I’ve delivered strong, proud, prosperous US, says Donald Trump

Donald Trump will boast of a strong, proud and prosperous US tomorrow in his first State of the Union address.

US President Donald Trump will deliver his first State of the Union address tomorrow. Picture: AFP

Donald Trump will boast of a strong, proud and prosperous US tomorrow in his first State of the Union address, emphasising economic gains while urging Democrats to help him rebuild infrastructure.

Seeking to move past investi­gations into his Republican administration’s links to Russia, the President would avoid his usual ­aggressive populism to send a message of economic optimism, White House officials said yesterday. But the address comes as senior Republican senator Lindsey Graham warned that any attempt to sack special counsel Robert Mueller “would be the end of President Trump’s presidency”.

Tomorrow’s speech is seen as an opportunity for Mr Trump to begin to broaden his appeal beyond his doggedly loyal base and to lift his low approval ratings.

The President has been poring over drafts of his speech to strike a unifying tone while trumpeting the achievements of his first year in office. “Building a safe, strong and proud America” will be the broad theme of the speech to congress, senior administration officials said.

“The tone will be one of bipartisanship and will be very forward-looking — it will be an attractive message,” one official said.

The central theme will be that the US is winning again economically — with Wall Street breaking records, unemployment at a 14-year low and economic growth on the uptick.

He will talk of the boost his tax reforms are likely to give the economy and of how this will impact on ordinary American workers, his so-called forgotten people.

The address is expected to mirror, in part, his well-received speech in Davos last week, where Mr Trump declared the US was open for business again and re­assured globalists that America First did not mean America alone.

However, he will reinforce the importance of an America First trade policy and, in a message to China, he is expected to repeat his warning that the US will not tolerate trade deficits that hurt American firms and workers.

Mr Trump is expected to highlight his administration’s pro-business rollback of environmental and energy regulations; a more conservative Supreme Court; the defeat of Islamic State in the ­Middle East and the tougher stance against rogue regimes in North Korea, Syria and Iran.

He is tipped to call on congress to approve increases in defence spending amid growing strategic uncertainty.

Mr Trump is expected to call on congress to help deliver his ambitious promise for a $US1 trillion-plus ($1.2 trillion) rebuilding of ageing infrastructure including bridges, highways, airports and sewers. The White House is yet to release its infrastructure plan but could do so in the next few weeks.

“The President is going to talk about how America’s back,” said White House legislative director Marc Short. “The President is also going to make an appeal to Democrats ... to say we need to rebuild our country. And to make an appeal that to do infrastructure, we need to do it in a bipartisan way.”

Mr Trump will also speak of the need for a bipartisan immigration, deal that is bogged down in acrimonious negotiations between Republicans and Democrats.

He is expected to highlight his offer to give sanctuary for up to 1.8 million young illegal immigrants in return for measures to stem illegal immigration including funding for his proposed border wall with Mexico.

Two Republican senators said yesterday Mr Trump would be wise to keep a public silence on an independent probe into his 2016 campaign’s contacts with Russia in the wake of reports that he sought to fire the special counsel.

Senator Graham and senator Susan Collins also urged Mr Mueller to review whether Mr Trump tried to fire him last June, an ­accusation the President has ­labelled “fake news”.

“Mueller is the best person to look at it,” said Senator Graham. “I’m sure there will be an investigation around whether or not President Trump did try to fire Mr Mueller.”

But he said Mr Mueller’s job appeared to be in no immediate danger. “It’s pretty clear to me that everybody in the White House knows it would be the end of President Trump’s presidency if he fired Mr Mueller,” he said.

Senator Collins said it would “not hurt” for congress to approve added protections for Mr Mueller.

“The President would be best served by never discussing the investigation, ever, whether in tweets, except in private conver­sations with his attorney,” she said.

The New York Times and other outlets reported Mr Trump backed off his attempt to fire Mueller last June only after White House lawyer Don McGahn refused to relay his directive to the Justice Department and threatened to quit if pressed on the issue.

Additional reporting: AP

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia