Iran, economy, 'values': What did Trump say in State of Union?
US President Donald Trump delivered his third State of the Union address on Tuesday, the eve of his expected impeachment acquittal, in the US Senate.
The mood in the House of Representatives reflected the divisions running across the country. Republicans cheered as Trump was introduced, with some chanting "four more years" while Democrats stood silently.
On the foreign policy front, Trump said the US is "working to end America's wars in the Middle East".
He boasted about his decision to order the assassination of top Iranian Commander Qassem Soliemani. Iran retaliated by attacking two Iraqi military bases housing US troops. After Trump initially said no troops were injured, the Department of Defense announced dozens of US soldiers had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries.
Trump also reiterated his vow to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan. When he plans to do that, however, remains unclear.
US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad told Afghan President Ashraf Ghani earlier this week that there has been no significant progress in his talks with the Taliban. Khalilzad said he was hopeful of reaching an understanding with the group on reduction of hostilities, but did not offer any timeframe.
Trump also touted his newly-unveiled Middle East plan, which has been vehemently rejected by Palestinians.
And he received loud applause after reminding the country that ISIL (ISIS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed last year in a US military operation in Syria.
"Today, the ISIS territorial caliphate has been 100 percent destroyed, and the founder and leader of ISIS - the bloodthirsty killer Al‑Baghdadi - is dead!" Trump said.
Trump spent much of his speech highlighting the economy's strength, including low unemployment, stressing how it has helped blue-collar workers and the middle class, though the period of growth began under his predecessor, Barack Obama.
"In just three short years, we have shattered the mentality of American decline and we have rejected the downsizing of America's destiny. We are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago, and we are never going back!" Trump declared.
And what Trump calls an unprecedented boom is, by many measures, not all that different from the solid economy he inherited from Obama. Economic growth was 2.3 percent in 2019, matching the average pace since the Great Recession ended a decade ago in the first year of Obama's eight-year presidency.
Trump stressed the new trade agreements he has negotiated, including his phase-one deal with China and the United States-Mexico-Canada agreement he signed last month.
Throughout his presidency, Trump has frequently touted his stewardship of the US economy. As recently as two weeks ago, he claimed it was in "a rather dismal state" until he and his administration turned it into a "roaring geyser of opportunity".
But the numbers do not support the "geyser" narrative. There are signs the record US economic expansion - now in its 11th year - is getting long in the tooth.
Job creation is slowing. And the US economy's modest 2.3 percent growth was well short of the 3 percent growth Trump had predicted following a $1.5 trillion tax cut package he and his fellow Republicans pushed through Congress in 2017.
Trump's trade war with China weighed on US manufacturing last year as businesses held back on investment. And while factory activity bounced back in January amid the signing of a phase-one trade deal between Washington and Beijing, US tariffs still remain in place on some $360bn of Chinese goods.
The coronavirus outbreak and the ongoing troubles for Boeing surrounding the 737 MAX could also present headwinds to growth, analysts say.
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