President Donald Trump called for bipartisan cooperation in Congress during his State of the Union address Tuesday night, but local reaction fell along party lines.

Catherine Lalonde, chairwoman of the Butler County Democratic Committee, said Trump's call for bipartisanship is ironic.

“I think it's hard to believe because he's the least willing to compromise and treat people well. It's hard to take that seriously at all when he's the least likely to follow his own direction on that,” Lalonde said.

Lalonde agreed with Trump's assertion that employment is increasing, but pointed out that many new jobs don't pay living wages and employees can't afford health care.

“They aren't making a living really,” Lalonde said.

She argued the tax cuts touted by Trump in his speech benefited corporations and “super wealthy” people, and were not the reason for increased wages.

Stocks are lower now than they were at the beginning of last year, she said.

“He's taking credit for things that either didn't happen or weren't because of him,” Lalonde said.

Lyndora resident Ron Jurysta, a sophomore history major at Butler County Community College and president of the school's GOP Club and Republican Students Club, said Trump touched on all the major issues facing the country and he liked what he heard.

Jurysta applauded Trump's call for bipartisan cooperation.

“Addressing bipartisanship was a good move early on,” Jurysta said.

Sentencing reform was among those accomplishments, he said.

Trump's opinion that being lenient toward illegal immigration is not compassionate, but cruel in a sense because of the repercussions, also resonated with Jurysta. He agreed with Trump's assessment of the economy and the state of the union.

“He's right on. The state of the union is strong,” Jurysta said.

He said he also agreed that unemployment is low in the country and the lowest it has ever been for minorities.

He said he liked Trump's goal of sending American astronauts into space aboard American rockets. Russian-made rockets are currently being used to deliver supplies to the International Space Station, he said.

“It will be nice to see American rockets going to space again,” Jurysta said.

He also said he was glad to see Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signal to fellow Democrats not to “boo” Trump a time or two during the speech.

“I'm glad she kept rowdy Democrats in line,” he said.

Democratic U.S. Sen. Bob Casey echoed Lalonde's concerns. In a statement following the speech, Casey said Trump missed an opportunity to speak to America's struggling middle class, calling on the president to pledge “no more shutdowns” and take additional steps to help the more than 800,000 federal employees affected by the government shutdown.

“He could have talked to working parents about a comprehensive agenda for their children,” Casey said, “investing in education, safeguarding their health care, rebuilding their schools and protecting them from violence.”

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, praised Trump in a statement issued after the speech and pointed out the nation's unprecedented economic growth during the president's first two years in office. He further pointed out that the quality of life for Americans has significantly improved.

“We now turn to the next chapter to build on those successes,” Kelly said in his statement. “The president outlined a bipartisan policy agenda and asked us to work together.”

Sharon Sykora, an associate professor of political science at Slippery Rock University, asked students from both of her American National Government classes to watch the address.

Sykora said it was important for students and others to watch and listen from a critical perspective to seek the truth.

“It'll be interesting to see the fact checking of the State of the Union address,” she said. “(Last year) there was a great deal of evidence that the things he claimed weren't true.”

Sykora said Trump would fare better if he focused on his willingness to work on the country's infrastructure.

“The government shutdown played a big part in that,” Sykora said.

Nathan Bottiger contributed to this report.