by Maddy Glennon
On February 5, 2019, President Donald J. Trump made his second State of the Union address in Washington D.C., where he spoke of the current state of the nation as he addressed Congress and the citizens of the United States.
Mr. Trump confronted topics such as his controversial proposed border wall, abortion, the investigations surrounding his campaign and associates, women’s issues, meeting with Kim Jong Un, and immigration. Vice-President Mike Pence and House Speaker, Democrat Nancy Pelosi sat behind him.
He opened the address with a hopeful message, saying “we [Congress] meet tonight at a moment of uplifting potential.” The speech was overall a mix of uplifting, patriotic, and combative, and sparking many types of reactions.
Throughout the speech, he got a few standing ovations and cheers, including an unexpected ones from the Democratic women holding seats in Congress, many who wore white in a nod to the women’s suffragist movement. Trump went on to say “you [Congresswomen] weren’t supposed to do that!” in response to their applause as he praised the historic number of women on the floor.
English teacher Heidi Cebula thought the address was informative and unifying, although very long (82 minutes). She found it “amusing when he complimented the ladies in white [Democratic Congressmen who wore white], and especially liked the mini-biographies of the guests.”
Some of the special guests who joined President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump included Buzz Aldrin, 10-year-old cancer survivor Grace Eline, Alice Johnson (who was granted clemency by Trump with the help of Kim Kardashian), Auschwitz-survivor Joshua Kaufman, and WWII D-Day veterans Irving Locker and Joseph Reilly.
Freshman Benjamin Rohrbaugh found the speech very touching and was “especially touched by his guests, such as the Holocaust survivor [Joshua Kaufman], and the little girl who survived brain cancer [Grace Eline].”
Critics of Trump found his speech lacking an agenda or key plan of action on how to resolve the problems he mentioned. Stacey Abrams, the former minority leader of the Georgia legislature, delivered the Democratic Response. She tackled topics regarding voting rights and race, noting “we fought Jim Crow with the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, yet we continue to confront racism from our past and in our present.”