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State of the Union: Donald Trump to give his first address – live updates
State of the Union: Donald Trump gives his first address – live updates
(35 minutes later)
They keep coming. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are in place. There’s senator Bernie Sanders walking in. Eric Trump and wife Lara are in place, as are Don Jr and Tiffany Trump.
Here’s the bit where Trump talks about economic strength:
Senator Bernie Sanders enters the room, smiling and shaking hands. Schumer appears to make a joke about offering him his seat.
And together, we are building a safe, strong, and proud America.
At state of the union address at US Capitol. Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer and others enter to applause and start shaking various hands.
Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone. After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages.
Spotted in the back of the House chamber: John Delaney, whose first ads in Iowa go up on Sunday, talking to Iowa's lone Democrat Dave Loebsack
Unemployment claims have hit a 45-year low. And something I’m very proud of: African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded..
Video feeds of the House chamber (check the top of the blog) now have the luminaries filing in. There’s Mike Pence: white hair, red tie and a sparkle in his eye. He takes his post next to Paul Ryan, the House speaker, who will sit behind Trump on the rostrum.
Somebody screams, audibly and somewhat coarsely, Hooray! as Republicans stand to clap.
Here come a bunch of Democratic senators: Booker, Wyden, Menendez, Flake – oh wait he’s a Republican.
...and Hispanic American unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history.”
In the room tonight for the Guardian are Washington bureau chief David Smith (@smithinamerica) and politics reporter Ben Jacobs (@bencjacobs).
That gets both sides clapping.
In the blog you’ll find a full complement of supporting voices, with snap analysis, fact-checking, color commentary and more. Stay tuned!
This settles it, it’s a textbook SOTU:
The Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab is testing out an experimental format for coverage of the State of the Union – so if you like experiments... please join!
Over the last year, the world has seen what we always knew: that no people on Earth are so fearless, or daring, or determined as Americans. If there is a mountain, we climb it. If there is a frontier, we cross it. If there is a challenge, we tame it. If there is an opportunity, we seize it.
It’s tailored to you – you’ll only see new information on each visit, and it’s best viewed on phones. Android users with Chrome browsers can also sign up to get notified when there are key updates.
So let us begin tonight by recognizing that the state of our Union is strong because our people are strong.
Check it out here.
Ironically this was Hillary Clinton’s campaign song:
Join Washington bureau chief David Smith and political reporter Sabrina Siddiqui for a live discussion on the Guardian US Facebook page (RSVP), Wednesday 31 January at 12.30pm ET.
Trump transitions from stories of emergency response to a description of the work ahead:
They’ll share their thoughts on Trump’s State of the Union address and answer your questions about covering the Trump administration. Leave your questions via this form.
In the aftermath of that terrible shooting, we came together, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as representatives of the people. But it is not enough to come together only in times of tragedy. 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.
Our political reporter Sabrina Siddiqui flags excerpts from Rep Kennedy’s planned rebuttal:
That line gets uniform Republican applause and some clapping from Democrats.
Excerpts from Joe Kennedy’s Democratic response to Trump’s SOTU: "Bullies may land a punch. They might leave a mark. But they have never, not once, in the history of our United States, managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future."
Now the first real applause for the night, for Rep Steve Scalise, who was shot last summer at a congressional baseball practice.
In Democratic SOTU rebuttal, Rep. Joe Kennedy will say: "This administration isn’t just targeting the laws that protect us — they are targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection."
Some trials over the past year touched this chamber very personally. With us tonight is one of the toughest people ever to serve in this House – a guy who took a bullet, almost died, and was back to work three and a half months later: the legend from Louisiana, Congressman Steve Scalise.
Dozens of Dreamers will attend the State of the Union despite a threat tweeted by a Republican congressman from Arizona to arrest “illegal aliens.”
“I think they like you Steve,” Trump quips.
Rep Paul Gosar on Tuesday called for the deportation of any undocumented immigrants attending tonight’s state of the union, placing him at odds with Donald Trump and fellow Republicans who have expressed a desire to protect immigrants who arrived in the United States as children but whose status may be in doubt.
Trump:
Today, Congressman Paul Gosar contacted the U.S. Capitol Police, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions, asking they consider checking identification of all attending the State of the Union address and arresting any illegal aliens in attendance.
