(Feb 24): US President Donald Trump offered a defiant defence of his policies and economic record in a prime time speech aimed at shoring up support for an agenda voters have soured on ahead of mid-term elections.
“Our nation is back bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before,” Trump said Tuesday at his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress.
“You’ve seen nothing yet,” he continued. “We’re going to do better and better and better. This is the Golden Age of America.”
The address comes at a crucial moment for Trump’s presidency as he looks for a broad reset. Trump is confronting falling approval ratings, a number of foreign policy flashpoints — including the threat of military action against Iran — and a setback to his signature tariff policy, which was struck down by the US Supreme Court.
Trump opened his address by describing a nation he said was thriving despite polls showing a population wary of the impact of his policies on its pocketbooks, a dynamic that could jeopardise Republicans’ chances of keeping control of Congress in the November mid-term elections.
“Today, our border is secure, our spirit is restored. Inflation is plummeting, incomes are rising fast,” Trump said. “The roaring economy is roaring like never before, and our enemies are scared. Our military and police are stacked, and America is respected again, perhaps like never before.”
The president at one point declared that “we’re winning so much that we really don’t know what to do about it” — and for emphasis, had the Olympic champion US men’s hockey team enter the House chamber wearing their gold medals.
Many Americans are more dour about the president’s stewardship of the country. Some 60% of Americans disapproved of Trump’s job performance in a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released on Sunday. The president’s approval rating hit a new low of 26% among independents according to a new CNN survey.
Rather than acknowledge the hardship felt by Americans struggling with squeezed household budgets during his first year in office, Trump heaped blame on (former) president Joe Biden. The president said that he had “inherited a nation in crisis, with a stagnant economy, inflation at record levels, a wide open border, horrendous recruitment for military and police, rampant crime at home, and wars and chaos all over the world.”
Trump’s remarks, and the Democratic response, offer to set the tone for the November mid-term elections which threaten to sweep away Republicans’ grip on both chambers of Congress. Rival Democrats have been buoyed as voters’ views of Trump’s handling of the economy slide, fuelled by anxiety over high prices and his tariffs.
To reverse that narrative, the White House said the president will highlight efforts to boost jobs, draw trillions in foreign and private investment pledges and tout efforts to curb higher prices, such as for prescription drugs. Trump will also champion his push to restrict institutional investors from buying single-family homes, urging Congress to pass legislation, and tout a bid to force technology companies to shoulder more energy costs.
Trump also plans to demand Democrats restore funding for the Department of Homeland Security and will champion his interventions in the Western Hemisphere following a series of military strikes on alleged narco-trafficking boats and the capture of Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro.
Trump hailed the new government in Venezuela as a partner and said the US had received 80 million barrels of oil from Caracas.
But more broadly, Trump is expected to use the evening’s platform to take a victory lap rather than offer a course correction. The president appears determined to wrap himself in the flag, heralding the country’s 250th anniversary, embracing patriotic themes to rally Americans souring on his presidency.
“It is indeed a turnaround for the ages. And we will never go back to where we were just a short time ago. We’re not going back,” Trump said.
His guests include Erika Kirk, the widow of slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, as well as Sage Blair, a young woman whose story became a lightning rod in the debate over transgender rights. The president will also announce plans to award the Medal of Honor to a 100-year-old veteran of the Korean War, according to CBS. First lady Melania Trump’s guests include a 10-year-old “AI-education advocate” and a beneficiary of a foster-care programme.
Affordability push
Trump in recent weeks has revealed frustration over his polling numbers and the focus on affordability — claiming last week that he had already “won” on that issue, messaging that has unnerved some allies. He’s also increasingly been at odds with elements of his own party and with those who will help determine his legacy, assailing the Supreme Court justices — in particular two he nominated — who voted against his tariffs. Four justices attended Tuesday’s address — Chief Justice John Roberts and justices Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett.
Roberts, Kagan and Barrett were among the justices who struck down the tariffs. Since that ruling on Friday, the administration has scrambled to enact a patchwork of replacement levies leaving major trading partners bristling over the chaotic approach.
The details of many initiatives are more modest than Trump’s claims or require congressional action. And the president’s own affordability push has come in fits and starts, with proposals such as his demand that credit card interest rates be capped at 10% being unveiled to great fanfare only to languish as lawmakers on Capitol Hill steered clear.
In many respects, Tuesday’s address echoes one delivered four years before, with a president slumping in the polls and bedeviled by persistent inflation, nagging foreign conflicts and the threat of a mid-term reversal. That 2022 speech from Joe Biden offers a warning of how difficult it is to tame price hikes.
Trump has dismissed polls outright, saying he doesn’t believe them. And he has pointed to gasoline and egg prices as bellwethers. He’s also announced his intention to nominate a new Federal Reserve chair, Kevin Warsh, whom he expects to aggressively lower rates and juice growth. Those policies, though, risk reigniting inflation.
Despite its pomp and formality, the State of the Union still offers a stage for Trump to speak to voters directly. Tuesday night is an opportunity for the president to reinvigorate his allies and refocus Republican messaging on affordability ahead of the election — if he sticks to the script.
Uploaded by Liza Shireen Koshy