Words by Roman White
President Donald Trump’s first year in office has been exactly what Americans thought it would be – disruptive. Since Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States, he’s taken a hard stance against many issues progressive Americans care about.
He’s proposed a ban against people of majority Muslim countries from coming to the United States and ripped up the Paris Climate Agreement, leaving the U.S. as the only country in the world that hasn’t signed on to help fight global climate change. He’s railed against transgender people in the military, tweeting that he would no longer allow transgender men and women to fight for the country, although no legislation was ever drawn up.
He’s called El Salvador, Haiti and African Countries “shitholes,” threatened news organizations and the first amendment, sympathized with Nazi’s, attacked Black athletes in the NFL who protest, all while being investigated by the FBI for possible collusion with the Russian Government during the 2016 Presidential Campaign. Now, this President is expected to unify this divided country with a State of the Union Address.
Despite the many controversies surrounding this administration, Trump has no plans to address any of the previous topics, as far as we know. According to the White House, Trump’s speech will focus on policy. He plans to detail his plan for infrastructure reform, economic growth in the U.S., National Security specifically in regard to North Korea, and his “America-First” trade policy.
The Commander-in-chief gave a similar speech last year to congress where his tone was more relaxed with a professional demeanor instead of the shouting, angry Trump we had gotten to know during the campaign. This year, we should expect a similar tone for his State of the Union Address today.
Some democrats have opted to boycott the State of the Union Address as a message to Trump that they will not normalize his behavior. Georgia Congressman and Civil Rights Activist John Lewis, California Congresswoman Maxine Watters, Florida Congresswoman Fredrica Wilson, Washington State Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer, New York Congressman Gregory Meeks, and Illinois representatives Danny Davis, Jan Schakowsky and Bobby Rush of Illinois all plan to skip the State of the Union Address.
