In his first State of the Union address, President Trump reiterated to the American people the importance of nationalism while upholding the core principles this country was founded on.
The main theme of President Trump’s speech was “building a safe, strong, and proud America.” This came off wary in a room were tension were already very prevalent and clearly divided straight down party lines.
President Trump emphasized many points throughout his speech, but few were as grappling as the commitment to rebuilding the country’s infrastructure, lowering unemployment, bringing American companies back to the states, and fighting to contain illegal immigration.
“As long as we are proud of who we are, and what we are fighting for, there is nothing we cannot achieve. As long as we have confidence in our values, faith in our citizens, and trust in our God, we will not fail.”
Trump started off the beginning of his speech highlighting his administration’s continued effort to bring more new and American-based companies and jobs back from overseas. Not only did he announce 2.4 million new jobs have been created since he took office, but that under his leadership, African-American and Hispanic unemployment has been the lowest in recorded history, to the dismay of many in the room.
Trump also spent most of the first half of his speech gloating on his contributions to helping bring forth one of the largest tax cuts in American history. Not only did he assure this would improve financial conditions for small business owners and middle-class Americans, but stated under this new system, for the first time, Americans will start to have larger take-home pays.
There were very few points Trump was as passionate about as infrastructure. During his address, Trump called on Congress to invest 1.5 trillion dollars to help assess and reconstruct many roads, tunnels, bridges, and etc.. across the United States.
Trump did not go into detail on what this bill would include, promised the American people that his infrastructure bill was one of his top priorities.
President Trump shied away from various controversial subjects during the night, but one that he reluctantly talked on was that of immigration reform. He emphatically announced a new bipartisan bill currently working its way through the Senate.
Known as the “Four Pillars of Immigration Reform,” Trump dissected to the American people his administration new approach to combating illegal immigration. The four pillars would include a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants brought to America as children, secures the border by building a great wall between the southern states and Mexico, hiring more ICE agents, ending the visa lottery program, and ending chain migration by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children.
Trump briefly tackled a multitude of other issues during the night ranging from social issues to familial. He re-energized his commitment to ending the Opioid crisis in the country and approved for more new and generic drugs and devices than in all American history. President Trump also signed a piece of legislation just before the State of the Union that ensured Guantanamo Bay stays open and stated that the territories held by this ISIS in Iraq and Syria are close to being 100% liberated.
There were four Democrats who gave immediate responses right after President Trump delivered his State of the Union address. Many of the representatives commented on the inaccuracies of various statements given during the night.
The official democratic statement came from representative Joe Kennedy who slammed President Trump for many of his “unlawful statements” that he made throughout the night. Kennedy emphasized his parties commitment to effecting real changes to the American people and not just promises.
Bernie Sanders streamed his own speech through his social media platform. Sidestepping against the traditional Democratic response, Sanders picked at many of Trump’s congratulatory statements during his speech.
Throughout his speech, Trump made it a point to highlight the many “in all American histories” his administration has brought forth to the people in his short time in office. Aside from the consistent clapping and standing ovations from the audience after every word the president gave throughout his entire speech, Trump’s State of the Union address will be remembered as a promises delivered from that have yet to be fulfilled to many of America’s citizens.
