There’s a standard criticism of any State of the Union address: they tend to offer laundry lists of presidential priorities, which every chief executive asks Congress to advance. Some presidents have been more effective than others in presenting these laundry lists, but ultimately, the problem seems largely unavoidable.
That is, in theory. One of the oddities of Donald Trump’s State of the Union was the absence of a laundry list — because the Republican president doesn’t seem to have much of an agenda. NBC News’ analysis touched on an important detail:
Save for his vow to keep open the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Trump’s address was devoid of new proposals.
I think that’s exactly right, but it’s worth pausing to appreciate how bizarre the truth is. No prisoner has been sent to the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay since March 2008 — nearly a full decade ago. The prison population has shrunk from 780 detainees to 41.
And yet, Trump’s “new” proposal was signing a directive last night to leave the status quo in place, indefinitely. The president is keeping open a prison that wasn’t closing anyway.
And while that was a disappointing policy announcement in last night’s national address, the larger point is that it wasn’t accompanied by other policy announcements.
Sure, Trump made passing references to other areas — he’s concerned about opioids; he supports veterans; he thinks immigrants are dangerous — but merely mentioning substantive issues does not an agenda make.
Vox’s Ezra Klein noted last night, “The Trump administration told us not to expect much new policy, but I’m still surprised by the total absence of new policy. They’ve been in office one year, they’re polling below 40%, and the GOP Congress may be finished by the next [State of the Union address]. How are they already so low on ideas?”
That need not be a rhetorical question.









