State of the Union address text: Trump reflects on his first year in power

An edited text of President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address.

Donald Trump pumps his fist as Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker Paul Ryan applaud. Picture: Getty Images

Over the last year, we have made incredible progress and achieved extraordinary success. We have faced challenges we expected and others we could never have imagined. We have shared in the heights of victory and the pains of hardship. We have endured floods and fires and storms. But through it all, we have seen the beauty of America’s soul and the steel in America’s spine. But it is not enough to come together only in times of tragedy. Tonight, I call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out common ground, and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people.

Together we are building a safe, strong, and proud America. Since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone. Tremendous number. After years and years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages. Unemployment claims have hit a 45-year low. And something I’m very proud of, African-American unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded. And Hispanic-American unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history. Small-business confidence is at an all-time high. The stockmarket has smashed one record after another, gaining $US8 trillion ($9.9 trillion) and more in value in just this short period of time. The great news ... the great news for Americans, 401K, retirement, pension, and college savings accounts have gone through the roof. And just as I promised the American people from this podium 11 months ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in American history. Our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and small business. To lower tax rates for hardworking Americans, we nearly doubled the standard deduction for everyone. Now the first $US24,000 earned by a married couple is completely tax-free. We also doubled the child tax credit. A typical family of four making $US75,000 will see their tax bill reduced by $US2000, slashing their tax bill in half.

April will be the last time you will file under the old and broken system, and millions of Americans will have more take-home pay starting next month. A lot more.

We eliminated an especially cruel tax that fell mostly on Americans making less than $US50,000 a year, forcing them to pay tremendous penalties simply because they couldn’t afford government-ordered health plans. We repealed the core of the disastrous Obamacare. The individual mandate is now gone. We slashed the business tax rate from 35 per cent all the way down to 21 per cent, so American companies can compete and win against anyone anywhere in the world. These changes are estimated to increase average family income by more than $US4000. A lot of money. Small businesses have also received tax cuts and can now deduct 20 per cent of their business income.

Since we passed tax cuts, roughly three million workers have already gotten tax cut bonuses, many of them thousands and thousands of dollars per worker. And it’s getting more every month, every week. Apple has just announced it plans to invest a total of $US350 billion in America and hire another 20,000 workers. And just a little while ago, ExxonMobil announced a $US50bn investment in the United States. Just a little while ago. This, in fact, is our new American moment. There has never been a better time to start living the American dream.

Americans love their country. And they deserve a government that shows them the same love and loyalty in return. For the last year, we have sought to restore the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government. Working with the Senate, we are appointing judges who will interpret the constitution as written, including a great new Supreme Court justice and more circuit court judges than any new administration in the history of our country. We are totally defending our second amendment and have taken historic actions to protect religious liberty. And we are serving our brave veterans, including giving our veterans choice in their healthcare decisions.

 

Last year, congress also passed, and I signed, the landmark VA ­Accountability Act. Since its passage, my administration has ­already removed more than 1500 VA employees who failed to give our veterans the care they deserve, and we are hiring talented people who love our vets as much as we do. And I will not stop until our veterans are properly taken care of, which has been my promise to them from the very beginning of this great journey.

I call on congress to empower every cabinet secretary with the authority to reward good workers and to remove federal employees who undermine the public trust or fail the American people.

In our drive to make Washington accountable, we have eliminated more regulations in our first year than any administration in the history of our country. We have ended the war on American energy, and we have ended the war on beautiful clean coal. We are now very proudly an exporter of energy to the world. In Detroit, I halted government mandates that crippled America’s great, beautiful autoworkers so that we can get Motor City revving its engines again. Many car companies are now building and expanding plants in the United States, something we haven’t seen for decades. Chrysler is moving a major plant from Mexico to Michigan. Toyota and Mazda are opening up a plant in Alabama, a big one. And we haven’t seen this in a long time. It’s all coming back. Very soon, auto plants and other plants will be opening up all over our country.

Exciting progress is happening every single day. To speed access to breakthrough cures and affordable generic drugs, last year the FDA approved more new and generic drugs and medical devices than ever before in our country’s history. We also believe that ­patients with terminal conditions and terminal illness should have access to experimental treatment immediately that could potentially save their lives.

People who are terminally ill should not have to go from country to country to seek a cure. I want to give them a chance right here at home. It’s time for congress to give these wonderful, incredible Americans the right to try. One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs. In many other countries, these drugs cost far less than what we pay in the United States. And it’s very, very unfair. That is why I have ­directed my administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one of my top priorities for the year. And prices will come down substantially. Watch. America has also finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs, and our wealth. Our nation has lost its wealth, but we’re getting it back so fast. The era of economic surrender is totally over. From now on, we expect trading relationships to be fair and, very importantly, reciprocal.

We will work to fix bad trade deals and negotiate new ones. And they’ll be good ones, but they’ll be fair. And we will protect American workers and American intellectual property through strong enforcement of our trade rules. As we rebuild our industries, it is also time to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. America is a nation of builders. We built the Empire State Building in just one year. Isn’t it a disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a minor permit approved to build a simple road? I am asking both parties to come together to give us safe, fast, reliable, and modern infrastructure that our economy needs and our people deserve.

