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Optimistic was the general tone of President Trump’s State of the Union speech, writes Gerald Baker in the WSJ’s The 10-Point.
Optimism was a constant of the evening and part of a different Trump that the president wanted voters to see, writes the Journal’s Gerald F. Seib. His speech differed starkly from his darker tone taken in his inaugural address last January, Mr. Seib notes, which referred to “American carnage” and “rusted-out factories.” Taken as a whole, the speech may represent an attempt by the president to change the capital’s tone, even if critics note that steps in that direction have been upended in short order by tweets and off-the-cuff remarks. A negative tone was instead struck by the official Democratic response to the president’s address, with Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D., Mass.) describing Mr. Trump’s initial year in office as one defined by anxiety and fear, with the White House pitting Americans against each other and encouraging the nation’s darkest impulses.
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