Sherae Honeycutt

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Original Post

All eyes are on Capitol Hill Tuesday night as President Donald Trump will take center stage for his first State of the Union Address.

But how are people in the metro feeling about his upcoming speech?

Some are hoping it goes smoothly, like KCMO resident George Williams.

“I’m hoping that Trump will kind of show more leniency towards the middle, working toward togetherness instead of this really divisive speech that he`s been having a go on recently,” Williams said.

But others, like KCK resident Susan Kraus, won’t be tuning in.

“It’s normally something that I always do regardless of the party of the president, but I really don’t know if I can stomach it,” she said.

Trump’s expected big topics will be twofold. First up is the economy.

“The economy I think has been the best in my entire lifetime,” Williams said. “It’s been growing ever since he’s come into office.”

“You can have what looks like sort of temporary fixes to the economy, but when you do it at the expense of regulation, it’s sort of this cycle where our children and our grandchildren will be paying the cost,” Kraus said.

Immigration will also be something many are listening for.

“There should be some sort of immigration policy, but some of the ways he’s going at it to try to do his policy is not really working out,” Williams said.

“I deplore the way we are dealing with immigrants from Syria and from other countries,” Kraus said. “And the vetting — he says we have to have ‘uber vetting’ or something ‘super vet’ and they have been vetted for years.”

Both Williams and Kraus are interested to see Congressman Joe Kennedy III’s Democratic response.

“I think having a name like Kennedy, it can be a gift, but I think it`s as much as a burden,” Kraus said.

“That’s interesting. It’s kind of appealing to a larger crowd. A lot of people know the Kennedy name. It`s a big political power. A lot of people like the Kennedys so I think it`s a good call,” Williams said.