Europe today woke up to a barrage of newsflash from the much awaited State of the Union Address from Donald trump. Trump picked up the baton from Obama last year as he gave an unofficial address to a joint congress, being only one week into his presidency. His personality and unpredictability drew a large audience last year as Nielsen statistics showed Trump's address attracted the highest number of viewers and households in the past 8 years.

Continuing on an anti Obama path that has all too much defined his first year in office, Trump took the stage and spent an hour boasting about his self-proclaimed achievements and while he did call for unity in Congress, the reactions around the room told a completely different story as Democrats observed in silence while Republicans rose for applause.

The President went on to further his 'America First' narrative, while also in an unhinged attack on immigrants, he linked young immigrants to members of the criminal gang MS-13, stating, “Many of these gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors,”

Perhaps the strongest part of the event were the invited attendees and their stories, which included families who lost loved ones to the MS-13 gang, Otto Warmbier's parents, as well as the North Korean defector and war heroes.

Another great moment came as Trump touted the unemployment rate among African-Americans saying,“African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded", a statement which was met with deafening silence from the Congressional Black Caucus.

The low unemployment rates, as well as many other significant milestones, boasted about the current administration are often seen by many as just continuing results of policies and programmes implemented by the Obama administration in his 8-year tenure. "Any way you square it, the drop in Black unemployment was a trend that started under President Obama, President Trump is just along for the ride." Democratic Senator Kamala Harris tweeted in relation to the address, she further went on CNN and said, "the way he should have made that statement is that at the end of the statement he should have said thank you President Obama".

If you have followed any one of Trump's rallies prior to or after the election, his State of the Union Address drew on the same talking points, on the same issues and on the same proposals. The event essentially served as a Trump rally which we all had to tune in on and pay attention, and for those who did, very little came out of it.