Get all your news in one place.
100's of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Tom McCarthy

Trump sets out immigration plan in State of the Union address – as it happened

What we learned

Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address is in the can. Here’s what we learned:

  • The speech was long and mostly on-script, and devoid of Trumpian chaos. As anticipated, Trump boasted of a strong economy and tax cuts, and he called for infrastructure spending and a bipartisan deal on immigration.
  • Trump used surprise guests to dramatize his confrontation with North Korea, including the family of Otto Warmbier, the late American student who was tortured, and defector Ji Seong-ho, who gave the night its most memorable image when he held his crutches aloft.
  • Trump used the story of a grisly alleged gang murder of two teenage girls, whose families were in the chamber, as a shocking way to call for immigration reform. He described a path to citizenship for so-called “Dreamers”, undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children, and a “great wall”, and he described a phantom scourge of “chain migration.”
  • Response in the chamber was split along partisan lines, though Democrats joined in the applause at times, especially when Trump highlighted tales of military heroism. One of the strongest applause lines among Republicans was a sideswipe at NFL protesters: “We stand for the national anthem.”
  • Trump sought to project optimism by describing “our new American moment,” but that tone leaked away with a long section of stories about the MS-13 gang and with calls for a nuclear buildup and an order to keep the Guantanamo Bay prison open.

Updated

Democrats responded to Donald Trump’s State of the Union on Tuesday with a series of rebuttals that sounded a note of defiance in the face of policies they lambasted as divisive and discriminatory.

Joe Kennedy, a representative from Massachusetts, delivered one of two official Democratic responses to Trump’s address, decrying the administration for “targeting the very idea that we are all worthy of protection”. He was followed by Elizabeth Guzman, the first Hispanic woman elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, who offered a riposte to Trump delivered entirely in Spanish.

Elsewhere, Vermont senator Bernie Sanders decided to give his own unofficial response, which he said was intended to shed light on “the lies” Trump told during the campaign and promises the president has failed to keep.

Typically, the opposing party delivers one official response to the president’s State of the Union. Democrats nonetheless sought to emphasize their party’s diversity to draw a contrast with Trump’s sharp anti-immigrant rhetoric.

The moment has also served in the past to highlight a party’s future leaders. Although not yet a national name, Kennedy, 37, is regarded as a rising star within the Democratic Party. He is the grandson of Robert “Bobby” Kennedy and great-nephew of former President John F Kennedy.

Joe Kennedy.
Joe Kennedy. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters

In his speech, Kennedy painted a picture of a starkly different America than the one Trump described in the preceding hours. He spoke of: “Russia knee-deep in our democracy. An all-out war on environmental protection. A Justice Department rolling back civil rights by the day. Hatred and supremacy proudly marching in our streets.”

While he did not mention Trump by name, Kennedy also took a veiled shot at the president’s demeanor.

“Bullies may land a punch. They might leave a mark,” he said.

“But they have never, not once, in the history of our United States, managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defense of their future.”

Sanders, who streamed his own response live on Facebook and YouTube, took more direct aim at the president and explicitly criticized “the divisiveness, dishonesty, and racism” under Trump.

“The American people do not want a president who is compulsively dishonest, who is a bully, who actively represents the interests of the billionaire class, who is anti-science,” Sanders said, “and who is trying to divide us up based on the color of our skin, our nation of origin, our religion, our gender, or our sexual orientation.”

Every Democrat made a point to underscore the plight of Dreamers, the roughly 700,000 young, undocumented immigrants brought to the US as children. Their status was thrown into limbo last September when Trump announced plans to rescind an Obama-era program that enabled Dreamers to live and work legally in the US.

“The President has attacked those who are most vulnerable, ending protections for families fleeing persecution, from wars and from natural disasters,” Guzman said.

Kennedy also addressed Dreamers directly, speaking in both Spanish and English.

“You are a part of our story,” he said. “We will fight for you. We will not walk away.”

These were the top-tweeted moments during the State of the Union address, according to Twitter:

  1. @POTUS: “We stand for the national anthem”
  2. @POTUS discusses immigration reform proposals
  3. @POTUS discusses MS-13

If you’re hungry for more quality television, Jimmy Kimmel is up next...

Kennedy: ‘Out of many: one’

He says the “state of our union is hopeful, resilient and enduring.” And he’s done.

Heh.

Here’s the motorcade returning from Capitol Hill:

Meanwhile, Kennedy:

“This is not right,” Kennedy says. “This is not who we are.”

The line is applauded. They must have a few hundred Democrats in there. “It would be easy to dismiss this last year’s chaos as partisan politics. But it’s far greater than that.”

He doesn’t name Trump, but he describes an “American promise” broken by an administration “turning American life into a zero-sum game where for one to win, another must lose.”

He’s pretty forceful in this bit. “We’re bombarded with one false choice after another. Coal miners or single moms... the coast or the heartland...” He describes “a system forcefully rigged for those at the top.” He talks about parents of transgender children and of opioid addicts.

“Here is the answer Democrats offer tonight: we choose both.”

“We choose both.” There’s the slogan. Does that work?

Democratic reaction: Joe Kennedy

Here’s Representative Kennedy.

He’s in a Massachusetts garage, with a car on a jack, hood up, behind him and everything. It’s a technical school. They’ve supplied him with an applauding audience, in a shift from the more fireside-chat style of previous SOTU responses.

He’s talking about the tenacity of the city – Fall River, Massachusetts.

He’s notably not wearing a jacket. He does look like he’s wearing a ton of lipstick – is that fair to say? His lips are glistening.

He’s saying the economy fails to give workers their fair share.

Then he says “Russia: knee-deep in our democracy.” That’s the first we’ve heard of Russia tonight.

From the comments: reactions

User avatar for lovejoype9
This comment has been chosen by Guardian staff because it contributes to the debate

It's like watching something out of North Korea or any other totalitarian regime.

Delegates standing and applauding propaganda.

How utterly dismal. Where did robust democracy go? It's it really so vulnerable to misinformation?

User avatar for Wolframite
This comment has been chosen by Guardian staff because it contributes to the debate

The Democrats look like they passed around a bushel of lemons to suck on before they got there.

User avatar for KLexpat
This comment has been chosen by Guardian staff because it contributes to the debate

Managed just 5 minutes. Could not stand to watch any longer. Orchestrated theatrical Hollywood style rubbish. Like an Oscar ceremony, minus the Oscars. Tedious and sycophantic beyond belief.

User avatar for Ian Russell
This comment has been chosen by Guardian staff because it contributes to the debate

Why does he keep applauding himself?

Reactions:

Twitter says tonight’s speech was “the most-tweeted #SOTU or #JointSession address ever, passing last year’s record of 3m tweets.”

About 80 minutes even, he spoke. One-third again longer than Obama but short of the full Clinton.

There’s another USA! USA! chant at the end. Some last applause.

Trump steps down from the rostrum. He shakes some hands on the way out.

So – what did you think?

The MAGA line is a winner for the Republican side.

Here’s the finish:

As long as we are proud of who we are, and what we are fighting for, there is nothing we cannot achieve.

As long as we have confidence in our values, faith in our citizens, and trust in our God, we will not fail.

Our families will thrive.

Our people will prosper.

And our Nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free.

Thank you, and God bless America. Goodnight.

Updated

Fact check: indefinite detention

Terrorists are not merely criminals. They are unlawful enemy combatants. And when captured overseas, they should be treated like the terrorists they are.

In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield -- including the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi.

So today, I am keeping another promise. I just signed an order directing Secretary Mattis to reexamine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay.

The president is making a claim that has been debated in legal circles since Guantánamo Bay first received prisoners from the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan: the legal status of the people detained there. Trump argues that they are enemy combatants and not simply criminals, and that the military should be able to detain them indefinitely.

For over four months, the Trump has detained an American citizen without charge under this premise, and attempted to deny his habeas corpus rights.

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadu, the rarely seen leader of Isis, was captured not long after the US invasion of Iraq and during the rise of al-Qaida in Iraq, the terror cell in which he became a central figure. He was released from a US detention facility in Iraq in 2004, and went on to eventually help transform al-Qaida in Iraq into Isis.

Updated

Trump: the people are making America great again

Trump works his campaign slogan into this part:

Americans fill the world with art and music. They push the bounds of science and discovery. And they forever remind us of what we should never forget: The people dreamed this country. The people built this country. And it is the people who are making America great again.

