Trump’s great plea for unity is greeted by boos
DONALD Trump was booed and hissed by Democrats during his first State of the Union speech, despite his plea for a unified Congress.
The US President was given 75 standing ovations from Republicans during a speech in which he said “the American family can do anything”.
But furious Democrats gave him an icy reception, with some even boycotting the speech.
During the 80-minute address Mr Trump stuck to the teleprompter and rattled off his achievements, which, he said, included tax cuts and cutting thousands of regulations.
He also asked Democrats to work with him on a $1.5trillion (£1.06trillion) infrastructure bill.
Mr Trump said he was “extending an open hand to work with members of both parties”.
He said: “Tonight, I call upon all of us to set aside our differences and summon the unity we need to deliver for the people.
Rebuild
“There has never been a better time to start living the American dream.”
But Democratic women wore black in a nod to the #MeToo social media movement or wore badges to support immigrants.
And members of the Congressional Black Caucus wore Ghanaian cloth to protest about his “******** ” comments about African nations.
Mr Trump’s appeal to Democrats is partly a political necessity, given that he only has a one-vote majority in the Senate and looks likely to lose the House of Representatives in November’s mid-term elections.
The President complained about “the terrible loopholes exploited by criminals and terrorists to enter our country”. But he said he was offering amnesty for 1.8 million illegal immigrants as part of a “fair compromise”.
In exchange, he wants $18billion for a wall on the border with Mexico and an end to “chain migration”, by which immigrants can bring other family members to the US.
Mr Trump said: “It’s time to reform these outdated immigration rules, and finally bring our immigration system into the 21st century.” One Democrat was overheard saying: “That’s lies”. During the address, the longest since President Clinton’s in 2000, Mr Trump joined the clapping as he said the stock market had soared with 2.4 million jobs created.
Before the speech he signed a law to keep open the prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. On North Korea, Mr Trump said he wanted to “modernise and rebuild our nuclear arsenal, hopefully never having to use it”.
He also said America had “turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies”.
In comments that will be analysed in Britain, which is hoping for a trade deal with the US after Brexit, Mr Trump said: “The era of economic surrender is totally over. From now on, we expect trading relationships to be fair and, importantly, reciprocal.”
The President’s wife Melania arrived separately wearing a white Christian Dior suit.
She sat in the First Lady’s box from where she waved at her husband. It was the first time they had been seen together in public since reports that Mr Trump paid $130,000 (£91,000) to a former porn star to hush up a fling. The President has denied any affair.