Congress’s telling body language during six key moments of Trump’s address

A lot was on the line for President Trump in his first major address to Congress. He will need to work with both parties in both chambers of Congress to accomplish anything significant, yet Republican lawmakers have been skeptical of his leadership so far. Democrats have been outright hostile.

Judging by the immediate reaction of lawmakers to some of his policy proposals, he made inroads among Republicans but fell flat among Democrats.

[ How will President Trump’s agenda fare in Congress? Watch Democrats’ hands.]

See for yourself. We’ve annotated the body language from lawmakers during six key moments of Trump’s speech.

1. “Mr. Speaker, the president of the United States”

 President Trump’s first official introduction to Congress unfolded like everything else in his presidency so far: divided sharply along partisan lines.

See everyone on the right, mostly in dark colored suits, rushing to greet the president? Those are Republicans. See those on the left, many wearing white, their arms folded curtly in front of them? Those are Democrats who wouldn’t be caught dead in a photo shaking hands with Trump. Tradition says members of both parties at least shake the hand of the president, but not this time. Also, several dozen House Democratic women wore white, a color associated with the women’s suffrage movement.

And yes, there are some Republicans standing on the left side of the aisle, like Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). That’s because there’s no assigned seating at these events. Perhaps they just wanted a better view to shake Trump’s hand, or perhaps they wanted to sit with a Democrat to show bipartisanship, which is not an uncommon gesture.

2. “We have begun to drain the swamp of government corruption.”

It wasn’t quite a “ You lie!” moment, but several times during Trump’s address, Democrats couldn’t contain their disgust with something he had said.

When Trump started talking about new lobbying bans he instituted, for instance, the guffaws from Democrats were audible to people watching on TV.

Republicans immediately stood up and started clapping to drown out Democratic jeers. It was a scene that would repeat itself again, like when he later said “the time for trivial fights is over.” This is also a good photo to illustrate how physically divided our Congress is: There is no assigned seating at these kinds of speeches, yet Democrats tend to sit on the left and Republicans on the right.

See the lone clapper in the Democratic section? That’s Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), who sat next to his gym buddy, Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.). As such, he “stuck out like a Make America Great Again hat at a Bernie Sanders rally,” wrote my WaPo colleagues.

3. “I am calling on all Democrats and Republicans in the Congress to work with us to save Americans from this imploding Obamacare disaster.”

Nowhere was the ideological split between both parties clearer than when Trump talked about repealing the Affordable Care Act.

Dumping Obamacare got some of the loudest cheers of the night from Republicans — and one of the most colorful responses from Democrats. Those Democratic House lawmakers are sticking their thumbs down as Trump asks for their help to get rid of the health care law.

4. “I am sending the Congress a budget that rebuilds the military, eliminates the defense sequester.”

If there was one thing Trump could have said to win over one of his fiercest GOP critics, lifting spending caps on military spending (a.k.a. the sequester), was probably it. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is a crusader for increased defense spending. And so the man who has said of Trump’s policies “facts are stubborn things” made it a point to stand and clap.

5. “Ryan died as he lived: a warrior, and a hero — battling against terrorism and securing our nation.”

Trump highlighted several guests he invited to his address, but one took Congress’s collective breath away — and helped Trump recover from an earlier snub.

As Trump praised Ryan as a hero, his widow sobbed. The moment was especially resonant given that Ryan’s father refused to meet with Trump last month while gathering his son’s remains.

6. “And God bless the United States.”

Democrats’ biggest snub of all came in the last seconds of Trump’s speech.

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