Handshake rejected, speech torn: Trump’s SOTU speech shows divided America

WASHINGTON: Extreme rancor and bitterness sullied US President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday, with mutual hostility between Republicans and Democrats on full display in an election year marked by Trump’s ongoing impeachment trial.

In a Congress famed in modern times for its decorum and civility even amid political differences, the US President first disdained a handshake from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the start of his address, and she in turn tore up his speech when he concluded 90 minutes later.

The antagonism and breach of etiquette between the first and third most powerful leaders in the US leached on to the floor of same House where Trump was impeached by a Democrat-majority in a partisan vote last month. With an acquittal on the cards later today in the Republican-majority Senate across the rotunda, Democrats – shell-shocked by their own fiasco in inner party elections on Monday – sat stone-faced through the President’s bombastic address replete with theatrics that was likened to a reality TV show.

Exuberant Republicans on their part broke into chants “Four More Years! Four More Years!” as they expressed unsurpassed loyalty to leader who is seen widely as having exacerbated America’s deep political and soc