Donald Trump is delivering the second State of the Union address of his presidency, where he has the opportunity to lay out his vision for the last two years of his first term in office and beyond.
With a damaging and politically contentious 35-day government shutdown having just ended in Washington, the president stands before a joint session in the House chamber — where is expected to make sweeping calls for unity in a time of dramatic division and to promote lofty efforts like the eradication of HIV by 2030.
But, Mr Trump’s audience in the House chamber will be noticeably different from his address last year. Flanked behind him and to his left will sit Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who proved to be a formidable political foil to Mr Trump during those shutdown negotiations last month after her party took control of the lower chamber during the 2018 midterm elections.
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The president mentioned the situation, vowing that the US would never become a socialist country.
Mr Trump recently recognised Juan Guaido as the interim president of the country.
"America was founded on liberty and independence — not government coercion, domination and control. We are born free and we will stay free. Tonight we renew our resolve that America will never be a socialist country," Mr Trump said, referencing Venezuelan politician and president Nicolas Maduro
Trump reveals date and location of historic second summit with Kim Jong-un
Donald Trump will hold a second historic leaders' summit with North Korea's Kim Jong-un, the president has confirmed, in Vietnam on the 27 and 28 February. Mr Trump was speaking during the State of the Union address, during which he described a "historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula" as crucial to national security. He told Congress that: "if I had not been electedMr Trump is celebrating his historic efforts to make peace with North Korea, and has claimed that the US would be in a "major war with North Korea" if he were not elected president.
He then announced he would meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un once again on 27 and 28 of February in Viet Nam.
"As part of a bold new diplomacy, we continue our historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula," Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump is now receiving some big applause for his position on late term abortion, citing a recent law passed in New York State, and one that was considered in Virginia.
"Lawmakers in New York cheered with delight upon the passage of legislation that would allow a baby to be ripped from the mother's womb moments before birth," he said.
"These are living, feeling, beautiful, babies who will never get the chance to share their love and dreams with the world. And then, we had the case of the governor of Virginia where he stated he would execute a baby after birth", Mr Trump said, according to prepared remarks.
The governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, is also under political fire and has been called on to resign by Democrats after photos on his medical school year book page were found with a white man in black face, and another wearing a ku klux klan suit.
The president is calling for $500m to fund cancer therapy research.
In tough remarks for the American pharmaceutical industry, Mr Trump has called for a lowering of prescription drug prices and announced an ambitious plan to eliminate HIV by 2030.
"We should... require drug companies, insurance companies, and hospitals to disclose real prices to foster competition and bring costs down," Mr Trump said. "No force in history has done more to advance the human condition than American Freedom".
"In recent years we have made remarkable progress in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Scientific breakthroughs have brought a once-distance dream within reach," he said. "My budget will ask Democrats and Republicans to make the needed commitment to eliminate the HIV epidemic in the United States within 10 years. Together, we will defeat AIDS in America".
Here's a quick write up from The Independent team on Mr Trumps mention of the investigations he is facing with Democrats in control of the House.
Mr Trump is now onto trade with China and other international partners, and is attacking Nafta for being a "catastrophe".
He is again noting focusing on women, saying that the dreams of women in "Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Hampshire, and many other states" saw their dreams "shattered by Nafta".
"For years, politicians promised them they would negotiate for a better deal," he said. "But no one ever tried, until now. "Our new US-Mexico-Canada Agreement — or USMCA — will replace Nafta and deliver for American workers: bringing back our manufacturing jobs, expanding American agriculture, protecting intellectual property, and ensuring that more cars are proudly stamped with the four beautiful words: Made in the USA".
The US and China are currently negotiating a trade deal with China after an escalation in tension between the two countries over the past year with both countries increasing tariffs on good imports.
Mr Trump has gotten some support form the women in Congress, with a nod to women filling "58 per cent of the new jobs created in the last year".
