SOTU: The Divider-In-Chief Speaks

After a one-week delay, President Donald Trump took almost an hour and a half to deliver his State of the Union address before a decidedly different Congress Tuesday night.  That left barely enough time before your late local news for the Democratic response.

Trump was at times conciliatory, condescending, threatening, pandering and full of himself during the speech.  But that's the way he always is, so not much difference there.  Fact checkers were at the ready to call BS every time he told a whopper.  And anything he says will likely be refuted on Twitter.

The President initially called for compromise with the new Democratic majority in the House (and a few rogue Republicans) to get the country back on track, which is interesting coming from the Divider-In-Chief.  But then he mentioned that the economy is booming, and that it would be too bad if anything were to happen to it if Congress insisted on investigating him and his cronies, so don't go there.  Which brings up the question of what happened to the American economy when Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton were under scrutiny.

Trump did not announce plans to use a national emergency as an excuse to raid the piggy bank to pay for his border wall.  But he did paint a bleak picture of what might be going on south of the U.S. border to make his case.  Just a reminder that Congress has until February 15 to set a budget for border security before the government shuts down again.

Trump made news when he announced that the next summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been scheduled for Vietnam at the end of this month.  He then boasted that if it hadn't been for him, we'd be at war with Pyongyang by now.  He also wants to make peace with the Taliban in Afghanistan, bringing American troops home after 17 years of war.  Oh, ISIS has been defeated in Syria, so it's safe for the soldiers to come back now.

Unlike in previous years, Trump has a tougher crowd to impress.  Instead of having Paul Ryan right behind him on the podium alongside Vice President Mike Pence, it's now Nancy Pelosi wielding the gavel as House Speaker next to Pence.  Some of the women in the House chamber audience wore white to commemorate their getting the vote a century ago.  So what does the President do?  He claimed credit for getting more women elected to Congress than at any time in history.  The newly-minted congresswomen (and their guests) gave themselves high fives  and shouted "USA! USA!", because they knew that Trump's mis-leadership was the reason why they ran for office in the first place.

Then Trump seemed to take aim at the likes of Vermont Senator (and possible presidential candidate) Bernie Sanders and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when he said that America will never be a socialist country.  He didn't say anything about America becoming an authoritarian and fascistic country.  Or maybe he didn't have to.

With an election looming and Robert Mueller almost ready to wrap up his investigation into Russia's alleged influence on the 2016 presidential campaign, the day of reckoning is almost at hand for President Trump.  Whether this is his last State of the Union address or not, he's painted himself into a corner and has to find a way to get out of it.