Good speech - tough room
Good speech - tough room

President Trump was good. Maybe even great at last night’s State of the Union address. One problem, though.

Too many in the room were rooting against him…and always will…no matter what he says.

They want him to lose and when he succeeds, to them, to the Democrats, it’s counted as a failure for their cause and their Party.

So, everything that’s right for the country is wrong for them – means another seven years on the outside looking in…and they certainly will not join him to Make America Great Again.

While HE’S in office? No way. Their job is to trip him up at every turn. The last thing they want is to “work together.” That was Trump’s pitch last night—to reach across the aisle and “to unite a divided country.” Good luck with that, appealing to a Party that only wants to do him harm and will NEVER give him credit for ANYTHING.  

“I call upon all of us to set aside our differences,” he said to cheering Republicans and gloomy Democrats.

Imagine facing a big audience and half the people staring back at you remind you of your mother-in-law, or Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif) a bitter man and leader of the Resist Trump Movement. Even before Trump started talking, Schiff denounced Trump as a “deeply flawed being in the White House.”

Is the nation’s economy deeply flawed?

Quite the opposite.

The economy is going gangbusters and Trump was eloquent with facts and figures explaining how it has seldom been so good.

“I’m proud to announce the figure of 2.4 million new jobs,” he told Congress.

If you are a Democrat, that hurts. That’s a low blow.

What you heard was applause from one side only…the Republicans…so the sound of one hand clapping.

Job creation, Trump’s sui generis, especially the rise in employment among Blacks, drew cheers from the box seats. Democrats sat on their hands, miserable, even upon his word (and the fact) that unemployment is at a 17-year low; “a fact I’m especially proud of,” he told the assembled. Democrats tell him it’s not enough. Or – to hear Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) – he owes it all to Obama.

Whatever Trump does is not enough, or too much. They won’t give him an inch.

“It’s time to reclaim our great building heritage,” he told the lawmakers, asking them to approve his trillion-dollar infrastructure bill.

They’d prefer him to focus on immigration. That’s issue number one for the Democrats and they want him to do it their way, which is to let EVERYBODY in. How silly (to their thinking) to reserve entry, and citizenship, only to those who are legal, deserving and qualified. Hence, the Dreamers, some of whom are and plenty of whom are not qualified – but surely illegal, all of them.

To that, Trump declared, “Americans are dreamers, too,” which drew cheers from the right side, and catcalls from the left side.

Then came the big moment – Trump’s immigration proposal. He announced it in four parts…path to citizenship over 12 years for the Dreamers...the Wall at the southern border…no more chain migration…and no more visa lottery…and with that Trump got the Democrats’ full attention. They jeered.

We heard cheers when he addressed Israel and his pride in naming Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, but we can’t say if it was unanimous.

Democratic support for Israel is in a terrible slump. Among Republicans it is zooming.

Trump did not forget North Korea, which he said “posed the greatest danger to the world,” nor Otto Warmbier, who was tortured mercilessly by that regime.

Democratic support for Israel is in a terrible slump. Among Republicans it is zooming.
Nor did he forget the nations at the UN who voted against the United States for its pro-Israel stand on Jerusalem.

He asked Congress to cut or deny those countries any further monetary gifts.  

America first…American CITIZENS above all…that was the theme of President Trump’s first State of the Union speech.

Says here it was great…it was a success. Were the Democrats listening when even for a second they stopped sneering?

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.

Just released is his augmented HOLLYWOOD EDITION of “News Anchor Sweetheart.” Engelhard wrote the international book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal” and the inside-journalism thriller “The Bathsheba Deadline.” He is the recipient of the Ben Hecht Award for Literary Excellence. Website: www.jackengelhard.com