the speech. No surprises here.
1
And the best place to start is for ALL Americans to register and vote in every election, no matter how seemingly meaningless. It's like doing stretches in the morning. Even when you don't notice much help from them each day you do them, if you are consistent, you start to feel the benefit. So don't wait to register until right before the next election. Take a group of friends down to your election board and register now, not in a year and half. And I would encourage the Democratic party to help them and give them a hat or t shirt that reads : I Registered to Vote . Do something you have never done before: Exercise a power grab.... and then say to yourself "Man, that really feels good". Imagine that: you exercise your right given to you by the Constitution and Mitch McConnell will not be proud of you for doing so.
2
"...the wisest course for citizens interested in a stronger union is to focus on building it themselves."
Per Stacey Abrams: We the people, are coming for you!
I have long ago given up any hope that Donald Trump, a mentally unstable narcissist, would achieve a miraculous cure (which is extremely difficult in general and at his age especially) and suddenly gain empathy and shed his bigotry, racism, and sexism and emerge as a compassionate adult. Sadly, that is "impossible." Instead we had the usual mendacity with veiled threats cloaked in empty words by a man with no credibility nor moral authority.
1
I was able to watch only the second half of the address. I will give Mr. Trump credit for sticking to the script and appearing coherent. And yes, he said a few things I would agree with if they were coming out of someone else's mouth. My problem is that the messenger has such a track record of lying, changing his mind, violating decorum, and, it increasingly appears, circumventing the law, that his words were nothing more than a cruel joke at the expense of American democracy.
3
I have been weighing my thoughts, my take on what I watched last night, I have also read a few of these posts and yours seemed to sum up my feelings best. I cannot listen to this man and believe for one second anything he says, good bad or ugly.
2
I caught an early bedtime, went to sleep and missed him self congratulating himself for all good in this Country. I figured, listening to Trump would put me to sleep anyway, and doing it in bed, at my request, was betting than dozing off in a chair.
1
There was no “message of unity” in Trump's speech. Instead, it was a string of empty platitudes wrapped around a core of the type of ignorance, bigotry and lies Trump relies upon to energize his base.
From his opening reference to the "Democrat Party" -- an assault on American grammar popularized by the far right as a symbol of their refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the Democratic Party -- and his uniquely Nixonian demands to end investigations into his crimes, Trump delivered a campaign stump speech full of falsehoods and mischaracterizations. Having fired every member of the HIV advisory council, Trump now declares that he wants to get serious about combating HIV/AIDS. After his party voted over 50 times to take away coverage for pre-existing conditions, he now declares that he is for it. After his justification for a wall has been proven false over and over again, Trump repeats the same old falsehoods. Having constantly maligned the FBI for nearly two years, he tried to claim that he supports law enforcement officers. The list goes on.
The only difference between the SOTU and a campaign rally is that Trump made even more -- and even more cynical -- use of the challenges and successes that American citizens from all walks of life have made in an attempt to take for himself some of the legitimacy of their real struggles and achievements.
1
The wisest course of action is to focus on electing a new President.
2
I have to confess I didn't watch all of Mr. Trump's performance. I tried to force myself but could not get past his attempt to sound like a serious politician.
He isn't a good actor. The voice he used to sound Presidential was pathetic.
Carrots and sticks. We don't need to be completely Trump-obsessed, but we do need to be Trump-concerned. While praising the intelligence of the American electorate, Trump secretly knows that they can be led around like bulls with nose rings - only instead of bullrings, he uses their beliefs and prejudices to lead them wherever he wants.
If DJT doesn't destroy our fragile democracy, he has published the blueprint and playbook for some other demagogue to do it later. If a democracy like America's is going to exist, there will have to be a paradigm shift in human thought throughout the world.
In the near future, we will program the human mind in the computer based on a linguistic "survival" algorithm, which will provide irrefutable proof as to how we trick the mind with our ridiculous beliefs about what is supposed to survive - producing minds programmed de facto for destruction. These minds see the survival of a particular belief as more important than the survival of all. When we understand this, we will begin the long trek back to reason and sanity.
See RevolutionOfReason.com
I remember when cocaine was the “big lie”. Now Trump is the big lie. He lies incessantly; however this seems to please his ever present base. Trump may be addictive. His hyperbole tickled the fancy of his base. He is altogether unpredictable as is cocaine. Trump may be a drug to his followers, producing a fake, fleeting high. And dangerous.
1
The forked-tongues (Trump and Republicans) learned nothing from the blue wave of 2018. Speaking of unity while sowing discord, stating fake news while lying to Americans, it's a new low and they keep digging deeper.
2
You have written, "“We can make our communities safer, our families stronger, our culture richer,” Mr. Trump said early in his address. “But we must reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution — and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good.”"
But Mr President, in order to " . . .reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution . . ." we must reject you.
3
He was on his meds (diet soda) and carefully scripted with his tele prompter.
This will last only a day or two, maybe even sooner.
1
The headline of this editorial is as divorced from the actual writing in it as Trump's initial paragraphs calling for unity were from the rest of his lengthy speech. Interesting how his calls for Congress to get along with him were followed immediately after his call to stop the investigations. Once that Nixonian appeal for self preservation was over, he went back to my way or the highway rhetoric full of half truths and false statements.
Based on the last, wandering, campaign paragraphs at the end, the headline writers could have easily said Trump celebrates America. Maybe next time they should read the actual article first.
regards
1
The "acid reality" is that one of the facts Trump has correct is that "Trump is for it = Democrats are against it". There has been opportunity for bi-partisan cooperation from the start of Trump's presidency. The Democrats choose to "resist". The Times fans the flames with hyperbole and ungrounded fear mongering day in and day out. Blame yourselves if you want to assign accountability. From the start the Times, and it's stable of writers, has promoted hate, and envy. Projection of their own feelings onto the convenient effigy.
1
For many years, I have not observed the State of the Union. I do not agree with the political posturing, people props and saber rattling by both parties. True campaign finance reform needs to be a major priority because all issues intersect with the flow of money. One can understand the very low ratings of our political leaders. There are many resolvable problems that are encumbered by campaign finances.
I read the recap of the message the following day. Thanks to the New York Times for their professional review of the speech.
1
Trump and the GOP made clear the dangers that come with socialism. Having said that, now is there chance to put their money where their mouth is. Repeal the 867 billion dollar Trump/GOP farm bill passed last year, repeal Medicaid, SS Disability, SNAP, unemployment benefit payments and infrastructure funding for red states, parental/medical leave rules, and repeal all Government subsidies for corporations. Since they hate socialism so much, it shouldn't matter to them.
It is laughable that when Republicans are in office they suddenly decry congressional investigations considering that when Democrats are in office Republicans obstruct every effort by Democrats to govern. Remember McConnell saying their number one priority was to make Obama a one term President? The Republican priority was not to work with Democrats to help solve problems facing many Americans. And who can ever forget McConnell’s refusal to allow President Obama’s choice of Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court to be considered by the Senate. Republicans only want bipartisanship when they are in power. And Republicans certainly don’t want investigations of their own malfeasance.
6
@Mary
Obama and the Dems didn’t lift a finger to fight for Garland. The take away is they were just fine with letting McConnell and the GOP call the shots on that.
@Jane Doe Really? Mitch McConnell did exactly that ! If he doesn't allow it to reach the floor for hearing , neither President Obama nor the Democrats could force him too . A lesson in civics and government rules might help .
In order to have unity in the nation, one must have a president who is connected to and unified with it. We do not.
Trump is, instead, disconnected from the majority of Americans, and tied only to his dwindling, extremist base.
He would be wise to consider two guideposts of American ethos: "E Pluribus Unum"...out of many, one...and "In unity there is strength".
What we have ended up with is Caveat Emptor, or buyer beware.
2
Much like Nixon did in his state of the union speech eight months before his resignation, Trump also called for his investigations to cease. But the question remains, which of the dozens of investigations does he wish to end?
