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State of the Union: Donald Trump gives his first address – live updates
State of the Union: Trump renews call for path to citizenship for 1.8m undocumented immigrants – live
(35 minutes later)
Trump might be getting applause in the room, but he got a very different hand gesture on his way to the Capitol. MSNBC captured a protester along Trump’s route from the White House appearing to thrust a middle finger in Trump’s direction.
The MAGA line is a winner for the Republican side.
America welcomes Trump to his State Of The Union by flipping him off. pic.twitter.com/mF6tLJgPp2
Here’s the finish:
Of course, it’s not the first time this has happened.
As long as we are proud of who we are, and what we are fighting for, there is nothing we cannot achieve.
Trump calls for paid family leave, then turns to the Democratic side and puts his hands to his ears, as if to ask, where’s the applause?
As long as we have confidence in our values, faith in our citizens, and trust in our God, we will not fail.
Let us open great vocational schools so our future workers can learn a craft and realize their full potential. And let us support working families by supporting paid family leave.
Our families will thrive.
Then he calls for prison reform. As his attorney general restores mandatory minimum sentencing and private prisons boom:
Our people will prosper.
As America regains its strength, this opportunity must be extended to all citizens. That is why this year we will embark on reforming our prisons to help former inmates who have served their time get a second chance at life.
And our Nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free.
America has also finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs, and our nation’s wealth.
Thank you, and God bless America. Goodnight.
Trump has fulfilled his promise to abandon the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact the Obama administration hoped could strengthen ties between nations such as Japan, Vietnam and Australia and curb Chinese influence in the Pacific. He has not abandoned the North American Free Trade Association (Nafta), however, or had much success negotiating one-on-one trade deals around the world.
Terrorists are not merely criminals. They are unlawful enemy combatants. And when captured overseas, they should be treated like the terrorists they are.
Free trade has affected US manufacturing, though in a mix of pros and cons that make it all but impossible to use the sweeping language as the president does here. Since China joined the WTO in 2001, the US has massively increased cheap imports from China, according to the Census Bureau, and lost 2.4 million manufacturing jobs, according to a report by Economic Policy Institute (EPI), for example.
In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield -- including the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi.
But trade deals are only part of the story. Manufacturing jobs started declining in 1997, years before China’s entry into the WTO (though three years after its trade status changed with the US), and researchers have questioned EPI’s conclusions. Despite the decline in jobs, manufacturing has become more productive, suggesting that automation and not trade deals were the cause of most job losses. In other words, few agree about how many jobs moved for which reasons. The same goes for Nafta, though a Congressional Research Service report concluded it “did not cause the huge job losses feared by the critics or the large economic gains predicted by supporters”. Its net effect “appears to have been relatively modest.”
So today, I am keeping another promise. I just signed an order directing Secretary Mattis to reexamine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay.
America is a nation of builders. We built the Empire State Building in just one year – isn’t it a disgrace that it can now take ten years just to get a permit approved for a simple road?
The president is making a claim that has been debated in legal circles since Guantánamo Bay first received prisoners from the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: the legal status of the people detained there. Trump argues that they are enemy combatants and not simply criminals, and that the military should be able to detain them indefinitely.
Almost. The Empire State Building was built in one year and 45 days.
For over four months, the Trump has detained an American citizen without charge under this premise, and attempted to deny his habeas corpus rights.
It’s not clear what part of the country the president believes it takes 10 years to obtain a permit for a road, but he appears to have drawn the notion from a Brooklyn-based group that has urged the White House to slash building regulations, especially those set by the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadu, the rarely seen leader of Isis, was captured not long after the US invasion of Iraq and during the rise of al-Qaida in Iraq, the terror cell in which he became a central figure. He was released from a US detention facility in Iraq in 2004, and went on to eventually help transform al-Qaida in Iraq into Isis.
Trump has been speaking for about 35 minutes.
Trump works his campaign slogan into this part:
Be advised that, according to a quick scroll through his prepared remarks, he has a long way yet to go.
Americans fill the world with art and music. They push the bounds of science and discovery. And they forever remind us of what we should never forget: The people dreamed this country. The people built this country. And it is the people who are making America great again.
In our drive to make Washington accountable, we have eliminated more regulations in our first year than any administration in history.
Trump is moving toward his conclusion. It’s an elegiac passage narrating the American myth. He is talking about the statue of freedom about the Capitol Dome. Here’s the text:
It’s true that the Trump administration has steadily tried to roll back regulations, but there is no clear way to measure his success compared to previous presidents – regulations are made through a messy process of rule-making and budget maneuvers, court cases, Congress and enforcers.
She stands tall and dignified among the monuments to our ancestors who fought and lived and died to protect her.
Trump’s claim to have eliminated more regulations than “any administration in history” also collides with the broad pushes to deregulate airliners and trains in the 1970s and 80s, and several presidents, such as Ronald Reagan, tried to use budgetary measures to neuter regulations without necessarily battling to erase them completely.
