WASHINGTON _ Donald Trump will implore Congress to compromise on issues including immigration and infrastructure in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, a speech delayed a week by a 35-day partial government shutdown caused by the president's own unwillingness to strike a deal.
"Together we can break decades of political stalemate, we can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions and unlock the extraordinary promise of America's future," Trump plans to say, according to an excerpt of his speech read to reporters at a briefing on Friday.
Trump will deliver the address to a divided Congress, with Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker who forced him to yield on the shutdown and re-open the government, seated behind him on her chamber's dais. The president is expected to urge Democrats to focus on working with him on legislation instead of pursuing investigations of his business and administration, and the theme of his speech will be "choosing greatness," a White House official told reporters.
The official asked not to be identified previewing Trump's speech. Its tone will seek to be traditional for a State of the Union, the official said _ bipartisan, optimistic and visionary.
If so, the speech would mark a departure for a president whose inaugural address warned darkly of "American carnage" and who has spent months publicly excoriating Democrats in personal terms for what he calls a "crisis" on the border. The official would not say whether Trump would criticize Pelosi or Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, his antagonists in the shutdown fight, by name in his address.
While the president is expected to focus on immigration, the caustic subject that brought much of the government to a standstill, Trump will also touch on his trade war with China and his renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which he wants the Democratic House to approve, the official said. He'll ask lawmakers to support his efforts to reduce the cost of prescription drugs and other health care and will encourage a halt to what the official called endless foreign wars.
Trump plans to address Venezuela, where his administration seeks to depose President Nicolas Maduro. The official said he was instructed not to say whether any other specific countries would be mentioned.
