Earlier this week, President Donald Trump gave his first State of the Union Address lasting almost an hour and a half with 115 applause lines, and it turned out to be the most watched State of the Union in the history of cable news. A number of democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California), boycotted the speech, but it was still incredibly successful without their presence. After Trump’s presence being announced to Speaker Paul Ryan, him and Vice President Mike Pence presented the president to the Capitol moments before he began his speech. Trump started off by welcoming everyone on a positive note. “A new tide of optimism was already sweeping across our land,” he began. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump gave his first State of the Union Address lasting almost an hour and a half with 115 applause lines, and it turned out to be the most watch State of the Union in the history of cable news. A number of democratic lawmakers, including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-California), boycotted the speech, but it was still incredibly successful without their presence. After Trump’s presence being announced to Speaker Paul Ryan, him and Vice President Mike Pence presented the president to the Capitol moments before he began his speech. Trump started off by welcoming everyone on a positive note. “A new tide of optimism was already sweeping across our land,” he began. He described “the beauty of America’s soul” and “the steel of America’s spine” we have all seen throughout his first year of presidency. The first special attendee was Ashlee Lepper, a U.S. Coast Guard aviation technician. She was aboard one of the first helicopters at the scene of Hurricane Harvey and saved 40 lives. She was thanked for her for her selfless help in the natural disaster recovery and rescues. Trump later followed with a comment to all the states dealing with hurricane aftermath, “We are always with you, always.” The next attendee mentioned in the speech was firefighter prevention technician David Dahlberg. He rescued about 60 children trapped at a California summer camp in the middle of the recent wildfires. He was also thanked for his courage. Next was a congratulations to Steve Scalise for making such a swift recovery back to work after being shot back in June, along with a thank you to the first responders who saved his life that tragic day.“We came together. Not as Republicans or Democrats, but as people,” Trump said. In light of the bipartisan comment, Trump asked everyone to put their differences aside and come together for Americans. Chuck Schumer seemed to agree with his smirking and clapping, but Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t even clap. That wouldn’t be the last time she refused to put aside her personal hatred for Trump, but anything less would’ve been a shock. Trump touched on economics a lot because that has probably been his biggest success. Since his election, he has created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 solely in the manufacturing industry. Effectively, unemployment is going down, reaching a 45 year-low of about 4%. Black and hispanic unemployment alone is at the lowest ever recorded. Because of the great economy and tax reform, Apple will be investing $350 billion into the economy and will be hiring 20,000 more workers. Exxonmobil will be investing $50 billions over five years, specifically after the tax reform. Alongside that, the stock market has gained $8 trillion in value and is continuing to break records every day. Trump enacted the biggest tax reforms in American history, and it’s benefitting the hard-working middle class - the Americans that elected him for this reason. He gave many easy to understand statistics to describe this. The first $24,000 of a married couple will be completely taxless, and a four-person family making $75,000 will have their tax bill halved. Child tax credit has also been doubled. The tax reforms also benefit businesses, especially smaller ones. The business tax rate has decreased from 35% to 21%, which allows companies to compete internationally. This also helps families because their family income by over $4,000. The next recognition went to small business owners Steve Staub and Kellie Keplinger. With the new tax reforms, they are able to expand into a bigger space, hire more workers, and increase their employees’ wages. One of those employees is Cory Adams, “a great welder” according to Trump, who is using his additional income to invest in his new home and the education of his two daughters. “There has never been a better time to start living the American dream,” Trump said. Now is a prominent time to be prosperous whether it be in the workforce or the stock market. In between all the clapping for all of the substantial triumph of Trump’s presidency, the Democrats who showed up refused to stand or even clap. They sat looking angry. Trump’s comment about repealing the core part of “disastrous Obamacare” didn’t help, but facts don’t care about the Democrats’ feelings. Trump followed the economic synopsis with positive remarks towards America as a whole, a common theme in his speech. He says that we all “can achieve absolutely anything” because we are all “one American family.” “We