FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

Trump Urges Congress, ‘Embrace Cooperation and Compromise, not as Two Parties but as One Nation’

Feb. 6, 2019 (EIRNS)—President Trump’s second annual State of the Union speech began by asking all Members of Congress of both parties to

“Embrace cooperation, compromise and the common good.... I am ready to work with you to achieve historic breakthroughs for our people.... We must act not as two parties, but as one nation.” He asked them to “choose greatness, not [partisan] gridlock,”

a theme he returned to in closing.

Beginning an 80-minute speech entirely without attacks or even strong criticisms of Democrats or the Democratic Party, the President summarized the priority areas for “compromise and the common good,” as:

• rebuild and revitalize our nation’s failing infrastructure
  
  
• reduce the prices of prescription drugs to our citizens
  
  
• create a safe, lawful and secure immigration policy
  
  
• carry out a “foreign policy that puts America first.”

An aspect of Trump’s speech which is much more controversial and important than the time he gave to it, was his restatement of determination to end the United States’ involvement in wars in Syria and Afghanistan, very soon. He remained firm in his defiance of British geopolitical war policies; called neither Russia nor China adversaries, despite criticizing the former for violating the INF Treaty and the latter for “taking advantage” of bad U.S. economic policies in the past. In fact, he said

“I have great respect for President Xi, and we are now working on a new trade deal with China. But it must include real, structural change to end unfair trade practices, reduce our chronic trade deficit, and protect American jobs.”

British leaders, his generals—including one testifying yesterday that the President had not consulted him about ending a war in his command area—neo-conservatives and neo-liberals of every kind in and around his administration, some members of both parties in Congress have been furiously opposing him on this. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who put through a Senate resolution against the President’s peace decisions, looked glum every time the camera fell on him, declining to stand or even to applaud. The President held firm: “Great nations do not fight endless wars.”

President Trump’s other areas of focus were the progress in job creation, manufacturing and economic growth on his watch; and security on the U.S.-Mexico border. “In the past,” he said,

“most of the people in this room voted for a wall. But the proper wall never got built. I’ll get it built. It will be a smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier—not just a simple concrete wall. It will be deployed in the areas identified by border agents as having the greatest need.”

Touching on “the common good,” the President said that

“Both parties should be able to unite for a great rebuilding of America’s crumbling infrastructure. I know that Congress is eager to pass an infrastructure bill—and I am eager to work with you on legislation to delivery new and important infrastructure investment, including investments in the cutting-edge industries of the future. This is not an option. This is a necessity.”

When Trump spoke about the fact that 58% of the 5 million new jobs since his election were filled by women, even the white-clad Democratic Congress women “resisters” stood and applauded. But his most sustained applause came for committing $500 million for critical research on child cancers, “many of which have not seen new therapies in decades.”

Indications of the audience for the State of the Union among the American population, as of this evening, ranged from 47 to 49 million, a very high “turnout.” His first speech last February drew over 45 million watchers, already nearly 5 million more than for any of the 16 during Barack Obama or George Bush’s terms.