President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address since returning to office shattered the record for the longest presidential address before Congress. That’s about the only reason this speech will likely be remembered in the years to come.
After almost two hours of dark utterances mixed in with an overly bright declaration that this is “the golden age of America,” there was little substance to critique for a president who has placed image over everything.
For every moment of optimism, he couldn’t help but drift back into the disturbing and dystopian imagery that has been ever-present since his first inaugural warned of “American carnage.”
The shell of the speech that Trump delivered was almost anodyne compared to some of the more meandering and sharp-edged addresses he’s delivered over the years. While he injected plenty of his own asides into the already lengthy text, the core theme — in brief, that America is doing greater than ever — shone through despite a lack of facts to back him up. There were only a handful of new policy announcements, including a plan to make artificial intelligence data centers build their own power plants, and a few calls for the GOP-controlled Congress to pass new legislation while they still hold a trifecta.
Instead, a massive stretch of Trump’s speech was focused on feel-good moments. He handed out an absurd number of medals and praised the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team. In Trump’s telling, the economy is booming, Americans are safer than ever, the world is bending toward peace and it’s all thanks to him.
But even when speaking of unbridled prosperity, Trump couldn’t help but highlight the supposed dangers still lurking around every corner. In anecdote after anecdote, the president chose to highlight tragic deaths and murders in his bid to paint immigrants as violent and Democrats as complicit. For every moment of optimism, he couldn’t help but drift back into the disturbing and dystopian imagery that has been ever-present since his first inaugural warned of “American carnage.” It’s a tension that undercuts his positive message while drawing more focus on the abuses of Americans’ rights that Trump has authorized. As much as Trump wants to present America as a utopia under his benevolent rule, there is no need for a dictator without a healthy dose of fear among the populace. And yet even then, it’s hard to say that his shtick is working as well as he’d like in a country that has steadily been turning against him.
Hayes Brown is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He focuses on politics and policymaking at the federal level, including Congress and the White House. 
