US President Donald Trump’s State of the Nation speech was that of a nondescript man plucked from obscurity.
Trump has shown he is not a stateman and lacks the poise and experience to act as the leader of the western world.
Instead we see him as a petulant bully who throws a tantrum if he does not get his own way.
Every year, the president is invited to address Congress with the State of the Nation speech.
It’s a chance to show initiative and to embrace greatness. Trump fails on both counts.
Ebbing power
His power is ebbing away and he knows it. After ranting about The Wall and how the government would stay shut until he got his $5 billion to fund construction, he caved in to the Democrats.
In another eight days, he must go through the same motions – funding the government or closing again. Trump is obstinate and sulks if he does not get his own way and the Democrats are certain he won’t get a dime for The Wall.
In his speech, Trump pledged he would build The Wall. He must or risks losing his voters as a man who failed to keep his promises, but he knows the funding will never come and that the decision is beyond his control.
Whichever way he turns, he loses.
He can’t back down, he can’t declare a national emergency because his administration will be bogged down in interminable law suits and he can’t move forward because he lacks the power.
Unremarkable speech
“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,” he said. “The decision is ours to make.”
In an otherwise unremarkable 80 minute speech light on policy, Trump slammed ‘divisive’ partisan investigations that threaten to undermine the administration – a reference to Robert Mueller’s oversight probe.
He also announce a second summit in Vietnam with North Korean leader Kim Jung-on with the aim of moving forward on the pariah nation’s pledge to remove nuclear weapons.
However, both sides seem to have a differing definition of the term ‘denuclearisation’.