all share the same home, the same heart, the same destiny, and the same great American flag. Together we are rediscovering the American way,” he said. “In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy are the center of the American life,” Trump said. “And we celebrate our police, our military, and our amazing veterans as heroes who deserve our total and unwavering support.” Following the beautiful comment about what we do as Americans, Trump introduced 12-year old Preston Sharp from California. He decided to begin a fundraiser to place 40,000 flags “at the graves of our great heroes”. Trump said what he did was very special and that he has a great future. He thanked him for his dedication. Trump recognized the veterans multiple times throughout the speech. He said they are “why we salute our flag, why we put our hands over our hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem.” This was targeted towards the professional athletes, like Colin Kaepernick, who decided to start kneeling for the anthem as a symbol for black oppression. Continuing with the talk about caring for our veterans, Trump mentioned the VA Accountability Act, which removed over 1,500 VA employees “who failed to give veterans the care they deserve”. Caregivers who are giving veterans the same love and respect Americans do are being hired instead. Trump is devoted to always giving veterans their choice in their healthcare decisions; he “will not stop until our veterans are properly taken care of…” Working with the Senate, Trump will continue to appoint judges who will apply and interpret the Constitution as it was written, as opposed to how they feel it should be. Somewhat related to the judges, he called on Congress to give the Cabinet Secretaries the ability to reward good work and remove those who are untrustworthy and fail to properly and fairly represent the American people Apart of the booming economy is bringing jobs back to the United States. Car companies are opening up new factories here, including Chrysler coming back from Mexico to Alabama and opening a huge plant. Trump brought up a seemingly new idea that people with terminal illness should have access to experimental drugs without having to look in foreign countries. “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,” Trump said. Trump is also making it a high priority for the year to fix the “injustice of high drug prices” and reduce the cost of prescription drugs, and he nearly guaranteed it when he said, “Prices will come down substantially, watch.” “Our nation has lost its wealth but we’re getting it back so fast,” Trump said, in relation to trade deals. He said he will fix bad trade deals and get new trade deals that will be “fair” and “reciprocal”. Trump also brought up the rebuild of “crumbling infrastructure”. He described it as a “disgrace” that it can take around 10 years to get a minor permit for something as simple as a road. He would like bipartisan changes on this with a bill to produce a minimum of $1.5 trillion to new infrastructure. He would like to see “gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways, and waterways” made with “American heart, American hands, and American grit”, further relating to bringing back jobs to America for Americans. Trump would like to “lift our citizens from welfare to work” with all the new jobs created by the tax cuts. He wants investments to be made in job training and in opening vocational schools for workers to gain new skills and “realize their full potential”. He also said we should support working families with paid family leave. As cameras flashed across the unenthused Democrats, Bernie Sanders appeared. He didn’t look quite as uncomfortable and annoyed as Nancy Pelosi. Another rather new idea Trump brought up was to reform prisons to help former inmates get a second chance at life after serving their time. The prison reform led into a talk about struggling communities, “especially immigrant communities”. Trump says they will all be helped by new immigration policies focused on protecting American workers and families. Another story was told in relation to one of Trump’s biggest campaign promises: dealing with illegal immigration and ending the epidemic of the murder of innocent civilians. In the audience was Evelyn Rodriguez, Freddy Cuevas, Elizabeth Alvarado, and Robert Mickens, parents of two teenage girls, Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, who were murdered while walking in Long Island. The girls were killed by six members of the MS-13 gang who illegally came into the country as “unaccompanied alien minors”. These savages went to the same high school as the girls, too. “Tonight, everyone in this chamber is praying for you. Everyone in America is grieving for you. And 320 million hearts are breaking for you. We cannot imagine the depth of your sorrow, but we can make sure that other families never have to endure this pain,” Trump said to the families. Trump said that Congress needs to close any and all loopholes for criminal gangs to come in from Mexico to prevent murders of American citizens so they will never occur again. Trump’s “highest loyalty” is for America’s children, workers, and forgotten communities. He wants kids to grow up and do great things, and give