If President Donald Trump has one gift it is that he can command a room — and a national audience when he needs to.
The president gave his second State of the Union Address before a packed Congress and gallery Tuesday night, hitting a theme of political unity hard as he reached out to hostile Democrats who, at several junctures during his speech, stood and applauded.
Overall, more than three-quarters of Americans — 76 percent — approved of the president’s speech, according to a CNN poll taken right after he finished.
CBS News, in a similar survey, found that 72 percent of Americans supported the president’s message, with 59 percent in the CNN poll saying it was “very positive.”
Three in four viewers approved of President Trump’s State of the Union Address. pic.twitter.com/suj1Gn9Hfq
— CBS News Poll (@CBSNewsPoll) February 6, 2019
Instant @CNN poll just revealed 76% of viewers approved of Trump’s #SOTU speech, with 59% “very positive.”
— Steve Cortes (@CortesSteve) February 6, 2019
Peggy Noonan, a former speechwriter for President Ronald Reagan and a #NeverTrumper, also praised the president’s speech.
“This has been a deeply adept speech in terms of policy. He cut to the muscle on legal and illegal immigration, on abortion and infanticide, on foreign wars. His vow on socialism will be remembered. Great heroes in the balcony, a real American panoply. 1…And good natured with the white jackets, who I see some on twitter are calling the straight jackets. AOC had a rare bad night, looking not spirited, warm and original as usual but sullen, teenaged and at a loss. 2,” she tweeted.
“AOC” refers to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), who rarely stood to applaud any party of POTUS Trump’s speech — even when he was recounting all of the positive economic data and jobs figures for minorities, which are at their highest on record.
But then again, one of the president’s best applause lines of the night was: “We will never be a socialist country!” — a line that did not go over well at all with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), a self-avowed socialist.