While President Donald J. Trump gave an outstanding speech at the State of the Union in terms of listing all of his many accomplishments in 3 1/2 years, as promised in his 2016 election campaign, and recognizing many heroes during the evening, negativity from the attending Democrats just had to show up.

While the POTUS was rightfully recognizing several individuals in attendance for their personal challenges and hardships, all of the Republicans rightfully stood up applauded them, including Rush Limbaugh and his personal health challenges; the young African American girl receiving an academic scholarship; the young African American man escaping a difficult hardship and starting anew; the military man reunited with his family and children; and the military person who had served in WWII and was 100 years old!

One would think that both parties attending would stand up and applaud such situations, but that was not the case with most of the Democrats. Most were glued to their seats with stone faces and with somber nonengaged looks. Some were slouched down in their seats hardly paying attention to anything the president said. The president was going through, one by one, the things that his Administration had accomplished, and indicating there is more to come. Yet one could not help but recognizing the looks of disdain and the nodding of “no” on many of the Democrats’ faces.

But the one instance of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at the end of the president’s delivery was something that is hard to describe. The TV cameras caught her “ripping up and tearing to shreds” the copy of the president’s speech that he had provided her at the outset. There are several words that could characterize this, and I will use a few: Disdain, pathetic, non-American, and most of all disgusting.

In all of the State of the Union speeches I have watched, never have I seen such a gesture by any speaker of the house. I feel quite sure that the Democrats will pay the price in the November elections for the many disgusting ways they have treated this accomplishing president. Instead of working together for the people, they have decided to try anything and everything negative to discredit this achieving president.

George R. Cook

Wilmington