I'll admit that I was eager to see what President Trump would say during his State Of The Union address, not only because I wondered how long he could talk without spewing nonsense, but his talking points would lay out the groundwork for the year ahead in Capitol Hill. Unfortunately, his speech was what I expected of him. It was nice to see Trump be able to finish thoughts and talk in complete sentences for a change, but it was canceled out by the things that he said.

The president started off his speech touting his recent economic accomplishments, stating that since the election, more than 2.4 million jobs have been created, even though Obama was still president for more than 560,000 of those jobs. In fact, job growth slowed in the 11 months Trump was in office compared to the previous year. He also stated that wages were "finally going up" and that black and Hispanic unemployment rates are the lowest on record; these are both true, but wages have been increasing since the 1990s, and the unemployment rates have been declining for the last seven years. He also boasted about the recent tax reform measure, which he said will give "tremendous relief to the middle class", but 65 percent of those tax cuts to the top 20 percent of earners.

Trump also said how "we have finally ended the war on American energy, and the war on beautiful clean coal", even though there was no war on American energy, and clean coal is scientifically impossible. He also mentioned that his administration had repealed more regulations in their first year than any previous. Yes, let's boast about killing the environment and letting companies step on consumers as much as they want.

A surprise to me was the optimistic tone the president used during his speech. Instead of fear-mongering and scapegoating like he had been since 2015, Trump called the state of our union "strong" and rode the concept of "American exceptionalism" very hard. He also talked for a long time about veterans and first responders, and how much they mean to the country. This was a welcome change of pace. Unfortunately, he also used this to slam those who kneeled for the National Anthem, saying "This is why we stand for our national anthem" because forcing people to celebrate their freedoms isn't ironic at all.

Surprisingly, the opioid crisis was not talked about very much; Trump referenced regular healthcare, such as the rising cost of prescription drugs and the repeal of the individual mandate, but the opioid crisis seemed overlooked. When he did mention it, however, he talked about getting tougher on drug dealers, almost no doubt influenced by attorney general Jeff Sessions.

The president also talked at length about his plan on immigration reform, citing four pillars in particular. The first was a path to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented immigrants. This is a nice step in the right direction but also comes with a waiting period of 12 years. The second pillar is, of course, the wall. No Trump immigration policy would be complete without it. I hope he realizes that planes are a thing and that people use them. This pillar also increased the number of border security officers.

The third pillar is to change the current visa lottery into a merit-based system, as Trump believes that anyone can come in under our current system, even though there are months to years of vetting. The final pillar concerns chain migration, and ending it. Trump says that under the current policy, "a single immigrant can bring in as many family members as he wants", a statement that elicited jeers from some audience members. While that is true in theory, with the number of applications submitted, it can take years, even decades for an immigrant to bring a family member to America.

Near the end of his speech, the president also referenced the imminent defeat of ISIS, and the rebuilding of America's nuclear arsenal to be used as a deterrent, particularly against North Korea. Yes, let's spend millions of dollars building nukes that we never plan to use. That sounds like a fiscally responsible plan if I've ever heard one.

All in all, the president has set the bar pretty low for himself, so any time he doesn't crap his pants at the podium is seen as status quo. While he talked up our troops, our first responders, and the state of the country as a whole, his key points were the same as ever. Mexico is sending too many people, they're not sending their best, and we have to build a wall to keep them out. We need a big, strong military to keep us safe from whatever our nation is afraid of this week and let's give the environment a plastic bottle and tell mother nature where to shove it. Trump said in his speech that he wants citizens to be "proud of this land." You need to give us a reason first.