President Donald Trump’s third State of the Union Address on Tuesday night was a disaster from the start that drew rounds of boos, cheapened one of the highest civilian awards in our nation and resulted in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) displaying the best reaction of the night to the speech.

Even before Trump delivered a word of his State of the Union speech he violated decorum by refusing to shake hands with Pelosi as is customary. It’s an unforgivable insult that set a divisive and disrespectful tone for an evening that is supposed to unite the country.

Trump then spent the beginning of his speech attacking former President Obama’s economic policies.

“If we had not reversed the failed economic policies of the previous administration, the world would not now be witness to America’s great economic success,” he claimed, drawing boos and hisses from Democrats who know better.

Obama’s economic record lifted America out of the Great Recession despite Republican obstruction. In fact, Trump did not reverse any of Obama’s economic policies. He merely took credit for the economic success that was a continuation of them. Unemployment had already been dropping when Obama left office and the stock market was already breaking records.

Trump’s tax cuts and trade wars, however, have devastated major sectors of the economy.

Adding further insult to disgrace the State of the Union even further, Trump awarded Rush Limbaugh the Presidential Medal of Freedom in the middle of the address, thus dirtying up an award meant to honor “meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, or world peace, or cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”.

In no way has Limbaugh, the vitriolic racist sexist hatemonger, ever done anything to merit such a high honor and anyone who has ever had the privilege to receive it should be disgusted. It was one of the most despicable moments of the Trump presidency.

And so, by the time Trump finished his speech, there was only one thing Pelosi could do to express her utter contempt. She tore a copy of his speech in half.

“I tore it up,” Pelosi told a reporter afterwards. “It was the courteous thing to do. It was the courteous thing to do considering the alternative. It was such a dirty speech.”

Indeed, the dirtiest most disrespectful State of the Union ever delivered. If Trump somehow wins re-election, Pelosi should decline to invite Trump to deliver any more of them in the people’s house.

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