Watching President Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech Tuesday, you wouldn’t know that his approval ratings had plummeted and his party was facing the prospect of a walloping in the midterm elections. The Trump that addressed Congress Tuesday night was the happy warrior who won the 2024 election by exploiting the unpopular positions of his Democratic opponents with a mix of scowls and smiles.
That old Trump came through when he went back to one of his classic lines from his 2016 campaign. “Our country is winning,” he said. “In fact, we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it.” He went into an extended shtick about all that winning before introducing the Olympic men’s hockey team, who dramatically entered the chamber wearing blue USA Olympic sweaters. He then awarded the team’s goalie, Connor Hellebuyck, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
This was the tone of the speech for the most part. Trump, the salesman, was selling the first year of his second presidency. “Our nation is back, bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever before,” he said.