Trump is moving toward his conclusion. It’s an elegiac passage narrating the American myth. He is talking about the statue of freedom about the Capitol Dome. Here’s the text:

She stands tall and dignified among the monuments to our ancestors who fought and lived and died to protect her.

Monuments to Washington and Jefferson -- to Lincoln and King.

Memorials to the heroes of Yorktown and Saratoga -- to young Americans who shed their blood on the shores of Normandy, and the fields beyond. And others, who went down in the waters of the Pacific and the skies over Asia.

And freedom stands tall over one more monument: this one. This Capitol. This living monument to the American people.

There’s a USA! USA! chant that breaks the mood a bit.

As Donald Trump delivered his State of the Union address on Tuesday, several members of Congress wore black to draw attention to the watershed #MeToo movement around sexual harassment and misconduct.

The lawmakers, most of whom were Democratic women, said they were donning black to reaffirm their commitment to combating sexual misconduct. The show of solidarity comes weeks after celebrities almost uniformly dressed in black at the 2018 Golden Globes in a similar display of support for #MeToo.

Lois Frankel, a congresswoman from Florida who chairs the Democratic Women’s Working Group, told Vox the goal was to send “a message of solidarity with those who are seeking economic security and a cultural shift that enables men and women to work side by side, in safety and dignity, free of sexual harassment, and be paid fairly for the value of their work.”

The #MeToo moment of reckoning, borne in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, has brought down a series of powerful men across several industries.

The political arena has not been spared, with allegations of misconduct forcing Senator Al Franken and Congressman John Conyers, both Democrats, out of Congress. Representative Trent Franks, a Republican from Arizona, was also forced to resign after it was revealed he behaved inappropriately with female staffers.

Members of both parties have banded together to push legislation designed to overhaul the process for reporting harassment on Capitol Hill. Until now, cases have largely been settled in secret using US taxpayer dollars. Victims have been forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, effectively silencing them from coming forward to publicly report abuse or misconduct.

Trump has himself been accused of sexual assault by as many as 17 women. He has denied the claims.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus also made a statement by wearing red pins in honor of the late Recy Taylor, a black Alabama woman who in 1944 was raped by six white men.

Although the men admitted to assaulting Taylor, two all-white, all-male grand juries declined to indict them. Taylor, who died in December, was memorialized earlier this month by Oprah Winfrey in her viral speech at the Golden Globes.

Members of Congress wear black in solidarity with sexual harassment victims at the State of the Union.
Members of Congress wear black in solidarity with sexual harassment victims at the State of the Union. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Trump now launches into what looks to about a 16-paragraph passage about North Korea, fairly bellicose, referring to the “depraved character of the North Korean regime” and saying “I will not repeat the mistakes of past administrations that got us into this dangerous position.”

The parents of Otto Warmbier, the American student tortured in North Korea who died shortly after he returned to the United States last year, are in the chamber along with his brother and sister.

Trump tells his story and promises to honor his memory. His parents are standing and look very sad, crying.

Trump tells another story about North Korean defector Ji Seong-ho, who Trump says “traveled thousands of miles on crutches across China and Southeast Asia to freedom.”

He lifts a pair of crutches high and is cheered. He keeps the crutches up. It’s a powerful image.

Trump: 'America stands with the people of Iran'

Trump:

When the people of Iran rose up against the crimes of their corrupt dictatorship, I did not stay silent. America stands with the people of Iran in their courageous struggle for freedom.

I am asking the Congress to address the fundamental flaws in the terrible Iran nuclear deal.

No details there.

Trump says US aid should only go to 'friends'

This line is heartily applauded:

Last month, I also took an action endorsed unanimously by the Senate just months before: I recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Then Trump suggests it’s a mistake for the United States to send money to countries that vote against US positions at the United Nations:

Shortly afterwards, dozens of countries voted in the United Nations General Assembly against America’s sovereign right to make this recognition. American taxpayers generously send those same countries billions of dollars in aid every year.

That is why, tonight, I am asking the Congress to pass legislation to help ensure American foreign-assistance dollars always serve American interests, and only go to America’s friends.

Trump orders Guantánamo prison 'open'

Trump promises to refill the Guantanamo prison:

In the past, we have foolishly released hundreds of dangerous terrorists, only to meet them again on the battlefield -- including the ISIS leader, al-Baghdadi.

So today, I am keeping another promise. I just signed an order directing Secretary Mattis, who is doing a great job, thank you –

Here Trump is interrupted by applause...

... to reexamine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities at Guantánamo Bay.”

That line gets an audible “Yeah!” from the Republican side, and clapping.

Trump praises an army staff sergeant, Justin Peck, who risked his life to save a comrade in Iraq and was awarded a Bronze Star. Peck is standing behind the first lady. He receives the waves of enthusiastic applause stoically and shakes Melania Trump’s hand.

Updated

In that immigration section of the speech Trump declared that “Americans are dreamers too”.

The statement, which has the air of the “White Lives Matter” response to the Black Lives Matter movement, is getting rave reviews from conservatives on Twitter.

But it has also inspired progressives, and the phrase “Dreamers are Americans too” is now trending.

Updated

Trump moves on to national security. He calls for more military funding. Then he moves to nuclear policy:

As part of our defense, we must modernize and rebuild our nuclear arsenal, hopefully never having to use it, but making it so strong and powerful that it will deter any acts of aggression. Perhaps someday in the future there will be a magical moment when the countries of the world will get together to eliminate their nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, we are not there yet, sadly.

This is applauded, for some reason. Trump says he has pretty much eliminated Isis territory:

Last year, I also pledged that we would work with our allies to extinguish ISIS from the face of the Earth. One year later, I am proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated almost 100 percent of the territory once held by these killers in Iraq and Syria, and in other locations as well.

Likewise applauded.

Here’s a remarkable story Trump now tells about the couple standing, with baby, next to Melania Trump:

We see a vivid expression of this truth in the story of the Holets family of New Mexico. Ryan Holets is 27 years old, and an officer with the Albuquerque Police Department. He is here tonight with his wife Rebecca. Last year, Ryan was on duty when he saw a pregnant, homeless woman preparing to inject heroin. When Ryan told her she was going to harm her unborn child, she began to weep. She told him she did not know where to turn, but badly wanted a safe home for her baby.

In that moment, Ryan said he felt God speak to him: “You will do it -- because you can.” He took out a picture of his wife and their four kids. Then, he went home to tell his wife Rebecca. In an instant, she agreed to adopt. The Holets named their new daughter Hope.

Ryan and Rebecca: You embody the goodness of our Nation. Thank you, and congratulations.

All kinds of applause for the story. It sounds more earnest, if applause can. Trump thanks Ryan and Rebecca again.

Fact check: drugs

In 2016, we lost 64,000 Americans to drug overdoses: 174 deaths per day. Seven per hour. We must get much tougher on drug dealers and pushers if we are going to succeed in stopping this scourge.

The US is continuing to suffer a drug crisis of unprecedented proportions, with fentanyl and synthetic drugs entering the US from China, heroin from Mexico, and prescription opioids produced by American pharmaceutical companies. There were likely more than 64,000 fatal drug overdoses in the US in 2016, part of a steady increase over the last decade and a total of deaths greater than the number of American fatalities in the Vietnam war. Trump has declared the crisis a public health problem but declined to call it a “national emergency,” a designation that would open up immediate funds for treatment and prevention. The president has also chosen controversial figures to be top health officials, including a former pharmaceutical executive and a 24-year-old former campaign aide.

Tracking drug smuggling is an imprecise science; according to Customs and Border Protection, marijuana seizures fell 31% from fiscal year 2016 to fiscal year 2017, but cocaine and heroin seizures increased by 70%. Cracking down on “drug dealers and pushers”, as the president suggests, would not confront the problem of prescription drug addiction or shipments from unregulated laboratories in China.

Notably in that section on immigration policy, Trump added a line in which he proposed a 12-year period for a path to citizenship for Dreamers, which was not in the text.

Now Trump is on to the opioid epidemic.

These reforms will also support our response to the terrible crisis of opioid and drug addiction.

In 2016, we lost 64,000 Americans to drug overdoses: 174 deaths per day. Seven per hour. We must get much tougher on drug dealers and pushers if we are going to succeed in stopping this scourge.

My Administration is committed to fighting the drug epidemic and helping get treatment for those in need. The struggle will be long and difficult -- but, as Americans always do, we will prevail.

