President Donald Trump’s delivered five lines in his first State of the Union address Tuesday evening that could have come directly out of former President Ronald Reagan’s mouth.
The president’s speech Tuesday evening, like many State of the Union addresses, focused on the unity of the American people, along with a number of domestic and foreign policy issues. The American public received the address incredibly well, with CNN and CBS polls showing over 70 percent of viewers approved for the president’s remarks.
Trump said at least fice things that sounded uncannily Reaganesque.
1) Trump Speaking To Parents Of MS-13 Victims
“Everyone in America is grieving for you. And 320 million hearts are breaking for you. We cannot imagine the depth of your sorrow, but we can make sure that other families never have to endure this pain,” Trump said Tuesday to two-sets of parents whose children were abducted and murdered at the hands of MS-13 gang members.
Reagan’s famous speech in 1986 following the tragic explosion of the space shuttle Challenger had one line that could have easily been a part of Trump’s address.
“For the families of the seven, we cannot bear, as you do, the full impact of this tragedy. But we feel the loss, and we’re thinking about you so very much,” Reagan told the families of those that lost their lives in the Challenger explosion.
2) Trump’s Comments To Iran
“As we strengthen friendships around the world, we are also restoring clarity about our adversaries. When the people of Iran rose up against the crimes of their corrupt dictatorship, I did not stay silent. America stands with the people of Iran in their courageous struggle for freedom,” Trump said.
“Our gathering today is being broadcast throughout Western Europe and North America. I understand that it is being seen and heard as well in the East. To those listening throughout Eastern Europe, a special word: Although I cannot be with you, I address my remarks to you just as surely as to those standing here before me. For I join you, as I join your fellow countrymen in the West, in this firm, this unalterable belief: Es gibt nur ein Berlin. [There is only one Berlin.],” Reagan told the people of Western Berlin in 1987.
3) Trump’s Remarks About A Victim Of The Communist North Korean Regime
The president detailed the plight of Mr. Ji Seong-ho, a young man who went through veritable hell to escape the clutches of the North Korean government.
“His tormentors wanted to know if he had met any Christians. He had — and he resolved to be free,” Trump said.
Reagan often spoke about religious freedom and its necessity to the American life, as he did with the late Pope John Paul II in 1984.
“I can assure you, Your Holiness, the American people seek to act as a force for peace in the world and to further the cause of human freedom and dignity. … claims of human dignity transcend the claims of any government, and that this transcendent right itself has a transcendent source.The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time,” Reagan said.
4) American Heroes
“A people whose heroes live not only in the past, but all around us — defending hope, pride, and the American way,” Trump said Tuesday.
“Those who say that we’re in a time when there are not heroes, they just don’t know where to look. You can see heroes every day going in and out of factory gates. Others, a handful in number, produce enough food to feed all of us and then the world beyond. You meet heroes across a counter, and they’re on both sides of that counter. There are entrepreneurs with faith in themselves and faith in an idea who create new jobs, new wealth and opportunity. They’re individuals and families whose taxes support the government and whose voluntary gifts support church, charity, culture, art, and education. Their patriotism is quiet, but deep. Their values sustain our national life,” Reagan said in 1981.
5) American Legacy
“That is what our country has always been about. That is what Americans have always stood for, always strived for, and always done. Atop the dome of this Capitol stands the Statue of Freedom. She stands tall and dignified among the monuments to our ancestors who fought and lived and died to protect her,” Trump said.
“Monuments to Washington and Jefferson — to Lincoln and King. Memorials to the heroes of Yorktown and Saratoga — to young Americans who shed their blood on the shores of Normandy, and the fields beyond,” the president said. “And others, who went down in the waters of the Pacific and the skies over Asia. And freedom stands tall over one more monument: this one. This Capitol. This living monument to the American people.”
Reagan’s farewell address to the nation in 1989 painted a similar picture.
“I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind, it was a tall proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind swept, God blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace – a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity, and if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors, and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here,” Reagan said.
“And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure and happier than it was eight years ago. But more than that: after 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she’s still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the Pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.”
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