By Troy Hudson

On Jan. 30, Donald Trump made his first State of the Union address, a speech ostensibly delivered to both chambers of Congress, but also traditionally viewed as a message to the American public about the president’s agenda. If you didn’t watch it live, you might have heard less about the speech than about its immediate aftermath, such as that Trump erroneously claimed it was the most-watched State of the Union in history (it wasn’t), or that when delivering the Democrats’ response, Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Massachusetts) seemed to be wearing a tremendous amount of lip balm (he was).

If the speech itself failed to make waves in the news cycle, that’s because the usual hallmarks of a juicy Trump story — outrageous comments, nods to the far right, Russia — were mostly absent. Disappointing the millions of Americans (especially late-night talk-show hosts) who undoubtedly watched hoping for an embarrassing comedy of errors, the president pretty much stayed on script and on message throughout the hour-and-20-minute-long speech. (It may not have been the most-watched, but it was the third-longest in recorded history.)

Of course, acknowledging it was a good speech is not to say it wasn’t riddled with misleading statements. In the first few minutes, Trump honored a California firefighter named David Dahlberg, using the moment of collective admiration for Dahlberg to tout his administration’s response to the many natural disasters of 2017. Ironically, that same day it was revealed that FEMA intended to scale down emergency recovery efforts in Puerto Rico (that decision has since been reversed). Trump’s words to Puerto Ricans, a third of whom are still without power, were, “We are with you, we love you, and we always will pull through together,” which were met with great applause.

From there, Trump proudly claimed credit for everything from “the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history” to “[ending] the war on beautiful, clean coal.” It should come as no surprise to anyone, supporters or detractors, that Trump used this report on the country as an opportunity to trumpet his own perceived greatness. It is curious that he did not mention what is perhaps his administration’s clearest victory to date, the nomination of conservative justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Perhaps this is because Trump is reportedly concerned that Gorsuch will not be “loyal” after the justice expressed private concerns over Trump’s aggressive handling of the federal judiciary.

The most polarizing claim of the night may have been Trump’s assurance that “For the last year we have sought to restore the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government,” which elicited laughter from the Democratic side of Congress. For all his talk of unity — and he talks about it a lot — Trump has done very little to bring the country together, and it is hard to see how refusing to release his financials or facing investigation for possible obstruction of justice is restoring bonds of trust.

Throughout the speech, there was a lot of clapping. At home, there were probably lots of glasses raised to the president in support. But don’t be fooled by Trump’s bravado and superlative language. Trump doesn’t like to talk about the Americans he’s leaving behind as he works to build the America his loyal base wants. This vision he claims to hold of the country is in many ways antithetical to the principles we were founded on, and our best defense against it is to open our eyes and ears to the experiences of those who are already facing the harsh realities of life under this administration. Who else could be more qualified to assess the state of the union?