Fact check: visas

The third pillar [of Trump’s immigration plan] ends the visa lottery -- a program that randomly hands out green cards without any regard for skill, merit, or the safety of our people. It is time to begin moving towards a merit-based immigration system -- one that admits people who are skilled, who want to work, who will contribute to our society, and who will love and respect our country.

The fourth and final pillar protects the nuclear family by ending chain migration. Under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives. Under our plan, we focus on the immediate family by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children. This vital reform is necessary, not just for our economy, but for our security, and our future.

The visa lottery is not a wholly random system without regard for merit.

Trump has repeatedly disparaged family visa sponsorship and the lottery visa program, saying the legal programs allow dangerous people to enter the US. (The president’s own ancestors followed their relatives who had immigrated to the US.) He has also claimed that foreign nations like Mexico “send” people to the US, a clear falsehood except in extradition cases in which American authorities have requested a fugitive.

The US State Department, with help from security agencies, runs the visa lottery program, has minimum requirements of two years work experience and at least a high school education, subjects applicants to background checks and security interviews, and relies on a computer to randomly select visa recipients.

Fact check: immigration and crime

For decades, open borders have allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our most vulnerable communities. They have allowed millions of low-wage workers to compete for jobs and wages against the poorest Americans. Most tragically, they have caused the loss of many innocent lives.

Trump has insisted for years on a link between immigrants and crime, but decades of research do not support the theory, and some studies suggest that undocumented people are less likely than native-born citizens to commit crimes. The president’s claims about violent crime and immigrants are baseless.

The modern US has never had “open borders”. Barack Obama’s administration, for example, deported more people than any previous administration, and greatly expanded the staffing for border security.

A 2016 study by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, a nonpartisan research organization found that immigrants do not take jobs from native-born Americans.

The report also found that first-generation immigrants cost federal and local governments between $43bn and $279bn in spending, largely on education – a huge range with many variables. The children of those immigrants become greater taxpayers and add about $30bn a year to the economy, according to the report, making those newly native Americans “among the strongest economic and fiscal contributors in the US population, according to the report.

It concluded that immigration has a “general positive” effect on the federal level but can have positive or negative effects, depending on the circumstances, at the local level.

Updated

Fact check: Isis and the FDA

I’m proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated almost 100 percent of the territory once held by these killers in Iraq and Syria.

The president appears to be drawing from a December Fox News report citing unnamed US military officials; after the recapture of Mosul, a State Department spokesman, Brett McGurk, said last August that the terror group had lost 22% of its territory in Iraq and 42% of its territory in Syria. Two months later its holdings had shrunk further, to roughly the size of Portugal.

Trump has given more freedom to Pentagon generals to authorize missions and strikes than his predecessor, but he has largely continued Barack Obama’s campaign strategies in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Africa, relying heavily on bombing campaigns and special forces. The terror group Isis has lost a large amount of territory since Trump took office, a continuation of its defeats over the past few years. It has changed tactics with the losses, encouraging so-called “lone wolf” actors and orchestrating terror attacks abroad.

Isis has also faced an increased pace of bombing by Russian forces, in support of the strengthened Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, who has turned his armies toward the group after defeating other rebel forces. Kurdish forces have continued to fight Isis as well, even as the Turkish military has turned fire on them both.

To speed access to breakthrough cures and affordable generic drugs, last year the FDA approved more new and generic drugs and medical devices than ever before in our history.

This claim comes from Trump’s own department of human and health services; it is true that the FDA has approved drugs at a breathtaking pace over the last year, raising concerns about the safety of new pharmaceuticals.

As tax cuts create new jobs, let us invest in workforce development and job training.

Whether tax cuts create jobs has been one of the most frequent debates among economists over the last 40 years; one 65-year study found little evidence to support the theory, for instance, and Kansas, a recent experiment in cutting taxes and regulations, has struggled to create jobs or pay for basic services in recent years.

Trump lays out four-part immigration plan

After that wrenching story, Trump lays out an immigration plan with four pillars:

One: “a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants who were brought here by their parents at a young age”

Two: “fully secures the border. That means building a wall on the Southern border, and it means hiring more heroes like [Homeland security special agent] CJ Martinez to keep our communities safe.

Three: “ends the visa lottery -- a program that randomly hands out green cards without any regard for skill, merit, or the safety of our people.”

Four: “protects the nuclear family by ending chain migration. Under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives [audible hisses here from members of Congress?] Under our plan, we focus on the immediate family by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children.”

Update: here’s what we heard:

Updated

Donald Trump on Tuesday outlined his vision for an immigration deal that would create a pathway to citizenship for 1.8 million undocumented immigrants who were brought to the country as children.

But the proposal clashes fiercely with Republican immigration hardliners in Congress who have balked at the overture, panning it “amnesty”. Conservative obstinance has added more uncertainty to already fraught negotiations over the futures of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants whose legal protections were put in jeopardy when Trump ended a program that allowed them to live and work in the US without fear of deportation.

“We presented the Congress with a detailed proposal that should be supported by both parties as a fair compromise -- one where nobody gets everything they want, but where our country gets the critical reforms it needs,” Trump said on Tuesday.

The White House proposal includes sweeping reform to the US legal immigration and dramatically boosts funding for security along the US borders. The plan would restrict family-based immigration and eliminate the State Department’s diversity visa lottery in an effort to move the country to a merit-based immigration system, changes that opponents argue will disproportionately impact immigrants of color.

“These four pillars will produce legislation that fulfills my ironclad pledge to only sign a bill that puts America first,” Trump said. “So let us come together, set politics aside, and finally get the job done.”

But negotiations on Capitol Hill are proceeding on separate tracks, with a bipartisan group in the Senate working on a plan that could be presented as a counter-offer to the White House framework. But another group comprised of the bipartisan deputies in the House and Senate have reported little progress. This group is important because an immigration proposal will ultimately need to pass the House, where a recalcitrant but powerful group of immigration hardliners have refused support a plan that offers undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship. The House Republican leadership is under pressure by the group to only bring legislation to the floor that could secure support from a majority of the caucus.

Seated in the audience were dozens of young Dreamers who braved the threat of deportation to attend the State of the Union as guests of Democratic lawmakers and at least on Republican. Some Democrats groaned as Trump detailed his plans to restrict legal immigration and mischaracterized the vetting process for the diversity visa lottery.

Earlier on Tuesday, Arizona congressman Paul Gosar urged law enforcement to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants. It was unclear if any Dreamers in attendance would have been vulnerable to such enforcement practices.

Updated

Trump spotlights victims' families and evokes 'deadly' immigration loopholes

Now even more sustained applause from Republicans, as Trump introduces the families of two teens killed on Long Island in 2016 by “savage” gang members, he says.

“Many of these gang members took advantage of glaring loopholes in our laws to enter the country as unaccompanied alien minors ‑- and wound up in Kayla and Nisa’s high school,” he says, naming the victims.

Then he gestures to their families:

Evelyn, Elizabeth, Freddy, and Robert: Tonight, everyone in this chamber is praying for you. Everyone in America is grieving for you.

I want you to know that 320 million hearts are right now breaking for you. We love you, thank you.

Then he ties the crimes to immigration policy:

While we cannot imagine the depth of your sorrow, we can make sure that other families never have to endure this pain. Tonight, I am calling on the Congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed MS-13, and other criminals, to break into our country. We have proposed new legislation that will fix our immigration laws, and support our ICE and Border Patrol Agents – these are great people, these are grea great people that work so hard in the midst of such danger – so that this –”

Here Trump gestures to the families –

cannot ever happen again.”

Trump continues to talk about gangs and immigrants for many minutes.

Trump might be getting applause in the room, but he got a very different hand gesture on his way to the Capitol. MSNBC captured a protester along Trump’s route from the White House appearing to thrust a middle finger in Trump’s direction.


Of course, it’s not the first time this has happened.

Trump calls for paid family leave and prison reform

Trump calls for paid family leave, then turns to the Democratic side and puts his hands to his ears, as if to ask, where’s the applause?

Let us open great vocational schools so our future workers can learn a craft and realize their full potential. And let us support working families by supporting paid family leave.

Then he calls for prison reform. As his attorney general restores mandatory minimum sentencing and private prisons boom:

As America regains its strength, this opportunity must be extended to all citizens. That is why this year we will embark on reforming our prisons to help former inmates who have served their time get a second chance at life.

