Washington - US President Donald Trump
urged lawmakers on Tuesday to work toward bipartisan
compromises, but pushed a hard line on immigration, insisting on
a border wall and other concessions from Democrats as part of
any deal to protect the children of illegal immigrants.
Trump, in his first State of the Union speech, gave no
ground on the contentious issue of whether to shield young
immigrants known as "Dreamers" from deportation.
Aiming to keep conservative supporters happy as he looks to
November congressional elections, Trump stood by a set of
principles opposed by Democrats, including the border wall with
Mexico and new restrictions on how many family members that
legal immigrants can bring into the United States.
"Tonight, I call upon all of us to set aside our
differences, to seek out common ground, and to summon the unity
we need to deliver for the people we were elected to serve,"
Trump said in his address.
Trump used the hour-and-20-minute speech, given annually by
presidents to Congress, to try to overcome doubts about his
presidency at a time when he is battling a probe into his
campaign's alleged ties with Russia and suffering low job
approval ratings.
Read:
Trump made no mention of the federal probe into whether his
campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential election,
a controversy that is dogging his presidency. Trump has denied
collusion and has called the probe a "witch hunt."
The speech was short on details about Trump's policy
proposals.
But his sober, measured approach was welcomed by the public.
A CNN/SSRS snap poll said 48 percent of those surveyed had a
"very positive" response to the speech and 22 percent "somewhat
positive."
There was little sign of unity inside the House of
Representatives chamber where Trump spoke. Republican lawmakers
cheered wildly at the president's applause lines. Democrats
often sat in their seats silently and many booed when he laid
out his immigration proposals.
Denounces North Korean leadership
Turning to foreign policy late in the speech, Trump
denounced the "depraved character" of North Korea's leadership
and said Pyongyang's "reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could
very soon threaten our homeland."
"We are waging a campaign of maximum pressure to prevent
that from happening," he said. In a surprise moment, he singled
out a North Korea defector in the crowd, Ji Seong-ho, as an
example of what he called the reclusive country's brutal nature.
Trump also said he had signed an order to keep open the U.S.
military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for foreign terrorism
suspects. Former Democratic President Barack Obama had vowed to
close the prison, which has been condemned by human rights
groups, but was unable to shut it down completely.
Whether Trump would follow through on his appeal for
bipartisan harmony was far from clear. Trump’s past attempts at
a unifying message have been undermined by his later rancorous
tweets and divisive statements that angered Democrats and
frequently annoyed lawmakers in his own Republican Party.
The unity plea will first be put to the test in his drive
for a compromise on protecting 1.8 million Dreamers - people
brought illegally to the country as children - who face a March
5 deadline on whether they can begin to be deported.
Also read:
Republicans welcomed Trump's immigration proposals, with
US Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma saying Trump tried to
strike a middle ground.
"My Democratic colleagues can say he didn't move enough, but
you can't deny he moved a lot. There are people in his core base
who think he has moved way too far."
But Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and the
longest-serving senator, said Trump’s words about unity, after a
year of “divisive actions, petty insults and disgraceful
race-baiting ... ring hollow.”
Trump said he was "extending an open hand" for an
immigration deal and that he would provide Dreamers a pathway to
citizenship over 10 to 12 years in exchange for funding the
border wall, which he promised during his campaign, and
restrictions on legal immigration.
He called his plan a "down-the-middle compromise," but some
Democrats hissed when he said he wanted to rein in "chain
migration," the ability of legal immigrants to bring a
wide-ranging number of family members into the country.
"Let's come together, set politics aside and finally get the
job done," Trump said.
Infrastructure plan
Trump took credit for U.S. economic gains including a
soaring stock market and a low jobless rate. He boasted about
the economic growth he believes will result from tax cuts
Republicans pushed through Congress late last year.
"This is our new American moment. There has never been a
better time to start living the American Dream," he said.
Trump said he would like a compromise over a plan to rebuild
aging roads, bridges and other infrastructure. He said he wanted
legislation to generate at least $1.5 trillion through a
combination of federal, state and local spending as well as
private-sector contributions.
Market reaction was muted, with S&P 500 futures drifting
higher, but investors saying there was little new for Wall
Street in the speech.
“Futures lifted a bit because it was not a negative speech.
He was calm. He celebrated America. He avoided his own
failures,” said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer at
Cresset Wealth Advisors in Chicago.
While Trump spoke of compromise, his speech provided some
reminders of partisan battles over the past year.
He singled out a speech guest, 12-year-old Preston Sharp,
for leading an effort to put American flags on the graves of
40,000 veterans, saying the initiative was “why we proudly stand
for the national anthem.”
His criticism of National Football League players who
refused to stand for the anthem in protest against police
shootings of minorities and racial disparities in the justice
system, dominated headlines last autumn.