President Trump urged Congress to tackle immigration reform and to back a massive rebuilding of US infrastructure last night as he used his first state of the union address to herald what he said was a “new American moment”.
“There has never been a better time to start living the American dream,” he told a packed house on Capitol Hill. “As we rebuild America’s strength and confidence at home, we are also restoring our strength and standing abroad.”
The president, who had pledged a $1 trillion infrastructure plan on the campaign trail, increased the target to $1.5 trillion last night. Government funds should be augmented by private-sector financing, he said — an approach that has met with resistance from Democrats.
“We will build gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways across our land,” he said. “And we will do it with American heart, American hands, and American grit.”
In an 80-minute speech that capped a tumultuous first year in office, he highlighted the buoyancy of the US economy and called for immigration reforms that would focus “on the best interests of American workers and American families”.
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He also warned that North Korea’s “reckless” pursuit of nuclear missiles was a threat and called for the US to revamp its own nuclear arsenal. “Complacency and concessions only invite aggression and provocation,” he said.
Insisting that he would not relent in the war on terror, the president revealed that he had ordered the Pentagon to keep open the Guantanamo Bay prison, overturning President Obama’s executive order to close it.
Mr Trump also asked Congress to craft legislation that would end US financial aid to countries that oppose White House policies at the United Nations, including his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Past presidents addressed broad themes in the annual speech — Bill Clinton used the theatre and pomp of the evening to declare that “the era of big government is over” and George W Bush, speaking following the 9/11 attacks, vowed to confront the “axis of evil” of Iran, Iraq and North Korea.
Last night Mr Trump called for an end to political partisanship and outlined proposals that could win Democrat support. He said he wanted to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and to reform the justice system “to help former inmates who have served their time get a second chance”.
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He adopted a familiarly combative tone on trade, another area where his views chime with some Democrats, and insisted that the “the era of economic surrender is over”, but offered no new specifics. He also called for an end to current budget caps on defence spending citing “rogue regimes, terrorist groups, and rivals” that challenge American interests. “In confronting these horrible dangers, we know that weakness is the surest path to conflict, and unmatched power is the surest means of our defence,” he said.
In the chamber, Republican members of Congress rose to their feet again and again — while their Democrat peers mostly remained seated.
Mr Trump praised the response to the hurricanes, fires and floods that have struck America over the past year and hailed the “strangers shielding strangers” during the mass shooting that left 58 people dead in Nevada in October.There was no mention of new gun control laws.
Last night the president was accused of exaggerating some of his achievements. He boasted of enacting “the biggest tax cuts and reform in American history”. Economists say that his tax bill was significant, but not the largest ever.
Democrats opened the door yesterday to co-operation on infrastructure investment, despite disagreements over how to split costs between the government and private sector. Chuck Schumer, the senior Democrat in the Senate, wrote in The Washington Post: “Democrats agree with the president, America’s physical infrastructure is the backbone of our economy and we have fallen behind.”
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There seemed to be little prospect of a swift meeting of minds on immigration, however. Last night Mr Trump set out a plan that he said was a “down-the-middle compromise” but which had already angered factions on both sides of the aisle. Conservatives have bridled at his proposal to give 1.8 million immigrants who came to the US illegally as children a path to citizenship.
Meanwhile, Democrats have spoken out against Mr Trump’s demands for a $25 billion “trust fund” to build a wall along the Mexican border and increased curbs on the ability of legal immigrants to bring relatives into the country.
An impasse in the Senate over immigration led to much of the federal government grinding to a halt this month. Another shutdown beckons when a stop-gap funding measure expires on February 8.
However Mr Trump used last night’s speech to describe a unified nation. “Together, we are building a safe, strong, and proud America,” he said. “We want every American to know the dignity of a hard day’s work; we want every child to be safe in their home at night, and we want every citizen to be proud of this land that we love.”
He referenced several special guests in the audience — including a policeman who has adopted the baby of a heroin addict and a 12-year-old schoolboy who has started a movement that has placed 40,000 flags on military graves.
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His audience last night suggested a divided country, including Democrats who have called for him to be impeached, female members of Congress dressed in black to signal solidarity with the #MeToo movement against sexual assault and members of investigations into links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.
Several African-American Democrats said that they would boycott the event. Frederica Wilson, a Democratic congresswoman, said: “To go would be to honour the president and I don’t think he deserves to be honoured.”