President Donald Trump gave the first State of the Union-style address of his second presidential term on Tuesday night, and the objective was clear: Remind the people why they voted for him on Nov. 5. Overall, he succeeded.

Setting aside my usual grievances with these acts of political theater — including the breathless partisanship, endless moments of either applause or sulking derision, and the whopping two-hour run time — Trump’s speech gave an insight into the strategy of the president and his team: Leverage every issue that won him the election in order to run cover for the one issue that the vast majority of people care about the most: the economy.

Have you ever heard of a “compliment sandwich,” the feedback technique that supposedly lessens the blow of negative criticism by bookending the criticism with positive feedback at the beginning and end, where the meat is the negative, and the bread is the positive? (I’ve often thought that this is the wrong way around since I’d trade in two slices of bread for one serving of meat without a second thought.) Well, last night’s speech was the ultimate policy version of a compliment sandwich.

First, the positive. Trump’s address felt like a rhetorical version of the first few weeks of his administration: a sheer onslaught of executive actions and promises for the future, providing a comprehensive (and deliberately overwhelming) play-by-play of every one of his actions, while Democrats in the audience looked on in horror, politically castrated by Trump’s trademark style, left to stand fecklessly with their adorable homemade protest signs, well-practiced scowls, and loosely coordinated pink jackets.