From what I saw, which wasn’t much, it was a very low energy Trump speech. As usual, he read it without knowing what it said, as if he was seeing it for the first time. It was the third longest State of The Union speech in history.

Contrary to what was billed, it was not a unifying speech. He took credit for things that Obama deserves most of the credit for (like black unemployment being at its lowest). It was petty and trite at times.  It was inaccurate many times.

A lot of focus was on immigration, and although Trump SEEMED to be speaking in favor of “amnesty” (he did not use that word). his rhetoric about immigration in general was often bigoted. He spoke of M-13, an immigrant gang in Long Island, at length — much longer than speaking about ISIS or Russia or North Korea.

Trump mentioned the devastating hurricanes, and how he stood with Puerto Rico. But hours earlier, FEMA announced it is cutting off food and other aid to the island.

Speaking of Russia, Trump didn’t. It was mentioned once in passing, but he did not talk about the election hacking — perhaps the most serious threat to American democracy in history. On the other hand, he managed to rein any comments about collusion and the “deep state”.

Rising star Joseph Kennedy III (Bobby’s grandson) spoke the rebuttal and did very well, although snarky commentators are making fun of his overuse of lip gloss.

Melania Trump was there, although she went to the Capital in a separate car. She and Trump have not been seen together since New Years, probably because of the Stormy Daniels scandal.  (She sent out a written denial of their affair yesterday, and then denied the denial after the SOTU on Jimmy Kimmel). Melania Trump stayed seated when Trump praised ‘faith and family’ as ‘center of American life’.