A less-divisive speech from President Donald Trump

By the end of the president's address, the members of Delaware's congressional contingent found themselves hopeful but skeptical.

Though the president called for unity and across-the-aisle efforts, the First State's senators and representative didn't walk into the Capitol on Tuesday night expecting much to be said that they could stand behind. Like most of the Democrats in attendance, they barely stood at all.

They were only three of the 535 President Donald Trump addressed directly walking onto the Capitol floor to speak for the first time to a joint session of Congress. All Democrats, Delaware's representatives were prepared for partisanship, attacks and insults.

What they got were policies on which they still have reservations, but a professionally delivered address that challenged both parties to bridge the divide.

"Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed," Trump said. "Our citizens deserve this. So why not join forces and finally get the job done and get it done right?"

When Trump promised a nationwide infrastructure overhaul, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester saw it as common ground. On his calls for improving access to child care, she agreed, too. And even on Obamacare, she said it sounded to her like the president intends to keep its most important parts.

"The reality will be in the actions," Rochester said. "Everything from how we talk to each other, how we work together. And it's also going to be a question of where does the money come from for many of these things?

ANALYSIS: After a hostile takeover, it's Trump's party now

STORY: Trump order calls for review of water rule

Sen. Tom Carper expressed much the same sentiment.

"His inaugural address was very dark. This was less dark. Whoever wrote this speech tonight as opposed to whoever wrote his inaugural address, he ought to stick with the one who wrote tonight's," Carper said. "There was a lot of focus on unity. I hope he meant it."

Trump promised the military will see new levels of funding and support and the nation's infrastructure would see the same, though Carper wasn't sure the costs of such proposals would square with reality. Talk is cheap, Carper said, and now he's waiting to see the president's budget.

Many of Trump's Delaware supporters already were behind the policy points expected to be a part of the address, and they were buoyed further by its successful delivery.

"He is doing an amazing job communicating his message to Congress and the American people," Sussex County Councilman Rob Arlett said during the speech.

Arlett already was in Washington this week as part of an annual gathering of county officials from across the country. He had hopes earlier in the day of making it into the Capitol but watched over a broadcast when that plan didn't pan out.

He was there Tuesday afternoon as Trump signed an order to review Obama's Waters of the U.S. Rule, which broadened the definition of the type of water body falling under the Environmental Protection Agency's clean water enforcement powers.

That rule, Arlett said, was a presidential power grab by Barack Obama, and Trump's speech assured him even more such regulations soon will be on the chopping block.

"What it came down to was a mandate, a federal regulation that came down and impacted so many people, our farmers and so many property owners," Arlett said. "It was just an overreach of the federal government, and this puts it back to where it needs to be — at the local level."

STORY: Trump says Obama is behind protests against him

Though its tone led Sen. Chris Coons to declare it the best of Trump's speeches, he said discrepancies and a lack of detail over some of the most contentious points will keep him suspect of what's still to come.

He worries Trump's willingness to embrace "new alliances" means closer ties to an adversarial Russia and that talk on the future of health care lacked the details necessary to bring the two sides of that debate closer.

"In many different areas he has not yet transitioned from campaigning to governing," Coons said. "If he's going to successfully govern, he needs to provide more specifics about proposals that could win bipartisan support in Congress."

Back in Milford in front of his TV, Kent County Republican Executive Committee Chairman Hank McCann watched as the man he traveled to D.C. to see inaugurated in January undertook the most important speech of his young political career.

He, too, was impressed by what he heard.

"He's saying the exact same things he promised during the campaign," McCann said. "He reminds me a little bit of Reagan. I'm 64 years old, and I remember when Reagan came in he said, 'If not us, who? If not now, when?'"

Gov. John Carney got a preview Monday when he and fellow governors met with Trump, where the president promised more flexibility at the local level that would be counterbalanced by significant cuts from the federal government.

The experience left Carney wanting for specifics.

"It actually did sound like a campaign event, and that was the most discouraging thing for me because the language that was used was very political and partisan," Carney said Monday. "I was looking for some real information. We've got a state to run and a budget to pass by the end of June."

Trump told the governors his plans to throttle forward on defense and federal law enforcement spending at a cost to other government agencies, talk that frustrated Carney. He said he wanted Tuesday's congressional speech to shed further light on the details — but he wasn't hopeful.

"If you put all those things together, the numbers just don't add up," Carney said. "I don't have really any idea what the direct impact will be on our state, and obviously that's what I was most interested in."

Delaware's GOP Chairman Charlie Copeland was far less interested in details.

"I know during the campaign everybody would gripe they didn't hear a lot of policy details from Donald Trump, but that didn't bother me at all," Copeland said. "Frankly, that's just a dull speech. Imagine if Lincoln's Gettysburg Address had been a policy speech — we wouldn't be talking about it today."

Copeland said he got what he wanted from Trump's speech: a broad vision for the country's new direction focused on slashed regulations, employment for the middle class and competitiveness abroad unhindered by concerns over issues like environmental protection at the cost of business.

"It was an excellent speech," Copeland said. "He was very hopeful in his comments and very inspiring, and sometimes even poetic."

Contact Adam Duvernay at (302) 324-2785 or aduvernay@delawareonline.com.

STORY: Trump signs executive orders on waters rule, black colleges​