Top 5 Things That Could Go Wrong at Trump’s First Address to Congress

By Kitty Testa

I’m inclined to agree with Thomas Jefferson that our custom of the President addressing congress is too much like a Speech from the Throne. Jefferson delivered his constitutionally required remarks to congress in writing, and many others have as well. But in recent times the annual address has become a television event in which the President addresses not only Congress, but the American people as well. It does feel monarchical, but that may be unfortunately appropriate in an era where United States presidents have been lauded, and now feared, as if they were kings.

The speeches are normally rather boring, in my opinion. The television cameras try to display the gravitas of the event, often settling on a snoozing Supreme Court Justice or a giddy and animated Vice President, apparently unaware that he wasn’t the occasion’s master of ceremonies. Most of what the president says is generally uninspiring and seldom unexpected. The president makes his case for a legislative agenda, often using the anecdotal stories of random citizens who just happen to be sitting with The First Family at the event.

But this is Trump. What could go wrong?