9:24
The US president touted his record in the longest State of the Union, sparking heckles and standing ovations alike as he defended tariff and immigration policies and warned Iran over nuclear ambitions.
President Donald Trump said the US was “winning so much” as he defended his administration’s increasingly unpopular policies during the longest-ever State of the Union address to Congress on Tuesday.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Trump began the address by painting an optimistic picture, declaring the US was “bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before.”
“Tonight, after just one year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before, and a turnaround for the ages,” Trump said.
Trump claimed that Iran is seeking missiles that could reach the US and repeated his insistence that the country would never be allowed to build a nuclear weapon.
Iranians, he said, “are at this moment again pursuing their sinister nuclear ambitions.”
Trump said, “My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy.”
“But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terror — which they are, by far, to have a nuclear weapon,” he added.
The president also recounted US airstrikes last summer that pounded Tehran’s nuclear capabilities, and lauded the raid that ousted Maduro in Venezuela — as well as his administration’s brokering of a ceasefire in Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
Trump tried at times to appeal to bipartisan patriotic sentiments, introducing a series of surprise guests that included US military heroes, a former political prisoner released after his administration toppled Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, and the Olympic gold-medal-winning US men’s hockey team.
He then announced he was awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honour, to the hockey team’s goalkeeper.
He also handed Medals of Honour, the highest military award, to a helicopter pilot wounded in January’s attack to topple Maduro and a 100-year-old Korean War veteran.
Trump met with heckles while defending policies
Trump also backed the recent immigration crackdowns and his push to preserve widespread tariffs that the US Supreme Court struck down last week.
Trump’s speech drew applause from Democrats only while describing the high court’s overturning of his policies, which he called “an unfortunate ruling”, while insisting “everything was working well” before it came down.
The president vowed to push ahead, using “alternative” laws to impose the taxes on imports and telling lawmakers, “Congressional action will not be necessary.” He also declared that some day tariffs would “substantially replace” the modern income tax system.
Trump argued that the tariffs are paid by foreign countries, despite evidence that the costs are borne by US consumers and businesses. “It’s saving our country,” he added.
The US president pushed back against the Democrats, who often heckled throughout the speech, saying, “you should be ashamed of yourselves.”
Later he pointed at Democrats and proclaimed, “These people are crazy.” “Democrats are destroying our country,” he said.
Democratic Representative Al Green was escorted from the chamber after he unfurled a sign of protest that read “Black people aren’t apes.”
The sign appeared to be a reference to a video the US president posted that depicted former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as primates in a jungle. Green was also removed during Trump’s address last year.
