1. a) What is the State of the Union address?
b) When is the State of the Union given?

2. Why isn’t President Trump’s speech tonight a SOTU address?

3. What is the purpose of this address?

4. The Hill reported Tuesday on a WSJ/NBC poll: “Poll: Majority thinks media too critical of Trump.” What do you think? Is the media too critical of President Trump? Explain your answer.

5. Watch/read/listen to reporting on President Trump’s address.
a) Are headlines positive, negative, or neither? Explain your answer. Give several examples.
b) Are reporters' comments positive, negative, or neither? Explain your answer. Give several examples.

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CHALLENGE — WITHOUT listening to any comments by the media, watch President Trump’s address to Congress and the American people and answer the following questions.

• To watch the address without comment, go to whitehouse.gov/joint-address or c-span.org
  
• To read the text of President Trump's address, go to: whitehouse.gov
• or to read main points from the speech in tweet form, go to @POTUS

1. Tone is the attitude a speaker takes towards a subject. What was the tone of President Trump’s address? (optimistic, hopeful, energetic, even-tempered, pessimistic, discouraging, lethargic, bombastic, etc. …) Explain your answer.

2. What did the President say about the following: (What is his plan/purpose?)
[Print out our PDF worksheet "Trump to address Congress" and fill in the answers for a) to f)]

a) Rebuilding the military/defense spending/cuts to other agencies
b) replace ObamaCare
c) tax reform
d) regulatory reform
e) Border security/public safety
f) other

4. a) Do you think the President is focusing on the correct issues in his first 100 days? Explain your answer.
b) Ask a parent the same question.

6. a) What issue presented by President Trump was the most important to you? Explain your answer.
b) Did any aspect of the speech disappoint  or impress you? Explain your answer.

NOTE TO STUDENTS: As with Presidents Obama, Bush, Clinton, et al, generally, half of the country supports President Trump and half of the country does not. Trump supporters increasingly report that they are intimidated or pressured into silence about their views. This is wrong. Remember to be civil with one another when discussing politics.