President Donald Trump’s speech has been mostly well-reviewed for adopting a softer, more optimistic tone. | Getty Pence on who helped craft Trump's speech: 'This was all him'

President Donald Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night was assembled with the help of “many voices,” Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday morning, but in the end it was the president himself who was responsible for the tone and text of his speech.

“This was all him, but clearly, to know the president's leadership style, he leads by asking questions. And not just in the process of putting a speech together, but literally in leading an administration,” Pence said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “You know, many voices, suggestions about things that could be in the speech, but at the end of the day, he was literally -- he was literally rewriting this speech on the afternoon before he gave it.”


Trump’s speech, a State of the Union-type address, has been mostly well-reviewed for adopting a softer, more optimistic tone. Far from the “American carnage” that the president spoke of in his inaugural address or promises that “I alone can fix it,” the pledge he delivered in his speech at the Republican National Convention, Trump spoke Tuesday night of cooperation and seeking “the common good.”

Trump could be seen rehearsing the speech in his limousine on the short drive from the White House to the Capitol and his remarks were still being edited and rewritten late Tuesday afternoon. Chief strategist Steve Bannon and senior policy adviser Stephen Miller were by the president’s side for much of the day on Tuesday as he worked on his speech, and other White House staffers, including chief of staff Reince Priebus, counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway and Press Secretary Sean Spicer, also weighed in.

While Trump’s tone was decidedly different Tuesday night, his message was the same. The president promised to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and to deport criminal undocumented immigrants. He pledged to create an office for victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants and called for more affordable childcare and paid family leave.

“What the American people saw last night is the president that I serve with every day. Broad shoulders, big heart, reaching out, focusing on the future. That’s President Donald Trump,” Pence told “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough. “And to see him get the reception that he got, not only in the chamber last night where you were, Joe, but also all over the country as of this morning, it gives me great confidence that the agenda that the president articulated last night is the right agenda for America.”