Trump complained to aides that drafts of his State of the Union speech were too gentle on Democrats.

[DonViejo]

State of the Union Address Unlikely to Bring Harmony

By Peter Baker
Feb. 5, 2019

WASHINGTON — President Trump is to deliver what aides called a message of bipartisan unity on Tuesday night in his first address to Congress in the new era of divided government, but any hope of harmony was dispelled long before he left the White House.

The president and Democrats spent the hours before his State of the Union address exchanging political fire, making clear that whatever ritualistic calls for across-the-aisle cooperation he would issue later in the evening were unlikely to transform an environment that has turned increasingly toxic.

Still stung by his failure to use a partial government shutdown to pressure Congress into paying for his border wall, Mr. Trump has hardly been in the mood for collaboration with the other party, anyway. As he and his team have drafted his address in recent days, he has groused about the text, complaining that it is too gentle on Democrats, according to people briefed on the matter.

The president has sought to sharpen various lines, and while aides have urged him to congratulate Speaker Nancy Pelosi on her ascension after the November midterm elections, which handed control of the House to Democrats, they were not entirely clear that he would. Ms. Pelosi has been his most frustrating antagonist since the start of the new year, at one point even disinviting him from delivering the State of the Union address unless he reopened the government, which he then did.

Democrats did not wait for the address, scheduled for 9 p.m. Eastern time, to challenge him.

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/05/us/politics/trump-state-of-the-union.html

[phylny]

1. So much for the unity crap, eh Don?

[Eliot Rosewater]

2. Who is this reporter kidding, rump cant read. Surely cant comprehend what he can read.

[kimbutgar]

3. Watch him go off script tonight

Wouldn’t put it past him.

[Mystery sage]

5. Yeah that's the part where it will into "old man crazy rant" time

Count on it.

[Miigwech]

4. Of course the toxic narcissist did.

trump is evil. The likes of many tyrants.

[Oneironaut]

6. Politics has pretty much become professional wrestling.

Trump’s base wants him to do verbal body slams against the Democrats. I hate how everything is about “owning” the other side now. It’s beyond stupid and destructive.

So, 60 minutes (or whatever) of “pwning Libz?” Are we all 12 years old now?

[dem4decades]

7. While i was originally against someone yelling You Lie. If it got into

His head and he went full asshole it might be worth it.

[lpbk2713]

8. I don't expect Trump to say "Madam Speaker".

Not even once. Although I'm sure he will use "Nancy" a lot.

Asshole.

[C_U_L8R]

9. More PR fluffery from the Trump team

He wants to be seen as the strongman. We all know better.

[Cha]

10. Didn't I see one OP that the Puppet was allegedly

going "to bring people together"? Or some such shite?