Donald Trump resets wall debate, gives date for Kim summit

In unifying speech Donald Trump renews call for wall but resists declaring an emergency and sets date for second Kim summit.

Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address. Picture: AFP.

President Trump in his State of the Union address today renewed his call for a wall on the southern US border, but without repeating his recent threats to declare an emergency and act unilaterally.

Mr Trump, who spoke with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence seated behind him, called for both parties to “work together, compromise and reach a deal” to pass a spending bill including funding for the project, but he suggested some flexibility on how long and what it would look like.

“This is a smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier — not just a simple concrete wall,” Mr Trump said. “It will be deployed in the areas identified by border agents as having the greatest need.”

If Congress fails to act, “I’ll get it built,” the president said.

In the nearly 90-minute speech, Mr Trump also called for the parties to work together on infrastructure and trade, and he hailed the strength of the economy as an achievement by his administration. He also used the address to announce the time and place for his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un: February 27-28 in Vietnam.

The president highlighted his decision to withdraw US troops from Syria — a move met with criticism from both parties that contributed to the departure of his Defence Secretary, Jim Mattis — declaring: “Great nations do not fight endless wars.”

In his first address in the era of divided government ushered in by Democrats’ takeover of the House in November, the president called for politicians to “reject the politics of revenge, resistance and retribution.” Moments later, however, he likened “ridiculous partisan investigations” of his administration and associates to “foolish wars” and said they would halt economic growth in the US.

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In the Democratic response to Mr Trump’s speech, Stacey Abrams, who lost Georgia’s gubernatorial race in November, was to say: “We may come from different sides of the political aisle, but our joint commitment to the ideals of this nation cannot be negotiable.”

Mr Trump earned some of his most vigorous applause when he mentioned that women had taken most of the new jobs in America in the past year. Female Democratic politicians, dressed in white to show unity, stood and applauded Mr Trump, many pointing at themselves. “You weren’t supposed to do that,” Mr Trump said.

Melania Trump (2nd L) applauds special guest Grace Eline (2nd R). Picture: AFP.

Democrats took over the House last year in part by helping elect a record number of women.

Beyond eradicating AIDS and curing childhood cancer, the address otherwise offered few new policy proposals. The president used the bulk of his address to make a case for Congress to approve funds for a border wall.

Mr Trump described border security as a “moral issue” and declared: “Tolerance for illegal immigration is not compassionate — it is cruel.” Democrats have agreed to increase funding for border security but have dismissed a wall as an unnecessary use of funds.

The president’s advisers had considered having him declare a national emergency to divert funds for such a barrier during his address, but he opted to hold out that possibility for the future, aides said. Instead, Mr Trump called for both parties to “join forces again to confront an urgent national crisis.”

The president’s appearance before a joint session of Congress came two weeks after the longest partial government shutdown, prompted by the impasse over border funding, ended on Jan. 25.

Mr Trump agreed to reopen the government for three weeks despite getting no new funding for his border wall to allow time for negotiations. With Mrs Pelosi widely considered to have won the earlier face-off over the shutdown, the onus was on Mr Trump to try to shore up support among Republican politicians — many of whom had begun to waver as the 35-day partial shutdown dragged on.

The president “not only spent a lot of his own political capital, but spent a lot of theirs,” said longtime Republican strategist Kevin Madden, referring to Republican politicians. “They’re not going to sit on the kerb and allow him to force a bad hand the way he did for those 35 days and have them pay a price. They’re going to be much more active going forward.”

To emphasise his argument that the southern border is a security risk, Mr Trump invited as his guests a Homeland Security human-trafficking investigator and the family of a Nevada couple who authorities said was slain by an immigrant from El Salvador who the White House said is in the U.S. illegally.

Democratic politicians, who argue that migrants aren’t disproportionally dangerous, invited refugees and immigrants, including two who were working illegally at Mr Trump’s Bedminster, N.J., golf club. Republican politicians countered by offering seats to law-enforcement officers, including those who work on or near the border with Mexico.

Congress and the White House face a February 15 deadline to reach an agreement on spending issues, including the border barrier, before funding will expire again and force about 800,000 federal workers to once again go without pay. Mr Trump, when he announced the temporary deal to reopen the government for three weeks last month, said that if no deal is reached that included wall funds, he would either shut down part of the government a second time or declare a national emergency.

White House advisers counselled against making such a declaration during the State of the Union because Democrats — and maybe some Republicans — in the audience would boo, according to people who were briefed on the address Monday evening.

Senate Republicans have been unusually vocal in their criticism of issuing an emergency declaration, with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine calling the move “constitutionally dubious.” If Mr Trump moves in that direction, House Democrats are expected to bring to the floor a resolution of disapproval, a leadership aide said this week. It would likely pass the Democratic-controlled House and come up for a vote in the Senate, where its consideration would be expedited. It also would likely draw an immediate challenge in the federal courts.

Polling has shown that Mr Trump bore the brunt of the blame for the shutdown, while his overall job-performance rating remained at 43% approval, versus 54% disapproval, in a January Wall Street Journal/NBC poll. A CNN poll released Monday found Mrs Pelosi’s approval rating jumped 8 points during the recent shutdown, to 42%.

Mr Trump viewed Tuesday’s speech in part as a kick-off to a re-election bid, his allies said. “This will be his first campaign speech of the 2020 re-election,” said Jason Miller, a former Trump campaign aide. State of the Union addresses in the past, while always carrying political overtones, have more often been framed as nonpartisan events.

Mr Trump’s reference to “ridiculous” investigations came a day after the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan issued a wide-ranging subpoena to the Trump inaugural committee as part of an investigation into how the fund raised and spent more than $100 million. The federal probe into possible collusion between Trump associates and Russia in the 2016 U.S. election is continuing, and the president himself in recent months was implicated in federal crimes by his former lawyer, Michael Cohen. Mr Trump has denied wrongdoing.

The Wall St Journal