By: Isaac Graff
This past Tuesday, Feb. 5, after an invitation sent from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which was later rescinded, a bluff that he would show up, and a week delay, President Donald Trump was finally able to address Congress and the country in his State of the Union address.
The president called for unity, which most do after losing a part of Congress in an election. He stated very early in his speech, “Tonight, I will not lay out a Republican agenda or a Democratic agenda, but an agenda for the American people,” and also called to, “Break decades of political deadlock.”
Democratic speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi reacted to parts of the president’s speech that she (and most of the democratic party) did not agree with. For example, when near the end of the president’s call for unity and for both parties to work together he said, “If there is going to be peace and legislation, there cannot be war and investigation. It just does not work that way,” a clear call to stop the Mueller investigation.
Overall, the president’s speech looked back at 2018 and the major success he and his administration had. He also explained how he planned to expand on that success and other parts of his agenda he wanted to focus on in 2019 such as trade when he called for Congress to pass USMCA, the placement for NAFTA, and to pass a new budget by Feb. 15 with funding for his boarder wall.
Trump’s approval rating rose significantly after the speech, after it plummeted during the 35-day government shutdown.
The President’s full state of the Union agenda
- Bipartisanship
- The economy
- Jobs
- Unemployment
- Tax reform
- Energy Production
- Unity
- Opioid Crisis
- Prison reform
- Immigration
- Border Security
- Border Wall
- Trade
- Infrastructure
- Prescription Drugs
- HIV/AIDS
- Cancer
- Family Leave
- Abortion
- National Security
- North Korea
- Venezuela
- Middle East
- ISIS
- Afghanistan
- Iran
- Anti-Semitism
- Veterans
- Opportunity