1
I will preface my remarks by saying I did not watch Trump's speech. I have come to a place with him that I simply cannot stand to look at or listen to him. I followed the high points on Twitter and Facebook and have read commentaries in this publication today. I did watch Stacy Abram's response which I found uplifting and positive as well as specific and clear. Trump's out-in-the-open threat that if the House investigates him, he will find a way to stop all legislation illustrates the core of his corrupt presidency and administration. No one can mistake that message. This morning, I'm sure we're back to business as usual with plenty of executive time. Fox watching, and tweeting.
9
Not one word about climate change, the most important issue of our day. trump is making it far worse with his policies.
5
Every despot or wannabe despot calls for unity in what they describe as troubled and dangerous times. What they mean by "unity" is, of course, "Agree to do it my way -- or bad things will happen, perhaps to you." Mr. Trump is no different from his historic and contemporary role models, save that he is more constrained by our Constitution and form of government -- at least now that his partisan enablers no longer hold the House.
So, what will Trump's scenario be going forward? Declare a "National Emergency," call for increased Presidential powers (non subject to Congressional review, of course) and begin suspending various constitutionally established civil rights. It's and old script, see Caesar, Julius, et.al. throughout history.
3
The fundamental problem with a known con man is that he is not trusted. Given the long-past and persisting behavior of Trump, whose performance on public stage is actually pretty good, there doesn’t seem to be any reason to trust him at all at this point. That goes for unappreciated good points from him that are valid. The emotional “props” that were “used” in the address last night were offensive to me ... which I hate to mention on account of the fact of the honorees themselves who, each of them, deserve our admiration and support for their courage and nobility and trueness. The big question is how, in the adversarial political environment we have, to deal with a con man. Words are never enough. Trump has caused by his bullying demeanor and arrogance and self-serving hostility much harm for this country; and that has not been acknowledged by him as means to fresh start.
3
I tried to watch the Trump and pony show but had to turn it off.
When I was in high school in one o four plays a classmate played my father. He was more believable than Mr. Trump's try at sounding "grownup".
1
We have got to build the wall. We don’t want low skill workers coming in by the millions in caravans charging our border. They compete with our blue collar workers and is why we don’t have a living wage. They deplete our social security net and force Americans into long waits at emergency rooms.
Instead we need high skill workers from developed countries. People who are educated and can provide for themselves and more immediately upon legally immigrating. It’s just common sense.
1
@Jay Lincoln
Jay,
As soon as the $5.7B chevk from Mexico check clears the bank, you can get started in your wall.
1
Isn't it time to dispense with any pretense that it is remotely sane to expect Trump to "rise to the office"?
3
The politics of revenge and retribution is what brought Trump to power.
He can’t reject it. He lives by it.
5
When Republicans are in the minority in Washington they are flame throwing obstructionists. When the Republicans are in control of all three branches of government they ram through the most partisan bills imaginable.
Now that they need the Democrats to get anything done, they plea for harmony and cooperation. This cycle has repeated itself for at least four decades now. And, like Lucy and the football, the Democrats always seem to fall for it.
Not this time, pleas stand tall against the tides of racism and authoritarianism.
357
@Ronny
You forget that according to CNN poll - 76% of Americans watching thought the speech was great. It's the people who determine who represent us in 2020.
1
@Ronny Democrats by and large play the same games.
@OldTimer
Has it occurred to you that within the wording of your comment is the key to the positive polling for the speech? You wrote that "76% of Americans WATCHING thought the speech was great" (my emphasis).
The SOTU address is never popular among young Americans without a political bent, so they didn't watch and therefore have no opinion on Trump's presentation. Many adults of reasonable knowledge of this president's performance find that watching Trump speak for any length of time is nauseating and sometimes hazardous to our health. My blood pressure rises when I listen to the lies he spews, day in and day out, and his constant self-congratulatory references to what he believes are his achievements make my blood pressure rise dangerously. I was unable to watch most of the speech for those reasons. Did I approve of that portion I viewed? No.
I have a serious problem with politicians who deliberately attempt to deceive me. And please don't respond with the one and only example conservatives spout about Obama "lying" when he said that we could keep our doctors under the ACA. He believed that to be true when he made that statement - making it NOT a lie, but a mistake on his part.
19
It’s pretty clear that Trump is not in his element when delivering a scripted speech – it lacked both passion and compassion. For example, while making his lengthy case for his border wall, he came across as uncompromising and demanding. More importantly, he did not have a single word of sympathy for the 800,000 federal workers and their families, whose lives he disrupted with his lengthy shutdown over wall funding.
Trump meandered in a subdued monotone, interspersed with his usual heavy breathing, through disjointed topics and a badly edited script. If this was a “unity” speech, then Trump needs to fire his communications team. For once, the SOTU response, delivered by Stacey Abrams, was far better – a confident, compassionate, personalized, effectively delivered speech.
247
@Jack Nargundkar I think the president lacks compassion, generally. No speech writer can overcome that for this man.
Stacey Abrams was great. I loved her energy.
63
@Jack Nargundkar Exactly -- I am one of those government "contractors".
The entire thing -- laughable.
8
Optics
Way too much of American politics is calibrated and success measured by- optics. Did he look good- Did she appear strong- Is this remark going to resonate with Middle America (whatever that is) or minorities or woman or men or....
Honestly people: The environment is in a state of collapse; the economic foundations are fracturing under the weight of inequality. Homeless people inhabit every corner of every American city. Our nation to this day either foments war or just starts out at the behest of corporations.
And yet the pundits, pollsters and experts talk about wins based on polls and posturing.
Are we this beyond hope? Is the appearance of truth more important than the reality? If so- then our freedoms are forfeit.
238
@Lowell Greenberg
Reagan and Ollie North sold arms to Iran, a country on the prohibited list. Reagan claimed to know nothing. Cheney/Bush compounded that with their unproven claims of WMD in Iraq. We can take credit for ISIS. Eisenhower's CIA took down a legitimate leader: Mossadegh. Obama got no weapons grade plutonium production in Iran with UN Inspectors on site. Trump wants to trash that. Trump and Jared moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, a hot spot. Saudis bombing civilians in Yemen; scant food and medical aid; children starve and die. Kim Jung Un, the vicious, murderous leader of No. Korea puts his political prisoners to work in the fields until they die, thirsty and starving. Duterte, the corrupt leader with a police force allowed to murder people they accuse of dealing drugs. Putin, the guy who murders his enemies wherever they live: London, or the U.S. A speechwriter gave him the means to present himself as other than the incompetent embarrassment he is. Historians will do a deep dive into this chaotic, corrupt Administration. Trump might even surpass Prescott Bush and Neville Chamberlain. Let us hope that the gang of thieves have enough money to pay the 800,000 ordinary Federal workers who received no pay during the big Wall shut down. TSA folks got up and went to work every day, as did airport controllers. Those are the real Americans whose grandparents fought and won WWII.
46
@Linda Miilu
Linda, why dors everyone neglect to mention the at least 450K furloughed contractors, like me and my colleagues, who won’t even receive back pay at all? I guess we are all invisible to everyone, not just the Republicans who own the shutdown.
10
I, for one, am tired of all the exploited show ponies... guests intended draw empathy as one-off examples of some issue or the other. It has become a trite cliché.
6
Make no mistake about it. Trump’s efforts to appeal to all were offensive. For him to tout the progress made by blacks, women, the poor, the sickly, and a slew of other underprivileged left the listener wondering what he had done for them. Similarly he spoke of an economic miracle without any evidence that his economic policies were responsible. And there was plenty that was surreal — including his claim to have saved us from nuclear war and his promise of peace in the Middle East. And, as for old hat, NAFTA won the prize.
This speech was pie in the sky. It insulted my intelligence. And it’s tone was so positive that I suspect some Trump followers would also wonder where to find the Disneyland that Trump described. It’s one thing to look at the bright side. It’s another to make it all up. The State of the Union is not all that good. And most Democrats and plenty of Republicans know that. Trump was spinning a fairy tale and that won’t help his cause.
249
@michjas
Hypocrisy, thy name is Trump!
1
Quite frankly, much of it was just plain embarrassing, a string of cringe worthy, trite, platitudes. Climb every mountain, forge every sea...it couldn't have been worse if he sang it.
