On Tuesday February 5, 2019 President Trump delivered his second State of the Union address, and what a speech was! Like most political speeches, this one speech was the good, the bad, and the ugly, all together like a crumpled up piece of paper. He swung back and forth like an unbalanced pendulum in a grandfather clock. Fortunately for him, he seemed to spend more time on the positive side of the swing than the negative.

President Trump sensibly began the speech with words of unity and listing accomplishments and achievements. Among them he claimed:

• Ending NAFTA and negotiating the USMCA
• The creation of 5.3 million new jobs, including 600,000 manufacturing jobs
• Women filled 58% of new jobs in last year leading to more women in the workforce than ever
• Other NATO members “paying fair share”
• Withdrawing from the INF treaty
• Wages are rising at the fastest pace in decades
• Nearly 5 million Americans “have been lifted off food stamps”
• The U.S. economy growing almost twice as fast today as when he took office
• Unemployment has reached the lowest rate in over half a century
• African American, Hispanic American, and Asian American unemployment have all reached their lowest levels ever recorded and unemployment for Americans with disabilities has also reached an all-time low
• Tax cuts for working families and doubling the child tax credit as well as slashing the Estate Tax
• Eliminating the Obamacare individual mandate penalty
• Significantly cutting regulations 
• Recognising Jerusalem as capital of Israel and moving our embassy to Jerusalem
• Defeating ISIS
• Negotiating an end to Afghan war (in progress)
• Withdrawing from Iran nuclear deal
• The United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world and becoming a net exporter of energy
• 266,000 “criminal alien” arrests by ICE
• 300 women and girls saved from traffickers

In a move that was probably more for the American People in general, not the members of Congress, President Trump listed some examples of bipartisan legislation in an effort to show that the Democratic controlled House, the Republican led Senate, and he could work together. The examples he gave were legislation to tackle the opioid crisis, legislation to increase accountability of the Veteran’s Administration, the First Step Act, and Right to Try legislation. Increasing accountability of the VA is a good start, but there is still much room for improvement in how we support our Veterans. The First Step Act and Right to Try legislation were both overall good laws that increased individual freedom.

The Good

Unity and Vision

The good parts of President Trump’s speech focused on unity and a vision for the future. His word choice was inclusive rather than self-centred, at least as far as pronoun usage goes. “We” was used 93 times and “us” was used 11 times. 35 times he used the pronoun “I” and he only said “me” once. While many consider President Trump to be an arrogant, self-centred individual, his word choice was inclusive three times more than it was self-centred.

Some specific examples of unifying language are:

• “I stand here ready to work with you to achieve historic breakthroughs for all Americans”
• “…hoping we will govern not as two parties but as one nation”
• “The agenda I will lay out this evening is not a Republican agenda or a Democrat agenda.  It’s the agenda of the American people.”
• “Victory is not winning for our party.  Victory is winning for our country.” 
• “We must be united at home to defeat our adversaries abroad”
• “Look at the opportunities before us.  Our most thrilling achievements are still ahead.  Our most exciting journeys still await.  Our biggest victories are still to come.  We have not yet begun to dream. We must choose whether we are defined by our differences or whether we dare to transcend them. We must choose whether we squander our great inheritance or whether we proudly declare that we are Americans. We do the incredible.  We defy the impossible.  We conquer the unknown. This is the time to reignite the American imagination.  This is the time to search for the tallest summit and set our sights on the brightest star.  This is the time to rekindle the bonds of love and loyalty and memory that link us together as citizens, as neighbours, as patriots. This is our future, our fate, and our choice to make.  I am asking you to choose greatness.”
• “We must step boldly and bravely into the next chapter of this great American adventure, and we must create a new standard of living for the 21st century.  An amazing quality of life for all of our citizens is within reach. We can make our communities safer, our families stronger, our culture richer, our faith deeper, and our middle class bigger and more prosperous than ever before. But we must reject the politics of revenge, resistance, and retribution, and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise, and the common good. Together, we can break decades of political stalemate.  We can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions, and unlock the extraordinary promise of America’s future.  The decision is ours to make. We must choose between greatness or gridlock, results or resistance, vision or vengeance, incredible progress or pointless destruction. Tonight, I ask you to choose greatness.” 

Foreign Policy

The highlight of President Trump’s foreign policy discussion was his continuing push for peace on the Korean Peninsula. As part of his peace efforts, he announced another summit coming up soon later this month with Kim Jong Un. While there have been many presidents who have tried to make peace with the North Koreans, most seem to have focused simply on disarmament. However, President Trump seems to be finding success through the more visionary approach of coming from the perspective of disarmament being a step along the way to reunification.

Health Care Related Initiatives

President Trump presented several policy initiatives related to health care in one way or another. Perhaps the loftiest was to set the goal of ending HIV/AIDS in 10 years.  He also announced an initiative involving putting $500 million into combating childhood cancers over the next 10 years.

The President is also proposing legislation that would increase pricing transparency for health care, which would empower consumers and drive down costs.

In what was probably the most controversial policy initiative announced during the State of the Union, President Trump called on Congress to “pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb”.

Other Domestic Policy Initiatives

One was the President’s requests of the Senate specifically, is that they clear the backlog of over 300 judges awaiting confirmation. This seems reasonable, however, unfortunately because of Senate rules, confirmations often take a 60 vote supermajority instead of a simple majority.

President Trump also discussed expanding school choice, which would definitely be a good thing. School choice would give parents more flexibility as well as giving kids more opportunities to find an education that works for them.

