After many troubles and tribulations to get the event scheduled, the State of the Union was delivered by President Trump on Tuesday. Many members of government, military, and invited guests gathered in the house chamber for the 1 hour and 22 minute long speech where the President discussed how much better he has made and plans to make the United States.

The President started by declaring that unity is necessary to move forward and declared that we live in a time of “unlimited potential” and connecting America’s past victories as a reason for America to go above and beyond in our pursuits. Mainly, he declared that the American military is the strongest in the world, as the country celebrates 75 years since the success of the Normandy beach landings and Eisenhower’s Great Crusade, several veterans from the invasion getting standing ovations. The President also declared that American astronauts will be going back to space as it has been 50 years since the Moon Landing and inviting Buzz Aldrin to the event as well as America’s triumph over communism in the Cold War.

The president also touched on his handling of unemployment. He stated that 5.3 million jobs have been created since he took office, and that employment of all minority groups and women has reached an all time low and going on to announce that 304,000 jobs were created in January of 2019 alone. Going to claim that women have filled 58% of jobs created in the last year and continued by acknowledging the most amount of women senators than ever before, 100 years after the right to vote was given to women.

With his calls for unity, he referred to the last congress’ ability to pass bipartisan reform in regards to agriculture and VA healthcare, further emphasizing a need for unity.

New bills that president has passed were also mentioned, the First Step Act would commute the prison sentences of non-violent offenders if they were able to reform, and brought two examples as guests.

Following the longest government shutdown in American history, the president mentioned that this congress has 10 days to pass a bill to fund government and secure the border and therefore protect the homeland. He also declared that ending illegal immigration would put cartels, human traffickers and other crime stemming from the illegal immigration “out of business.” The president even called out wealthy politicians for pushing illegal immigration while living behind walls and guards and declared “Tolerance for illegal immigration is not compassionate-it is cruel.” The president continued to go on to talk about drugs and gangs crossing from the southern border and spreading to many different states and killing American citizens, going on to state “Not one more American life should be lost because our Nation failed to control its very dangerous border.” He went on to cite San Diego and El Paso as reasons for a wall as crime fell once walls were built.

President Trump fulfilled his promise to end NAFTA and proposed the UMSCA to replace it, and make sure all of our products are “stamped with four beautiful words: made in the USA.” Additionally, he called upon congress to pass the United States Reciprocal Trade Act. The act would put a tariff on a foreign product if that country were to put an unfair tariff on an American product.

The president also mentioned new advancements in healthcare technology and claimed his budget plan, if passed, would defeat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in America within 10 years. He went on to denounce New York’s new law to have an abortion up until birth.

Along with addressing national security, President Trump announced that America would withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in response to Russia’s violation and recent withdrawal from the pact. However, the president did express that he would like to formalize a new agreement with all nuclear powers. Terrorism was the other important foreign and military policy was another important topic. The president reiterated that he will withdraw from Syria and make peace with the Taliban in Afghanistan and went on to recognize the father of a victim of the bombing of the USS Cole. The Iran nuclear deal was another topic that was mentioned, the US has withdrawn from the deal and imposed sanctions on the country to prevent it from producing nuclear weapons.  

Lastly, President Trump spoke about recent anti-Semitism and acknowledged the most recent attack on a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The president invited and applauded the survivor of the attack and the Holocaust. Due to the day being his birthday, the house chamber sang the man happy birthday.

The presidential state of the union is another important point for President Trump, and the future of the United States and his presidency.