After State of the Union, Trump’s agenda faces new political reality
Al Jazeera
US president strikes triumphant tone in annual speech but faces legal setbacks and hurdles in Congress as midterms approach.
Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump has hailed the first 13 months of his second term as nothing short of “transformative” during his State of the Union address, a message of victory the White House says he will continue to take on the road as he seeks to build support for his Republican Party before the midterm elections in November.
But the speech on Tuesday also underscored uncomfortable political realities for Trump, laying bare the vulnerabilities of a president who has relied on a flood of executive orders, unilateral actions and emergency declarations to build his agenda.
The Supreme Court’s ruling against his signature tariff policy – just days before the speech – underscored just how quickly Trump’s most brazen and signature actions could disintegrate amid a mountain of legal challenges.
“It was a speech to shore up his base of supporters,” said Aaron Kall, a professor at the University of Michigan who studies presidential messaging, “as opposed to extending olive branches to Democrats or trying to attract new supporters”.
It is a potentially constraining approach for a president who will need congressional support – including from vulnerable Republican lawmakers facing punishing re-election campaigns and centrist Democrats – to achieve many of his objectives in the months ahead.
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