the poor “their chance to rise”. He is “extending an open hand” to both parties “to protect our citizens of every background, color, religion, and creed”. Trump said it is an elected officials’ duty to protect Americans and their “right to their American dream. Because Americans are dreamers too.” The next special attendee was CJ Martinez, Air Force veteran and current ICE agent. MS-13 gang leaders wanted him dead. He was thanked for his bravery in his continuation of his job. He led an operation to find gang member on Long Island, and him and his team have arrested about 400 illegals, over half being from MS-13. Before the speech, Trump talked to CJ. He asked,“What’s the secret?” CJ replied with “We’re just tougher than they are.” The House and Senate will be voting on a new, bipartisan immigration proposal full of compromises on both sides for the better of the country. There are four pillars to the deal. The first pillar is a path to citizenship for dreamers. They must meet education and work requirements and good merit in order become citizens in just 12 years. The second pillar is to fully secure the border. This includes building the wall, hiring more ICE workers, closing loopholes for criminals and terrorists to come in and eliminating “catch and release” of them, and a merit based program for people who actually love America and want to see it prosper and want to work. The third pillar ends the visa lottery, which randomly hands out green cards without any other major requirements. This would lead to a better merit-based program, as outlined in the second pillar. The fourth pillar protects the nuclear family by ending chain migration in which people can bring in “limitless” amounts of people. This will focus on legalizing immediate family, like the spouse and children, for the purpose of protecting the economy and securing the country and it’s future. The Democrats heavily disagreed with especially the fourth pillar as they began to boo. Nancy Pelosi turned around to talk with her fellow party members like a high school girl who couldn’t believe what was just said. Trump said that we can’t afford the terrorism being brought in. This new system will “.finally bring our immigration system into the 21st century”. The pillars are a compromise to make a good system that will follow through on his pledge to “sign a bill that puts America first”. He called on lawmakers to “put politics aside and get the job done”. The immigration reform ties into fixing the opioid crisis, another relatively new idea brought up in this speech. In 2016, there were a whopping 64,000 deaths from drug overdoses. Trump says we need to crackdown on drug dealers to in turn prevent overdoses. He also wants to help those who have already been hurt by drugs. “In the end, we will succeed. We will prevail,” Trump said, in regards to the harm brought about from drugs. “As we have seen tonight, the most difficult challenges bring out the best in America.” Next introduced was Ryan Holets, an Albuquerque police officer. He stopped a pregnant homeless woman who about to inject herself with heroine. When he approached her and talked to her about what she was doing, she said she just wanted a safe home for her child, but didn’t know where to go. He said he heard God tell him that he needed to adopt the baby, now named Hope. He embodies “the goodness of our nation” in that selfless act. As well as rebuilding American strength at home, we are doing the same abroad. Trump said that “weakness is the surest path to conflict”. He wants Congress to fully fund the military to protect us from threats, like China and Russia. He also wants to rebuild nuclear arsenal to make it powerful enough to “deter any acts of aggression by any other nation or anyone else”, but he hopes for the day when countries will come together to eliminate nuclear weapons “One year later, I am proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated 100% of the territory once held by these killers,” Trump said. “We will continue our fight until ISIS is defeated.” Another special member of the audience was Staff Sergeant Justin Peck. He knowingly went into “booby-trapped” building to save a fellow soldier, Kenton Stacy. He did CPR for over two and a half hours, even through an emergency surgery. He saved his life. “Terrorists who do things like place bombs in hospitals are evil. When possible, we will annihilated,” Trump said. Terrorists, described as “unlawful enemy combatants”, will be treated like the criminals they are and should not be released because of how many times we have run into them again. Trump wants Congress to ensure that we detain terrorists wherever we find them. Guantanamo Bay Prison will remain open for their detainment. Trump congratulated Secretary Mattis on his great job dealing with terrorists, among his many other tasks, like not allowing soldiers in Afghanistan to tell the enemy our plans, as done in previous administrations. Recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was a huge success Trump outlined in his first year. He said that dozens of countries in the UN voted against our right to this sovereign decision, and 2016 taxpayers sent money to those same countries. Now, Congress is called on to pass legislation that foreign assistance