Monuments to Washington and Jefferson -- to Lincoln and King.
According to the Office of Management and Budget, Trump has withdrawn fewer regulations in his first year than Bill Clinton, George W Bush, or Barack Obama did during their presidencies. Earlier this month, the White House claimed that the Trump administration “withdrawn or delayed 1,579 planned regulatory actions”; according to the OMB, Clinton withdrew 1,824; Bush 2,632; and Obama 1,814.
Memorials to the heroes of Yorktown and Saratoga -- to young Americans who shed their blood on the shores of Normandy, and the fields beyond. And others, who went down in the waters of the Pacific and the skies over Asia.
Nor does ordering regulations gone actually erase those regulations. Sometimes presidents must enact a new rule to replace an existing one, opening the door to court battles, and there is a complex review process behind regulations to make sure they fit with laws. Trump’s attempts to repeal environmental rules, for instance, have already landed him in court over a debate that he is acting recklessly and without scientific evidence.
And freedom stands tall over one more monument: this one. This Capitol. This living monument to the American people.
The Trump administration has, however, has worked with Congress to use an obscure 1996 law, the Congressional Review Act, to rescind more than a dozen rules enacted late in the Obama administration. The law had only been used once before.
There’s a USA! USA! chant that breaks the mood a bit.
As Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address on Tuesday, several members of Congress wore black to draw attention to the watershed #MeToo movement around sexual harassment and misconduct.
The lawmakers, most of whom were Democratic women, said they were donning black to reaffirm their commitment to combating sexual misconduct. The show of solidarity comes weeks after celebrities almost uniformly dressed in black at the 2018 Golden Globes in a similar display of support for #MeToo.
Lois Frankel, a congresswoman from Florida who chairs the Democratic Women’s Working Group, told Vox the goal was to send “a message of solidarity with those who are seeking economic security and a cultural shift that enables men and women to work side by side, in safety and dignity, free of sexual harassment, and be paid fairly for the value of their work.”
I'm wearing black to the #SOTU because it is time we all say #TimesUP on sexual harassment & inequality in the workplace - for all industries -- from the restaurant kitchen, to Hollywood, to the halls of Congress. #SOTUBLACKOUT #MeToo pic.twitter.com/nd9p9qJ4iI
The #MeToo moment of reckoning, borne in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, has brought down a series of powerful men across several industries.
The political arena has not been spared, with allegations of misconduct forcing Senator Al Franken and Congressman John Conyers, both Democrats, out of Congress. Representative Trent Franks, a Republican from Arizona, was also forced to resign after it was revealed he behaved inappropriately with female staffers.
Members of both parties have banded together to push legislation designed to overhaul the process for reporting harassment on Capitol Hill. Until now, cases have largely been settled in secret using US taxpayer dollars. Victims have been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, effectively silencing them from coming forward to publicly report abuse or misconduct.
Trump has himself been accused of sexual assault by as many as 17 women. He has denied the claims.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus also made a statement by wearing red pins in honor of the late Recy Taylor, a black Alabama woman who in 1944 was raped by six white men.
Although the men admitted to assaulting Taylor, two all-white, all-male grand juries declined to indict them. Taylor, who died in December, was memorialized earlier this month by Oprah Winfrey in her viral speech at the Golden Globes.
Trump now launches into what looks to about a 16-paragraph passage about North Korea, fairly bellicose, referring to the “depraved character of the North Korean regime” and saying “I will not repeat the mistakes of past administrations that got us into this dangerous position.”
The parents of Otto Warmbier, the American student tortured in North Korea who died shortly after he returned to the United States last year, are in the chamber along with his brother and sister.
Trump tells his story and promises to honor his memory. His parents are standing and look very sad, crying.
Trump tells another story about North Korean defector Ji Seong-ho, who Trump says “traveled thousands of miles on crutches across China and Southeast Asia to freedom.”
He lifts a pair of crutches high and is cheered. He keeps the crutches up. It’s a powerful image.
Trump:
Trump:
I am asking both parties to come together to give us the safe, fast, reliable, and modern infrastructure our economy needs and our people deserve.
When the people of Iran rose up against the crimes of their corrupt dictatorship, I did not stay silent. America stands with the people of Iran in their courageous struggle for freedom.
Tonight, I am calling on the Congress to produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment that our country so desperately needs.
I am asking the Congress to address the fundamental flaws in the terrible Iran nuclear deal.
Every Federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with State and local governments and, where appropriate, tapping into private sector investment -- to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit, and we can do it.
No details there.
The applause for those lines was more lackluster. The Republicans kind of teeter to their feet. The Democrats sit blinking.
This line is heartily applauded:
We have ended the war on American energy -- and we have ended the war on clean coal. We are now an exporter of energy to the world.
