President Trump Delivers his First State of the Union Address

On Tuesday night, around 46.7 million people nationwide gathered around their television screens to watch the long-awaited 2018 State of Union Address by the 45th president of the United States, Donald Trump. During this annual speech, presidents present the accomplishments that their administrations have achieved throughout the year, along with their plans for their next few years in office. As it is the start of the second year of Trump’s presidency and his first address, he focused on the economy and the resilience America has shown throughout his presidential term highlighting moments of tragedy.

“He seemed to brag a lot about positive events occurring that he was not responsible for. He made many generalizations about immigrants being violent based on several specific cases out of millions of immigrants they are in the country. A lot of his points could be challenged with a simple Google search to a credible source,” junior Anthony Arevalo-Lesueur said.

Towards the start of the speech, Trump attempted to establish a common ground between all citizens, suggesting that they should set aside their political differences and focus on being Americans. He then began speaking of all his accomplishments in his time in office. For instance, Trump claimed to have created about 2.4 million jobs and implemented policies that resulted in the lowest unemployment of African Americans and Hispanics in American history. He also spoke about how he has enacted the biggest tax cuts in history in order to relieve the middle class and small businesses from an economic burden. Due to this, families making 75,000 dollars will now see their tax bill reduced by 20,000 dollars. Trump also mentioned that Apple has decided to invest 350 billion dollars into the American economy through the sale of their products and the production of these as well.

Throughout his entire speech, I felt like Trump was too boastful of all his accomplishments, even some that turned out to be inaccurate. This is probably why his speech is one the longest in history,” sophomore Merecedes Debesa said.

The speech later digressed into the topic of Trump’s plans for the new year. He mentioned how he wants Congress to let him create a bill that grants him 1.5 trillion dollars for the improvement of infrastructure. In the past few months, he has met with both Democrats and Republicans to create a proposal for immigration. In this proposal, there are what he called “4 pillars.” The first pillar is an offer for DACA recipients to apply for citizenship if they meet education and work requirements. The second calls for an increase in border security and the construction of a wall on the southern border of the country. The third pillar changes the visa lottery into a merit-based system, basically only admitting skilled and educated workers into the country. Finally, the fourth pillar calls for an end to “chain migration”, formally known as “family reunification”, that allows those with citizenship or visa status to apply for their family members to enter the country legally.  Trump’s new policy would allow families to bring only their spouses and children into the United States.

President Trump made many remarks during the address that have caused him to receive backlash from major news publications regarding inaccurate claims. Overall citizens of America have much to reflect on about what they can expect in the future after Trump announced his plans for America’s economy, immigration, and industrialization.