dollars will serve American interests and our allies, not enemies. “America stands with the people of Iran in their courageous struggle for freedom,” Trump said. Congress also needs to fix the Iran nuclear deal and impose sanctions on socialist regimes of Cuba and Venezuela. Nikki Haley couldn’t have been more proud of that statement. Dealing with North Korea has been another one of Trump’s highest priorities because he doesn’t want to repeat the mistakes of past administrations who got us into this dangerous position in the first place. He said that North Korea is a “menace that threatens our world”. ○ “...reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland.” Trump said a memorial to Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who went on a tour of North Korea. He was charged with crimes against North Korea, and was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor that killed him days after his return to America. The most powerful image of the entire speech was from the story of Gi Sung Ho. In 1996, he was one of the many starving children in North Korea. He tried to steal coal, but passed out asleep on train tracks from hunger. He woke up to a train running over his limbs, requiring amputations without painkillers. Later in his life, he visited China. Upon his return, he was tortured by North Korean leaders, and they wanted to know if he had met any Christians while in China. He traveled on his weak, wooden crutches across China to freedom. He now leaves in Seoul, South Korea, and is broadcasting the truth about the sick regime that is North Korea. As the room erupted in applause, he stood with his wooden crutches - the ones that carried him to his current path of freedom. Trump said that his story is a “testament to every human soul” for the yearning of freedom. Our country has always been about governing ourselves, ever since the Europeans founded the 13 colonies. Trump takes the time to recognizes all the statues, memorials, and buildings in D.C. that stand for veterans, fallen soldiers, and all the battles “Freedom stands tall over one more monument: this one. This capitol, this is the monument to the American people,” Trump said. “This capitol, this city, this nation, belongs entirely to them.” He continued to say, “Our job is to...always be worthy of them.” Everyone, except for a few Democrats, began chanting “USA!” “The people dreamed this country, the people built this country, and it’s the people that 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 with thrive, our people will prosper, and our Nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free,” Trump said. “Thank you, and God bless America,” Trump concluded. He walked out to a majority of the Capitol chanting “USA!” once more, ending the speech on a optimistic, patriotic note: “the beauty of America’s soul”and “the steel of America’s spine” we have all seen throughout his first year of presidency.
The first special attendee was Ashlee Lepper, a U.S. Coast Guard aviation technician.
She was aboard one of the first helicopters at the scene of Hurricane Harvey and saved 40 lives.
She was thanked for her for her selfless help in the natural disaster recovery and rescues.
Trump later followed with a comment to all the states dealing with hurricane aftermath,
“We are always with you, always.”
The next attendee mentioned in the speech was firefighter prevention technician David
Dahlberg. He rescued about 60 children trapped at a California summer camp in the middle of
the recent wildfires. He was also thanked for his courage.
Next was a congratulations to Steve Scalise for making such a swift recovery back to
work after being shot back in June, along with a thank you to the first responders who saved his life that tragic day.“We came together. Not as Republicans or Democrats, but as people,”Trump said.
In light of the bipartisan comment, Trump asked everyone to put their differences aside
and come together for Americans. Chuck Schumer seemed to agree with his smirking and
clapping, but Nancy Pelosi wouldn’t even clap. That wouldn’t be the last time she refused to put aside her personal hatred for Trump, but anything less would’ve been a shock.
Trump touched on economics a lot because that has probably been his biggest success.
Since his election, he has created 2.4 million new jobs, including 200,000 solely in the
manufacturing industry. Effectively, unemployment is going down, reaching a 45 year-low of
about 4%. Black and hispanic unemployment alone is at the lowest ever recorded.
Because of the great economy and tax reform, Apple will be investing $350 billion into
the economy and will be hiring 20,000 more workers. Exxonmobil will be investing $50 billions
over five years, specifically after the tax reform. Alongside that, the stock market has gained $8 trillion in value and is continuing to break records every day.
Trump enacted the biggest tax reforms in American history, and it’s benefitting the
hard-working middle class - the Americans that elected him for this reason. He gave many easy
to understand statistics to describe this. The first $24,000 of a married couple will be completely taxless, and a four-person family making $75,000 will have their tax bill halved. Child tax credit has also been doubled.
