Trump doesn't do "Presidential" and shouldn't try.

Trump is a performer with a very good schtick. Rallies.

Reno: October 2015

The State of the Union Speech is not a rally.

I had watched early versions of the Trump Show. He was in Rochester, New Hampshire in September of 2015 and Reno, Nevada the next month. He was extemporaneous. He looked comfortable and sincere. He connected to his audience. 

It is essentially the same act he performs at rallies now. Big flag. Red meat warmup acts. Big entrance. Then Trump riffs for 50-60 minutes, playing off the energy of the crowd.

People who don't like Trump have a hard time seeing how popular and effective the act is. People in the audience see a performer who wants to be loved. It demonstrates to the audience their power.

As a showman, he wants to please. He wants cheers and the audience knows it. He is a man of the people. It works politically. 

There are playful elements of the Trump Show schtick. He says he is the greatest, better than Lincoln, the most popular in history. It's an act, like Jack Benny drawing laughs for being cheap, or Rodney Dangerfield getting no respect. Stand up comedians have running gags. 

Last night we saw Trump do a totally different act, the formal Teleprompter Presidential speech. He didn't riff. We missed the usual gag bits. The speech simply isn't what Trump does in his show. It is like Serena Williams being asked to sing the National Anthem before the tennis match. She is world class at tennis, likely not at singing, even at a tennis match.

It risks looking like amateur hour. Let's just get through it.

Trump's speech last night was way too long. Tedious. He said only one memorable thing, the warning that legislation to make America better was hostage to the investigations. No cheers.

He should have held a rally in Ohio, told Congress they were free to watch it on TV, and called it the State of the Union Address. 

Guest Post: by Kevin Stine: "Think of a movie."

Kevin Stine

Medford City Council member Kevin Stine also evaluated the speech as an entertainment genre.

Stine is from Medford, served for some 9 years in the Navy, then returned to the Rogue Valley where he works with veterans doing housing and now education counseling. He studied political science at Southern Oregon University and is an astute observer of political nuance. He has run for office as a Democrat. The Medford Council position is non-partisan.

State of the Union: the Movie.

Kevin Stine:  "Think of a movie. Was it a comedy, action, drama, or romance? What scene from that movie is the first that you can recall?

It is most likely to be something that hits you emotionally. The twist ending of a movie, a love scene where the couple finally gets together, a car chase through a city, or a well-developed joke or sequence of events in a comedy, are what we remember.

We don’t remember much about the filler. The rather emotionless dialogue or journey that advances the plot point. We know it happened, that it had relevance, but we are unlikely to remember who said what to whom, or what some random character’s name was.

The State of the Union is mostly filler, and our memory fades out the details rather quickly. President Trump had the opportunity to speak to a nationwide audience, and both chambers of Congress, and he did so for 82 minutes. Perhaps we can all agree, as united Americans, that no President should speak for longer than an hour. Also, that the tradition of standing up and clapping at every few sentences, needs to end.

The State of the Union has been utilized by Presidents to claim victories for things they have done, and set the agenda for the new year, with a good portion of the American public watching. Intermingled with this are personal examples, which Trump pointed to, spoke about, and which assists with the emotional appeal:

We need a wall – Family of a person murdered by undocumented immigrant
We need more money for cancer research – Young girl with cancer

I signed prison reform legislation into law – Person released from prison
I really care about prison reform – Person who had sentence commuted

We need more unity – WW2 prisoner and soldier story

This helped President Trump get his point across, but did it help him at all? What’s the goal? We are merely weeks away from another potential government shutdown, and despite Trump calling for “unity”, his Twitter attacks are likely to ramp up as House Democrats have little public pressure to fund an unpopular wall. Just for reference, Trump also called for unity in his previous State of the Union.

Social media response is just what one would expect. I’ve seen Republicans sharing photos of the female Democrats wearing white, with clan hoods photoshopped on, and making fun of Bernie Sanders when Trump said we will never be a socialist country. They think Trump did great, and Democrats such as Nancy Pelosi were disrespectful.

Democrats are sharing gifs and stills of Nancy Pelosi clapping and eye-rolling, proud of the Congresswomen wearing white and Stacey Abrams rebuttal, and think just as highly as Trump as they did when the speech started.

My prediction is almost all of the speech will be forgotten in a short time, but depending on circumstances the following could resonate in history, and perhaps be in a memorable scene in a movie:

'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. If there is going to be peace in legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just does not work that way. We must be united at home to defeat our adversaries abroad.'”