Overall, the good parts of his speech were largely thematic, as he attempted to reach across the aisle, or at least to give the appearance he is doing so. Most of the policy initiatives were related to increased funding or new initiatives that people are unlikely to disagree with. Most, if not all of these spending initiatives are good starts, but more freedom and less government intervention would be better, arguably, in every case.

The Bad

Many of the “bad” items on the list are a matter of policy disagreement, particularly when it comes to economics, personal liberty, and the size and scope of government. Many people think these were good plans, good policy, but from the perspective of those who support personal liberty and free markets… not so much.

Trade

The $250 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods were an accomplishment that was touted. Additionally, President Trump called on Congress to pass the USMCA and the US Reciprocal Trade Act. However, the imposition of tariffs often leads to an economic tit for tat where nations simply take turns imposing new tariffs or raising old ones until one side gives up and cries uncle. However, free trade is better. Trade imbalances aren’t as big of a deal as many make them out to be. These trade agreements might sound good, and economic protectionism is still popular among many, but in reality, free trade benefits everyone. President Trump even claims to believe in free trade, even as he imposes tariffs and makes threats on Twitter. Really, this seems to be President Trump’s equivalent of President George W. Bush’s statement “I’ve abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.” Maybe next President Trump will have his own “Read my lips” moment.

Unconstitutional Spending

One of the new initiatives he announced was an initiative focused on “economic empowerment for women in developing countries.” This is a nice, benevolent idea, but the reality is, the United States government should be spending money to help people here. If American citizens want to donate and help people in other countries, that’s wonderful! It should be encouraged, and it should happen more, but it is not the place of the US government to fund these initiatives in other countries.

The other benevolent initiative President Trump announced is for nationwide paid family leave. Once again, this sounds like a great thing. It would be fabulous for everyone to have paid family leave. However, when we read the fact sheet released by the White House, it says that it will be paid in part by government. Undoubtedly, this will be a very popular new mandate. However, it is another overstep by government amongst an almost innumerable plethora of oversteps where government has no constitutional authority to act.

Middle Fingers

There were several comments President Trump made, that seemed to be stands on principle. Principles are definitely good. However, the President does not have a history of showing that his policy positions, or much of anything else in his life.

These comments could be interpreted as “middle fingers” directed at the political left. The Democratic Party has been moving further to the left, and the anti-Trump “Resistance” has been has been leading the way. Some might think they are blindly opposing anything the President supports, no matter what it is. The Democratic Socialists especially seem like they might oppose President Trump even if he advocated the adoption of socialism.

However, President Trump took the exact approach. He unsurprisingly had some very blunt moments where he drew a line in the sand against what the Democrats are advocating. For example, he said:

• “I pledge to you tonight that I will never abolish our heroes from ICE.”
• “Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother’s womb moments from birth.  These are living, feeling, beautiful babies who will never get the chance to share their love and their dreams with the world.  And then, we had the case of the Governor of Virginia where he stated he would execute a baby after birth.”
• “Here in the United States, we are alarmed by the new calls to adopt socialism in our country. America was founded on liberty and independence, and not government coercion, domination, and control. We are born free and we will stay free. Tonight, we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country.”

Also belonging in the middle fingers category would be his plan to ban abortion after babies can feel pain. Likely, this was added because of the bills expanding and easing abortion in New York and Virginia that have gotten so much coverage lately.

Then, he also said “An economic miracle is taking place in the United States, and the only thing that can stop it are foolish wars, politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations.” President Trump’s “ridiculous partisan investigations” phrase was the only mention of the Mueller investigation, and even that was an indirect mention. From his comments on Twitter, press conferences, and other settings, one might have expected much more direct confrontational mention of the investigation.

The Ugly

The “Ugly” pertaining to the 2019 State of the Union was not actually any part of the speech itself. The ugliness was in the response to it by the leftists. Even where there is disagreement, respect can and should be given. Even if the person holding the office of President wouldn’t normally be respected, there is still some respect due for the office, as well as the setting of the State of The Union Address.

However, some of the commentary has been amazingly vitriolic. For example, Sally Kohn, in her piece Trump Pretends to Be Presidential to Con the Nation[ and Zack Beauchamp’s op-ed Trump’s White Ethno-Nationalist State of the Union[ were downright shocking. They were a thrown together word salad of buzzwords that boil down to “Orange Man is a bad racist man.”

Even many of the members of Congress exhibited ugly behaviour in how rude they were. From talking through the speech to making faces, there were many verbal and non-verbal examples of ugly disrespect. One of the most blatant was the manner in which Speaker Pelosi mockingly clapped at President Trump instead of for him.

The Summary

Overall, President Trump’s 2019 State of the Union Address was surprisingly well received. Polls taken immediately after the speech by both CBS and CNN showed 76% approval of the speech. There were several opportunities President Trump could have taken to be more confrontational, and that is likely what most people expected. Instead, he opted for a more unifying, collaborative tone. Perhaps that is why it was so well received; people likely had very low expectations for a confrontational speech, and instead, it was much more positive.

This address may be the beginning of President Trump’s rebranding and launch in earnest of his 2020 campaign. From most perspectives, it was a very successful speech. From the perspective of increasing liberty for the American people and the world, as with most Presidential speeches, it was a mixed bag. Some of what he proposed, or listed as accomplishments, would increase the size and power of government, but other proposals and accomplishments would actually increase liberty for people and decrease government control. Perhaps even more than usual, we will have to wait a couple of years until we can see how the rest of President Trump’s term turns out and if he is re-elected, before we will be able to truly evaluate how good of a speech it was, and how well it served the President, but at this point in time, it seems like President Trump’s 2019 State of the Union was a very successful speech.

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Garrett Leeds is the founder of the Life, Liberty, and Pursuit of Happiness Project