By ROGER CALDWELL

In Trump’s administration, the truth is an elusive quality to hold onto, and at Trump’s first State of the Union Address, many times it did not exist. Many will call his claims during his speech misleading, but I call them lies.

At this point in Trump’s presidency where new scandals/falsehoods are constantly prevalent, many in leadership positions have been charged with breaking the law, and Trump will claim in 2018 that America is a prosperous and harmonious nation. Not only does he have the audacity to claim the government is running smoothly, but he seems to forget that at any hour of any day, he can be impeached.

With gun violence at an all time high in the country, and an opioid crisis engulfing the nation, Trump’s administration has no strategy, and no one has been appointed to lead these departments.

German Lopez of the VOX says,”Yet in the past year, there has been no move by Trump’s administration to actually spend more money on the opioid crisis. Key positions in the administration remain unfilled, even without nominees in the case of the White House’s drug czar office and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).”

Trump gave one of the longest State of the Union speeches in recorded history, and he also clapped for himself many times. This was one of the strangest things I observed, which was also one of the first that I can ever remember. Again, the truth was not important, but he did tell some good stories.

He started out by telling America that his polices is the reason Black unemployment rate is the lowest recorded in our country’s history. However, there was no mention of President Obama’s policies, or even a thank you, but instead he took all the credit.

Trump is still wondering why none of the members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) agreed with his statement, and many of the members wore kente cloths attached to their clothing. “Wearing kente cloth to the SOTU address with my fellow CBC members was to stand in solidarity with people from Africa,” says Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va.

The members of the CBC were protesting the president’s policies and the direction he is taking the country. Once Trump was elected president, the leadership in the country changed from diverse to primarily white and corrupt.

“We eliminated an especially cruel tax that fell mostly on Americans making less than $50,000 annually forcing them to pay tremendous penalties simply because they could not afford governmental health plans,” said Trump in his speech.

But this statement was not the truth, because repealing Obamacare’s individual mandate will now force more than 13 million Americans to lose their healthcare coverage. Not only will more Americans lose coverage, but the price of healthcare will increase upwards by 10 percent.

During the State of the Union address, Trump was constantly making various promises, but his words did not match his actions. Many of his policies are designed to hurt poor and middle class working families, and help millionaires and billionaires become richer.

In terms of immigration, Trump claimed that there were thousands of MS-13 Salvadoran-American street gangs killing many of Americans. There was no factual evidence to support that claim, but many Americans are now afraid that many young Hispanics are criminals, lawbreakers, and not willing to work.

But the truth is that the majority of Hispanics are hard workers, and they believe in the importance of family. President Obama talked about comprehensive citizenship to 11 million immigrants and Trump is only talking about 1.8 million immigrants receiving U.S. citizenship.

At the end of the speech, Trump talked about what makes the American people great, and how we have the ability to light up the world. But to keep America great starts with leadership and accepting the diversity of its people, and most importantly, the president’s words should line up with his actions.