The nation will hear a new president sing a far different tune in his prime-time address before Congress on Tuesday night. Some Americans will lustily sing along. Others will plug their ears.
The old tune is out 바카라 the one where a president declares 바카라We strongly support NATO바카라, 바카라I believe strongly in free trade바카라 and Washington must do more to promote clean air, clean water, women's health, and civil rights.
That was Donald Trump in 2017
That was back when gestures of bipartisanship and appeals to national unity were still in the mix on the night the president came before Congress to hold forth on the state of the Union.
Trump, then new at the job, was just getting his footing in the halls of power and not ready to stomp on everything.
It would be three more years before Americans would see Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, then the House speaker and his State of the Union host in the chamber, performatively rip up a copy of Trump's speech in disgust over its contents.
On Tuesday, Americans who tune into Trump's address will see whether he speaks to the whole country, as he mostly did in his first such speech in the chamber as president, or only to the roughly half who voted for him.
They will see also whether he hews to ceremony and common courtesies, as he did in 2017, or goes full bore on showmanship and incitement.
How Democratic lawmakers will react 바카라 whether they make a scene 바카라 is another question. At least four have invited fired federal workers to come as their guests.
Trump gives the speech days after assailing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to his face and before the cameras in the Oval Office for not expressing sufficient gratitude for US support in Ukraine's war with Russia.
It was a display of public humiliation by an American president to an allied foreign leader with no parallel in anyone's memory.
Jarrett Borden, walking to lunch on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, Florida, this past week, expressed ambivalence about Trump, having heard a lot of 바카라hogwash바카라 from him even while liking some of what he has done. Borden anticipates a good show on Tuesday and will watch.
바카라I want to see if he's going to leave the mic open for Elon Musk like it's an open mic at a club or something," he said, citing the billionaire architect of Trump's civil service purge. "This is what he's been doing recently, which is comical.바카라
In Philadelphia, visual artist Nova Villanueva will spend Tuesday evening doing something 바카라 anything 바카라 else. She is into avoiding politics and social media altogether these fraught days.
바카라Yeah, it's kind of sad,바카라 she said. "It's almost like I have to be ignorant to be at peace with myself and my life right now.바카라
A new president's first speech to Congress is not designated a State of the Union address, coming so close to the January 20 inauguration. But it serves the same purpose, offering an annual accounting of what has been done, what is ahead, and what condition the country is in, as the president sees it.
It is customary in modern times for the president to say the state of the union is strong, no matter what a mess it may be. Trump won the election saying the state of the union was in shambles and he was going to make it right.
The Trump who addressed Congress on February 28, 2017, is recognisable now, despite the measured tone and content of that speech. After all, he had already shocked the political class by assailing 바카라American carnage바카라 from the inaugural stage.
He told Congress that night he wanted NATO members to spend more on their armed forces, wanted trade to be 바카라fair바카라 as well as free, and wanted foreign countries in crises to be made stable enough so that people who fled to the US could go back home.
But he did not open his first term with the wrenching turns in foreign policy, civil service firings, stirrings of mass deportation, or cries of 바카라drill, baby, drill바카라 of today.
In a line that could have come from any president of either party, Trump noted in his 2017 speech, 바카라With the help of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, we have formed a council with our neighbors in Canada to help ensure that women entrepreneurs have access to the networks, markets, and capital they need to start a business and live out their financial dreams바카라.
Now he belittles Trudeau as 바카라governor바카라 of a land he wants to make the 51st state and is about to slam with tariffs, along with Mexico. Canadians, not known for displays of patriotism, are seething about their neighbor and rushing to buy and fly their flag.
In Philadelphia, small-time entrepreneur Michael Mangraviti cannot help but take some satisfaction in Trump's scouring of the bureaucracy as the firings pile up with scant regard for how well people did their jobs or how those jobs helped keep services to the public running.
바카라He said for years and years, Drain the swamp, drain the swamp,'바카라 Mangraviti said. 바카라But, you know, now is the time to drain the swamp.바카라
바카라We've seen time and time and time again that the government is ineffective at everything it wants to do,바카라 he went on. "The fact that they're taking action on something that they say they're going to do, the fact that they're ready to take the ax and take it to our government, is something I appreciate.바카라
To Cassandra Piper, a Philadelphia instrumentalist, Trump's move to stop making pennies was a 바카라fine decision" 바카라 unlike everything else he has said and done.
바카라I comprehensively disapprove of the changes that are being made," Piper said, stopping to speak while walking by the Liberty Bell Centre.
바카라Not that I was all too happy with the status quo beforehand in the first place, but there's no good that can come from the inhumanity of mass deportation, something that this country has already been scarred by.바카라
So, too, with Trump's selection of vaccination skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary and his choice of Musk to lead the effort to 바카라effectively plunder the government of its resources바카라, in Piper's view.
In Hollywood, Florida, Borden, who is Black, said that to the extent Trump can take money that Washington spends overseas and pump it into the US economy, 바카라then you are making America great again. But do that without the racial overtones. Do that without the negative energy, and we're going to be OK".
바카라I think the world is just the world, and we should all just love each other,바카라 he said.
Abraham Lincoln might have agreed, as he summoned the 바카라better angels of our nature바카라 in an inaugural speech, a month before the Civil War, that pleaded with Americans not to 바카라break our bonds of affection".
Trump had something to say on that subject, too, in 2017: 바카라We all bleed the same blood.바카라
