Former top Obama adviser praises Trump's 'very well-crafted' State of the Union address

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Trump approval rating rises to 49 percent after SOTU speech

RNC national spokesperson Liz Harrington reacts to President Trump's State of the Union address.

David Axelrod, a former top adviser to President Obama, said that President Trump gave an effective and "very, very well-crafted" State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

"This was a very, very well-crafted reelection [speech] — I'll leave the fact-checking to the fact-checkers and it will enrage a lot of his opponents, but he did what he wanted to do," Axelrod said during an appearance on CNN soon after the address.

Axelrod described Trump's speech as a "blueprint for the reelection." He noted how Trump characterized his opposition as socialists, "red meat for the base," and touted the economy under his administration.

"The interesting thing was the outreach to minorities that I think was meant to reassure particularly some of these women who are nervous about him. He's running a huge gender gap, he needs to close it," he said.

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President Trump's approval rating rose after the speech to the highest in his presidency. And CNN's own polling showed the vast majority of speech watchers had a positive reaction to his address.

Other leading Democrats weren't as measured in their response. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., appeared to rifle through papers during Trump's speech and, in a dramatic sign of protest, eventually tore the paper copy in half.

Several Democratic lawmakers walked out of the speech while some decided to skip it. The partisan discord was on vivid display throughout the event, as the first president to campaign for reelection after being impeached made his case for another term: Republican legislators chanted “Four More Years.”

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“America’s enemies are on the run, America’s fortunes are on the rise and America’s future is blazing bright,” Trump declared.

“In just three short years, we have shattered the mentality of American decline and we have rejected the downsizing of America’s destiny. We are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago, and we are never going back.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.