355
The hypocrisy of Trump sets new lows for American politics, and the servility of the Republican members is remarkable. If Trump suggested appointing a horse as a senator, they would applaud.
328
I would prefer a horse over a GOP senator any day.
12
@Larry Bennett Mostly the old white men in red ties jumping up and down on the left side of the screen looked like aging cheer leaders that will soon need knee replacements. They were mainly responding to successful policies and programs put in place by President Obama that trump is taking credit for. If you haven't read NYT "what he got right & wrong" read. Trump only lies or exaggerates.
10
"If Mr. Trump’s words ring hollow, his actions still matter enormously." If? Give it a day or two and President Trump will once again resume his vicious attacks and lies on Twitter. The ONLY thing that matters are his actions. Who cares what he says? His words are as hollow now as were the promises made to investors in his six bankrupt businesses or to the many swindled students of Trump University.
372
@jrinsc
His words are hollow, but 40% of Americans support him. People believe what they want to believe. The only way to shatter Trump's lies is to confront Americans with the truth. Videos don't lie. They are our best source of circulating the truth. Post them. Like them. Share them on social media. Help them go viral. It is up to us to educate our neighbors.
41
@Tom
Education and promoting truth may have positive results for a few of the Trump supporters capable of rational thought. Far too many are completely unreachable due to personality defects, mental illness, all powerful racism and addictions. It is a sorry state of affairs that this is what the American culture has created. Republican policies guarantee more of the same.
6
@Tom,
40% of Americans are hollow...hollow, braindead losers clinging to a time when their special brand pathetic southern racism was out in the open.
7
So much attention to the ginned-up “crisis on the border,” yet not a single word about the greatest actual crisis to unfold in our lifetime: climate change. The level of willful ignorance is stunning.
510
@Papa Bumpy.. Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh and therefore their listeners do not believe man is responsible for global warming. This is in spite of the fact that commercial traffic can pass through the Arctic Ocean via this once-impossible route. Furthermore, the Republicans gave a standing ovation when Trump announced that the USA was now the largest producer of natural gas and oil. All Republicans running for reelection in 2020 must be replaced in order to see any positive change in our environmental response. The climate is rapidly changing and if we fail to act, this organism we call earth will eventually make itself inhospitable to all mammals.
94
@Papa Bumpy
Republicans choose to deny climate change because they (and their wealthy bosses) do not want to pay the costs to respond to this crisis.
In reality, it makes no difference if climate change is caused by human activity or if it is a natural function of the earths cycles. What does matter is what we do to prepare for the consequences. The Republican plan is to kick the can down the road, and let the next generation pay the price.
Of course, paying attention to the human contribution to climate change would be wiser, but when has any Republican shown wisdom since Eisenhower?
6
@Papa Bumpy
" The level of willful ignorance is stunning"
Stunning, terrifying, and outrageous. And the same stunning, terrifying, and outrageous level of willful ignorance is occurring in the field of ocean acidification!
5
Seeing his presidency and his party in trouble Trump seeks unity. In his exclusive way, naturally. Isn’t it too late, Mr. President?
2
In a similarly sincere gesture of unity, the Democrats should give Trump the $5 billion he’s demanding for “The Wall”.
In relation to the size of the Budget, it’s small potatoes, and truly insignificant in relation to the $5.9 trillion already wasted on the two endless Bush wars.
However, the money should come with two conditions:
- public release of Trumps full and unredacted tax returns for the last ten years, and
- a pledge to let the Mueller inquiry continue without interference and to publicly release its full, unredacted final report.
Funding for “The Wall” can be cancelled immediately after his impeachment
2
@Norman McDougall
The only condition worth having is that he resign immediately. We cannot have trump as president. We are on a ship without a captain.
1
@Norman McDougall. It's $1.7 trillion not $5.9 trillion. Stop repeating the Liar-in-chief's made up lies.
1
@Norman McDougall
Democrats never promised anyone a taxpayer funded border wall, including Donald Trump. He promised ypu a MEXICAN-funded border wall.
Democrats are under no obligation to squander $5.7B of US TAXPAYER FUNDS to help Donald Trump keep his promise to his racist alt right base. If you want a border wall send Mr. Art of the Deal down below the border and tell him to use his supwrior negotiation skills to get $5.7B from the Mexican National Assembly.
Trump only sounds like a rational human being when others give him words to speak. His platitudes regarding bipartisanship and feminism will be torpedoed by his next Tweet storm. Our president has tested the limits of our democratic institutions; the next few months will reveal if our Judicial branch is truly a check on the madness of the current tenant of our Executive branch.
8
@John Joseph
trump never sounds rational. Even his speech writers are incapable of bringing this country together. Last night’s speech was as divisive as trump’s childish tweets.
1
Hope springs eternal, but I would not expect much from the now-not-independent Kavanaugh Court—it can hardly be considered the Roberts court any longer, and it is wholly beholden to the GOP right wing.
It takes two individuals or groups to confront a problem. Both must have clearly defined mission statements, goals and the plan to reach the stated goals; they must be willing to negotiate, be willing to give a take in order to reach an acceptable conclusion and vote. When both sides are led by hard headed individuals seemingly no open to give and take not much if anything happens except a lot of noise and pontificating and finger pointing. The Democrats headed by Pelosi have not defined their plan, ideas or goals for border security. All they say is "No Wall". Pelosi will not commit to a plan concerning how illegal immigrants will be kept out of the country, what will happen once they are captured, does not provide a plan/idea for how the Border Patrol/INS/HS will implement enhanced security measures, etc. The Democrats are quite about security measures which detain, process and deport illegals without their favorite "catch and release" program. Etc. Etc>
Until the Democrats put all their cards on the table for all to see instead of pointing fingers, casting dispersion, telling half-truths in an effort to confuse the issue they will continue to be the Party of Blockage; they will continue to be the Wall stopping legislation which ensures the sovereignty of this nation through the Rule of Law which is bound up in the US Constitution. Both sides must act accordingly.
@The SGM
Here is the Democrat plan for border security that they promised (As reported by Business Insider, Jan 30th):
A summary of the Democrats' plan shows they want to substantially beef up security and infrastructure at ports of entry, as well as provide modernized resources to agents patrolling the border on land and in US waters. The proposal includes:
1,000 new US Customs officers.
New imaging technology at land ports of entry to scan for drugs, weapons, and contraband.
Increased resources and technology at mail-processing facilities to intercept opioids and fentanyl.
Increased technology on the border "to improve situational awareness."
Expansion of Air and Marine Operations on the border and in US waters for US Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Repair projects at ports of entry.
Expansion of risk-based targeting of passengers and cargo entering the US.
The proposal also asks for the bolstering of CBP's resources in handling detained migrants apprehended at the border. A summary of the proposal distributed by House Democrats refers to the treatment of migrants while in US custody as "the only real crisis at the border — which is not a border security crisis but a humanitarian one."
@The SGM. I’ll take the half truths over the blatant lies and hypocrisy of our fearless leader and GOP in general...
If Trump had begun his presidency with this speech -- even with its own partisan slant -- he and the nation would be further ahead today.
He didn't and now we are two years in.
We also know today that his presidency is cover for past and continuing criminality.
Trump is weak. His "threats" have no credibility. After two years, we know what we got and how to box it in. Keep pressin' on!
6
@pjd
This speech was a denouncement of all who do not idolize him. trump is never looking to move forward he just wants to wallow in the adulation of his base.
1
Soon after the shutdown drama and a bitter showfown with the House Democrats, President Trump's unity call to the nation sounds hollow and a real joke to people. The incoherence and contradictions that characterise Trump's thinking and behaviour do clearly reflect in his State of the union speech also that makes his rhetoric and actions quite in contrast to each other - a case of first order hypocrisy and fake assurances, necer to be taken on face value .
13
"we must reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution "
Well, unless Mr. Trump is planning on a personality transplant, this isn't going to happen. Too bad there wasn't a great big mirror in front of him instead of an opportunity to hypocritically lecture others on the need to change when he surely never will.