Last month, I also took an action endorsed unanimously by the Senate just months before: I recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Thanks to a natural gas boom over the last 15 years, the US has become a global energy power to rival oil states around the world. This success of natural gas – cheaper, more accessible and comparatively cleaner than coal – has marginalized the coal industry, limiting Trump’s efforts to save the industry.
Then Trump suggests it’s a mistake for the United States to send money to countries that vote against US positions at the United Nations:
As automation has spread across many US industries, coal jobs and production declined for decades, collapsing 33% from 2011 to 2016, according to studies by Columbia University and the Department of Energy, largely due to competition from natural gas and a shift away from coal in Asia.
Shortly afterwards, dozens of countries voted in the United Nations General Assembly against America’s sovereign right to make this recognition. American taxpayers generously send those same countries billions of dollars in aid every year.
Trump has tried, however, to resurrect coal’s fading fortunes. With Republicans in Congress he rescinded a rule that tried to keep coal mining waste out of waterways; he ordered a revocation of Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which put strict new regulations on mining and favored renewable energies; and he lifted a ban on mining leases on federal land. And in 2017, coal exports hugely increased compared to 2016, according to the Energy Information Association. Still, there has only been about 1% growth in coal jobs over the last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
That is why, tonight, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to help ensure American foreign-assistance dollars always serve American interests, and only go to America’s friends.
The phrase “clean coal,” coined by the coal industry and briefly taken up by Obama, is itself controversial. The term applies not to any coal itself but power plants that remove heavy metal pollutants in the burning process and bury carbon emissions in the earth. Even such “clean” coal-fired plants still emit large levels of pollutants, however.
Trump promises to refill the Guantanamo prison:
In Detroit, I halted government mandates that crippled America’s autoworkers -- so we can get the Motor City revving its engines once again.
In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield -- including the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi.
Detroit filed for bankruptcy in 2013, but the US auto industry was one of the first American sectors to bounce back from the 2008 financial crisis, enough so that Barak Obama was touting its revival in 2010.
So today, I am keeping another promise. I just signed an order directing Secretary Mattis, who is doing a great job, thank you –
Many car companies are now building and expanding plants in the United States -- something we have not seen for decades. Chrysler is moving a major plant from Mexico to Michigan; Toyota and Mazda are opening up a plant in Alabama. Soon, plants will be opening up all over the country. This is all news Americans are unaccustomed to hearing -- for many years, companies and jobs were only leaving us.
Here Trump is interrupted by applause...
Chrysler is not moving any plant from Mexico; it is keeping the Mexican factory and investing in a Michigan one. Toyota-Mazda have planned for a $1.6bn factory in Alabama, to open in several years. Several of the plans Trump is touting have been in development for several years and the US has steadily increased jobs since 2010, according to the same Bureau of Labor Statistics figures the president earlier cited.
... to reexamine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay.”
Guess which line of those below was a Trump improvisation?
That line gets an audible “Yeah!” from the Republican side, and clapping.
America has also finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs, and our wealth.
Trump praises an army staff sergeant, Justin Peck, who risked his life to save a comrade in Iraq and was awarded a Bronze Star. Peck is standing behind the first lady. He receives the waves of enthusiastic applause stoically and shakes Melania Trump’s hand.
The nations has lost its wealth but we’re getting it back so fast.
In that immigration section of the speech Trump declared that “Americans are dreamers too”.
The era of economic surrender is over. From now on, we expect trading relationships to be fair and more importantly reciprocal.
The statement, which has the air of the “White Lives Matter” response to the Black Lives Matter movement, is getting rave reviews from conservatives on Twitter.
Trump says he has “directed my Administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one my our top priorities for the year.”
But it has also inspired progressives, and the phrase “Dreamers are Americans too” is now trending.
“And prices will come down substantially, watch.”
"Americans are dreamers." - @realDonaldTrump Wait..let us fix that...you meant, @realDonaldTrump, that DREAMers are Americans too? #SOTU pic.twitter.com/FaYHmDN1Ih
Trump says “we have ended the war on clean coal.”
No, @realDonaldTrump: DREAMERS are Americans, too. #SOTU pic.twitter.com/xjOF9RCdxP
The reaction to this seemingly endless stream of purported triumphs is repetitive and reflective of the political split at large. One side stands to applaud, the other sits and glares.
Trump keeps going:
We have ended the war on American Energy -- and we have ended the war on clean coal. We are now an exporter of energy to the world. ...
Many car companies are now building and expanding plants in the United States -- something we have not seen for decades. Chrysler is moving a major plant from Mexico to Michigan; Toyota and Mazda are opening up a plant in Alabama. Soon, plants will be opening up all over the country. This is all news Americans are unaccustomed to hearing -- for many years, companies and jobs were only leaving us. But now they are coming back.
