On Tuesday
evening, President Trump gave his “choosing greatness”-themed speech, which
sought to highlight the need for bipartisan action to tackle immigration, trade
and the American workforce, infrastructure, prescription drugs, and national
security.
This speech reflected the characteristics of many presidential addresses to Congress, including a retrospective of a president’s accomplishments made in office, an illustration of the administration’s goals for the year, a commendation of the unique attributes of America and its people, and a large dose of American exceptionalism. Like presidents in the past, President Trump used word choice and frequency to emphasize his political agenda and appeal to his audience, which, in this case, is the American viewer. As such, words that tend to unite the president’s audience, such as “America,” “American,” “together,” and “our country,” were frequently used in both SOTU speeches. President Trump used a variation of “America” 72 times last year and 70 times this year.
Drug
pricing, a bipartisan concern, continued to trend in both SOTU addresses.
President Trump uttered the word “drug” in terms of drug pricing five times—the
same frequency as last year’s SOTU. The president also used the word “drug” to refer
criminal justice reform, opioids, dealers, or South American cartels during
both speeches.
However, in
comparing this SOTU speech to last year’s, President Trump made two noteworthy adjustments.
First, immigration and border wall terms factored heavily into Tuesday night’s speech. President Trump mentioned various words or phrases referring to his southern border wall agenda. These notably include:
During last
year’s address, the word “illegal” was mentioned once (in terms of “illegal
immigrants”) and “border” was mentioned three times (as with the above use of
the word, the term “border agent” was excluded). This reflects the growing
divide between President Trump and Democrats as they continue to argue over whether
to spend $5 billion constructing a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. It also
speaks to President Trump’s narrowing negotiation position. Unable to force
Democrats to budge on funding and worrying some Republicans over threatening to
invoke a state of emergency, President Trump lacks the leverage that he needs
to fulfill his campaign promise.
As a result,
focusing on the border wall and asking publicly for a compromise (as he said,
“Simply put, walls work and walls save lives. So let’s work together,
compromise and reach a deal that will truly make America safe.”) is one of his few
remaining negotiation tactics to rally public opinion to his side.
Most notably,
this year’s SOTU address diverged from last SOTU’s emphasis of the “worker.”
Last year, President Trump mentioned the oft-mythicized “worker” or “workers” a
total 10 times. This year, the president mentioned “worker” or “workers” just three
times. This seemed odd, as President Trump has maintained fairly strong support
from blue collar workers and has highlighted this demographic in the past. Yet,
after helming the longest shutdown in American history and facing a severe
popularity backlash, the White House may have believed that referencing the
American worker at this juncture would ring hollow.
Tuesday’s speech may
have been the beginning of a new messaging trend for this White House. President
Trump mentioned women (albeit, for a range of reasons) 12 times. President
Trump and the rest of his administration will likely continue messaging towards
voting demographics, such as women, to appeal to blocs that will factor
prominently in the 2020 presidential elections. As the election campaign ramps
up, particularly in the fall of this year, the SOTU address will serve as a
foundation for both his campaign and the GOP platform.
