President Trump will deliver his second State of the Union address Tuesday at a time when he’s facing mounting political problems that have besieged his…
President Trump will deliver his second State of the Union address Tuesday at a time when he’s facing mounting political problems that have besieged his administration.
The president’s approval numbers are just now starting to show signs of recovery from the devastating hit he took during the record-long government shutdown that emboldened Democrats and exposed divisions within the GOP.
The sting of the shutdown has been exacerbated by special counsel Robert Mueller ’s investigation into his presidential campaign’s ties to Russia, with the probe nearing a boiling point.
Here are five things to watch for in Trump’s speech.
Getting back on track
Tuesday night’s speech presents a much-needed opportunity for Trump to hit the reset button.
Aides say the president plans to deliver an “optimistic” address that will highlight what he sees as his achievements, while laying out objectives for the coming year. The remarks will be in line with the traditional, scripted format of past State of the Union addresses, the aides said, rather than Trump’s penchant for personal attacks and long-winded asides.
If Trump accomplishes that goal, it will likely come as a relief to many congressional Republicans who have grown increasingly concerned with the direction of his presidency.
The 35-day shutdown that ended Jan. 25 left Trump politically weakened as the 2020 race starts gaining steam. His approval rating is under water by more than 14 percentage points, the widest gap in about a year, according to the RealClearPolitics average.
Mueller recently dealt Trump another blow by indicting the president’s onetime adviser Roger Stone, and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is set to testify to Congress on Friday behind closed doors — two developments that could put the president in legal jeopardy.
On top of that, recently published tell-all books and a damaging leak of internal White House schedules have raised questions about whether Trump has the confidence of those around him.
Still, the speech almost certainly will not be a panacea for Trump’s challenges. The nation remains as polarized as ever and any bipartisan praise the president has received for his previous two speeches to a joint session of Congress has been short lived.