Fact check: trade and the Empire State Building

America has also finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs, and our nation’s wealth.

Trump has fulfilled his promise to abandon the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade pact the Obama administration hoped could strengthen ties between nations such as Japan, Vietnam and Australia and curb Chinese influence in the Pacific. He has not abandoned the North American Free Trade Association (Nafta), however, or had much success negotiating one-on-one trade deals around the world.

Free trade has affected US manufacturing, though in a mix of pros and cons that make it all but impossible to use the sweeping language as the president does here. Since China joined the WTO in 2001, the US has massively increased cheap imports from China, according to the Census Bureau, and lost 2.4 million manufacturing jobs, according to a report by Economic Policy Institute (EPI), for example.

But trade deals are only part of the story. Manufacturing jobs started declining in 1997, years before China’s entry into the WTO (though three years after its trade status changed with the US), and researchers have questioned EPI’s conclusions. Despite the decline in jobs, manufacturing has become more productive, suggesting that automation and not trade deals were the cause of most job losses. In other words, few agree about how many jobs moved for which reasons. The same goes for Nafta, though a Congressional Research Service report concluded it “did not cause the huge job losses feared by the critics or the large economic gains predicted by supporters”. Its net effect “appears to have been relatively modest.”

A building under construction is seen in front of the Empire State Building in New York.
A building under construction is seen in front of the Empire State Building in New York. Photograph: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

America is a nation of builders. We built the Empire State Building in just one year – isn’t it a disgrace that it can now take ten years just to get a permit approved for a simple road?

Almost. The Empire State Building was built in one year and 45 days.

It’s not clear what part of the country the president believes it takes 10 years to obtain a permit for a road, but he appears to have drawn the notion from a Brooklyn-based group that has urged the White House to slash building regulations, especially those set by the Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Trump has been speaking for about 35 minutes.

Be advised that, according to a quick scroll through his prepared remarks, he has a long way yet to go.

Fact check: regulations

In our drive to make Washington accountable, we have eliminated more regulations in our first year than any administration in history.

It’s true that the Trump administration has steadily tried to roll back regulations, but there is no clear way to measure his success compared to previous presidents – regulations are made through a messy process of rule-making and budget maneuvers, court cases, Congress and enforcers.

Trump’s claim to have eliminated more regulations than “any administration in history” also collides with the broad pushes to deregulate airliners and trains in the 1970s and 80s, and several presidents, such as Ronald Reagan, tried to use budgetary measures to neuter regulations without necessarily battling to erase them completely.

According to the Office of Management and Budget, Trump has withdrawn fewer regulations in his first year than Bill Clinton, George W Bush, or Barack Obama did during their presidencies. Earlier this month, the White House claimed that the Trump administration “withdrawn or delayed 1,579 planned regulatory actions”; according to the OMB, Clinton withdrew 1,824; Bush 2,632; and Obama 1,814.

Nor does ordering regulations gone actually erase those regulations. Sometimes presidents must enact a new rule to replace an existing one, opening the door to court battles, and there is a complex review process behind regulations to make sure they fit with laws. Trump’s attempts to repeal environmental rules, for instance, have already landed him in court over a debate that he is acting recklessly and without scientific evidence.

The Trump administration has, however, has worked with Congress to use an obscure 1996 law, the Congressional Review Act, to rescind more than a dozen rules enacted late in the Obama administration. The law had only been used once before.

Trump asks for $1.5tn for new infrastructure

Trump:

I am asking both parties to come together to give us the safe, fast, reliable, and modern infrastructure our economy needs and our people deserve.

Tonight, I am calling on the Congress to produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment that our country so desperately needs.

Every Federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with State and local governments and, where appropriate, tapping into private sector investment -- to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit, and we can do it.

The applause for those lines was more lackluster. The Republicans kind of teeter to their feet. The Democrats sit blinking.

Fact check: coal, energy and cars

We have ended the war on American energy -- and we have ended the war on clean coal. We are now an exporter of energy to the world.

Thanks to a natural gas boom over the last 15 years, the US has become a global energy power to rival oil states around the world. This success of natural gas – cheaper, more accessible and comparatively cleaner than coal – has marginalized the coal industry, limiting Trump’s efforts to save the industry.

As automation has spread across many US industries, coal jobs and production declined for decades, collapsing 33% from 2011 to 2016, according to studies by Columbia University and the Department of Energy, largely due to competition from natural gas and a shift away from coal in Asia.

Trump has tried, however, to resurrect coal’s fading fortunes. With Republicans in Congress he rescinded a rule that tried to keep coal mining waste out of waterways; he ordered a revocation of Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, which put strict new regulations on mining and favored renewable energies; and he lifted a ban on mining leases on federal land. And in 2017, coal exports hugely increased compared to 2016, according to the Energy Information Association. Still, there has only been about 1% growth in coal jobs over the last year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The phrase “clean coal,” coined by the coal industry and briefly taken up by Obama, is itself controversial. The term applies not to any coal itself but power plants that remove heavy metal pollutants in the burning process and bury carbon emissions in the earth. Even such “clean” coal-fired plants still emit large levels of pollutants, however.

In Detroit, I halted government mandates that crippled America’s autoworkers -- so we can get the Motor City revving its engines once again.

Detroit filed for bankruptcy in 2013, but the US auto industry was one of the first American sectors to bounce back from the 2008 financial crisis, enough so that Barak Obama was touting its revival in 2010.

Many car companies are now building and expanding plants in the United States -- something we have not seen for decades. Chrysler is moving a major plant from Mexico to Michigan; Toyota and Mazda are opening up a plant in Alabama. Soon, plants will be opening up all over the country. This is all news Americans are unaccustomed to hearing -- for many years, companies and jobs were only leaving us.

Chrysler is not moving any plant from Mexico; it is keeping the Mexican factory and investing in a Michigan one. Toyota-Mazda have planned for a $1.6bn factory in Alabama, to open in several years. Several of the plans Trump is touting have been in development for several years and the US has steadily increased jobs since 2010, according to the same Bureau of Labor Statistics figures the president earlier cited.

Guess which line of those below was a Trump improvisation?

America has also finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs, and our wealth.

The nations has lost its wealth but we’re getting it back so fast.

The era of economic surrender is over. From now on, we expect trading relationships to be fair and more importantly reciprocal.

Trump says he has “directed my Administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one my our top priorities for the year.”

“And prices will come down substantially, watch.”

Trump says “we have ended the war on clean coal.”

The reaction to this seemingly endless stream of purported triumphs is repetitive and reflective of the political split at large. One side stands to applaud, the other sits and glares.

Trump keeps going:

We have ended the war on American Energy -- and we have ended the war on clean coal. We are now an exporter of energy to the world. ...

Many car companies are now building and expanding plants in the United States -- something we have not seen for decades. Chrysler is moving a major plant from Mexico to Michigan; Toyota and Mazda are opening up a plant in Alabama. Soon, plants will be opening up all over the country. This is all news Americans are unaccustomed to hearing -- for many years, companies and jobs were only leaving us. But now they are coming back.

That flag comment hasn’t gone unnoticed.

According to his prepared remarks, Trump will mention “flag” five times this evening.

Trump continues with an applause line about rolling back regulations:

In our drive to make Washington accountable, we have eliminated more regulations in our first year than any administration in the history of our country.

Trump has just breezed through applause lines about his judicial appointment, guns and veterans.

“I will not stop until our veterans are properly taken care of, which has been my promise to them from the very beginning of this great journey” he says. That’s verbatim from the prepared remarks.

Fact check: bonuses and veterans affairs

Trump:

Since we passed tax cuts, roughly 3 million workers have already gotten tax cut bonuses -- many of them thousands of dollars per worker.

It’s true that several large corporations, such as Apple, Bank of America and Walmart, gave thousands of minimum-wage employees bonuses in the range of hundreds to a few thousand dollars, which they said were linked to the new tax plan. Those bonuses respectively cost the companies $300m, $145m, and $400m – pennies compared to the savings bestowed by the new tax plan on large corporations: Apple will likely save a minimum of $40bn from the tax cuts; Bank of America $2.7bn, and Walmart $4bn.

Trump:

Last year, the Congress passed, and I signed, the landmark VA Accountability Act. Since its passage, my Administration has already removed more than 1,500 VA employees who failed to give our veterans the care they deserve -- and we are hiring talented people who love our vets as much as we do.

