Trump’s State of the Union brings partisanship to the screen

President Donald Trump gave his first term’s final State of the Union address and presented a stark political partisanship to the screens of those who watched.

President Donald Trump stepped into the House Chamber Feb. 4 to speak to the nation in the last State of the Union address of his term. As Trump ascended to the podium to begin his speech, he and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi did not share the traditional pre-speech handshake. Instead, they created a clash between the Republican President and the Democrat Speaker and quickly established a backdrop of harsh partisan conflict for the night. Despite the tension, Trump focused on his claim to have ushered in a “great American comeback” throughout his presidency.

Chapman Political Science Department Chair John Compton found the triumphant and hopeful tone of this speech to be in sharp contrast with those from earlier in his term.

“If you look back to his inaugural address… the famous ‘American Carnage’ speech where he described this country as being mired in violence and crime, and now this year where the theme was ‘I fixed everything. Everything’s wonderful.’ That shift in tone was very noticeable,” Compton said.

Trump spoke glowingly of the country’s recent successes under his leadership. He lauded the growing economy, his newly implemented “America first” trade agreement with China, improved border security, decreasing crime rates and the “shattering of the mentality of American decline,” among other things.

He also looked toward the future, posturing himself on the big issues of the upcoming election year. He called to push the “great American comeback” even further by continuing his current campaigns, including his push to disband sanctuary cities, his promise to ban late-stage abortions and his plan to roll back former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Trump also promised that he will “never let socialism destroy American health care.”

“His advisors are clearly doing this to ramp up for the general election, because after telling us how terrible everything is for two or three years, he now needs to claim ‘Well I’ve now made serious progress towards fixing all of these problems I’ve been talking about,’” Compton said.

According to Trump, he has finally begun to “make America great again.” His optimism isn’t necessarily unfounded; his electorate seems to very much agree, as his current approval ratings with Republicans sit at an all-time high of 97 percent according to a January 2020 Gallup Poll. Despite this, Compton said this State of the Union address won’t have much impact on the 2020 Election in the long run – especially when it comes to swaying over more Americans to join Trump’s base.

“My sense is if you don’t like Trump, you’re probably not watching it, and if you do, you might watch it,” said Compton. “I suppose people will see little snippets of the speech on morning shows or things like that but I highly doubt it will change anyone’s mind.”

While House Republicans responded favorably to the address, House Democrat’s strong reactions against it backed this theory. Some House members didn’t attend at all; some were so fed up with Trump’s speech they simply got up and left the House Chamber mid-speech. They were unwilling to tolerate any more of what Michigan Representative Rashida Tlaib, a representative who walked out, called in a tweet the Trump’s “lies [and] bigotry.”

House Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern was also amongst those who walked out, stating that Trump, “had turned the State of the Union into a campaign rally.” New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among those boycotting the speech.

“I have decided that I will not use my presence at a state ceremony to normalize Trump’s lawless conduct and subversion of the Constitution,” Occasio-Cortez wrote on Twitter. “None of this is normal, and I will not legitimize it.”

At the end of the night, Pelosi ripped up her transcript of the speech on camera, adding to the division between the two parties seen throughout the night.

Although not many Chapman students seemed to be interested in watching the event screened live in Argyros Forum, the widening divide between the two parties seemed to be one aspect on the minds of those who watched. Although he didn’t see much of the speech, Karson Utzinger, a freshman film production major, noticed one thing.

“Just the division in our society… division stood out to me, man,” he said.