The tax reforms also benefit businesses, especially smaller ones. The business tax rate
has decreased from 35% to 21%, which allows companies to compete internationally. This also
helps families because their family income by over $4,000.
The next recognition went to small business owners Steve Staub and Kellie Keplinger.
With the new tax reforms, they are able to expand into a bigger space, hire more workers, and
increase their employees’ wages. One of those employees is Cory Adams, “a great welder”
according to Trump, who is using his additional income to invest in his new home and the
education of his two daughters.
“There has never been a better time to start living the American dream,” Trump said.
Now is a prominent time to be prosperous whether it be in the workforce or the stock market.
In between all the clapping for all of the substantial triumph of Trump’s presidency, the
Democrats who showed up refused to stand or even clap. They sat looking angry. Trump’s
comment about repealing the core part of “disastrous Obamacare” didn’t help, but facts don’t
care about the Democrats’ feelings.
Trump followed the economic synopsis with positive remarks towards America as a
whole, a common theme in his speech. He says that we all “can achieve absolutely anything”
because we are all “one American family.” “We all share the same home, the same heart, the
same destiny, and the same great American flag. Together we are rediscovering the American
way,” he said.
“In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy are the
center of the American life,” Trump said. “And we celebrate our police, our military, and our
amazing veterans as heroes who deserve our total and unwavering support.”
Following the beautiful comment about what we do as Americans, Trump introduced
12-year old Preston Sharp from California. He decided to begin a fundraiser to place 40,000
flags “at the graves of our great heroes”. Trump said what he did was very special and that he has a great future. He thanked him for his dedication.
Trump recognized the veterans multiple times throughout the speech. He said they are
“why we salute our flag, why we put our hands over our hearts for the Pledge of Allegiance, and why we proudly stand for the national anthem.” This was targeted towards the professional
athletes, like Colin Kaepernick, who decided to start kneeling for the anthem as a symbol for
black oppression.
Continuing with the talk about caring for our veterans, Trump mentioned the VA
Accountability Act, which removed over 1,500 VA employees “who failed to give veterans the
care they deserve”. Caregivers who are giving veterans the same love and respect Americans do are being hired instead. Trump is devoted to always giving veterans their choice in their
healthcare decisions; he “will not stop until our veterans are properly taken care of…”
Working with the Senate, Trump will continue to appoint judges who will apply and
interpret the Constitution as it was written, as opposed to how they feel it should be.
Somewhat related to the judges, he called on Congress to give the Cabinet Secretaries the
ability to reward good work and remove those who are untrustworthy and fail to properly and
fairly represent the American people.
Apart of the booming economy is bringing jobs back to the United States. Car companies
are opening up new factories here, including Chrysler coming back from Mexico to Alabama and opening a huge plant.
Trump brought up a seemingly new idea that people with terminal illness should have
access to experimental drugs without having to look in foreign countries.
“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,” Trump said.
Trump is also making it a high priority for the year to fix the “injustice of high drug
prices” and reduce the cost of prescription drugs, and he nearly guaranteed it when he said,
“Prices will come down substantially, watch.”
“Our nation has lost its wealth but we’re getting it back so fast,” Trump said, in relation
to trade deals. He said he will fix bad trade deals and get new trade deals that will be “fair” and
“reciprocal”.
Trump also brought up the rebuild of “crumbling infrastructure”. He described it as a
“disgrace” that it can take around 10 years to get a minor permit for something as simple as a
road. He would like bipartisan changes on this with a bill to produce a minimum of $1.5 trillion
to new infrastructure. He would like to see “gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways,
and waterways” made with “American heart, American hands, and American grit”, further
relating to bringing back jobs to America for Americans.
Trump would like to “lift our citizens from welfare to work” with all the new jobs created
by the tax cuts. He wants investments to be made in job training and in opening vocational
schools for workers to gain new skills and “realize their full potential”. He also said we should
support working families with paid family leave.