The Trump administration had fired at least 1,322 people from the department of Veterans Affairs last year, according to the agency and an accounting by Military Times. Given its pace of removals last year, it would be on track to remove around 1,500 employees by the end of January 2018.

Trump with dig at NFL protesters

Now this gets a cheer, and the most sustained applause of the evening so far – two standing ovations. Trump takes a swipe at NFL protests of police violence against African Americans:

Preston’s reverence for those who have served our Nation reminds us why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the pledge of allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem.

Huge cheer and audible hurrays from the Republican side.

Here comes the patriotic firehose. Trump says “we celebrate our police, our military, and our amazing veterans as heroes who deserve our total and unwavering support.”

Everybody stands to clap for that.

Then Trump tells the story of a preteen in the audience, who happens to be seated next to the first lady:

Here tonight is Preston Sharp, a 12-year-old boy from Redding, California, who noticed that veterans’ graves were not marked with flags on Veterans Day. He decided to change that, and started a movement that has now placed 40,000 flags at the graves of our great heroes. Preston: a job well done.

This is all perfectly faithful to prepared remarks that were released after Trump began, by the way. Trump so far is rather assiduously on-Prompter. Except for the text in bold below which he added:

Young patriots like Preston teach all of us about our civic duty as Americans. And I met Preston a little while ago, and he is something very special, let me tell you. Great future.

Updated

Fact check: tax cuts

Trump:

We enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history. Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small businesses.

To lower tax rates for hardworking Americans, we nearly doubled the standard deduction for everyone. Now, the first $24,000 earned by a married couple is completely tax-free. We also doubled the child tax credit.

A typical family of four making $75,000 will see their tax bill reduced by $2,000 -- slashing their tax bill in half.

This April will be the last time you ever file under the old broken system -- and millions of Americans will have more take-home pay starting next month … We repealed the core of disastrous Obamacare -- the individual mandate is now gone.

The tax cut signed into law last month is not the largest in American history, but the eighth largest, at about 0.9% of the gross domestic product. In 1981, Ronald Reagan signed the largest cut, at 2.89% of GDP.

The $1.1tn tax cut will theoretically mean lower taxes for every income bracket in 2019, but it is misleading to suggest that those cuts will last for everyone.

Over time the cuts disproportionately save money for the wealthiest Americans. Some of the tax cuts phase out in 2025, meaning that by 2027 Americans earning less than $75,000 will see tax increases, while those earning more than $75,000 will see continued savings. More than 75% of the savings will go to people who earn more than $200,000, according to Moody’s, or about 5% of taxpayers.

Meanwhile Americans in the top 1% of earners will save hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, through the cuts, according to the Tax Policy Center. The president’s family could save as much as $11m, according to an analysis by the New York Times. The tax plan also eliminated the estate tax, which only affected a few thousand extremely families with extraordinary wealth, and it is expected to add $1tn to the national debt.

Trump is correct that the tax overhaul also repealed the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act.

Trump:

We slashed the business tax rate from 35% all the way down to 21%, so American companies can compete and win against anyone in the world. These changes alone are estimated to increase average family income by more than $4,000.

Before last December’s tax cuts, the US had one of the highest corporate tax rates, a federal rate of 35% that could reach 39.1% with state taxes; the effective rate was 27.1%. The cuts reduced them to 21%; few corporations actually pay at the rate, instead using loopholes and deductions to pay far less. It is false that the US ranked highest among developed countries for personal income rates or for tax revenue as GDP, according to the OECD. As a percent of GDP, the US ranks in the bottom third of those nations.

Fact check: stock market

Small business confidence is at an all-time high. The stock market has smashed one record after another, gaining $8 trillion in value. That is great news for Americans’ 401k, retirement, pension, and college savings accounts.

It’s true that the stock market is booming: the Dow Jones surpassed a record 26,000 points and saw its fastest-ever 1,000-point gain during the last year.

The stock market is not the economy, however, failing as it does to count for other factors such as largely stagnant wages and growing inequality. A Federal Reserve report published last year, for instance, found that the wealthiest 1% of American families controlled 38.6% of the country’s wealth in 2016.

And while a president might encourage investors with business-friendly policies – or alarm them with sudden, apparently new statements from his advisers – they have mostly indirect influence on the stock market.

Dow since Obama's inauguration in 2009
Dow since Obama’s inauguration in 2009

Trump heralds 'new American moment'

Trump is still going on the tax cuts, making extraordinary claims for the law.

Since we passed tax cuts, roughly 3 million workers have already gotten tax cut bonuses -- many of them thousands of dollars per worker. Apple has just announced it plans to invest a total of $350 billion in America, and hire another 20,000 workers.

And just a little while ago, ExxonMobil announced a $50bn investment in the United States.

Here’s the “new American moment” part:

This is our new American moment. There has never been a better time to start living the American Dream.

So to every citizen watching at home tonight -- no matter where you have been, or where you come from, this is your time. If you work hard, if you believe in yourself, if you believe in America, then you can dream anything, you can be anything, and together, we can achieve absolutely anything.

Republicans clap, Democrats sit.

Donald Trump delivering the State of the Union address.
Donald Trump delivering the State of the Union address. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images

Trump introduces a pair of small business owners in the audience he says have already benefitted from tax reform.

Steve Staub and Sandy Keplinger look hugely proud, with both rows of teeth visible in glowing smiles. They stand and give a thumbs up a la Trump, who says:

Here tonight are Steve Staub and Sandy Keplinger of Staub Manufacturing -- a small business in Ohio. They have just finished the best year in their 20-year history. Because of tax reform, they are handing out raises, hiring an additional 14 people, and expanding into the building next door.

Another big applause line, for Republicans – this time with regard to the Obamacare individual mandate repeal.

Trump bobbles the word a bit, saying something like “Opamacare”. He’s applauded anyway:

We repealed the core of disastrous Obamacare -- the individual mandate is now gone.

Fact check: jobs

Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone. After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages.

Trump is counting jobs since election day 2016, about two months before he became president. About 1.8m Americans have found jobs since Trump’s inauguration, averaging over 11 months at slowest rate of hiring since 2010. The unemployment rate in December 2017 was 4.1%, a 17-year low around the country and an 18-year low in some cities. He is correct that wages started to rise, in a faltering way, since 2016.

African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded, and Hispanic American unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history.

It is true that the unemployment rate for African Americans reached a record low in December 2017, dropping to 6.8% (the previous lows were 7% in April 2000 and September 2017). The unemployment rate for Hispanic Americans is not a record, but close to it, at 4.9% last month; the record is 4.8% in October 2017. Before he was elected and began to cite them, Trump repeatedly derided these unemployment numbers, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, calling them “fake” and “nonsense”.

Whether the president can take credit for these unemployment rates is more complicated, and tied up in the knotty, ambiguous question of how much any president can directly affect the economy, or only indirectly affect it through regulations, stimulus packages, and other measures.

Unemployment across all demographics declined from 2010 to 2016, during six years of Barack Obama’s presidency. African American unemployment more than halved, from a 16.6% peak in April 2010 to 7.8% in January 2017; Hispanic American unemployment reached similarly fell from 13% in August 2009 to 5.9% in January 2017. Neither president can take sole credit for producing those jobs.

Business editor Dominic Rushe adds:

The US added 2.1 million jobs in 2017 and the unemployment rate, at 4.1%, is at a 17 year low. But the major gains in the jobs market were made under Obama who, again, took over during the worst recession since the Great Depression.

The US added 11.48 million jobs under Obama and the unemployment rate, which peaked at 10% in 2009, fell to 4.8%. If this is anyone’s jobs market, it’s still Obama’s. Nor is it as great as the headline numbers suggest. There are still huge numbers of people out of the job market and pockets of deep unemployment in the US. And wage growth, slow under Obama, is still sluggish.

Here’s a recent look at the true state of the US jobs market:

Trump touts stock strength, tax cuts

Trump:

Small business confidence is at an all-time high. The stock market has smashed one record after another, gaining $8 trillion in value. That is great news for Americans’ 401k, retirement, pension, and college savings accounts.

And just as I promised the American people from this podium 11 months ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history.

The tax cuts line has Republicans on their feet for sustained applause. The other half of the chamber is not impressed.

Here’s the bit where Trump talks about economic strength:

And together, we are building a safe, strong, and proud America.

Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone. After years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages.

Unemployment claims have hit a 45-year low. And something I’m very proud of: African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded..

Somebody screams, audibly and somewhat coarsely, Hooray! as Republicans stand to clap.

