President Trump on Monday said he will focus largely on trade and immigration during his first State of the Union, noting that he is likely to call for bipartisan cooperation since Republicans “really don’t have the votes” to pass comprehensive immigration reform.
“It’s a big speech, an important speech, we covered immigration,” Trump said during a swearing-in ceremony for incoming Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. “We worked on it hard, covered a lot of territory, including our great success with the markets and with the tax cut.”
The president said Republicans and Democrats have been eyeing immigration reform for “many years,” yet little has been done to boost border security or deal with flaws in the visa lottery system. His comments come days after the White House announced its plan to provide a “legislative framework” to Congress as leaders from both parties continue to negotiate an immigration bill that protects illegal immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children and improves infrastructure at the Southwest border.
“Hopefully the Democrats will join us, or enough of them will join us, so we can really do something great for DACA and for immigration generally,” Trump said, referring to the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.
Trump also said that he will emphasize his desire for bilateral trade agreements during his joint address on Tuesday, a topic that he brought up during remarks to foreign leaders and global business tycoons at the World Economic Forum last week.
“It’s going to be a very important speech on trade,” he said. “The world has taken advantage of us on trade for many years and as you probably noticed, we’re stopping that… It’s not a one-way deal anymore.”
Trump will deliver his speech to both chambers of Congress at 9 p.m. ET on Tuesday night. He will be joined by his Cabinet and several special guests.