To everyone still recovering in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, California, and everywhere else– we are with you, we love you, and we will always pull through together. Always.
“Of all the places where the Rule of Law needs to be enforced, it should be in the hallowed halls of Congress,” Gosar said in a statement ahead of President Donald Trump’s speech. “Any illegal aliens attempting to go through security, under any pretext of invitation or otherwise, should be arrested and deported.”
Trump describes “incredible progress” and “extraordinary success” in the last year. He notes floods, fires and other trials.
The comments come as several Democrats and at least one Republican have invited Dreamers to attend the speech.
But through it all we have seen the beauty in America’s soul and the steel in America’s spine.
Gosar’s remarks drew swift condemnation. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said Gosar was “outside the circle of decency”.
Trump describes acts of American heroism including the “cajun navy” saving flooding victims and “strangers shielding strangers from the hail of gunfire on the Las Vegas strip.”
The Guardian was unable to identify any Dreamers who planned to attend as guests of lawmakers whose legal status had expired. Dreamers who are still protected under the DACA program would theoretically not be subject to deportation.
Here it comes, Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address.
Read further:
He starts as usual. Mr speaker, Mr vice president, members of congress...
Donald Trump will announce an executive order reserving the right to move new inmates to the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to multiple reports.
He starts out with a subdued tone. He notes he was no the rostrum less than a year ago.
The prison has been heavily criticized for circumventing the constitution, hosting prisoner abuse, damaging US efforts to combat terrorism, violating basic human rights and costing a lot.
“A new tide of optimism was already sweeping across our land. Each day since we have gone forward... to make America great again, for all Americans.”
Calls for the closure of the prison were a perennial fixture of Barack Obama’s State of the Union addresses.
The Republicans stand and applaud. The Democrats sit and stare.
The last time a prisoner arrived at Guantanamo was in 2008, according to a New York Times tracker. About 780 people have been sent to the prison since 2002. More than 500 were released by president George W Bush. Forty-one remain.
Ryan gavels the assembly to order and introduces Trump. There is a “hooray” and more applause.
Do you remember when...
The applause from Trump is respectable. It gets him to the rostrum. Up he goes, and a cheer goes up too. He shakes hands with Pence and Ryan and picks up a couple copies of the speech, handing them to those men.
2013
The applause continues. Trump claps too, and points into the audience, and smiles.
Thirsty Marco
“Mr Speaker!” raises the cry. “The president of the United States.”
HE WENT FOR THE WATER!!!!!!!!!
Trump’s haircut is visible in the scrum at the door, and then he begins to make his way down the aisle, shepherded by House majority leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. Rep Steve Scalise is in the mix, too.
2013
Also spotted: Rex Tillerson, Steve Mnuchin, Ryan Zinke and Jim Mattis.
Boehner disaster face
Here comes the cabinet.
2013
There’s Ben Carson, the Hud secretary, and Mike Mulvaney the budget director. Nikki Haley. Betsy DeVos. Rick Perry. Who else. Scott Pruitt. Jeff Sessions, Elaine Chao.
MarsRover Bobak
SQUEEEEEEEEEEE @FLOTUS just hugged me! #SOTU
2014
Rep Grimm threatens to throw reporter off balcony
2015
‘I know cause I won both of em’
2015
RBG at rest
There is no polite way to say this: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being nudged awake by her colleagues
The excerpts of Trump’s speech don’t make mention of the Russia investigations...
Nixon on Watergate in State of the Union, 44 years ago tomorrow night: "I believe the time has come to bring that investigation and the other investigations of this matter to an end. One year of Watergate is enough!" pic.twitter.com/F6ndl2kA3n
It looks like Donald Trump’s speech has cribbed a line from ... Hillary Clinton.
In this excerpts released earlier Trump hailed a “New American Moment”.
It’s a snappy phrase. It’s also a phrase Clinton used in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in 2010, as Tommy Vietor – Barack Obama’s former National Security Council spokesman – has pointed out.
I thought Trump's "New American Moment" SOTU line sounded familiar. Sure enough, here it is in a 2010 speech by @HillaryClinton https://t.co/Ea9xdumzht pic.twitter.com/Smv6PZEifn
As you might recall, Melania Trump cribbed some of Michelle Obama’s speech at the Republican national convention in 2016.