...and Hispanic American unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history.”

That gets both sides clapping.

Trump: 'The state of our union is strong'

This settles it, it’s a textbook SOTU:

Over the last year, the world has seen what we always knew: that no people on Earth are so fearless, or daring, or determined as Americans. If there is a mountain, we climb it. If there is a frontier, we cross it. If there is a challenge, we tame it. If there is an opportunity, we seize it.

So let us begin tonight by recognizing that the state of our Union is strong because our people are strong.

Ironically this was Hillary Clinton’s campaign song:

Trump transitions from stories of emergency response to a description of the work ahead:

In the aftermath of that terrible shooting, we came together, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as representatives of the people. But it is not enough to come together only in times of tragedy. 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.

That line gets uniform Republican applause and some clapping from Democrats.

Donald Trump with vice-president Mike Pence and House speaker Paul Ryan at the State of the Union address.
Donald Trump with vice-president Mike Pence and House speaker Paul Ryan at the State of the Union address. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Trump praises Scalise

Now the first real applause for the night, for Rep Steve Scalise, who was shot last summer at a congressional baseball practice.

Some trials over the past year touched this chamber very personally. With us tonight is one of the toughest people ever to serve in this House – a guy who took a bullet, almost died, and was back to work three and a half months later: the legend from Louisiana, Congressman Steve Scalise.

“I think they like you Steve,” Trump quips.

Trump: 'we will pull through together'

Trump:

To everyone still recovering in Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, California, and everywhere else– we are with you, we love you, and we will always pull through together. Always.

Trump describes “incredible progress” and “extraordinary success” in the last year. He notes floods, fires and other trials.

But through it all we have seen the beauty in America’s soul and the steel in America’s spine.

Trump describes acts of American heroism including the “cajun navy” saving flooding victims and “strangers shielding strangers from the hail of gunfire on the Las Vegas strip.”

Donald Trump arrives for his State of the Union address at the US Capitol.
Donald Trump arrives for his State of the Union address at the US Capitol. Photograph: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Trump begins speech

Here it comes, Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address.

He starts as usual. Mr speaker, Mr vice president, members of congress...

He starts out with a subdued tone. He notes he was no the rostrum less than a year ago.

“A new tide of optimism was already sweeping across our land. Each day since we have gone forward... to make America great again, for all Americans.”

The Republicans stand and applaud. The Democrats sit and stare.

Ryan gavels the assembly to order and introduces Trump. There is a “hooray” and more applause.

The applause from Trump is respectable. It gets him to the rostrum. Up he goes, and a cheer goes up too. He shakes hands with Pence and Ryan and picks up a couple copies of the speech, handing them to those men.

The applause continues. Trump claps too, and points into the audience, and smiles.

Trump enters chamber

“Mr Speaker!” raises the cry. “The president of the United States.”

Trump’s haircut is visible in the scrum at the door, and then he begins to make his way down the aisle, shepherded by House majority leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell. Rep Steve Scalise is in the mix, too.

Also spotted: Rex Tillerson, Steve Mnuchin, Ryan Zinke and Jim Mattis.

First lady Melania Trump arrives at the State of the Union address.
First lady Melania Trump arrives at the State of the Union address. Photograph: J. Scott Applewhite/AP

Here comes the cabinet.

There’s Ben Carson, the Hud secretary, and Mike Mulvaney the budget director. Nikki Haley. Betsy DeVos. Rick Perry. Who else. Scott Pruitt. Jeff Sessions, Elaine Chao.

Here’s another sartorial statement:

Melania Trump has entered the chamber. She is enthusiastically applauded, and she smiles. She’s wearing a cream-colored suit, for those who can’t stand not knowing.

Clinton statement on sexual harassment

Here’s the top:

The most important work of my life has been to support and empower women. I’ve tried to do so here at home, around the world, and in the organizations I’ve run. I started in my twenties, and four decades later I’m nowhere near being done. I’m proud that it’s the work I’m most associated with, and it remains what I’m most dedicated to.

So I very much understand the question I’m being asked as to why I let an employee on my 2008 campaign keep his job despite his inappropriate workplace behavior.

The short answer is this: If I had it to do again, I wouldn’t.

Before giving some of the reasons why I made a different choice back then and why looking back I wish I’d done it differently, here’s what happened and what my thinking was at the time.

Clapping in the chamber as members of the supreme court file in. Roberts, Breyer, Kagan, Gorsuch.

The House chamber is full. Elected officials are passing the time in idle talk. There’s Trey Gowdy talking with senators Tim Scott and Ben Sasse. Devin Nunes looking concerned in conversation with two unidentified and identically balding colleagues.

And Karen Pence makes her entrance.

Updated

The president alone.

More than 40m people are likely to watch the speech as it happens, judging by precedent. About 48m watched Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress last year, and that’s about how many watched Obama’s first SOTU.

Updated

Trump has just boarded his limo for the short ride from the White House up to Capitol Hill, per CNN footage.

He was wearing a blue tie and holding a sheaf of papers. He waves to cameras as the limo pulls out. He’s alone in there – Melania Trump reportedly preceded him to the speech.

Updated

They keep coming. Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are in place. There’s senator Bernie Sanders walking in. Eric Trump and wife Lara are in place, as are Don Jr and Tiffany Trump.

Updated

Video feeds of the House chamber (check the top of the blog) now have the luminaries filing in. There’s Mike Pence: white hair, red tie and a sparkle in his eye. He takes his post next to Paul Ryan, the House speaker, who will sit behind Trump on the rostrum.

Here come a bunch of Democratic senators: Booker, Wyden, Menendez, Flake – oh wait he’s a Republican.

In the room tonight for the Guardian are Washington bureau chief David Smith (@smithinamerica) and politics reporter Ben Jacobs (@bencjacobs).

In the blog you’ll find a full complement of supporting voices, with snap analysis, fact-checking, color commentary and more. Stay tuned!

Try out experimental coverage of this topic

The Guardian Mobile Innovation Lab is testing out an experimental format for coverage of the State of the Union – so if you like experiments... please join!

It’s tailored to you – you’ll only see new information on each visit, and it’s best viewed on phones. Android users with Chrome browsers can also sign up to get notified when there are key updates.

Check it out here.

State of the Union – live Q&A

Join Washington bureau chief David Smith and political reporter Sabrina Siddiqui for a live discussion on the Guardian US Facebook page (RSVP), Wednesday 31 January at 12.30pm ET.

They’ll share their thoughts on Trump’s State of the Union address and answer your questions about covering the Trump administration. Leave your questions via this form.

Kennedy to call out 'bullies' in rebuttal

Our political reporter Sabrina Siddiqui flags excerpts from Rep Kennedy’s planned rebuttal:

Immigrant arrest threat prompts backlash

Dozens of Dreamers will attend the State of the Union despite a threat tweeted by a Republican congressman from Arizona to arrest “illegal aliens.”

Rep Paul Gosar on Tuesday called for the deportation of any undocumented immigrants attending tonight’s state of the union, placing him at odds with Donald Trump and fellow Republicans who have expressed a desire to protect immigrants who arrived in the United States as children but whose status may be in doubt.

“Of all the places where the Rule of Law needs to be enforced, it should be in the hallowed halls of Congress,” Gosar said in a statement ahead of President Donald Trump’s speech. “Any illegal aliens attempting to go through security, under any pretext of invitation or otherwise, should be arrested and deported.”

The comments come as several Democrats and at least one Republican have invited Dreamers to attend the speech.

Gosar’s remarks drew swift condemnation. House minority leader Nancy Pelosi said Gosar was “outside the circle of decency”.

The Guardian was unable to identify any Dreamers who planned to attend as guests of lawmakers whose legal status had expired. Dreamers who are still protected under the DACA program would theoretically not be subject to deportation.

Read further:

Updated

Trump to announce Guantánamo kept open - reports

Donald Trump will announce an executive order reserving the right to move new inmates to the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to multiple reports.

The prison has been heavily criticized for circumventing the constitution, hosting prisoner abuse, damaging US efforts to combat terrorism, violating basic human rights and costing a lot.

Calls for the closure of the prison were a perennial fixture of Barack Obama’s State of the Union addresses.

The last time a prisoner arrived at Guantanamo was in 2008, according to a New York Times tracker. About 780 people have been sent to the prison since 2002. More than 500 were released by president George W Bush. Forty-one remain.

Recent SOTU lowlights

Do you remember when...

