A Thought On Trump's State of the Union

The State of the Union address, of course, has become one of the most important ceremonial events of a presidency. All the major networks cover it; the president’s team spends months crafting the speech, aware that much of the business in Washington revolves around the annual ritual.

It was also never supposed to be anything of the sort. The Constitution only requires that “from time to time” the president offer Congress information on the state of the nation, and give recommendations. It says nothing about the pomp and circumstance that have grown up around the event, or even that the information must be conveyed in a speech at all. In fact, the State of the Union was regularly delivered to Congress in written form, without great ceremony, until the 1930’s, when FDR saw fit to turn the event into a major national speech, with the president at the center of attention.

There have long been arguments that future presidents should return to delivering a simple written report to Congress. But with Trump in the White House, maybe it’s time to think outside the box.

We all know how much Trump loves Twitter. Maybe he should tweet the State of the Union—send a formal, written report to Congress, and then tweet the basics for the rest of the world. It would be new, exciting, shake up Washington tradition—and, best of all, be a symbolic move that at the same time does something to reduce the oversized role the president now plays in the federal government.

Is it a crazy idea? Sure. Do I think it’ll actually happen? Probably not. But it would shake up Washington while returning the executive branch to something more closely approximating the Founders’ vision, all while using 21^st century technology. What’s not to love?