42
@Anne-Marie Hislop
I would suggest that a species change operation might be more in order than a personality transplant if we want to fix Trump. He seems to lack entirely the positive emotions (compassion, empathy, ability to see and speak truth) that one expects from a being with a prefrontal cortex.
1
had he given this speech last year or sometime prior, i might have listened and had a glimmer of hope and belief.
now a speech writer penned marketing address by the First Con Man of the USA.
the emporer has no clothes.
23
"Mr. Trump’s soothing message, in short, was wholly at odds with the acrid reality of how he has governed. In that way, the entire spectacle — reflected in the vibrating hostility between the two sides trapped together in the House chamber — evinced the true state of the union: fractured, fractious, painfully dysfunctional."
The board has nailed it: the problem with reading a speech like this after two years of deliberate actions that belie the sentiments expressed, it that really does create a huge disconnect.
I've suffered many a State of the Union, but never before have I seen such an assault on reality. Sure, I've read and studied similar speeches overseas, in different times, when the world was battling authoritarianism and the name of the game was obfuscation.
But to hear it here, in America, still jars the hell out of me because how can you trust anyone shouting for unity whose prior words and actions are so divisive and demanding?
39
This was a speech from a much diminished man who is deathly afraid of the walls of legitimate investigation closing in on him. Otherwise, there would have been no mention of his personal problems.
Mitch McConnell seemed on the verge of tears at the members of his caucus standing and applauding tariffs. He knows that tariffs do not fill the treasury, they are paid for by American consumers.
Otherwise it fit the typical pattern of a news media program in the United States: human interest stories, little data, and little substance.
"And they said it couldn't be done." He is, at his essence, a late night barker of informercial products, best turned off and ignored, or left in a 3:30 AM time slot to bore insomniacs into sleep. You don't need what he is selling. You don't even want it. You only think you do because you're so exhausted in your insomnia due to worry at what this chaos monger will do next.
51
Actually, it was a 90 minuet reminder that he's a counter puncher. When he wasn't stating is forthrightly he was demonstrating it. The rather mild exaggeration of the economic statistics, as well as the shout out's to visitors in the gallery were emotional calls to his base to rally round. This was in many ways the first speech of the Trump reelection campaign. (As if that electoral Pearl Harbor could ever happen again.) That, plus his straight out threats to stop any and all legislation if Mueller keeps going depicts him a a Jake LaMotta ready to do fifteen rounds.
14
@Richard Mclaughlin - He's an instigator, not a counter puncher.
Thank you for this editorial. Let us remember that Trump likes chaos. He is a little like the chess player who distracts his/her opponent in order to win using very simple moves. This is the "art of the deal" of people like Trump and Roger Stone. They are tricksters who seize their opportunity in the chaos they create.
Unfortunately, Trump really likes chaos. He is dedicated to breaking things apart - without mindfulness of the repercussions on society. He doesn't really care. Nuclear treaty with the Russians? Not important. NATO? Not important.
During the address, I wondered if Trump's new personal physician had given him beta-blockers to calm him down - to keep him from emulating his favorite cartoon character: himself. This way he would just read the teleprompter.
26
Watching the State of the Union as delivered by Donald bears a striking resemblance to his earlier television show, The Apprentice.
The premise of The Apprentice was that Donald was a decisive, successful, clever, commanding master of the universe. We know, by comparing his actual accomplishments, the multiple bankruptcies and the poor credit rating that meant no bank would loan to him, that the show was fictional despite it’s billing as a reality show. A significant deception that was nevertheless, swallowed hook, line, and sinker by millions of Americans.
The SOTU address last night was built on a similar pretext, that Donald is an actual president who cares about governing, policy, and the citizens of America. It was merely an interlude in his vast stretches of executive time, golfing, grooming, and tweeting. It was a cut and paste job speech with one ad lib about Doanld supporting legal immigration. Perhaps that was a nod to Melania.
He’s much less believable as president than he was as a tycoon and unfortunately, the real world stakes are much higher.
45
@Njlatelifemom- The Apprentice was reverse engineered.
1
The unity message of our commander in tweet was reflected in the Republican male standing ovations propping up almost every sentence and the Democratic women, dressed in suffragette white, applauding the statement of more women back to work, in Congress, in opposition to our commander in tweet's policies. We're united in division.
10
I thought the speech was darned good. Judging by most polls, so did the rest of America. It makes me wonder, how does Trump have a 40% approval rating and get a 70% speech approval rating?
And Trump is correct about these investigations. If there were so much evidence about Russian collusion, why can't it be found? One answer, the same diligent investigators from the Northam and Fairfax sleuths are on the job. Mueller and team should have some evidence in 15 to 35 years.
6
@Mike the overall approval is lower than the speech approval because his actions are in consistent with the tone of the speech. Daily, mr trump is divisive. Pretty words for one evening doesn’t change that.
As for the investigations.....silence isn’t the same as lack of evidence. Based on the charges filed to date we already know that people around mr trump acted irregularly and inappropriately.
19
@Mike I heard that the 70% approval rating came from those who watched so probably his base. Many, like me, watched something more diverting.
29
@Mike A simple question for you. If Trump has nothing to hide and did nothing wrong then why does he and his crew lie consistently? Why have so many been indicted?
3
Why does this editorial characterize the state of the union as "fractious and dysfunctional"? Surely the editorial board knows that "the union" as referred to in the constitution which requires this report refers to the union of the states NOT of the political parties.
Discord between political parties is the design of democracy, and the hostility of our current environment is nothing more than the strident evolution of policy differences between differing groups. For the purposes of accuracy, this editorial would benefit from not engaging in this error; political rancor expressed through the democratic process (as opposed to violence/war etc.) means the state of our "union" is very strong indeed.
4
@michaelf,
Great!
Then does that mean blue states can finally stop paying the bills of worthless southern and midwest states?
Those shiftless but somehow proud red state parasites have been punishing our success by robbing us blind decade after decade.
2
I'm not a Trump supporter yet in one sentence during his speech he said unequivocally that he supports "legal immigration". That is something everyone supports as well yet Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats just sat on their hands. It looked as if they supported "illegal immigration" which the American public, (Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike) don't support. That was a bad reflection on the Democratic party. There are no if, ands or buts for them not to applaud just that statement alone. I guess they didn't learn their lesson from 2016.
10
What trump says about anything is suspect and unreliable. His administration has proven time and again that he only wants persons who are white with means immigrating to America. He has limited legal immigration more than other president. He has broken international law by turning away asylum seekers. He throws children into cages. Who can keep up with his litany of lies and misinformation. Democrats are right to ignore the rankings of an unhinged trump.
2
@Glenn S.
You don't applaud hypocrisy. The Trump administration is fighting tooth and nail AGAINST legal immigration. Just another Trump lie.
2
“If there is going to be peace and legislation,” the president said, “there cannot be war and investigation. It just doesn’t work that way!”
Trump and his allies literally create and maintain the war. They provide the need for investigation. To willingly look the other way by ignoring abuse of law when need is staring you in the face is the height of irresponsibility.
Once again Trump appears to be indirectly using extortion to feed his authoritarian impulses and needs.
34
The state of the union address by President Donald Trump was riveting and historic. Most of all it made me feel proud to be an American.
9
And was full of inaccuracies according to the Times analysts. Also Trump has been the most decisive President in history. Calling for unity is like calling for the sun to shine at night
1
@Girish Kotwal,
Figures.
A kentucky parasite.
Pay your own damn bills for once you leech!
2
@Girish Kotwal
Donald Trump
mocked a reporter with a disability on national tv.
You have very low standards for personal pride.
1
Yes I listened to the entire 90 minute speech. Kudos to Me. Yet I could not help but reflect how much he resembles certain of my own relatives: the glibness of his lies in particular.
23
I went to bed instead. It sounds like I didn’t miss much except experiencing yet another fit of rage that this is where we are. I am so tired of this President and all of his undignified nonsense.
64
Funny to listen to the leader of the free world begging for legitimate investigations against him (and his ecosystem) to stop! That was the core of the President's message- albeit couched in threats. Sadly, to the world at large, this is a true reflection of the State of the Union :-(
56
@Rajesh Rai
I wasn’t aware that the rest of the “free world” had voted for Donald Trump to be their leader.
