: Trump's First State of the Union Speech, Annotated
Most State of the Union addresses begin with a short victory lap. Mr. Trump, never shy about listing his accomplishments, set out on a relatively long one.
Nicholas Fandos, Congressional Correspondent
Providing additional disaster relief is on Congress’s to-do list. Lawmakers are soon expected to approve at least about $80 billion in aid, on top of the tens of billions they provided last year.
Thomas Kaplan, Congressional Correspondent
Mr. Trump began with this nod to bipartisanship, but most in Washington agree there has been little to speak of in the president’s first year. One primary test for his second year may be whether Democrats and Republicans can come together to reach an immigration deal.
Nicholas Fandos, Congressional Correspondent
It’s misleading to say that wages are beginning to rise after years of stagnation. Check out the Atlanta Fed’s wage tracker – it shows wage growth slowing from the last year of President Obama’s tenure.
Jim Tankersley, Economics and Tax Reporter
Mr. Trump’s victory lap on taxes is a reminder of just how much was at stake. After Republicans failed in their effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Mr. Trump confronted the possibility that he would go without a signature legislative achievement in his first year in office. But the tax overhaul gave him something big to brag about.
Thomas Kaplan, Congressional Correspondent
That’s a stretch. The mandate was an integral piece of former President Barack Obama’s signature health law. But the overall architecture of the law remains in place, including its marketplaces, insurance regulations and expansion of Medicaid.
Thomas Kaplan, Congressional Correspondent
This appears to be a veiled shot at one of Mr. Trump’s past targets: NFL players who kneel during the national anthem before games in protest of police brutality and racial oppression.
Nicholas Fandos, Congressional Correspondent
Justice Gorsuch, the subject of this compliment, sat stone-faced as Trump delivered it.
Alan Rappeport, Economic Policy Reporter
It’s striking how conventional of a Republican speech this is, a far cry from some of the populist notes Mr. Trump sounded during the campaign.
Jonathan Martin, National Political Correspondent
The term “clean coal” has no clear technical definition. Some advocates use it to refer to the burning of coal while using pollution-reducing technology that is already standard in most American coal plants. The term can also refer to technology that traps the planet-warming carbon dioxide pollution emitted by burning coal. It is not widely available commercially.
Coral Davenport, Climate Change Reporter
Mr. Trump sought to roll back standards that would have forced automakers to raise vehicle fuel economy. Economists estimated that those standards would have cut the nation’s oil consumption by about 12 billion barrels.
Coral Davenport, Climate Change Reporter
Mr. Trump made no direct mention of Nafta even though he has regularly threatened to terminate it. Last year he said it was responsible for a quarter of lost manufacturing jobs in his address to Congress.
Alan Rappeport, Economic Policy Reporter
Infrastructure has long been seen as a Trump priority that could draw bipartisan cooperation on Capitol Hill. But there is ample reason for skepticism: The midterm elections loom, and partisan bitterness remains after the fights over health care and taxes as well as this month’s government shutdown.
Thomas Kaplan, Congressional Correspondent
On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump sought to put a face on his famously tough-on-immigration policies by frequently inviting on stage family members of young victims of gang violence or illegal immigration. He did the same thing on Tuesday night in the House chamber to vivify his policy proposal.
Nicholas Fandos, Congressional Correspondent
The president is going after violence by the MS-13 gang again. He’s made a point of highlighting MS-13 violence, as it dovetails with his immigration stance.
Helene Cooper, Pentagon Correspondent
This division of Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigates cross-border crimes; a separate group, Enforcement and Removal Operations, focuses on deportations.
Amy Fiscus, National Security Editor
Though a border wall is the centerpiece of Mr. Trump’s border security plan, it addresses only a fraction of illegal immigration. Hundreds of thousands of people who illegally stay in the United States each year entered legally and simply overstayed their visas.
Amy Fiscus, National Security Editor
The visa lottery system offers visas to immigrants from countries that are underrepresented – including many African nations. These are the nations that Mr. Trump referred to in vulgar terms.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Congressional Correspondent
Mr. Trump’s claim overstates how family-based immigration works. There are annual caps so it’s very difficult for one immigrant to bring in his or her whole family for a short period of time.
Linda Qiu, Fact Check Reporter
Democrats do not share this view. They see the president’s immigration plan as a hard-line approach that is a nonstarter. A Senate deal on an immigration bill could wind up being narrower in scope, focusing on so-called Dreamers and border security.
Thomas Kaplan, Congressional Correspondent
Both the president and lawmakers in Congress want to fight the opioid crisis. In budget negotiations, Democrats have pushed to increase domestic spending, and the opioid epidemic is a key part of their effort.
Thomas Kaplan, Congressional Correspondent
Just as Democrats are pushing to increase domestic spending, Republicans are eager to provide a big increase in military funding. Congressional leaders from both parties have sought a deal to raise strict spending caps imposed in 2011, but negotiations have dragged amid the clash over immigration.
Thomas Kaplan, Congressional Correspondent
In taking credit for the defeat of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, President Trump is reaping the advantage of the Obama administration strategy of working “by, with and through” allies and partners. Mr. Trump is correct that most of the territory in Iraq and Syria once controlled by the Islamic State has been liberated.
Helene Cooper, Pentagon Correspondent
This announcement was expected. Essentially a symbolic act, it brings executive branch policy into line with reality: The prison remains open for business, at least for those detainees who are already there.
Nicholas Fandos, Congressional Correspondent
The most notably absent foreign policy point: Russia. Democrats have implored Mr. Trump to take a more aggressive stance against Moscow’s election meddling, castigating him this week for his decision not to impose powerful new sanctions passed by Congress designed to punish the interference.
Nicholas Fandos, Congressional Correspondent
Mr. Trump again called on lawmakers to make ambitious changes to the Obama-era accord. But it is not clear if that is even possible: The United States negotiated the deal with five other nations and Iran, who are not eager to make renegotiate the deal. Dedicating just a single line to it, Mr. Trump offered little help.
Nicholas Fandos, Congressional Correspondent
I covered the story of Otto Warmbier. It was devastatingly sad.
Sheryl Gay Stolberg, Congressional Correspondent
Mr. Trump did not go for brevity. His speech stretched about an hour and 20 minutes, making it the longest State of the Union address since President Bill Clinton went on for nearly 90 minutes in 2000, according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Thomas Kaplan, Congressional Correspondent
Mr. Trump did not mention the biggest cloud hanging over his administration: the special counsel investigation. The president rarely passes up an opportunity to talk about it in a range of settings, from Twitter to Oval Office interviews.
Michael S. Schmidt, National Security Correspondent
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