2013

Thirsty Marco

2013

Boehner disaster face

2013

MarsRover Bobak

2014

Rep Grimm threatens to throw reporter off balcony

2015

‘I know cause I won both of em’

2015

RBG at rest

Updated

The excerpts of Trump’s speech don’t make mention of the Russia investigations...

It looks like Donald Trump’s speech has cribbed a line from ... Hillary Clinton.

In this excerpts released earlier Trump hailed a “New American Moment”.

It’s a snappy phrase. It’s also a phrase Clinton used in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in 2010, as Tommy Vietor – Barack Obama’s former National Security Council spokesman – has pointed out.

As you might recall, Melania Trump cribbed some of Michelle Obama’s speech at the Republican national convention in 2016.

Democratic women wear black for #MeToo

Members of the Democratic Women’s Working Group in the House plan to wear black tonight, following the lead of entertainers at this year’s Golden Globe awards. The gesture is in support of the #MeToo movement and in protest of the president, who has been accused of sexual misconduct by at least 20 women:

Robin Bell, the projection artist whose previous work includes an installation on Trump’s Washington hotel reading “Pay Trump bribes here,” has a new projection tonight at the scene of the speech:

If Trump’s Twitter feed is anything to go by, he will no doubt boast about his tremendous record with the US stock markets.

The extent to which presidents control the stock markets is highly debatable but there is no arguing with the fact that US markets have hit a series of record highs since he took office.

When Obama left the White House, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the stock market bellwether, stood at around 19,700 and now it’s over a record-breaking 26,000. Hefty gains and driven, so Trump will argue, by a new era of business confidence thanks to his tax cuts and red tape slashing.

But take a longer look and you’ll see his achievements - so far - pale into insignificance compared to Barack Obama’s. When Obama took office, during the worst recession in living memory, the Dow stood at a little under 8,000, meaning it more than doubled under his presidency. That’s a record Trump will find hard to beat.

Ominously the Dow dropped 362 points today - it’s worst day fall since May. Trump has yet to mention that on Twitter.

Dow since Obama's inauguration in 2009

Who's sitting this thing out?

At least eight Democrats are boycotting tonight’s event: Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, Pramila Jayapal of Washington, John Lewis of Georgia, Frederica Wilson of Florida, Gregory Meeks of New York, Maxine Waters of California and Bobby Rush and Jan Schakowsky of Illinois.

The supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will also be missing. And so will some of you out there...

A live blog of the speech may be a strange place to ask whether anyone’s not going to watch – presumably if you’re following along here, you’ll tune in for the main event (or you are looking forward to it?!) – but anyone out there prefer not to?

Be advised that we’ll have a video stream on the blog when the speech starts, and it will be on every TV news channel, so if you do hope to avoid it, you should probably rev up Netflix or whatnot...

Bon appetit.

Porn actress to appear after Trump speech

After the State of the Union, the actress Stephanie Clifford who performs as Stormy Daniels will appear on the late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live!, where she is certain to face questions about an alleged liaison with Donald Trump.

On Tuesday afternoon, Daniels issued a new denial of allegations that she had an affair with Trump in 2006.

“Over the past few weeks I have been asked countless times to comment on reports of an alleged sexual relationship I had with Donald Trump many, many, many years ago,” Daniels said in a statement.

In Las Vegas last week.
In Las Vegas last week. Photograph: Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images

“The fact of the matter is that each party to this alleged affair denied its existence in 2006, 2011, 2016, 2017 and now again in 2018. I am not denying the affair because I was paid ‘hush money’ as has been reported in overseas owned tabloids. I am denying this affair because it never happened.”

The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that a Trump Organization attorney, Michael Cohen, paid Daniels $130,000 just before the 2016 election to keep quiet about an affair she had with Trump a decade earlier, soon after Melania Trump gave birth to the couple’s only son, Barron. Cohen later produced an email in which Clifford apparently denied a “sexual and/or romantic affair” and receipt of “hush money”.

Democratic response: congressman Joe Kennedy

Joe Kennedy III, a 37-year-old Massachusetts congressman who is a grandson of former senator and attorney general Robert F Kennedy and great-nephew of President John F Kennedy, will deliver a Democratic response to Trump’s speech from a vocational high school in Fall River, Massachusetts, a former textile hub outside Boston.

“From healthcare to economic justice to civil rights, the Democratic agenda stands in powerful contrast to President Trump’s broken promises to American families,” Kennedy said this week.

In July 2017.
In July 2017. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

His speech will be followed by a Spanish-language response delivered by Elizabeth Guzman, one of the first Latina women elected to the Virginia house of delegates. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, the congresswoman Maxine Waters of California, and the former Maryland congresswoman Donna Edwards will also offer their takes.

Updated

Designated survivor: Sonny Perdue

Per tradition and an abundance of caution, one member of the president’s cabinet does not attend the State of the Union, in case some tragedy befalls Capitol Hill on a night when most every significant member of national government is in a single room.

Here’s our political reporter Ben Jacobs:

Perdue is the agriculture secretary. He used to be governor of Georgia. And if he does somehow become head of government, it appears that Trump’s support for voter suppression and inhumane immigration policy would at least survive; as governor, Perdue signed tough laws in both areas.

Sonny Perdue in November 2016.
Sonny Perdue in November 2016. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Updated

Your predictions: consonants and vowels

Thanks for sharing your expectations for this speech! Digging into them, we’d say they are rather, low:

User avatar for DavidQT1

Anyone want to place bets on how many times he says "tremendous" and "massive" during the course of the speech?

User avatar for ThisLittleBlackDuck

What is the State of the Union?

In free fall.

User avatar for treefrog123

There will be consonants. There will be vowels. Maybe in the right order, sometimes.

User avatar for alloleo

He will be restrained because he won't be talking, he'll be reading a speech written by a grown-up (which are getting harder to recruit for his White House). But he will take credit for the sun coming up each day. Then tomorrow he'll start another twitter war with Rosie O'Donnell.

User avatar for QuirkyMelina

For all SOTO drinking game participants, herewith the guidelines. One shot of whiskey when Melania tries and fails to smile. Two shots when he trashes Elizabeth Warren. Three if you're still tuned in after 20 minutes.

And finally:

User avatar for Hoop66

We're at the stage now where if he manages to not actually shit himself at the podium, he'll be hailed as presidential.

I yearn for the sweet embrace of death, I really do.

Struck by the eloquence of those excerpts? Thank these guys:

What do you make of those excerpts? Whet the appetite for the big speech?

Excerpts: 'SAFE, STRONG and PROUD'

The White House has released excerpts from Trump’s prepared remarks. We’ve included them in full below.

The speech appears to repeat the words “safe” and “strong” and “proud”:

STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH EXCERPTS

(as prepared for delivery)

• Together, we are building a SAFE, STRONG, and PROUD America.

• We want every American to know the dignity of a hard day’s work; we want every child to be safe in their home at night, and we want every citizen to be proud of this land that we love.

• Just as I promised the American People from this podium 11 months ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reform in American history.

• Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the Middle Class and small businesses.

• Since we passed tax cuts, roughly 3 million workers have already gotten tax cut bonuses – many of them thousands of dollars per worker.

• This is our New American Moment. There has never been a better time to start living the American dream.

• Tonight, I want to talk about what kind of future we are going to have, and what kind of nation we are going to be. All of us, together, as one team, one people, and one American family.

• Americans love their country. And they deserve a government that shows them the same love and loyalty in return.

• For the last year we have sought to restore the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government.

• In our drive to make Washington accountable, we have eliminated more regulations in our first year than any administration in history.

• We have ENDED the war on American Energy – and we have ENDED the War on CLEAN COAL. We are now an exporter of energy to the world.

• America has also finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs and our nation’s wealth.

• America is a nation of builders. We built the Empire State Building in just one year – isn’t it a disgrace that it can now take ten years just to get a permit approved for a simple road?

• I am asking both parties to come together to give us the safe, fast, reliable, and modern infrastructure our economy needs and our people deserve.

• Struggling communities, especially immigrant communities, will also be helped by immigration policies that focus on the best interests of American Workers and American Families.

• So tonight I am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, to protect our citizens, of every background, color, and creed.

• As we rebuild America’s strength and confidence at home, we are also restoring our strength and standing abroad.

• Last year I pledged that we would work with our allies to extinguish ISIS from the face of the earth. One year later, I’m proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated almost 100 percent of the territory once held by these killers in Iraq and Syria. But there is much more work to be done. We will continue our fight until ISIS is defeated.