When was that, exactly?
The visuals were compelling -- the televised reactions of those assembled says a lot about who our senators, representatives and assorted cabinet heads are. OTOH I applauded the displays of heroic and historical people invited to attend -- those were the only bright moments of the entire event.
2
Well . . . early Twitter reports are starting to come in from some Trump supporters who are now finding out that the tax plan really stuck it to them in a big way. Let's just wait and see as more Americans file their taxes just what unity looks like 3 months from now. I haven't filed mine yet and I'm a little nervous about it I don't mind telling you. Of course I thought he was flim-flam man back in the 1980s and nothing that's happened really has changed my mind about that since then . . .
38
Were there any shots of Mitch McConnell clapping? Every time I noticed he was on screen, he seemed to be sitting on his hands.
7
The same man who brags about cutting regulations (meaning regulations limiting pollution of the environment) vows to fight childhood cancer with a paltry $500 million over 10 years (compared to $5.7 billion for a wall)....
There are so many ways to characterize the self-contradictory nature of his speech and agenda, frosted with a simulacrum of caring.
While the Emperor proudly described his clothes and half the chamber leapt to applaud, the other half looked as if they were being forced to watch him step out of the shower.
And trump relished the chance to shake it in front of them too, though the women laughed a little too much...
17
Trump's speech was neither truthful nor inspiring . He accuses others of exactly what he does ; politics of revenge , peppered with many many untruths . He simply is unable to rise to the office ; this state of the union was an exercise in futility . As the saying goes , fool me once shame on you , fool me twice shame on me . If he hasn't done it yet , he'll be tweeting insults very soon and back to business as usual .
32
$500 million over 10 years to fight child cancer. When the US is spending $2 BILLION per DAY on what is laughingly called 'defense'
Shines a spotlight on where the values lie. Disgraceful.
73
@Plennie Wingo
Don't forget the $5.7B "needed" "immediately" for his disgraceful wall.
America's priorities have long been out of whack, but this character and his Republican enablers have just taken it to a whole new level.
There cannot be investigation? Who (besides a criminal) would want that?
39
President Trump read a well crafted (not by him) SOTU speech from a teleprompter. Period.
The real Donald Trump will be back online tomorrow delivering his own unique brand of bizarre Tweets, sprinkled as usual with errors in both spelling and syntax.
27
A tedious, empty appeal to unity by our shiftless, self-serving commander in chief, totally dependent on his bigoted benighted base for any sort of popular support, and lacking inherently the wherewithal to rise to the office of the Presidency and serve our nation as a whole.
Donald Trump will always consider himself before all else. He is fixed in his ways and has no desire to change.
Expect two more years of incessant lying and rampant demagoguery.
38
With Trump being Trump, unity is wishful thinking at best. At worst, I wouldn't trust him to help me cross a street.
25
@Andrea W.
How about helping him cross the street?
6
@Dr W That too.
The State of The Union was similar to the recent Super Bowl,boring. Trump’s actions speak louder than his scripted speech. The guy who just shut down the government over slabs of walll now calls for unity? The money spent for this could have been better spent. Trump’s speech was as predictable as the outcome of the Super Bowl.Trump could have saved everybody by having whoever wrote this dud post it on a web site. Could anyone not have known Trump would tell the world he is the best president in the history of our nation? After Trump builds his wall his next quest will be getting a spot for himself on Mount Rushmore. The sad part of it all is that Trump really believes he is that Great.
35
Only Trump would have the audacity to suggest that for the sake of the country his crimes should not be investigated. He simply will never understand that what really makes America great is that the rule of law prevails over the rule of Trump.
46
Whatever the STOTU presentation, and actual STATE, in terms of ongoing national divisions at all levels of America, with its diverse populations, and an historically based toxic WE-THEY culture which enables violating a range of created, selected, targeted
“ the other(s),” daily, there is an ongoing critical flaw which exists.Not noted. Not paid attention to.Not changing. Policymakers of all parties, at all levels, and throughout the nation who are enabled to be personally unaccountable for both their harmful words and deeds, as well as for not writing/ voicing and doing what needs to be done, and can be done, to achieve equitable types, levels and qualities of sustainable wellbeing! An enabling of equitably shared human and nonhuman resources critical necessary for civil interactions.For physically, socially, psychologically, spiritually, economically healthy individuals and systems which underpin daily coping.Adapting and coping. At home. In the neighborhood and community. In sites of learning, working, leisuring and free-time BE ing, praying.There is daily fact checking about Trump’s twitters, and his voiced words. There is little analysis about the extent to which each of us can, and do, lie to ourselves. And others. About our own chosen complacent roles enabling what exists. Should never have been. Still is. And will continue to BE until all of US go beyond the ease of effortless wordiness! Additionally, our active complicity:willful blindness,deafness,ignorance.
1
The country is extremely divided and polarized on many issues. While one expect that we will have difference opinions and ideas and idelogies. But current conditions are extremely toxic.
Republican Party from the first day of Obama Presidency vowed to play the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution as Mich McConnel openly proclaimed. Mr Trump has been heralded as the champion of that politics. Breibart News, Fox News and liked of their ilk became the conduit for that. Mr Trump saw himself catapulted to the pinnacle power riding that political bandwagon.
During the past years, these hasn’t been changed. While the Republicans were in full control, Mr Trump had a Carte Blanche. Now the political wind had shifted and Mr Trump needs Democrats. But it is doubtful that he is ready congintively to play the politics of persuasion. So the SOTU was nothing more than exercise in futility.
12
In other words he lied through his teeth.
BTW: “Together, we can break decades of political stalemate, we can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions and unlock the extraordinary promise of America’s future.”? Donald Trump doesn't have the foggiest idea what any of those individual words, let alone all together, actually mean.
Don't think so? Ask Donald Trump under oath, "What does that statement really mean?" And he would tell you, "I don't really know, or care. It's just a bunch of made up political stuff I had some guy at the office write up for me."
In any thing other than corruption and self-dealing Donald Trump is utterly out of his depth.
Don't think so? Just imagine how bad his jokes are.
13
that was a pretty good speech, it reminds us of our greatest moments as a nation, everything we are not today. courage and sacrifice on the beaches of normandy, now we debase our neighbors and turn our backs on their suffering and need. We worked together and went to the moon, but we've learned to distrust our goverment and turned it over to wall Street to live in a culture of fear and greed. We had a great president who aspired to our better natures, but we stole a supreme Court seat from him. Now we're led by a real estate developer.
28
@carrot
“WE” did not steal any Supreme Court seat from any POTUS. That would be 100% on Mitch McConnell.
Besides, Obama & the spineless corporate Democrats didn’t even fight back when the GOP did that, so that SCOTUS seat obviously wasn’t very important to them anyway.
If the NYT thinks that Trump is a president of discord and polarization, then you don't have to look far to concede, that the Democratic party, literally from day 1 has opposed the president for the key reason:
- because he is Trump. The antipathy toward him radiated already since his announcement to run as a presidential candidate. Nobody can say that he was treated with equanimity. No further explanation needed.
4
@Andrew
I'm somewhat confused.
Does your comment mean you agree with the Democrats and the NYT?
I do disagree that antipathy toward the Trump started when he announced his candidacy. It started much before that due to his various bankruptcies and his flim-flam university, etc.
12
@Andrew As did the Republican Party with Obama, declaring that their only goal was to make him a one term president. There was no equanimity, no partisanship, no treating him like a president. It was pure hatred, not from being a democrat, but from being a black man with power. It’s despicable.
29
@RD
So, then it is a tit-for-tat response. This proves, that vengeance is the winner here and the cycle is unbroken. Obviously, it takes two to tango and the payback makes the Democrats also guilty.
This is not what one would expect from the party of 'moral superiority'.
1
It's really a sad state of affairs when we expect the president to lie openly and often as he talks to the nation. It's even worse when he exceeds our expectations.