The president joked that the women who stood to cheer those lines should stay standing, before he congratulated the diversity in Congress after the 2018 midterm elections.
"All Americans can be proud that we have more women in the workfare than ever before — and exactly one century after Congress passed the constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, we also have more women serving in Congress than ever before," he said.
Mr Trump is once again is promising to build a border wall, which he calls "smart" and "strategic".
He says that it is "see through" and that it will be built where Border Patrol agents have said it would help the most.
"This is a smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier — not just a simple concrete wall," Mr Trump said.
He also claimed that most Democrats had already voted to approve walls along the US-Mexico border.
"The proper wall never got built. I will get it built," Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump is now making his case for border wall and security funding, which he demanded during the government shutdown earlier this year only to be rebuked by Democrats in the House.
The interim deal made between Mr Trump and Congress will expire on 15 February, and the president has threatened to impose a state of emergency to build the wall if Democrats do not agree to the funding measures. Mr Trump agreed to reopen the government last month amid dropping approval ratings with polls showing that his proposed border wall was receiving less and less support.
"Congress has 10 days left to pass a bill that will fund our government, protect our homeland, and secure our very dangerous southern border. Now is the time for Congress to show the world that America is committed to ending illegal immigration and putting the ruthless coyotes, cartels, drug dealers and human traffickers out of business," Mr Trump said.
He continued, claiming that a migrant caravan is on its way to the US border. He said that one in three women are assaulted during their trip north to the US from Central America and through Mexico. He has — as he has frequently in the past — claimed that there is rampant sexual assault and trafficking as a result of the caravans.
"As we speak, large, organized caravans are on the march to the United States. We have just learned that Mexican cities in order to remove the illegal immigrants from their communities are getting trucks and busses" to remove them, he said.
"I have ordered another 3,750 troops to our southern border to prepare for this tremendous onslaught," he said. "This is a moral issue. The lawless state of our southern borer is a threat to the safety security and financial well being of all America".
The president is now discussing the story of Alice Johnson, the grandmother whose life sentence in prison Mr Trump commuted last year.
Since then Mr Trump and his White House team helped to negotiate rare bipartisan criminal justice reforms.
Ms Johnson, sitting next to Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, received a standing ovation from the chamber.
"Last year, I heard through friends the story of Alice Johnson. I was deeply moved. In 1997, Alice was sentenced to life in prison as a first-time non-violent drug offender," Mr Trump said, recalling hearing Ms Johnson's story. "Over the next two decades, she became a prison minister, inspiring others to choose a better path… Alice’s story underscores the disparities and unfairness that can exist in criminal sentencing – and the need to remedy this injustice".
Mr Trump has now called the US economy a "miracle" before taking a stab at planned congressional investigations into his campaign and organizations, and appearing to call for an end to US wars abroad.
"After 24 months of rapid progress, our economy is the envy of the world, our military is the most powerful on earth, and America is winning each and every day," he said.
The only things that can stop the US are "foolish wars politics, or ridiculous partisan investigations", Mr Trump said.
On the president's point about the US being the leading producer of oil and gas in the world, the US Energy Information Agency estimated that America surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia sometime late last year in production.
"We have unleashed a revolution in American Energy – the United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas in the world," he said in his speech.
"Members of Congress, the state of our union is strong," Mr Trump said.
The president has now said that the United States is the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world, before claiming that the US is now the leading exporter of energy in the world.
He says the US economy is now "the envy" of the world.
Mr Trump is now saying that his administration has cut more regulations than any other administration during "its entire tenure".
Those cuts include regulations to keep American waterways clean, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants ad others.
The president is painting a rosy picture of the US economy, and claims that more people are working in the US than at any point in history. He pegged that number at 157m workers.
He also touted his controversial tax cuts that heavily benefited the wealth in America, and said that the US has all but eliminated the estate tax for farmers in America.
The president said that the US is considered to be "far and away the hottest economy — not even close".
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