Several controversial episodes took place on Tuesday night during US President Donald Trump’s Congressional speech.
The President’s address to senators and members of the House of Representatives is the traditional annual address. It follows a number of procedures adopted by the head of state and legislators.
One of them is that the President passes on the text of his speech to the Vice President of the United States, who is the ex officio President of the Senate, as well as to the Speaker of the House of Representatives before delivering the speech. Usually this is accompanied by a handshake, particularly one year ago.
Trump stayed true to tradition and gave the speech folders to Vice President Mike Penns and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. After receiving the folder, Pelosi seemed to have reached out for a handshake, but Trump simply turned away and stood in place for his speech. The speaker had a nervous smile. Pelosi’s gesture, however, can also be seen as an invitation to take the stand.
After the performance Trump also did not shake hands with Penns and Pelosi and simply headed for the exit, shaking hands with his fellow party members on the way. At that time, the speaker ripped up some papers on the table where the text of the president’s speech had previously been placed.
Pence, in turn, wouldn’t ignore Pelosi and shook her hand.
In addition, the media drew attention to the fact that usually the Speaker of the House before the speech of the Head of State presents it to members of Congress, accompanied by the words: “It is a great honor for me to represent the President of the United States …”. However, this time Pelosi limited herself to “Members of Congress, President of the United States!”. After that, the Republicans in the room began chanting “Four more years!”, referring to Trump’s re-election in November, because otherwise another president would be speaking before Congress.