As cameras flashed across the unenthused Democrats, Bernie Sanders appeared. He
didn’t look quite as uncomfortable and annoyed as Nancy Pelosi.
Another rather new idea Trump brought up was to reform prisons to help former inmates
get a second chance at life after serving their time.
The prison reform led into a talk about struggling communities, “especially immigrant
communities”. Trump says they will all be helped by new immigration policies focused on
protecting American workers and families.
Another story was told in relation to one of Trump’s biggest campaign promises: dealing
with illegal immigration and ending the epidemic of the murder of innocent civilians. In the
audience was Evelyn Rodriguez, Freddy Cuevas, Elizabeth Alvarado, and Robert Mickens,
parents of two teenage girls, Kayla Cuevas and Nisa Mickens, who were murdered while
walking in Long Island.
The girls were killed by six members of the MS-13 gang who illegally came into the
country as “unaccompanied alien minors”. These savages went to the same high school as the
girls, too.
“ Tonight, everyone in this chamber is praying for you. Everyone in America is grieving
for you. And 320 million hearts are breaking for you. We cannot imagine the depth of your
sorrow, but we can make sure that other families never have to endure this pain,” Trump said to
the families.
Trump said that Congress needs to close any and all loopholes for criminal gangs to come
in from Mexico to prevent murders of American citizens so they will never occur again.
Trump’s “highest loyalty” is for America’s children, workers, and forgotten
communities. He wants kids to grow up and do great things, and give the poor “their chance to
rise”. He is “extending an open hand” to both parties “to protect our citizens of every
background, color, religion, and creed”.
Trump said it is an elected officials’ duty to protect Americans and their “right to their
American dream. Because Americans are dreamers too.”
The next special attendee was CJ Martinez, Air Force veteran and current ICE agent.
MS-13 gang leaders wanted him dead. He was thanked for his bravery in his continuation of his
job. He led an operation to find gang member on Long Island, and him and his team have
arrested about 400 illegals, over half being from MS-13.
Before the speech, Trump talked to CJ. He asked,“What’s the secret?” CJ replied with
“We’re just tougher than they are.”
The House and Senate will be voting on a new, bipartisan immigration proposal full of
compromises on both sides for the better of the country. There are four pillars to the deal.
The first pillar is a path to citizenship for dreamers. They must meet education and work
requirements and good merit in order become citizens in just 12 years.
The second pillar is to fully secure the border. This includes building the wall, hiring
more ICE workers, closing loopholes for criminals and terrorists to come in and eliminating
“catch and release” of them, and a merit based program for people who actually love America
and want to see it prosper and want to work.
The third pillar ends the visa lottery, which randomly hands out green cards without any
other major requirements. This would lead to a better merit-based program, as outlined in the
second pillar.
The fourth pillar protects the nuclear family by ending chain migration in which people
can bring in “limitless” amounts of people. This will focus on legalizing immediate family, like
the spouse and children, for the purpose of protecting the economy and securing the country and it’s future.
The Democrats heavily disagreed with especially the fourth pillar as they began to boo.
Nancy Pelosi turned around to talk with her fellow party members like a high school girl who
couldn’t believe what was just said.
Trump said that we can’t afford the terrorism being brought in. This new system will
“.finally bring our immigration system into the 21st century”. The pillars are a compromise to
make a good system that will follow through on his pledge to “sign a bill that puts America
first”. He called on lawmakers to “put politics aside and get the job done”.
The immigration reform ties into fixing the opioid crisis, another relatively new idea
brought up in this speech. In 2016, there were a whopping 64,000 deaths from drug overdoses.
Trump says we need to crackdown on drug dealers to in turn prevent overdoses. He also wants to help those who have already been hurt by drugs.
“In the end, we will succeed. We will prevail,” Trump said, in regards to the harm
brought about from drugs. “As we have seen tonight, the most difficult challenges bring out the best in America.”
