Eastern Reacts To The State of the Union

Mathew Biadun | News-Editor

The illuminated United States Capitol in Washington DC at night by elxeneize : Envato

Donald Trump gave his fifth State of the Union address on Tuesday, taking a victory lap for several claimed policy accomplishments since taking office last January. The State of the Union speech is a constitutionally required remark by the President to Congress, occurring once every year. Pres. Trump made history with his speech, which was the longest in U.S. History and clocked in at 108 minutes, according to Axios.

The President hit on almost all of the major issues that have been packed into the last year, including immigration, the intervention in Venezuela, tariffs, and the economy. Many guests of honor invited to the events were commended, including the recent Men's Hockey Team from the Olympics, two veterans from the Second World War, a member of the special-operations unit who captured Venezuelan President Maduros, and others.

Opinion of the speech has, like most things in America today, been split along partisan lines. The Democratic audience to the speech was notably smaller than usual, as many Democratic members of Congress instead attended the rival 'People's State of the Union', including Rep. Larson (CT-1), Sen. Chris Murphy, and Rep. Himes (CT-4) from Connecticut. Rep. Jahana Hayes (CT-5) went to neither event, while Sen. Blumenthal, Rep. DeLauro (CT-3), and Rep. Courtney (CT-2) went to the official State of the Union.

Approximately 32 million Americans were estimated to have tuned in and watched the State of the Union, less than any of Trump's previous addresses. The amount for the People's State of the Union is unknown, but likely far less.

The Campus Lantern asked Eastern students on Fizz for their opinions on the Speech. According to the poll, which received 1401 responses at the time of writing, 44% said their thoughts on the State of the Union were negative (612 Votes), 19% that it was positive (270 Votes), and 37% selecting 'Results/Neutral'. Some student responses to the State of the Union were:

"Long and forgettable"

"As a conservative who questions Trump it wasn't as bad as I predicted but of course he spoke about a lot of great ideas but he always does that and most don't get done like the congress stock market management was good and US citizen first"

"A lot of blatant lies about policy and clearly showed how divided our country is. God help us"