 

Tonight I’m calling on congress to produce a bill that generates at least $US1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment our country so desperately needs. Every federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with state and local governments and, where appropriate, tapping into private sector investment to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit. And we can do it. Any bill must streamline the permitting and approval process, getting it down to no more than two years, and perhaps even one.

As America regains its strength, opportunity must be extended to all citizens. That is why this year we will embark on reforming our prisons to help former inmates who have served their time get a second chance at life. Struggling communities, especially immigrant communities, will also be helped by immigration policies that focus on the best interests of American workers and American families.

For decades, open borders have allowed drugs and gangs to pour into our vulnerable communities. They’ve allowed millions of low-wage workers to compete for jobs and wages against the poorest Americans. Most tragically, they have caused the loss of many innocent lives. Tonight, I am calling on congress to finally close the deadly loopholes that have allowed MS-13, and other criminal gangs, to break into our country. We have proposed new legislation that will fix our immigration laws, and support our ICE and Border Patrol agents — these are great people, these are great, great people that work so hard in the midst of such danger — so that this can never happen again.

My duty, and the sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber, is to defend Americans, to protect their safety, their families, their communities, and their right to the American dream. Because Americans are dreamers, too. Over the next few weeks, the House and Senate will vote on an immigration reform package. Here are the four pillars of our plan. The first pillar of our framework generously offers a path to citizenship for 1.8 million illegal immigrants brought here by their parents at a young age. That is almost three times more people than the previous administration covered. Under our plan, those who meet education and work requirements, and show good moral character, will be able to become full citizens of the United States over a 12-year period. The second pillar fully secures the border. That means building a great wall on the southern border, and it means hiring more heroes to keep our communities safe. Crucially, our plan closes the terrible loopholes exploited by criminals and terrorists to enter our country, and it finally ends the horrible and dangerous practice of catch and release.

The third pillar ends the visa lottery, a program that randomly hands out green cards without any regard for skill, merit, or the safety of American people. It’s time to begin moving toward a merit-based immigration system, one that admits people who are skilled, who want to work, who will contribute to our society, and who will love and respect our country.

The fourth and final pillar protects the nuclear family by ending chain migration. Under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives. Under our plan, we focus on the immediate family by limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children.

These four pillars represent a down-the-middle compromise and one that will create a safe, modern, and lawful immigration system. These reforms will also support our response to the terrible crisis of opioid and drug addiction. Never before has it been like it is now. It is terrible. We have to do something about it.

As we rebuild America’s strength and confidence at home, we also restore our strength and standing abroad. We face rogue regimes, terrorist groups, and rivals like China and Russia that challenge our interests, our economy, and our values. In confronting these horrible dangers, we know weakness is the surest path to conflict, and unmatched power is the surest means to our true and great defence. For this reason, I am asking congress to end the dangerous defence sequester and fully fund our great military.

As part of our defence, we must modernise and rebuild our nuclear arsenal, hopefully never having to use it, but making it so strong and so powerful that it will deter any acts of aggression by any other nation or anyone else. Perhaps some day in the future there will be a magical moment when the countries of the world will get together to eliminate their nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, we are not there yet, sadly.

Last year, I also pledged that we would work with our allies to extinguish ISIS from the face of the Earth. One year later, I am proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated very close to 100 per cent of the territory just recently held by these killers in Iraq and in Syria and in other locations, as well. But there is much more work to be done. We will continue our fight until ISIS is defeated.

So today, I am keeping another promise. I just signed prior to walking in an order directing Secretary Mattis ... to re-examine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities in Guantanamo Bay.

I am asking congress to ensure that in the fight against ISIS and al-Qa’ida we continue to have all necessary power to detain terrorists, wherever we chase them down, wherever we find them. And in many cases, for them it will now be Guantanamo Bay. At the same time, as of a few months ago, our warriors in Afghanistan have new rules of engagement.

Last month, I also took an action endorsed unanimously by the US Senate just months before. I recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In 2016, American taxpayers generously sent those same countries more than $US20bn in aid. That is why tonight I am asking congress to pass legislation to help ensure American foreign assistance dollars always serve American interests and only go to friends of America, not enemies of America.

As we strengthen friendships all around the world, we are also restoring clarity about our adversaries. When the people of Iran rose up against the crimes of their corrupt dictatorship, I did not stay silent. America stands with the people of Iran in their courageous struggle for freedom. I am asking congress to address the fundamental flaws in the terrible Iran nuclear deal.

But no regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea. North Korea’s reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland. We are waging a campaign of maximum pressure to prevent that from ever happening.

Americans fill the world with art and music. They push the bounds of science and discovery. And they forever remind us of what we should never, ever forget: The people dreamed this country. The people built this country. And it’s the people who are making America great again. As long as we are proud of who we are and what we are fighting for, there is nothing we cannot achieve. As long as we have confidence in our values, faith in our citizens, and trust in our God, we will never fail. Our families will thrive. Our people will prosper. And our nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free. Thank you, and God bless America.

AP