President Donald Trump is expected to strive for a bipartisan tone in his first State of the Union address on Tuesday.
A senior Trump administration official was quoted as telling reporters that Congress can expect that the ‘tone’ of Trump’s State of the Union speech ‘will be one of bipartisanship’ as he touts his victories to date, according to reports.
The official told reporters that Trump will aim to be ‘unifying,’ while speaking ‘from the heart’ during the ‘forward looking’ speech, ABC News said.
Trump (pictured Saturday) is expected to adopt a bipartisan tone during his first State of the Union speech which takes place on Tuesday
Trump will take to the podium just over a week after the government shut down on January 20. The shutdown was prompted by disagreement between Republicans and Democrats over the issue of immigration and funding the DACA program.
Trump has devoted multiple tweets to lambasting Senate Minority Leader ‘Cryin’ Chuck Schumer,’ a Democrat, about DACA funding since a stopgap measure was enacted on January 23, allowing the government to operate as usual – at least until February 8.
The senior administration official said that the contents of Trump’s State of the Union speech will focus on ‘a safe, strong, and proud America,’ USA Today reported.
Trump is due to highlight five specific policy areas in his address – the economy, infrastructure, immigration, trade and national security – said CBS News.
Trumps is expected to touch on the economy following his administration’s deregulation efforts and the 2017 tax cut, as well as talking about a trillion dollar infrastructure deal that he wants.
The White House has not yet issued any proposals regarding how the deal, aimed at repairing and building new roads and bridges, would be paid for.
He will also discuss immigration, likely using the legislative framework revealed by the White House on Thursday.
Trump’s speech takes place just over a week since the government’s shutdown following disagreement between Democrats and Republicans over immigration and funding DACA (Trump pictured with congressional leaders including Chuck Schumer, right, on December 7)
Among the items on that immigration list were a $25billion trust fund for the building of the border wall Trump campaigned on, as well as an end to ‘chain migration’ and the diversity visa lottery system.
With regard to trade, Trump is expected to restate the points he made Friday during his trip to Davos, Switzerland, in which he urged foreign countries to invest in America and expressed a desire to negotiate ‘mutually beneficial’ trade agreements.
He also indicated an openness to discussing reentering the US in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), provided ‘it is in the interests of all.’
A year ago, on January 24, 2017, Trump signed an executive order pulling out of the TPP, fulfilling one of his many campaign promises.
To address national security, Trump is expected to talk about increasing the size of the military, thereby aiming to promote peace through a show of preemptive military might, while also striving to obtain more clarity on who is and isn’t friend to America.
It’s anticipated that Trump will mention a plan to have China and other countries put economic pressure on North Korea as part of an effort to make the country give up its nuclear arsenal.
The administration official did not indicate whether Trump would bring up healthcare during the speech, but did say that he would be mentioning the opioid crisis. To hammer home that issue, the official said that Trump’s guest speech attendee will be someone personally affected by the drug crisis.
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi and other women in the House are expected to don all-black wardrobes while attending the speech, as a way to show solidarity for victims of sexual harassment – a page taken out of the Golden Globes playbook, in which actresses wore all black for the same reason.
Some Democrats are also expected to be bringing women’s right activists and Dreamers as their guests to the speech.
To date, four Congressional members – Democrats John Lewis, Maxine Waters, Frederica Wilson and Pramila Jayapal – have already indicated that they will skip the speech following Trump’s reported remarks that African nations were ‘s**thole countries’ during a January 11 meeting at the White House discussing immigration.
The State of the Union address will air on Tuesday at 9pm EST.