COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW – 06/02/2019
Jon Allsop
Is the unpredictable president becoming predictable? As reporters expected, Trump—who apparently revels in the traditional pomp of the State of the Union—stuck to scripted, practiced, and pre-briefed talking points during his second SOTU address last night. Those talking points were also traditionally Trumpian, cycling through inflamed grievances, for example, around immigration and the investigations into his 2016 campaign. Trump did break one unexpected piece of news, setting his meeting with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator, for February 27 and 28 in Vietnam. As is increasingly the case with Trump’s set-piece speeches, however, the SOTU lacked dramatic punch.