Next introduced was Ryan Holets, an Albuquerque police officer. He stopped a pregnant
homeless woman who about to inject herself with heroine. When he approached her and talked to her about what she was doing, she said she just wanted a safe home for her child, but didn’t
know where to go. He said he heard God tell him that he needed to adopt the baby, now namedHope. He embodies “the goodness of our nation” in that selfless act.
As well as rebuilding American strength at home, we are doing the same abroad. Trump
said that “weakness is the surest path to conflict”. He wants Congress to fully fund the military to protect us from threats, like China and Russia. He also wants to rebuild nuclear arsenal to make it powerful enough to “deter any acts of aggression by any other nation or anyone else”, but he hopes for the day when countries will come together to eliminate nuclear weapons
“One year later, I am proud to report that the coalition to defeat ISIS has liberated 100%
of the territory once held by these killers,” Trump said. “We will continue our fight until ISIS is
defeated.”

Another special member of the audience was Staff Sergeant Justin Peck. He knowingly
went into “booby-trapped” building to save a fellow soldier, Kenton Stacy. He did CPR for over
two and a half hours, even through an emergency surgery. He saved his life.
“Terrorists who do things like place bombs in hospitals are evil. When possible, we will
annihilated,” Trump said. Terrorists, described as “unlawful enemy combatants”, will be treated
like the criminals they are and should not be released because of how many times we have run
into them again. Trump wants Congress to ensure that we detain terrorists wherever we find them. Guantanamo Bay Prison will remain open for their detainment. Trump congratulated Secretary Mattis on his great job dealing with terrorists, among his many other tasks, like not allowing soldiers in Afghanistan to tell the enemy our plans, as done in previous administrations. Recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was a huge success Trump outlined in his first year. He said that dozens of countries in the UN voted against our right to this sovereign decision, and 2016 taxpayers sent money to those same countries. Now, Congress is called on to pass legislation that foreign assistance dollars will serve American interests and our allies, not enemies.
“America stands with the people of Iran in their courageous struggle for freedom,”
Trump said. Congress also needs to fix the Iran nuclear deal and impose sanctions on socialist
regimes of Cuba and Venezuela. Nikki Haley couldn’t have been more proud of that statement.
Dealing with North Korea has been another one of Trump’s highest priorities because he
doesn’t want to repeat the mistakes of past administrations who got us into this dangerous
position in the first place. He said that North Korea is a “menace that threatens our world”.
○ “...reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland.”
Trump said a memorial to Otto Warmbier, a University of Virginia student who went on
a tour of North Korea. He was charged with crimes against North Korea, and was sentenced to
15 years of hard labor that killed him days after his return to America.
The most powerful image of the entire speech was from the story of Gi Sung Ho. In
1996, he was one of the many starving children in North Korea. He tried to steal coal, but passed out asleep on train tracks from hunger. He woke up to a train running over his limbs, requiring amputations without painkillers.
Later in his life, he visited China. Upon his return, he was tortured by North Korean
leaders, and they wanted to know if he had met any Christians while in China. He traveled on his weak, wooden crutches across China to freedom. He now leaves in Seoul, South Korea, and is broadcasting the truth about the sick regime that is North Korea.
As the room erupted in applause, he stood with his wooden crutches - the ones that
carried him to his current path of freedom. Trump said that his story is a “testament to every
human soul” for the yearning of freedom.
Our country has always been about governing ourselves, ever since the Europeans
founded the 13 colonies. Trump takes the time to recognizes all the statues, memorials, and
buildings in D.C. that stand for veterans, fallen soldiers, and all the battles
“Freedom stands tall over one more monument: this one. This capitol, this is the
monument to the American people,” Trump said. “This capitol, this city, this nation, belongs
entirely to them.” He continued to say, “Our job is to...always be worthy of them.” Everyone,
except for a few Democrats, began chanting “USA!”
“The people dreamed this country, the people built this country, and it’s the people that
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 with thrive, our people
will prosper, and our Nation will forever be safe and strong and proud and mighty and free,”
Trump said.
“Thank you, and God bless America,” Trump concluded. He walked out to a majority of
the Capitol chanting “USA!” once more, ending the speech on a optimistic, patriotic note.