In his final State of the Union address, President Obama all but called Donald Trump out by name. Instead, he tried to outline the case for optimism about America’s future: We don’t need to Make America Great Again, because America Is Great Already.

Obama sought throughout his speech to counter the narrative of declinism that Republicans have been exploiting—and which has been the hallmark of Trump’s entire campaign. He warned, first, against succumbing to the kind of fear that has fueled the revanchist politics of the right. “Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control,” Obama said. “And each time, we overcame those fears.”

Then Obama seemed bent on giving a fearful America a pep talk. He started out with the economy, asserting that “the United States of America, right now, has the strongest, most durable economy in the world.” The president then touted the economic gains under his watch—the victory lap one might expect from an address like this—to build up the case for confidence and against fear. “Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction,” he said.

He attributed the lingering sense of anxiety to technological change and inequality, warning the public against scapegoating entire classes of (poor, minority) Americans for their economic struggles—again, a la Donald Trump. “Food Stamp recipients didn’t cause the financial crisis; recklessness on Wall Street did,” the president declared. “Immigrants aren’t the reason wages haven’t gone up enough; those decisions are made in the boardrooms that too often put quarterly earnings over long-term returns.” Essentially, Obama seemed to buy the theory that the rise of Trumpism is rooted in economic anxiety and insecurity, rather than racism or bigotry, as the New Republic’s Jeet Heer points out. And he believes the best counterweight is an optimistic vision for America’s future.

Obama took a similar tack with national security, effectively dismissing the Republican rhetoric of a feeble America that’s losing badly to its enemies. “I told you earlier all the talk of America’s economic decline is political hot air. Well, so is all the rhetoric you hear about our enemies getting stronger and America getting weaker,” Obama said. Then came the big applause line: “The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period. It’s not even close,” he boasted. Woo, America!