Hostile Mood Prevails before Trump’s SOTU Even Begins

By Staff, News Agencies

US President Donald Trump promised sunny optimism in his State of the Union speech Tuesday but the spirit of bipartisanship appeared to be at risk of withering before he even took to the podium.

The annual presidential speech to Congress is typically a ritualistic set piece, bloated by lofty rhetoric and endless ovations.

Trump's dramatically delayed State of the Union [SOTU] on Tuesday is, like the president himself, less predictable.

The White House is flagging an "optimistic," "unifying," even "visionary" speech to mark this presidency's midway point. In an excerpt released Friday, Trump predicts Republicans and Democrats can "break decades of political stalemate."

"The president is calling for unity. He is calling for an end to retribution and resistance politics and more compromise," senior adviser Kellyanne Conway told Fox News.

But the mood in Washington is as hostile as it has been for years following the confrontation between Trump and the Democratic-led House of Representatives over his demand for funding for a US-Mexico border wall.

A testy exchange Tuesday morning between the president and the senior Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, demonstrated that the "swamp," as Washington's political world is nicknamed, won't let go so easily.

Riffing on the state of the union, Schumer tweeted: "The state of the Trump economy is failing America's middle class. The state of the Trump healthcare system is failing American families. The state of the Trump Administration is chaos."

Did Trump turn the other cheek, did he take the high road and ignore the taunting? No, he fought back, as always.

"I see Schumer is already criticizing my State of the Union speech, even though he hasn't seen it yet," Trump tweeted. He then went on to poke fun at the Democrats' failure to overturn the Republican majority in the Senate in last year's midterm elections.

Already, the row has triggered a crippling five-week partial shutdown of government and led to the SOTU speech itself being put off by a week.

And who'll be sitting on a dais just a few feet behind Trump when he speaks? The House Democrats' steely speaker Nancy Pelosi.