Ah, where to begin. President Donald J. Trump addressed the nation from the House podium on Tuesday, and preached the importance of bipartisanship unity while doubling down on some of his most unpopular proposals.

He opened by recognizing Buzz Aldrin, of Apollo 11 fame. While we can’t know if Aldrin is an actor or an astronaut, we do know that he extended what is widely regarded as the most meme-worthy proposal, the space force. Trump went further, saying that we must send Americans back into space on American rockets. But this is certainly not the most cost effective measure. While companies like SpaceX are employing Americans, the rockets are actually Soviet surplus, not American. NASA gives contracts to SpaceX every year to go back to the International Space Station. Regardless of his Twitter controversies, Elon Musk shows no signs of relenting in his life’s mission to commercialize the next horizon, and simultaneously using the cheapest rockets on the market which are Russian, not American. Trump then shifted his game of spoken word pinball to the economy, going as far to say the growth is unprecedented. Now, as much as I am not a fan of the President, I will give him credit where credit it is due. The economy is growing, at a rate that should be applauded, though some economists argue correctly that this growth may be unstable. As far as unprecedented though, that is simply not true. The economy shot up in 2014, faster than the American rockets proposed above. The Obama economy grew faster than the Trump economy, but economic growth should never be the factor that determines the success of a President, because growth does not help all Americans. We must throw away the political paradigms that ignore the Americans left behind in these rapid growth economies. Plus, math is awful and has no place in our politics. Math is the type of divisive message the President needed to avoid in his speech, but I digress. Trump cited the decline in the number of people on food stamps as a great report card on the economy, but it looks like he is failing the humanities.

Last year, a bill colloquially referred to as simply “the Farm Bill”. But what his seemingly innocent bill actually does is add a work requirement to the SNAP program. Old MacDonald had a farm, e-i-e-i-thispolicydisproportianatelyaffectsimpoverishedfamilieswithdisabilities. While there was a measurable reduction, it is only due to the fact that we have prioritized economic benchmarks over a sense of common humanity. Trump also gloated that we are the number one exporter of natural gas and petroleum in the world. But for what? We could power the world by covering Montana in solar panels. And why not? Do you know anyone from Montana? No you don’t. Wake up sheeple, Montana isn’t real! But once again I digress.

Trump also returned to the omnipresent threat that looms on the other side of the border. Trump has boldly proclaimed that they [Mexico] is not sending their best, that Latin America more broadly is sending rapists, drug dealers, and gang members. In reality, Latin America is sending people like 7 year old Jakelin Caal Maquin who died in DHS custody three days after her birthday. She was coming from rural Guatemala in search of a better life, not peddling drugs or inciting violence, but rather seeking a bookbag on her bag, food in her stomach, and a roof over her head. If the state of the union was strong, then children wouldn’t die in our arms. Her blood is on the conscience of a broken immigration system, run by cynical plutocrats. But this kakistocracy is not limited to the realm of illegal immigration. In his speech, Trump claimed that legal immigrants enrich our society. I actually believe that he believes that legal immigration is crucial to improving the United States. After all, his wife is a legal immigrant. Yet the Trump Administration, enjoined by Congressional Republicans, has made large steps to reduce the number of the number of legal immigrants that come into the United States. Legal immigration does enrich our society, so I would urge the Trump Administration to reverse their policy of combatting immigration of all forms.

The president often advocates for a $5.7 billion border wall, but this is ultimately not the solution to our storied history with Latin America. Trump should instead donate all $5.7 billion dollars to defeating childhood cancer which he outlined as a priority of his administration. Bonus! The president also talked about the new NAFTA deal, the USMCA. Now I pledged to give credit where credit was due. While the USMCA is a relatively small change in trade policy, it did fulfill the long time campaign promise to renegotiate NAFTA. As far as the impact, USMCA overall will promote U.S. interests abroad economically and militarily. The insurance of American hegemony is fundamental to keeping a world peace that we can give to the next generation.

I will close with the investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and foreign actors. Trump said in his speech that “partisan investigations harm our national security”. I respond to this with two main points. First, that Robert S. Mueller III worked under both Republicans and Democrats as a widely respected FBI Director, and a patriot, fighting for his nation in the Vietnam War. Mr. Mueller was confirmed by Republicans and Democrats in the Senate. Most importantly perhaps,  Mueller is a registered Republican. It is important to let the Special Counsel finish his investigation, as an impartial arbiter of the law, the same law which no person is above, not even the leader of the free world. But perhaps even more important than that, Trump has done more than any president in our nation’s illustrious history to undermine our national security. He bragged that moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem was a wise choice, standing with Israel. But in reality, this action threw off the whole balance of power in the Middle East.

Never have we seen a president so publically ignore decades of policy charged with holding together a delicate peace with spit, duct tape, and his own two hands. Maybe he can’t hear us because he has airpods in.