Donald Trump's nearly two-hour-long speech was drawn-out and rambling for a presidential speech before the US Congress, says Galdieri, a political scientist at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.
Usually, these speeches are about legislation that presidents want to get through. And he talked a bit about that, including tax reforms, but that wasn't the core of the speech, says Chris Galdieri and adds:
It was mainly about things he had already done or tried to do through executive actions.
Member was thrown out
The speech was also full of drama when the Democrats staged protests – some silent and others more loud.
The moment when Congressman Al Green was thrown out of the chamber was one of the most tense I've seen in this type of context, says Chris Galdieri.
Donald Trump devoted large parts of the speech to boasting about the measures he had implemented during his first weeks in the White House.
Among other things, he mentioned that he had signed a presidential order to make English the national language of the USA, that he had renamed the Mexican Gulf to the American Gulf, and that he had terminated the so-called DEI programs that focused on diversity, equality, and inclusion in the government apparatus.
It was a lot of that kind of culture war content. Many things that you might not even know about unless you're deeply into American, conservative media, says Galdieri.
They're things that might not come to mind for ordinary voters who aren't deeply into politics.
"Like a reality show"
Towards the end of the speech, Trump presented several people who were present in the audience and gave them various promises. Among other things, a 13-year-old boy with brain cancer who dreams of becoming a police officer, whom Trump appointed as an agent in the Secret Service.
He also surprised a high school student who has dreams of following in his father's footsteps in the military and told him that his application to the military academy had been approved – while the Republicans in the chamber cheered loudly.
It felt like a reality show where you hand out prizes to the contestants, says Chris Galdieri.
