President Trump during the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) |
Article II of the Constitution requires that the president “from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” That’s exactly what presidents did, usually in the form of a written report — typically as dull as dishwater — for most of the nation’s history.
“This year’s address was the logical endpoint of the long-gathering trend. President Trump made no pretense of communicating information to Congress. He used the time to unveil his reelection message. He repurposed his fellow elected Republicans as campaign rally acolytes (chanting, before he even began, “Four more years!”). He poked and prodded the Democrats into one indecorous breach after another: televised eyerolls, face-palms, counter-chants and walkouts, culminating in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s theatrical ripping of her copy of the speech. Trump’s reality-TV-style giveaways — a scholarship, a medal, a family reunion — had me wondering if, a la Oprah, he would dish out new cars at the end.”See more of this Analysis in the Washington Post HERE;
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