Economy
A Tale of Two State of the Unions
On SOTU night in D.C., crowds at an African-American church and a popular restaurant were unmoved by Trump’s claim to have boosted black employment.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Two hours before Donald Trump stood before the nation to deliver the State of the Union address, former CNN and TV One news commentator Roland Martin perched at the altar of Shiloh Baptist Church, a historic African-American church in Washington, D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood, with bright panel lights surrounding him as people giddily took seats in the pews.
They were minutes away from going live for what Martin had dubbed the “Real State of the Union,” and he told the crowd that he needed a robust opening round of applause from them. Presumably this was so that those viewing the livestream on Facebook and YouTube would understand the full force of the black community’s enthusiasm for this gathering he called together.