There is an unfounded assumption of political significance in a lot of the commentary around the annual State of the Union address. Journalists ask each other if the president’s speech will move voters, or persuade the public to back his agenda. And there is some evidence that this annual civic ritual used to have that kind of effect long ago. But it hasn’t moved the public one way or another in at least a generation.
What the State of the Union now offers instead is a window into the thinking of the president and his team. And what was evident through that window in Tuesday night’s speech was an exhaustion of ambition and the absence of a clear agenda for the remainder of Donald Trump’s presidency.
For most recent presidents, the State of the Union address has functioned as a catalyst for clarifying priorities. The speech serves as an annual deadline for proposals from advisers and cabinet agencies, and an opportunity for culling and filtering ideas to arrive at a discrete set of administrative actions and legislative aims to put before the country. These would then also form the outline of the president’s budget proposal to Congress, which is due each February.
The Trump administration clearly doesn’t work that way. It has no organized policy process, and no intention of meeting the annual budget deadline. Especially this second time around, the administration is largely an extension of the president’s whims and predilections.
But that makes presidential rhetoric all the more important as a window into the administration’s inner life and direction. Hearing the chief executive talk for nearly two hours should give us a useful sense of what is on his mind.
