The elevator pitch for the 2020 SOTU was Fantasy Island meets Make-A-Wish meets Oprah.

There was a 100-year-old Tuskegee airman who Trump decorated with a new medal in the Oval Office joined by his grandson who—by total coincidence!—wants to be in Trump’s Space Force. No matter that Pew Research polling shows that even a majority of veterans who support Trump on most everything are opposed to the Space Force. Trump found the validators! (And it’s important to use exclamation points—see the headline on WhiteHouse.gov: “Great American Comeback! President Trump Delivers 3rd State of the Union.”)

There was a military wife and two kids whose husband suddenly appeared to surprise her (“surprise” her?) from a war zone. There was a young student on who Trump bestowed a scholarship—right then and there—on live TV. There was, seated with Ivanka Trump, a formerly homeless veteran whose life turned around once he was employed under an opportunity zone provision in the 2017 tax law. There was Rush Limbaugh receiving a Medal of Freedom from Melania Trump.