Editing State of the Union (section)

===Content of the speech===
[[File:President Trump Delivers the State of the Union Address.webm|thumb|President [[Donald Trump]] delivering the [[2018 State of the Union Address]]]]
The contents of the speeches typically contain information and status updates of the country and federal government during the incumbent president's administration.<ref>{{cite news |first=Ted |last=Widmer |title=The State of the Union Is Unreal |newspaper=The New York Times |date=January 31, 2006 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/31/opinion/31widmer.html?ex=1296363600&en=52500d95fa74b0eb&ei=5090 |access-date=January 22, 2007 |archive-date=January 2, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140102074850/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/31/opinion/31widmer.html?ex=1296363600&en=52500d95fa74b0eb&ei=5090 |url-status=live}}</ref> It has become customary to use the phrase "The State of the Union is strong", sometimes with slight variations, since President [[Ronald Reagan]] introduced it in his 1983 address.<ref name="PBS 2018-01-30">{{Cite news |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-word-nearly-every-president-uses-to-describe-the-state-of-the-union|title=The word nearly every president uses to describe the state of the union|last=Desjardins|first=Lisa|date=January 30, 2018|website=PBS NewsHour|language=en-us|access-date=February 7, 2019|archive-date=February 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209021143/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-word-nearly-every-president-uses-to-describe-the-state-of-the-union|url-status=live}}</ref> It has been repeated by every president in nearly every year since, with the exception of [[George H. W. Bush]].<ref name="PBS 2018-01-30" /> [[Gerald Ford]]'s 1975 address had been the first to use the phrasing "The State of the Union is...", though Ford completed the sentence with "not good."<ref name="PBS 2018-01-30" />

Since Reagan's 1982 address, it has also become common for presidents of both parties to honor special guests sitting in the gallery, such as American citizens or visiting [[Head of state|heads of state]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Arrigo |first1=Anthony F. |title=Look out for the 'Skutnik' during Trump's State of the Union |url=https://theconversation.com/look-out-for-the-skutnik-during-trumps-state-of-the-union-109762 |access-date=February 4, 2019 |work=The Conversation US |date=February 4, 2019 |archive-date=March 14, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210314181115/https://theconversation.com/look-out-for-the-skutnik-during-trumps-state-of-the-union-109762 |url-status=live}}</ref> During that 1982 address, Reagan acknowledged [[Lenny Skutnik]] for his act of heroism following the crash of [[Air Florida Flight 90]].<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/three-decades-of-skutniks-began-with-a-federal-employee/2012/01/24/gIQAricyPQ_story.html |title=Three decades of 'Skutniks' began with a federal employee |first=Ed |last=O'Keefe |newspaper=Washington Post |date=January 24, 2012 |access-date=January 26, 2012 |archive-date=December 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201226095549/https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/three-decades-of-skutniks-began-with-a-federal-employee/2012/01/24/gIQAricyPQ_story.html |url-status=live}}</ref> Since then, the term "[[List of Lenny Skutniks|Lenny Skutniks]]" has been used to refer to individuals invited to sit in the gallery, and then cited by the president, during the State of the Union.<ref>{{cite news |title=Small Business Owners Should Be Obama's Lenny Skutnik |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2011/01/25/small-business-owners-should-be-obamas-lenny-skutnik/ |work=Forbes |first=Addison |last=Wiggin |date=January 25, 2011 |access-date=January 24, 2012 |archive-date=January 25, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210125192710/https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2011/01/25/small-business-owners-should-be-obamas-lenny-skutnik/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Bonding">{{cite news |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0D71639F937A1575BC0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |title=Bonding as New Political Theater: Bring On the Babies and Cue the Yellow Dog |work=The New York Times |first=Francis X. |last=Clines |date=August 24, 1996 |access-date=January 24, 2012 |archive-date=March 1, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090301040658/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0D71639F937A1575BC0A960958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all |url-status=live}}</ref>

State of the Union speeches usually last a little over an hour, partly because of the large amounts of applause that occur from the audience throughout. The applause is often political in tone, with many portions of the speech being applauded only by members of the president's own party. As non-political officeholders, members of the Supreme Court or the Joint Chiefs of Staff rarely applaud in order to retain the appearance of political impartiality. In recent years, the presiding officers of the House and the Senate, the speaker and the vice president, respectively, have departed from the neutrality expected of presiding officers of deliberative bodies, as they, too, stand and applaud in response to the remarks of the president with which they agree.{{Citation needed|date=December 2019}}