AUSTIN — Despite President Donald Trump’s conciliatory tone in a Tuesday speech to Congress, veteran Texas political players remained as polarized over the new leader as they were in November. 

“ … On a bipartisan basis people were enormously impressed by the vision that the president laid out,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in a statement. “He laid out a broad, welcoming vision of some of the things he wants to accomplish … in a way that welcomed Democrats and bipartisan support to help make that progress for the American people.”

Not so, said Mineral Wells resident Theresa Crosier, who chairs the Palo Pinto Democratic Party.

“He’s living in la-la land,” Crosier said. “It’s impossible to do all the things that he says he’s going to do.”

The president was greeted by enthusiastic applause as he entered the House chamber, though it was filled with Democrats who vigorously oppose his policies and many Republicans who never expected him to be elected. 

Most Republican lawmakers have rallied around him since the election, hopeful that he will act on the domestic priorities they saw blocked during President Barack Obama’s administration.

Topping that list is undoing Obama’s signature health care law and replacing the sweeping measure. 

Trump offered a basic blueprint of his priorities, including ensuring that those with pre-existing conditions have access to coverage, allowing people to buy insurance across state lines and offering tax credits and expanded health savings accounts to help Americans purchase coverage.

The president swapped his trademark pugnaciousness and personal insults for a more restrained tone, saying in his address that “the time for small thinking is over” and calling for an overhaul of the nation’s health care system and increased military spending.

Making a direct appeal for bipartisanship, Trump turned to Democrats and said, “Why not join forces to finally get the job done and get it done right?”

Trump said that “we must build bridges of cooperation and trust — not drive the wedge of disunity and division,” but Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said that Trump has done nothing to substantively improve most Americans’ lives.

“Promises have been broken, talk is cheap and the assault on American values has begun,” Hinojosa said in a statement. “He has already begun to rip working people off, launch lies and cover ups and tear families apart.”

Democrats, now firmly in the minority, sat silently while Republicans stood and cheered in the chamber.

Some wore blue, pro-health care buttons that read “Protect our care” and dozens of Democratic women wore white in honor of the suffrage movement.

State Rep. Drew Springer, R-Muenster, said that Trump was “very presidential” and “set the bar where it needed to be” in what was his first address to a joint session of Congress.

However, the toned-down rhetoric did not necessarily signal change of policy, at least on some of Trump’s signature campaign themes: a border wall, for example.

“We will soon begin the construction of a great, great wall along our southern border,” Trump said in the address.

That promise played well in Texas, where 52 percent of voters cast ballots for Trump in 2016.

Smith Gilley, Hunt County Democratic chairman, didn’t believe that Trump has changed stripes, saying that the president has proven himself both “untruthful” and “inflammatory.”

Still, Gilley said, Trump’s speech “appeared to be a little more mainstream,” in both tone and content, with the president “not shouting and making accusations.”

Springer said the change of tone showed that Trump has grasped the seriousness of the office.

“He realizes that’s what it’s going to take to get it done,” Springer said.

John Austin covers the Texas Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at jaustin@cnhi.com 

This report contains material from the Associated Press