Takeaways on immigration, North Korea, and more
The State of the Union: On the surface, President Trump’s first official rendition of the annual address presented an optimistic vision of a unified America. Yet that image—as well as the president’s delivery— contrasted sharply with many listeners’ tumultuous experience over the past year. What’s more, the speech had an undercurrent of dark and violent imagery that recalled the “American carnage” of Trump’s inaugural address. Here’s a full transcript, and here’s our live blog of the highlights from the event. The key takeaways:
On Immigration: Trump outlined a four-point proposal that includes both a path to citizenship for people who entered the U. S. illegally as minors (a concession to progressives) and an end to the so-called chain-migration policy, which allows immigrants to sponsor extended-family members (a concession to hard-liners). Many congressional staffers say that plan is unlikely to lead to a deal —especially since Trump’s rhetoric may have undermined his key presidential task of persuasion.
On North Korea: In the 475 words the president spent on discussing the country’s “depraved regime,” he didn’t mention diplomacy. And shortly before the address, the administration withdrew its nomination of Victor Cha to be the ambassador to South Korea, after he expressed reservations about military strikes on the North. These could be signs that Trump is preparing for war. But the North Korean regime may not be as dangerous to Americans as Trump fears—and a military strike could have calamitous consequences.
What He Left Out: Trump didn’t discuss the national debt, once a standard talking point for Republican leaders. He also didn’t mention climate change, though he did go into detail about the natural disasters it’s exacerbated.
— Rosa Inocencio Smith
McKay Coppins on the fate of Trump’s antiestablishment ambitions:
The first year of Trump’s presidency has been defined by chaos. But more often than not, it’s the kind of chaos that threatens the vulnerable while sparing the powerful. When the federal government shut down on the anniversary of his inauguration, some of the president’s boosters tried to cast it as a heroic stand for Trumpism—the populist disruptor bending Washington to his will. In truth, it was the product of the same infighting, dysfunction, and galloping incompetence that have kept the 45th president from advancing the transformative agenda he promised.
Indeed, while Trump’s “populism” has manifested itself primarily in performative spasms of culture war, the most substantive policy victories of his first year in office have gone to the donor-class conservatism of Paul Ryan and his fellow swamp creatures in the congressional leadership.