49
The most popular politician in the country delivered a spot on point by point destruction of Trump's blathering flood of distraction and hyperbole in response to the STOTU. The most popular politician in the nation did what Stacey Abrams' boilerplate failed to do; it hit every important issue facing Americans today from the economic bias toward the already wealthy and the heavy imprint of corporate lobbies on Congress to healthcare and immigration. He delivered it with passion, clarity and authenticity.
I don't see that superb takedown of Trump's fantasy talk even mentioned in this paper, and while I'd like to say I wonder why you're ignoring the most popular politician in his most impressive presentation I don't wonder, because the fix is being set up.
The man that would bury Trump in a landslide of Democrat turnout and probably take a third of republicans votes is going to be ignored by the NYT. You do so at your own peril because if Bernie Sanders is tanked by the media, we are going to see 4 more years and perhaps two more Justices out of Donald J. Trump.
12
@CK
I see nothing wrong with more years of Trump and more conservative, life-respecting justices. They are beneficial to a civilized society.
The alternative is a Venezuela.
3
@Andrew If you are serious, you are being ridiculous.
1
@Andrew Good thing you live in Canada, Andrew. Please stay there.
1
It was not a message of unity. Not really. It was “let’s all unify by giving in to me, stop criminal investigations against me, ignore evidence of crimes I have committed, make all my agendas come true or I will circumvent constitutional separation of powers to make it come true. Also, let’s all agree with me when I lie.”
No, not a message of unity.
133
@citybumpkin You analysis of Trump's one-sided style of "compromise" is dead solid perfect. Of course, it's all meaningless blather to Trump, for whom words have mo real meaning and values are merely transactional.
22
Tonight President Trump played the one role that he is qualified for—TV show host. All pomp and circumstance and little substance. Where were the policies and planned actions to implement them? What we got were a series of tug-at-your-heart stories of heroes brought to the gallery for effect. We were moved by their stories but what was the connection to implementing actions on behalf of the American people? The only substantive statement I took away from the speech was that if investigations don’t stop, he threatens to veto legislation.
The camera panning the two sides of the chamber showed a stark contrast. One side a sea of white men and a few women dutifully clapping, cheering, and giving a standing ovation to practically every sentence, the other side a diversity of color, ethnicity, gender, and youth, and a sea of women in white dresses just waiting to get to work to really improve the lives of their fellow Americans. Let the work begin!
74
@Barbara --- No circumstance in that pony show, just pomp.
25
@David B. Benson
.... and a cleanup crew.
11
Trump as always is the master of hypocrisy. He promotes cooperation while practicing devisive initiatives. He operates in the shadows and condemns investigations that inevitably arise from his dodgy behavior. He wants to expand healthcare while actively forcing more lower income Americans out of access to such healthcare. He wants to make America great again by withdrawing from global leadership.His next novel? The Art of Hypocricy.
68
Another household here who didn't watch, but from the highlights Mr. Trump's speech seemed to succeed, from the standpoint that raucous laughter didn't spontaneously erupt; nobody stomped out; and no mice or worse ran across the floor of the house.
Also no bats.
But his talk didn't really seem to be the kind of report the drafters of the Consitution intended for the president to present (via any date-appropriate medium). Everybody in both houses already knows that Mr. Trump thinks he's done a fine job, though to be fair the trend over the last three or four decades has been towards promotion and away from information.
10
A very strong speech! Even CNN’s poll found 76 percent of viewers liked what they saw as well they should. Admittedly his speech practically wrote itself. The economy’s on fire now that we have a winner in the Oval Office.
5
@Bill
That speech most definitely did not “practically write itself.”
A great deal of time and effort went into the creation of this evening’s State of the Union Address. It was composed by writers who possess verbal skills the president sorely lacks. I should think Donald Trump criticized their work and petulently demanded revisions, but he obviously didn’t write a single sentence of what he read to us from the prompter in the House of Representatives.
After recent serious setbacks, Trump needed some face-saving win — so he rehearsed the speech others had written for him, practiced his delivery, followed the instructions and advice offered him while preparing.
Trump tried very hard to act like a shrewd mature politician tonight. He read the speech as written, beginning to end. Tried his best to play the role of a competent American president delivering an important speech.
But that’s all it was. A spoiled over-priviledged child play acting out of desperation.
In the greater scheme of things this one speech counts for very little, perhaps nothing at all.
Tomorrow, our unfit-for-office president will emerge unscathed, ego and delusions and ignorance intact.
Verbal skills of a fifth-grade elementary school student.
61
@Bill That might be because such a large percentage of "Viewers"... like me.... chose NOT to watch.
18
@Bill The economy is only "on fire" to those who don't have a rudimentary understanding of macroeconomics. While some overall numbers appear fine, the metrics behind them are weak and inflation is a looming nightmare - already outpacing GDP growth. Those who are sanguine about the nation's long-term prospects remind me of Kevin Bacon in "Animal House," yelling "All is well" in the midst of chaos.
13
Like the power of the purse, Article I also puts oversight as a Congressional responsibility.
Trump might not value his oath of office, but on this I am sure that Speaker Pelosi values hers.
It is too bad that Congressional Republicans failed that responsibility when they had the chance.
The only call for unity was one of Congressional submission. Is that the Unity that the NYT doesn't want the President to give up on?
16
— His call to fight childhood cancer was new, but the money he proposed for it — $500 million over 10 years — is hardly adequate to the task. — That amount is so low that the proposal, no matter how well intentioned, cannot be taken seriously.
40
@Doug, prevention is better than cure. It is a well known fact that childhood obesity, chemicals in colorings flavorings artificial additives, all contribute to chronic illnesses. Introducing healthy meals early in life, and including maternal and prenatal care and nutrition, can all be inexpensive ways of preventing chronic illnesses, in the first place. Since the introduction of tv dinners, processed canned foods, short cut conveniences, our lifestyles have become easeful, but it has come at a price. We have to go back to basics, eat natural foods, organically grown, free form chemicals steroids antibiotics, encourage healthy lifestyles like exercise, play, leisure...generally become more mindful, instead of mindlessly eating whatever whenever, becoming addicted to mindless living.
4
@Doug, public health data scientists are already looking at the role of: Big Sugar, Big Mac, Big Ag, Big Coke, Big Pharma, Big Physicians, Big Oil, Big Chemicals..in promoting childhood obesity, chronic diseases..and maintaining status quo numbers of these public health problems ..nay! Actually contributing to these growing public health disasters. It doesn’t take Big Money to solve childhood cancers when they were directly the cause of it. Our politicians do not have the brain bandwidth to even remotely comprehend what really is going on, in America, which is then being emulated work wide via Big Coke, Big Ag and their associates...
3
As usual, and as he did in his campaign, he stood at the microphone selling U.S. voters the Brooklyn Bridge, Grant's Tomb, and throwing in the Statue of Liberty as a symbol of his good faith in making the deal.
"Let's make a deal" he said. "If you forget all my slimy remarks and flip flops in the past I assure you I have more of both to give the voters."
No thanks, sir. I already own the Golden Gate bridge, prime property in the Everglades, and am about to close a deal on Mt. Rushmore.
Want your portrait up there? I can make YOU a great deal you wouldn't be able to walk away from.
56
What a great night it was to watch one of the new movies being released in advance of the Academy Awards. From the reviews of the other piece of fiction broadcast this evening, I made a wise choice.
43
I too did not bother to watch the speech, instead relying upon follow-up commentary, and of course, the later contradictory tweets to come. (Sad!)
Instead, I watched an episode of Chopped, wherein one chef was chopped for dry chicken. Also sad! And very much more interesting.
24
I didn't have to watch Donald Trump's State of the Union address to know it would be laced with half-truth, lies, and recriminations.
We're at the point where it's difficult to believe anything this president says because in all probability he'll change his mind, do an about face, or act completely opposite to anything he claims, especially when it comes to promoting bipartisanship or "unity".
When Mr. Trump speaks of bridging old divisions and healing old wounds, it sounds much like a warning in advance of creating new divisions and inflicting new wounds, and nothing characterizes that more than his relentless tenacity in building "his wall", even if that means shutting down the government for a second time.
