US President Donald Trump boasted about the economy, job growth and his “America first” policy during his first State of the Union address, which was met by protests both inside and outside of Congress.
“This, in fact, is our new American moment,” Trump said on Tuesday evening as he addressed the current state of the US and laid out his top priorities for the year ahead.
“There has never been a better time to start living the American dream,” he added.
The president addressed a wide-range of issues from job growth and tax reform to infrastructure, immigration reform and national security.
Trump highlighted that “since the election, we have created more than 2.4 million new jobs” and “unemployment claims have hit a 45-year low”.
While it is true that the job market, as well as the economy has seen growth, many analysts have pointed out that the upward trend began well before Trump took office.
The US president also took the opportunity to congratulate himself and Congress on passing a massive tax overhaul, which has been criticised by Democrats and rights groups for unfairly benefiting wealthy Americans, while raising taxes for middle class families. It will also add nearly 1.5 trillion USD to the federal deficit over the next 10 years.
Al Jazeera reported that Trump again called on Congress to pass a immigration reform package that includes creating “a path to citizenship” for 1.8 million undocumented people who were brought to the US as children, “fully securing the border” by building a wall on the US-Mexico border, ending the diversity visa lottery programme, and stopping immigration based on family ties, which Trump often refers to as “chain migration” – a phrase rights group and Democrats call “unhelpful” and “racist”.
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