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“Victory is not winning for our party, victory is winning for our country.” – Donald J. Trump Recently, President Donald Trump gave his State of The Union Address (SOTU). This is an annual speech that is given to Congress, by the president, at the beginning of the year. I will give you a rundown of the key points of the speech and my opinions what the president had to say.
The speech opens with Trump recognizing the 75 year anniversary of the allied liberation of Europe in World War II. He introduces three veterans who were a part of the invasion on Normandy Beach during D-Day. This is a touching introduction and a good start to President Trump’s speech.
Not long after the opening address, Trump begins to discuss the state of the United States economy. “In just over 2 years since the election, we have launched an unprecedented economic boom — a boom that has rarely been seen before,” Trump said. He then explained how this was done, “My Administration has cut more regulations in a short time than any other administration during its entire tenure,” Trump said. Freeing up the market is a good move on Trump’s part, I mean, look at the economy. He says in his speech that, “African-American, Hispanic-American and Asian-American unemployment have all reached their lowest levels ever recorded”, and that “Unemployment has reached the lowest rate in half a century.” Overall, the state of the United States Economy is quite strong.
The next topic that the President speaks about is both parties coming together for criminal justice reform. Donald Trump and his administration worked with members of both parties to sign the First Step Act into law. The First Step Act, in Donald Trump’s words, “gives non-violent offenders the chance to re-enter society as productive, law-abiding citizens.”
Trump moves right along and says that once again the Republicans and Democrats must come together to secure our southern border and protect our country. “The lawless state of our southern border is a threat to the safety, security, and financial well‑being of all Americans,” Trump said. As many of you probably know there is a real illegal immigration problem in the United States that isn’t helpful to anyone, except for those illegal aliens who are taking advantage of the systems in place in the United States. If you would like to read my full opinion on this I wrote an article titled Secure Our Borders earlier this year that goes further in depth on this topic. Not long after talking about why illegal immigration is a problem, Trump goes on to talk about his proposal to end the crisis at our border down south. The president outlines this plan by stating, “It includes humanitarian assistance, more law enforcement, drug detection at our ports, closing loopholes that enable child smuggling, and plans for a new physical barrier, or wall, to secure the vast areas between our ports of entry.” Overall I think the president gave a strong argument for securing our borders in this section of the address.
Trump takes the speech in a more positive direction by talking about the accomplishments made by women in our now thriving economy. “We have more women in the workforce than ever before…we also have more women serving in the Congress than ever before,” Trump said. These are both things that all Americans should be proud of.
Shortly after this, President Trump talked about our poor trade deals with China and how we were taken advantage of. Then, Trump goes on to talk about his thoughts on the North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, and how he is planning to bring more manufacturing jobs. “Our new U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, will replace NAFTA,” Trump said. Replacing NAFTA with the USMCA could be a smart move for the US economy, but only time will tell.
Trump then talked about the rebuilding of America’s infrastructure. Trump states that he wants to, “lower the cost of healthcare and prescription drugs — and to protect patients with pre-existing conditions.” He proposes to do this by saying, “We should also require drug companies, insurance companies, and hospitals to disclose real prices to foster competition and bring costs down.” This sounds like a reliable plan to keep our healthcare prices fair.
For a brief portion of this speech, President Trump touches on the ever-controversial topic of abortion by asking Congress to, “pass legislation to prohibit the late-term abortion of children who can feel pain in the mother’s womb.” Many other Americans and I could surely back legislation such as this. “Let us reaffirm a fundamental truth: all children — born and unborn — are made in the holy image of God,” Trump said.
The last big topic of the SOTU was that of national security. “Over the last 2 years, we have begun to fully rebuild the United States Military — with $700 billion last year and $716 billion this year,” Trump said. This may seem as if it is a lot, however, in my opinion, this is an investment that is well worth the cost for the safety of all American citizens. Trump also talked about his push for peace on the Korean Peninsula. This is an important relationship with our country that is keeping us out of what could have been a war before President Trump was elected. All in all, I was glad to hear that the President will be meeting with Kim Jong Un, the Supreme Leader of North Korea, again and I am happy with the direction that our military is heading.
I think all Americans should be proud of the state of our country, and they should also be glad about the job that President Donald Trump is doing. He is not a perfect president, but it would be unfair to say that he is a bad one. He is pushing our country in a good direction. This was probably one of the more presidential speeches that Trump has given. He had great examples and guests throughout the speech to help make his points, but don’t take my word for it. I recommend that, if you haven’t, you should watch or read the entirety of the SOTU to form your own opinions on what our President had to say.
A transcript of the speech can be found here: https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/05/politics/donald-trump-state-of-the-union-2019-transcript/index.html
A video of the speech can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYj4cDmilxc
Photo courtesy of Snopes