• Past experience has taught us that complacency and concessions only invite aggression and provocation. I will not repeat the mistakes of the past Administrations that got us into this dangerous position.

The State of the Union is the president’s yearly address to Congress and the nation.

This is when the president gives his or her view (so far only his) on how the country is doing – and usually how well he is doing – while also outlining the legislation he will focus on in the coming year.

The practice was established in article two, section three, clause one of the constitution – the clause states that:

“[The president] shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.”

The first address was given by George Washington in 1790, in the then provisional capital of New York City. Washington and John Adams, his successor, both gave the speech in person, but the third president, Thomas Jefferson, decided to give a written message instead.

Subsequent presidents followed suit until Woodrow Wilson personally addressed Congress in 1913. Since then almost all addresses have been given in person, some serving as key historical signposts.

• In 1862, Abraham Lincoln used his State of the Union message to call for the abolition of slavery – something he said was integral to the survival of the country.

• In his 1972 State of the Union speech Richard Nixon called for an end to the Watergate investigation. Seven months later he had resigned over the scandal.

• George Bush introduced the fateful term “axis of evil” in his 2002 address to Congress, four months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Bush used the term to tie together Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Adam Gabbatt

You're invited!

Are you actually invited to the State of the Union? We’re impressed! It’s not such an easy ticket. But each year a couple dozen people are invited to sit with the first lady, whose life stories serve to highlight themes advanced in the speech.

In 2015, the first lady’s box included a vacant seat for victims of gun violence.

Every member of congress also gets to invite a guest, which for the opposition party offers an opportunity for symbolic protest. Republican invitees during the Obama years included rocker Ted Nugent, discriminatory clerk Kim Davis and the Duck Dynasty guy.

Democrats tonight have invited numerous Dreamers – immigrants who arrived in the country as children but whose protected status under Obama has been endangered by Trump.

Our political correspondent Lauren Gambino has taken a look at who’s coming tonight:

In the audience to hear Trump’s speech live will be immigrants who fear for their future and business owners whose outlook has never been brighter; a soldier who may be barred from serving on the basis of her identity and members of the military who overcame adversity to serve; first responders who saved lives during a spate of natural disasters and a mayor who criticized the response to her hurricane-ravaged island.

Trump’s guests include a welder who has benefited from the Republicans’ tax overhaul, a police officer who adopted a child from parents addicted to opioids, and the parents of teenagers who are believed to have been killed by MS-13 gang members.

The guests will be seated in the box of the first lady, Melania Trump, during the address.

To read all about the invitees, click through below:

Updated

Trump campaign to post names of donors as speech runs

If there was one thing you could count on out of the Barack Obama White House, it was that each year they’d roll out some new gimmick for promoting the State of the Union.

In 2015, the Obama team became the first to release the SOTU text in full in advance online. They put out an “enhanced” video feed in 2016, and over the years they perpetrated all kinds of social media activity, from Instagram to Facebook to Tumblr. In 2016 they produced an electrifying State of the Union “supercut”.

This year, the Trump team has added an innovation all its own: it’s going to flash the names of campaign donors onscreen as the president talks.

Eric Trump, the president’s second son, sent an email about it earlier. It read in part:

We’re sick of hearing the media say that our movement is losing support. Today that ends.

YOU can prove them wrong while the world watches my father’s first official State of the Union Address.

The official Donald J. Trump for President livestream of the speech will display the names of all the patriots who chose to make a contribution for the world to see.

Newt Gingrich, never one to miss an opportunity to make money, has just fired out a mass email trying to hustle up some cash on the back of Trump’s address.

“After you watch tonight’s speech ...” is the subject line of the email.

It turns out that what Gingrich wants you to do after the speech is spend $69.99 (plus tax and shipping) on a Gingrich-taught video series: “A six-lesson course to defend America from the left”.

Email from Newt Gingrich
Defend America. For just $69.99. Photograph: Newt Gingrich

“If you are ready to fight back against the radical left, then Speaker Newt Gingrich invites you, your friends, and your family to join him in Defending America,” says the blurb.

“This 6-part video course covers the most critical issues facing our country, from culture and economics to religion and self-defense. It is a world-class learning opportunity from a world-class history professor and political practitioner.”

During Gingrich’s run for president in 2012 it emerged he had debts of between $250,000 and $500,000 at the jewellery store Tiffany’s. And as of 2016 Gingrich had still not paid off the debts from that doomed presidential campaign. According to reports, as of May 2016 he still owed $4.6m. Maybe that explains things.

Updated

People are particularly excited this evening to hear the president talk about how well the economy’s doing, judging by the group of Twitter users who responded (guilty) to a poll proposed by the Republican speaker of the House, Paul Ryan:

Note: this poll is meaningless.

State of the Union: what to expect

Our Washington bureau chief David Smith fills us in on what we can expect Trump to talk about tonight, covering policy areas including the economy, infrastructure, immigration, national security, trade and Other.

On immigration, David writes:

Trump said on Monday he would address his proposed immigration overhaul in the speech – and it would have to be bipartisan “because the Republicans don’t really have the votes to get it done in any other way”. In the State of the Union he will promote “four pillars” of reform: border security, including the wall; Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) legalisation; ending extended-family “chain migration”; eliminating the visa lottery and moving towards a merit-based system of immigration.

Read the full piece here:

Updated

The typo presidency** struck again in the first printing of tickets for tonight’s speech, which admit the bearer to the chamber of the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill:

That’s maybe the worst Trump presidency typo since the White House Snapchat account heralded “Secretary of Educatuoun Betsy DeVos” and the Department of Education quoted one “WEB DeBois.”

**Yes, making fun of typos at the outset of a six-hour live blog is asking for it, we know.

Hello and welcome to our live blog coverage of Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address.

The speech is scheduled to start at around 9pm ET and is likely to last about an hour. Afterwards we’ll round up noteworthy reactions, hopefully including from you. Write us, ping us, @ us, etc. I’m at tom.mccarthy@theguardian.com and @teemcsee.

Trump has said he will brag about the economy and ask Democrats for a deal on immigration. But what do you expect from the president tonight? Will he stick to the script? Is he aiming for one of those speeches that makes people use the word “presidential”?

Don’t be shy – let’s hear your predictions. Presidents almost always say that the state of the union is “strong”. What will it be tonight? “Like, record-breaking”? “So fantastic you’re not gonna believe it”? “Covfefe”?

Recall that Trump has already delivered one of these, sort of, with his address to a joint session of Congress 11 months ago, a speech remembered for the immortal line: “The time for trivial fights is behind us.”

Then he tweeted:

We’ve got four hours – drop me a line with your forecasts, imprecations, witticisms and laments. Meanwhile we will be looking at the history of the State of the Union speech, the roster of invited guests, the designated survivor, background dramas, #SOTU trivia, anticipated speech themes, dumb #SOTU traditions, and much much more.

Thanks for joining us and please make yourselves at home in the comments ...

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100's of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
I accidentally used hugelkultur to fill my deep planter – and it's saved me a small fortune on soil and my plants are thriving too
It turns out it's a genius, budget-friendly gardening method
Ideal Home
Ideal Home
‘I am in shock’: Woman goes to auction in rural Pennsylvania. Then she spots boxes labeled Chanel, Hermes, Cartier
Thrifting’s been all the rage for literally ages. There’s also been a bit of a thrifting renaissance thanks to the advent of TikTok popularizing thrift hauls. But when’s the last time you heard about an auction?
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
David Bowie Trailblazed the 'Everyday Exhibits' Trend in His '70s Living Room With A Retro Twist on Curated Clutter – It's Playful, Practical, and Replicable
A photo from 1971 shows that the musician was tapping into personality-led interiors long before they were a trend – experts say his look is the blueprint
Homes & Gardens
Homes & Gardens
McDonald’s burger prices vary a whopping 74% depending on where you live. Here is the cheapest state
The Big Arch burger contains 1,020 calories and 53 grams of protein and varies in price across the country
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
How to shop at the farmers’ market like a pro
Tips from experts on where to find the freshest fruits and veggies
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
‘The lyrics to Lola by the Kinks are gross – I was really taken aback’: Moby’s honest playlist
The DJ and multi-instrumentalist thinks Donna Summer still sounds like the future, but which ‘unevolved’ Kinks staple can he no longer stomach?
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play