State of the Union addresses, like the one Donald Trump will deliver on Tuesday night, are a precious commodity for every president. The audience is typically large (roughly 36 million people watched Trump’s address to Congress last March). The trappings are imperial with members of Congress elbowing one another for a magic moment with the Boss as he slowly proceeds into and then out of the House chamber. Since Trump’s party controls the House, Speaker Mike Johnson and Vice-President J.D. Vance will stand behind him leading partisan cheers for his every utterance. The White House will be able to arrange for “real people” (often heroic military members and first responders or survivors of heartrending tragedy) to sit strategically in the gallery as human props for some point or other the president wants to make. And this year, the timing is just right to set the stage for the GOP’s midterm-election messaging as the Republican Party tries desperately to extend its control of Congress in November.

But as Politico notes, the timing is also pretty bad when it comes to the most recent news development:

The president’s primetime address to Congress on Tuesday was supposed to set the stage for a tough but disciplined midterm campaign focused on the administration’s efforts to lower costs for everyday Americans and tout his first-year accomplishments. Instead, he heads to the Hill amid a torrent of negative news.Economic growth is flagging. U.S. military assets are massing in the waters around Iran in anticipation of a potential strike that many in the president’s base find odious. A major government agency is shut down over an immigration standoff with Democrats sparked after federal agents killed two U.S. citizens. “Make America Healthy Again” activists are furious over Trump’s order boosting domestic production of the herbicide glyphosate. The scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein, the late convicted sex........

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