It's hard to imagine Mr. Trump championing an agenda built on cooperation and the common good when his actions so often speak otherwise.
And sadly, that is about the only truth we can hold to be self-evident.
40
The most chilling moment was when half of the Republican side of the chamber stood to applaud the statement that America would win the new nuclear arms race following the President’s latest withdrawal from an international treaty. Of course this is at the same time as sending another American into space in an American rocket, and curing HIV and childhood cancer. So many great applause lines, I just hope our scientists are as imaginative as our speech writers.
47
@Gerard: scientists are far more imaginative than Trump’s speech writers, but at this point its not possible to do cutting edge science on a shoestring budget, building particle accelerators with string and sealing wax. The projects he proposed cost money. If we don’t spend that money, you can bet other nations will.
And other nations will tackle the greatest scientific of this century, which is climate change. We’ll dig coal.
25
But for who? No matter what he favors he tries to curry for his coal industry pals it’s a dying industry.
7
Nice to see all these comments, somebody had the stomach to watch. I could not and so many in recent days made it a point not to. We are instead waiting for good journalism to summarize the sad event.
67
I couldn't stomach it either, Mr. Botlo, but did watch some of the commentary later. Not very promising.
18
@njglea, I too, ignored the speech, but listened to the commentary, and thus got a few glimpses of it.
1
In one breath he brags about deregulation, then 20 minutes later says he wants to fund childhood cancer research.
We already know that some of the chemicals he wants to deregulate cause cancer. No research required, just a backbone.
200
My bet is that his message of unity will last until his first tweet.
50
There was unity among his security chiefs about ISIS, Iran, Russia and the southern border but Trump contradicted all of them. There was unity with allies regarding NATO, TPP, The Paris accords and the Iran nuclear deal but Trump blew all of them away. There is unity in the American populace about income inequality, healthcare, gun safety and education but Trump only talks about the wall. There is unity in the Legislative branch not to shut down the government but Trump knows better. The overriding consensus of all voters was that truth was important in our leaders until Trump maintained a 40% approval rating after lying over 80,000 times in 2 years. Wherever there is or was unity Trump sees weakness because he didn't initiate it. Indeed Trump's definition of unity is when everyone agrees with him and when that doesn't happen he makes up an alternate reality where everyone does. If a message of unity falls in a forest of lies can anyone believe in it.
101
It was not a call for Unity. It was a Mob-style sit down. We can have “peace and legislation....” or we can have “....war and investigation....”.
132
@Lefthalfbach
Exactly right! Trump using threats in the SOTU speech. Stop investigating me or no legislation! Fine, Nancy can do it herself with her caucus if we can get a few GOP members of the Senate to regrow their spines.
2
@Lefthalfbach
Trump thinks he can persuade Democrats to end investigations into his enterprises by intimidation.
Funny.
2
Well said. Trump is a hypocrite up and down and sideways, reading from the teleprompter faithfully...but at odds with his violent and erratic behavior in real life. Trump is a disgrace for the U.S., and it shows. His promises to do better and unite us did sound hollow. Quite frankly, how can we possibly expect an old twisted tree to right itself, a poisonous plant to produce edible fruit?
77
So this fraud can read what someone else wrote for him on a teleprompter without understanding or believing a word of it; so what. He's still an unrepentant racist, xenophobe and ignoramous. He cannot be gone soon enough, and the 2020 elections cannot come soon enough. A disgrace to the office, a disgrace to the country.
363
“A message of unity?” We did not see or hear the same speech, esteemed Editorial Board.
Conservatives will strut and praise their president for reaching out and seeking consensus instead of sowing seeds of contention; but if one paid very close attention to this awfully dull and boring jeremiad, one would clearly understand that Donald Trump offered no new ideas but he did offer a generous helping of a diminishing prospect for every American’s ability to share in the national bounty. He’s still in the side of the have’s; not the have-nots.
How did he become, in one “speech,” something and someone he’s never been? Or was it just me?
When he shrilled that “we will never become a Socialist country,” his Republican cheerleading section let out a howl that could be heard in the Kremlin. I don’t recall anyone in the Democratic Party advocating “socialism” except in the vein of (a) affordable health care, an issue with which the president continues to grapple;
(b) fair wages;
(c) school debt forgiveness;
(d) transgender military service;
(e) voting rights;
(f) sensible gun ownership and use;
(g) accountable policing in urban areas;
(h) a sensible immigration policy and a path toward citizenship for the DACA hostages.
None of the above is “socialism;” they are all part of the bags and baggage of “the American Dream,” one Republicans’ very ancestors believed in so long ago and are now policies that they would deny to others whose ancestors pre-dated theirs by centuries.
175
@Red Sox, '04, '07, '13, ‘18,
Your list includes words like “fair”, “sensible” and “accountable”. Those are socialist values to the GOP. Much of it was ridiculousness but we didn’t expect any more. It’s just unfortunate that his actions do not remotely reflect unity unless it is united behind him.
29
I'd file this SOTU address under 'Trump 2020 Campaign Promotions'. It was predictably loaded with glowing self-praise, spurious claims of success, easily challenged facts and shameless exploitation of genuine heroes for political gain. Trump's multiple Mussolini styled poses only added to the 3 ring circus vibe he brings to the big tent. Missing was March of the Gladiators when he entered the chamber.
57
How can we rely on anything he said tonight? It will change by 3 am...and then again at 5:45 am...and again at 8:10 am.... and then again at 11:45 am....yet again at 4:05 pm..............
24
I didn't waste my time watching our Liar in Chief address the nation, nor did I care about the subsequent fact checking and rebuttals. I already know that anything Trump utters lacks credibility or any resemblance to the real world. Why newspapers and broadcasters devote any space to covering his ramblings is beyond me.
71
@Berlin Exile
They are quislings terrified of “losing access” to a liar.
1
It's a darn shame Nancy Pelosi didn't arrange for a retired nun holding a metal ruler to sit in her place behind Clear & Present Danger 45* - that way, someone could have rapped some knuckles every time Un-indicted Co-conspirator reran another of his patented stump speech lies.
47
I heard Trump will act on health care, policies supporting women, drug costs and so on in exchange for a wall and impunity. No Investigacion. No deal.
7
Trump's thinly-veiled threat to Congress that there would be no legislation as long as they were investigating him completely negated his call for unity. So much for any semblance of bi-partisan cooperation to address the serious issues that this country faces. Democrats, and a few Republicans, are ready to work together to fix our broken immigration system, our dysfunctional health care system, deal with the looming threat of climate change and guarantee the right of every citizen to vote. All Trump cares about is saving himself, his family and his cronies from criminal prosecution and being friends with Vladimir Putin.
529
@Art: Well the Republican controlled the Congress and there were no investigations and no legislation for two years, except for a tax cut legislation rushed through without serious studies and hearings. So now we can at least have investigations from the House of Representatives.
65
@Art - Looking on the bright side, less than seven months after Nixon used the 1974 SOTU to demand an end to investigations into his criminal wrongdoings, Nixon resigned in disgrace.
We can only hope that in this instance, at least, history really does repeat itself.
24
".....we must reject the politics of revenge...."
This, from a man for whom the business of revenge has been a major motivating force over his his entire career. There's no reason he would change, especially since he's merged business and politics since taking up residence in Kremlin West.
72
No more tax cuts for the rich? What is this country coming to? Of course, according to CNBC, Jeff Bezos' wealth has doubled since 2016 and wouldn't you know it, the City of New York wants to give Jeff another few billion. If isn't the Republicans giving away the store, it's the Democrats.
11
Listening to Trump's speech I was struck by the many lies and exaggerations he relied upon and I wondered if fact-checkers somewhere were making an accurate list. His language describing people south of our border was over the top and frankly ugly. It's hard to forget the images of children separated from their parents and placed in detention centers. I felt as if Trump exploited the grief of a family whose eldest parents got murdered, apparently by an illegal immigrant. Using other people's pain for political purposes is just plain wrong. But I will give Trump his due in introducing true heroes, such as a policeman who got shot saving lives, a group of old soldiers who had been there on D-Day, and Holocaust survivors. They offered a glimpse into true nobility of spirit, a quality that Trump sorely lacks.
