President Donald J. Trump participates in the National Anthem at the College Football Playoff National Championship Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)
That which doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, as Friedrich Nietzsche would put it.
At this year’s State of the Union address, will Donald Trump, “strengthened by the failure of his antagonists,” take a page out of Bill Clinton’s 1999 State of the Union address? Bill Clinton also went through the same process and came out stronger, as William McGurn notes in the WSJ.
The Republicans who controlled the Senate during Mr. Clinton’s trial were more divided than the Senate Republicans who will run this trial. And Mr. Clinton, who was not running for re-election, delivered his 1999 State of the Union in mid-January—in the midst of his Senate trial, not after it.
America Is Working
At that SOTU, Mr. Clinton made no mention of impeachment. Instead, he invoked a humming American economy and asked Congress to put partisanship aside and come together to fix Social Security and address other issues affecting ordinary Americans.
Tonight, I stand before you to report that America has created the longest peacetime economic expansion in our history—with nearly 18 million new jobs, wages rising at more than twice the rate of inflation, the highest homeownership in history, the smallest welfare rolls in 30 years, and the lowest peacetime unemployment since 1957.
America is working again.
Prosperity for Main Street as well as for Wall Street
It’s hard to imagine Donald Trump – being Donald Trump – not outdoing Bill Clinton in emphasizing his real achievements, “including an economy that’s delivering prosperity not only for Wall Street but for Main Street,” continues Mr. McGurn.
- African-Americans are working at record numbers, and their average wage growth now outpaces wage growth for white Americans.
- In foreign policy, Trump can boast of an America that doesn’t seek war but won’t hesitate to use lethal force against those who would kill Americans.
- Like Clinton, Mr. Trump will no doubt end by calling on lawmakers to put past disputes behind them so they can come together to carry out his agenda for the American people.
Simply by addressing the nation from the House podium, the president will underscore the weakness of Mrs. Pelosi and her caucus.
The implicit message will be this: You have thrown everything at me, including the constitutional equivalent of a nuclear weapon. Yet here I am.
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