President Trump championed new approaches to healthcare and immigration Tuesday in a disciplined address to a joint session of Congress that may have been his most traditional political speech since he entered public life decades ago.
The outsider who has relished blunt and confrontational stage banter honed from talk radio delivered a speech that took aim at his long-promised goal: to be “more presidential than anybody.”
Trump softened some of the rougher edges of his nationalist ideology as a call for citizens to appeal to their better natures for a “renewal of the American spirit” and to leave “the trivial fights behind us.”
He told the inspirational story of a child who survived a near-fatal disease and mourned with a widow who lost her husband to a botched military operation.
And he sought to emphasize some of his proposals that may draw bipartisan support, such as lower-priced prescription drugs and paid family leave, prompting a rare ovation from Democrats in the room.
“Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed,” he said. “Every problem can be solved. And every hurting family can find healing, and hope.”
The new president used his first address to a joint session of Congress to cast his short tenure as a series of promises made and kept to working Americans, and then went on to make even more.
He vowed to deliver reforms that would “raise wages, help the unemployed, save billions of dollars and make our communities safer for everyone.”
“When we fulfill this vision, we will look back on tonight as when this new chapter of American greatness began,” he said.
The speech, which replaces a State of the Union during a president’s first year in office, provided Trump with the most formal occasion since his inauguration to sell his agenda to a public that remains sharply divided over his presidency.
Trump remains popular with supporters, but his approval rating is historically low for a new president.
A single speech cannot be expected to turn around Trump’s presidency, which has suffered from early missteps and internal disorganization.
But it may allow him a new opportunity to debate policies that many in his party have been yearning to discuss, creating new space amid some of Trump’s self-inflicted distractions.
In addition to immigration and healthcare, Trump also renewed his call for investing $1 trillion in roads, bridges and airports, promised significant tax cuts and called on Congress to pass a school choice plan that includes a voucher program popular among conservatives but loathed by Democrats.
Trump also requested billions of dollars in spending increases on the military and veterans’ health.
He intensified his call to deregulate businesses, drawing sharp lines with liberals who say those regulations protect worker safety and the environment.