25
I did not listen to the speech, assuming it would all be a pack of lies anyway. In any case, whatever pleas for unity and bipartisanship Trump might have made will be negated by the next fusillade of tweets. The speeches are confections delivered with the flattened affect of a hostage reading a ransom message; the tweets and his appalling rallies are where Trump comes alive and demonstrates what's really in what purports to be a heart.
27
The State of the union should not be reduced to a free (hour plus-long) political ad. I loved how he threw in the “partisan” investigation, at least he refrained from calling it a hoax or a witch hunt; he really up'd his game on that one.
I confess, I did not watch, as so many did here, I went with the recap.
Colbert is on, gotta go!
23
Why do republicans block attempts at addressing America's crumbling infrastructure?
We are so far behind already.
34
Roads and bridges, not walls!!
35
@Mary A quality public education for all so our kids aren’t so far behind.
7
I try hard to remind myself that not everything in this country that is trite, hackneyed, cliched, platitudinous, vapid and ridden-with-lies is Trump's fault, but then a speech like the one I just heard comes along and convinces me otherwise.
72
All Trump wanted was the pageantry and attention of the occasion.
Considering all that led up to the delivery - most notably, Nancy Pelosi suggesting he speak from the Oval Office and not in Congress - it more than defies credulity to think that any kind of real leader is developing in Trump.
He is still threatening to torpedo the three week respite for federal workers over his wall. Trump hasn't learned anything about his responsibilities or what it would even mean to put country first. Trump's real motivation was the televised production he just got.
376
@NM
What about federal contractors? Are we all just invisible to you?
We don’t even get back pay.
8
Before the ink dries, on this editorial, printed fro the Late City Edition, of this newspaper, Trump will have given his first divisive tweet.
Trump gave other the longest, or second longest, State of the Union, in history. When he received applause, his face looked like Benito Mussolini, complete with the same smirk.
If this speech, were given by another president, its topical material would have some legitimacy But, Trump played the his base, the camera, and his party. He was asking for unity, while adding to divisiveness. What is interesting, he was correct on many facts he presented. But, was way off when it came to the so called "threat from the southern border".
With 5000 words,14 pages, and 90 minutes of oratory, did he actually believe what he was saying? As I mentioned earlier, he was playing to his base, the camera and his party.
Time will tell in how sincere Trump really is in regards to what he presented in this speech (see opening paragraph of this post). If not divisive tweets, then will the government shut down in 10 days?
34
@Nick Metrowsky I had the same thought about the Mussolini pose.
22
"If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation," Trump said. "It just doesn't work that way."
The State of the Union is that the Extortionist-in-Chief has lost his already tenuous hold on reality if he believes that he can intimidate Mueller, Pelosi, the New York Attorney General, or the Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York into dropping investigations into his criminal behavior.
It just doesn't work that way.
753
@LT There should be laws against extortion in politics. It appears more and more with each passing day that laws to this president are nothing more than something to abuse, a nuisance if you will.
24
@LT
Why can't the US process of checks and balances work faster? The current POTUS appears to many, including me, a friend of the USA, to be the single biggest danger to planetary life.
22
@LT, it takes two to "war". If Mr Trump wants peace, he should stop warring, bantering, bashing. His twitter war is read all over the world, everyone holds their breath to see what is coming next, in his rambling war of fantasy, schoolyard bully words. How does he even sit on his gilded "throne" every morning, and have a peaceful B.M. when he is blasting so much noise chaos bluster, every morning!!??
10
What's this mean....you cannot have legislation when there is
partisan investigation.. …….this makes no sense.....
Perhaps I didn't hear this correctly....but I think I did.
Is this Trump's veiled threat...that he won't sign any legislation,
if he is being investigated ….
Perhaps The Editors can determine what was meant....
Also,...I am fairly sure that Trump didn't write this speech ; but he must have practiced it...since he got general approval
for the very excellent stories of war heroes; and other acts of
good deeds and bravery....this was well done...
Nevertheless...Trump has done so much damage to the office of the Presidency...this one speech will not make up
for what he has done; as well as what he has failed to do...
Trump is being investigated and that fact will continue....
and most still don't Trust Trump....he cannot cover up all his
lies,,,,
I do not think McConnell et al will allow another shutdown
for Trump's demand for a physical wall on the US southern
border.
26
@Carol B. Russell
Of course it was a direct threat. He said if you insist on investigations, it’s war and no legislation. At least that’s what I heard. Having listened to him carefully in the last three years he was blustering as usual, but the threat was clear. Madame Speaker behind him also heard and didn’t look very pleased.
12
Trump forgot to let Pelosi introduce him. That is how incompetent he is.
56
I wonder if he did it on purpose— to silence her and not to give her her rightful moment as host and leader of the house. I wouldn’t put that past him.
27
@Keith Dow do you really think he “forgot”?
6
I wish the IRS workers who are supposed to be auditing his taxes had been invited to attend and say a few words.
74
@A. Stanton,
Thank you for a good laugh.
23
Watched the entire speech on the laptop.
Pure, unadulterated chutzpah.
33
What is unifying about the disrespect for the 'rule of law' and the craven attempt by Trump to turn the Mueller investigation into a partisan issue? His speech was a smorgasbord of bromides for his policy phobic supporters. The people of the USA should prepare to get what the speech promised: nothing.
81
“But we must reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution — and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise and the common good.”
Too late, Trump: you have already poisoned the well.
235
We know that Trump is a serial liar and a con man. But must we accept that the SOTU be reduced to a raucous electioneering rally? In Trump's years, it has also acquired elements of voyeurism. Victims and survivors deserve some recognition but they do not deserve to be corralled and branded by the racist regime of Trump and McConnell.
83
The only thing missing from the wonderous miracles our unity will bring us is the added bonus that Mexico will pay for it.
43
Considering he started by referring to the "Democrat" Party instead of the Democratic Party - its proper name- we will discard anything past that as posturing.
The whole thing looked like material to be recycled in Trump campaign ads.
137
I watched an episode of Mrs. Maisel and Kimy Schmitt instead. I'm following the policy of Trump's supporters when they say, "Don't listen to his words, just what's in his heart." OK, I didn't listen to words, but I do know what is in his heart.
Form the synopsis given here, it is obvious that this speech was just political theater given by teleprompter Trump. It means nothing. The real Trump was on display at the midday meeting where he denigrated all who do not wallow in his glory.
Tomorrow everything will be back to the usual tweeting and insulting and division. There could be another shutdown. In fact, the real fireworks are just about to begin. It's going to get rough for Trump and soon. He knows it. Everyone knows it. There is only so much political mileage he can get out of 4% unemployment. (It was 4.5% under Obama).
Let's see where we are at the end of the three week timeout. This speech will be completely forgotten long before then.
412
@Bruce Rozenblit
I watched Kansas State upset Kansas in their 290 meeting! Didn't need to be lied to yet again.
5
@Bruce Rozenblit I watched the new episode (Patrick's party) of Schitt's Creek on CBC (oh, the advantages of living in a border town!). I can read the reviews today - no need to waste 2+ hours on predictable drivel.
3
How can one describe Trump’s address as conciliatory when he bellows that there will be no legislation because of the “ridiculous investigations.”
203
@Greg a
Indeed, Greg. One just had to take a look at the faces of the First daughter and son-in-law. Jared like always had with that stupid grin but Ivanka looked worried stiff.
Lock the whole clan up.
125
Ivanka looked Barbie gorgeous: plasticky fake smile, spare no expense get-up, and vacant eyes.
5
The bellow of a bellicose howler monkey backed into a corner.
3
I didn't watch it because I couldn't imagine him saying anything new of interest. I was right, according the post-address commentary. Besides, whatever he said, he's likely to turn 180 degrees in the morning.
140
I forced myself to watch it -- painful as it might be. I thought it was my responsibility. I think you should have as well. Otherwise, you are relying on others to tell you what happened. You might as well be Trump learning through Fox news.
3