BLUF: State of the Union
At Tuesday’s State of the Union (SOTU) speech, POTUS strictly adhered to the topics that helped him get elected: immigration, affordability, tariffs, and hot-button “culture war” talking points.
But before getting into our thoughts about the substance of the speech, the Steer PR team’s highlights of the night included the moving dedications to Navy Capt. Royce Williams (Ret.), Army Chief Warrant Officer Eric Slover, and Petty Officer Scott Ruskan for their extraordinary courage. And, yes, you guessed it, we loved the two-minute bipartisan ovation for the Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. men’s hockey team. .
The SOTU certainly met one of our expectations: its record-breaking length. But to be honest, we were more surprised by what was omitted than what was covered. Here are our top three issues we wish had been given a little attention in the speech:
Iran. If you got your news exclusively from the SOTU, you'd have no idea that 150 U.S. aircraft have been forward-deployed to Europe and around the Gulf or that just this morning, the US Embassy in Israel told its staff if they wanted to leave, today was the day. Like many, we were anticipating something - a formal announcement, strategy, or even just some taunting language. It’s increasingly difficult to decipher noise from signals in the plan for Iran. But it goes without saying, should this military action move forward it will not be without risk or consequences.
China. There was a China-sized omission this year. This was the first time since 2005 that the SOTU didn’t include a direct line on our relationship with China. We get it - POTUS may have deliberately excluded mention to maintain the relationship’s “state of strategic stability” ahead of his trip to Beijing planned for next month. But still, for a speech that has struggled to maintain its importance and influence in recent history, it would be nice for the country to get real information from it about our greatest strategic foe.
AI & Defense Innovation. Aside from a major - yet ambiguous - pledge to shield Americans from rising data center costs, President Trump didn’t give much air time to AI and the impressive moves in defense innovation that we’ve seen over the past year. Not to mention the ongoing conversation about job creation - feels like this was a serious miss.
We won’t read too much into these omissions beyond that the Administration likely decided that there’s a better time, place, or messenger. But for an annual event that has struggled to maintain its importance and influence in recent history, it would be nice to still address the most pressing national security issues facing the nation.
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