Truth or Dare? Trump and the State of the Union Address

In true presidential fashion, Donald Trump delivered a State of the Union address yesterday which addressed – you guessed it – the state of the USA in the President’s second year. And as he gently put it, “the State of the Union is great.”

Trump began the address with about 35 minutes of praising America and stressing the need for non-partisanship in the federal legislature.

In addition, Trump stressed the importance that cohesive governance is impossible while sides are under investigation. One can assume that this was an illusion to the investigation of Russian collusion, but it would not be remiss to think that it could be about the laundry list of other formal investigations being conducted against Roger Stone, Robert Mueller and basically all of the rest of Trump’s cabinet that has been accused of collusion with Russia.

Trump’s “Urgent National Crisis”

The segue to a more Trump-like tone was harsh and quick. Speaking about the urgent national crisis at America’s southern border, Trump stressed the need to go forward with building the border wall. The erection of the wall has been widely criticized as ineffective and a waste of money.

But that didn’t stop Donnie T from describing it as the only was to keep criminals from infiltrating our border including drug cartel members, illegal immigrants and human traffickers, leaving aside the humanitarian crises in South and Central America for another time.

Successes Under Trump

To usher in the success of his criminal justice reforms, Trump introduced two individuals who had sentences commuted under his new criminal justice reforms backed by – you guessed it – none other than the Kardashian/West family.

In addition to the nonviolent sentencing reforms, Trump also described the unprecedented unemployment rates, unprecedented unemployment rates for minority groups, unprecedented unemployment rates for the disabled and the creation of American jobs “for Americans.”

The Nuclear Threat of North Korea

Donald Trump announced at the State of the Union address that there would be a second summit with North Korea this month, praising his relationship with Kim Jong-un. It is assumed that Trump will try to get concessions from the dictatorship regarding their removal of weapons of mass destruction without having to give too much in return.

The meeting will take place at the end of February (the 26th and 27th) in Vietnam.

The fight for the State of the Union address was an interesting saga, as speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi refused to allow POTUS the floor to speak unless an agreement was passed regarding the opening of the federal government. This was not dine, however the government was reopened and allowed to proceed as usual until the two could come to some sort of understanding after a period of time.

The question remains. Will Trump get his wall? It has been said that the wall is less for national security, but moreso for the security of Trump’s own ego. Will the unemployment continue to fall? Will jobs continue to rise? And how much of his speech was true?

All of these answers remain to be seen.