First speech in State of the Union

US President Trump calls for unity

US President Trump calls for unity

M Mushfiqul Fazal from Washington, Jan 31 (Just News): The United State President Donald Trump on Tuesday promised for a ‘new American moment’ and said one team, one people, and one American family. He called for unity in his maiden State of the Union address.

In speech the president sought to put the spotlight on the economic achievements of his first year in office and called on a packed joint session of Congress to enact hardline curbs on immigration.

The US president said “Tonight, I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground, and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people we were elected to serve” .

“Tonight, I want to talk about what kind of future we are going to have, and what kind of Nation we are going to be. All of us, together, as one team, one people, and one American family.”

And when the speech ended, Republicans clapped and chanted “USA! USA!” – one even waved a red “Make America great again” cap – while Democrats raced to the exits with thinly disguised contempt. Their reaction told a fundamentally different story from what they were hearing: that of a tumultuous year of White House chaos, stunning examples of sexism and racism, myriad falsehoods and attacks on freedom of the press and an ongoing investigation into Trump’s links with Russia that hangs over his presidency.

Trump challenged Democrats to join him in overhauling immigration policies and in rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure in his first State of the Union address.
Speaking to a joint session of Congress, Mr. Trump hailed what he called the “extraordinary success” of his administration’s first year, and largely steered clear of the nationalist rhetoric, political attacks and confrontational tone that have been his calling cards both as a candidate and as a commander in chief.

“This, in fact, is our new American moment,” Mr. Trump said. “There has never been a better time to start living the American dream.”

In an address remarkably devoid of new policies, Mr. Trump instead recited what he described as his greatest accomplishments and laid out an improbable agenda for a Congress facing midterm elections in the fall.

He said he would bring Republicans and Democrats together around a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan to “give us the safe, fast, reliable and modern infrastructure our economy needs and our people deserve.” And he dared Democrats to reject what he called a “down-the-middle compromise” on immigration where “nobody gets everything they want, but where our country gets the critical reforms it needs.”

“For over 30 years, Washington has tried and failed to solve this problem,” Mr. Trump declared. “This Congress can be the one that finally makes it happen.”

The president avoided the most controversial elements of his presidency, saying nothing about the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether Mr. Trump or his associates helped the effort or obstructed justice.
Democrats in the chamber spent much of the speech refraining from applause, scowling at his boasts, and at one point hissing in disapproval at his proposal for restricting the number of family members immigrants can bring to the United States. As he took the dais at the Capitol, Mr. Trump had the weakest approval rating of any president of the modern era entering his second year in office, with 37 percent of Americans approving of his performance in the job.

But Trump stepped behind the lectern still popular with his most ardent supporters, who see him as an unpredictable and entertaining commander in chief who posts vitriol on Twitter against the advice of the White House staff, the Republican leadership and those closest to him.

Trump built his speech around the theme of heroes, using the stories of ordinary people who had overcome extraordinary challenges-a police officer who adopted the child of a heroin-addicted mother, an Army staff sergeant who won the Bronze Star while fighting in Syria, a North Korean defector who now rescues other defectors- to argue that “the state of our union is strong because our people are strong.”

“Just as I promised the American people from this podium 11 months ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reform in American history,” Trump said.

Trump delivered his roughly 80-minute speech -the longest since President Bill Clinton in 2000 — almost verbatim from a teleprompter, staying uncharacteristically faithful to his prepared script as he paused for ovations, savoring an opportunity to promote his agenda and reaching for lofty statements about the strength of what he called “one American family.”

The president delivered his speech in the middle of an intense immigration debate in Congress about the fate of the so-called Dreamers, young people who were brought illegally to the United States as children. Mr. Trump has repeatedly expressed sympathy for the Dreamers and used the speech to reiterate his proposal to grant them legal status, including a path to citizenship, in exchange for stepped-up enforcement, the building of a wall on the southern border with Mexico and a reordering of immigration laws that gives priority to higher-skilled immigrants.
“It is time to reform these outdated immigration rules, and finally bring our immigration system into the 21st century,” Trump said.

“So tonight I am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, to protect our citizens, of every background, color, religion and creed,” he said.

But the proposal has drawn condemnation from Democrats who call it meanspirited and anti-immigration activists who see it as an unacceptable grant of amnesty.
The president also promoted what he called his achievements around the world, calling for steep investments to make the American military “so strong and powerful” and hailing victories against the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, as a vindication of his pledge last year to extinguish the group “from the face of the earth.”

“One year later, I am proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated very close to 100 percent of the territory just recently held by these killers in Iraq and Syria,” Mr. Trump said.

Trump touted his decision to move the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and he announced, as expected, that he has signed an executive order to keep operating the Guantánamo Bay prison — a symbolic act that effectively keeps the detention facility open for business.

He also called on Congress to make sure that foreign assistance dollars “only go to America’s friends.”

The president included a tough message to the North Korean government and a denunciation of Kim Jong-un as a leader who has brutalized his own people and must be made to relinquish his nuclear program.

Most of the democrat members were present in Trump’s speech in State of the Union while few of the boycotted it.


(Justnews/ys/1200)