President Trump's State of the Union address "showed this president growing in this job," an approving House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said after Trump's address to Congress Tuesday night. Democrats, however, said Trump's second SOTU address followed a now-familiar pattern: Soaring calls for bipartisanship coupled with digs at Democrats and an unyielding stance on major issues. "We must reject the politics of revenge, resistance, and retribution—and embrace the boundless potential of cooperation, compromise, and the common good," he said. Some key takeaways:
- "Harsh lecture" on immigration. After saying Americans hoped "we would govern not as two parties but one nation," Trump returned to the divisive issue of border security, delivering what the Wall Street Journal calls a "notably harsh lecture on the evils of illegal immigration." He did not mention any deal involving legal status for Dreamers and did not, as some had expected, declare a national emergency in order to build a border wall, though he promised: "I will get it built."