President Trump confronted a split Congress for the first time Tuesday night by delivering a dissonant State of the Union address, interspersing uplifting paeans to bipartisan compromise with chilling depictions of murder and ruin.

Calling the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border “an urgent national crisis,” Trump again called on Congress to approve construction of his long-promised wall — and argued that without the physical barrier, working-class Americans would lose their jobs and grapple with dangerous crime and overcrowded schools and hospitals. Washington Post
This afternoon, I wrote that I was more interested than usual in the State of the Union address. And I … sort of regret writing that. I don’t think there was a lot of news in this speech, and I don’t think it’s going to change much.

The first and foremost reason I was interested is that I thought Trump might signal his strategy on the border wall — e.g. whether he was willing to shut down the government again, or declare a national emergency, or whatever else. But he didn’t really do that. It’s not even clear that he has his strategy figured out. Now, arguably, the lack of a threat to shut down the government or to declare an emergency is itself newsworthy, a pulling back from the brink if you will, but there was also enough rhetoric about the importance of the wall and how dangerous illegal immigration is that I’m not sure I’d give too much credence to that theory. Nate Silver