Standing before a US Congress and nation sharply divided by impeachment, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday used his State of the Union address to extol a “Great American Comeback” on his watch, just three years after he took office decrying a land of “American carnage” under his predecessor.
The partisan discord was on vivid display as the first president to campaign for re-election while facing impeachment made his case for another term.
Republicans chanted: “Four More Years.”
Photo: AFP
US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripped up her copy of Trump’s speech as he ended his address.
“America’s enemies are on the run, America’s fortunes are on the rise and America’s future is blazing bright,” Trump said. “In just three short years, we have shattered the mentality of American decline and we have rejected the downsizing of America’s destiny. We are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago, and we are never going back.”
Holding out the nation’s economic success as the chief rationale for a second term, Trump’s speech resembled a lower-volume version of his campaign rallies, providing something for every section of his political base.
However, while he tweets daily assailing his impeachment, Trump never mentioned the “i” word in his 78-minute speech. That followed the lead of former US president Bill Clinton, who did not reference his impeachment when he delivered his State of the Union address in 1999.
Pelosi, a frequent thorn in Trump’s side, created a viral image with her seemingly sarcastic applause of the president a year ago. This time, she was even more explicit with her very text-ripping rebuke.
Trump appeared no more cordial.
When he climbed to the House of Representatives rostrum, he did not take her outstretched hand, though it was not clear he had seen her gesture. Later, as Republicans often cheered, she remained in her seat, at times shaking her head at his remarks.
When Pelosi left, she told reporters that tearing up the speech was “the courteous thing to do considering the alternative.”
Republicans denounced her action as disrespectful.
Trump, the former reality TV star, added a showbiz flavor to the staid event: He had his wife, Melania, present the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to divisive conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, who this month announced that he has advanced lung cancer.
He also stunned a young student in the gallery with a scholarship and he orchestrated the surprise tearful reunion of a solider from overseas with his family in the balcony.
Among Trump’s guests in the chamber: Venezuelan National Assembly President Juan Guaido, who has been trying to win face time with Trump, his most important international ally.
The US president offered Guaido exactly the sort of endorsement he has been looking for as he struggles to oust Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power.
Trump called Guaido “the true and legitimate president of Venezuela.”
“Socialism destroys nations,” Trump said.
CROSS-STRAIT COLLABORATION: The new KMT chairwoman expressed interest in meeting the Chinese president from the start, but she’ll have to pay to get in Beijing allegedly agreed to let Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) around the Lunar New Year holiday next year on three conditions, including that the KMT block Taiwan’s arms purchases, a source said yesterday. Cheng has expressed interest in meeting Xi since she won the KMT’s chairmanship election in October. A source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a consensus on a meeting was allegedly reached after two KMT vice chairmen visited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) in China last month. Beijing allegedly gave the KMT three conditions it had to
STAYING ALERT: China this week deployed its largest maritime show of force to date in the region, prompting concern in Taipei and Tokyo, which Beijing has brushed off Deterring conflict over Taiwan is a priority, the White House said in its National Security Strategy published yesterday, which also called on Japan and South Korea to increase their defense spending to help protect the first island chain. Taiwan is strategically positioned between Northeast and Southeast Asia, and provides direct access to the second island chain, with one-third of global shipping passing through the South China Sea, the report said. Given the implications for the US economy, along with Taiwan’s dominance in semiconductors, “deterring a conflict over Taiwan, ideally by preserving military overmatch, is a priority,” it said. However, the strategy also reiterated
‘BALANCE OF POWER’: Hegseth said that the US did not want to ‘strangle’ China, but to ensure that none of Washington’s allies would be vulnerable to military aggression Washington has no intention of changing the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Saturday, adding that one of the US military’s main priorities is to deter China “through strength, not through confrontation.” Speaking at the annual Reagan National Defense Forum in Simi Valley, California, Hegseth outlined the US Department of Defense’s priorities under US President Donald Trump. “First, defending the US homeland and our hemisphere. Second, deterring China through strength, not confrontation. Third, increased burden sharing for us, allies and partners. And fourth, supercharging the US defense industrial base,” he said. US-China relations under
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
RSS