During the annual State of the Union Address today, President Donald J. Trump focused primarily on commerce, public health, and foreign affairs – in opposition to many of my predictions – and spoke often about major advances in the U.S. over the three years of his administration.
“Everyone wants to be where the action is,” said Trump. “And the United States is indeed where the action is.”
Trump spoke at length about the rapidly growing economy of the country during the early moments of the Address. He brought attention to the specific numbers of people who came off welfare and food stamps in recent years, as well as calling attention to America now being both energy independent and the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world. He also brought up the recent trade deal with Canada and Mexico, mentioning that “Unfair trade is perhaps the biggest reason I decided to run for President”. I predicted that Trump would speak about growing commerce without mentioning any downsides, and that prediction was completely correct.
One of the things that I didn’t predict Trump discussing, however, was public health, of which various issues were spoken. Trump spoke for a long time about the status of U.S. healthcare, saying that “Our new plans are up to 60 percent less expensive, and better.” Trump also defended his executive order of price transparency in U.S. healthcare, saying that no one should be “blindsided by medical bills”.
More pressing to Huntington, Trump also spoke about the administration’s ongoing efforts to combat the opioid epidemic, as well as lowering the price of prescription drugs – the latter of which Trump was very passionate about.
“Get a bill on my desk, and I’ll sign it immediately,” Trump said.
In opposition to my prediction, Trump also briefly mentioned that the U.S. was working with China to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, as well as making a bold statement that the U.S. government “will eradicate the AIDS epidemic in America by the end of this decade”.
Trump later spoke about the state of education in this country, and asked Congress for support in passing several bills to improve American public education. He also spoke about an upcoming plan to offer vocational and technical education in every high school in America.
A major running thread throughout the Address was various foreign affairs and dealing with illegal immigrants. Trump talked at length about California’s passing of sanctuary laws, which he viewed as abysmal ideas with “catastrophic results” He then mentioned a bill that was currently in Congress that he wanted to be passed immediately, which would allow American citizens to sue sanctuary cities or states if they or a loved one were harmed or killed. Trump also spoke about the U.S. supporting the citizens of Venezuela as well and argued against the current Venezuelan government.
Trump also brought up the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, which he viewed as “a flawless precision strike that killed Soleimani and ended his evil reign of terror forever”. He also condemned terrorism of any kind, saying that “If you attack American citizens, you forfeit your life”.
Many of my predictions were incorrect, but many were correct as well. I was right about an emphasis on commerce, trade, and foreign affairs, and wrong about the lack of a mention of Coronavirus. I also failed to predict either way whether Trump would talk about illegal immigration or healthcare. Either way, the 2020 State of the Union Address was dramatic and celebratory, with Trump bringing up examples of people affected by his administration throughout the Address, and ended on a rather heroic note.
“America is a land of heroes,” Trump said.
Sam's Political Blog 