Immigration, inflation, healthcare and Iran: there are numerous issues touched by the president before the assembled houses of Congress. All with an eye to the midterms and the 2028 Republican presidential primaries
It’s a Donald Trump preparing for the midterm elections who gave the State of the Union speech yesterday. Speaking for almost two hours in front of the assembled chambers of Congress, the American president first of all claimed the results of the first year of government. “Today our border is secure, our spirit is reborn, inflation is collapsing, incomes are rising rapidly, the economy is booming like never before and our enemies are scared,” he said. The occupant of the White House also defended the tariff policy, returning to criticize, without exaggerating, the recent Supreme Court ruling. “It was a very unfortunate ruling. But the good news is that almost all countries and companies want to maintain the agreement they have already made,” he said.
Then, he turned to crucial issues ahead of the midterm elections, talking about what he called his “big health plan.” “I want to stop all payments to big insurance companies and, instead, give that money directly to citizens, so they can buy their own health care, which will be better at a much lower cost,” he said. “Moreover,” he added, “my plan requires maximum price transparency.” Trump, who added that he wanted to “protect” the Medicare and Medicaid health programs, also focused on inflation: an issue to which Republicans are vulnerable ahead of next November. “The Biden administration and its allies in Congress have given us the worst inflation in our country’s history. But in twelve months, my administration has brought underlying inflation to its lowest level in five years,” he argued.
The occupant of the White House then returned to his classic forte: the fight against illegal immigration. “The only thing standing between Americans and a wide open border right now is President Donald J. Trump and our great Republican patriots in Congress,” he said. “If you agree with this statement, then stand up and show your support. The first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal immigrants,” he continued, arousing the disappointment of the Dem parliamentarians in the audience. Subsequently, Trump returned to calling for rules that guarantee the integrity of the electoral process in the United States. “All voters must show identification. All voters must show proof of citizenship in order to vote,” he said.
But Trump didn’t stop at dealing with domestic issues. He also spoke on the Iranian crisis. “The Iranians want to reach an agreement, but we have not heard those secret words: ‘we will never have a nuclear weapon’. My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s main sponsor of terrorism to acquire an atomic weapon”, he declared, and then claimed to have led NATO allies to raise their spending for the Alliance to 5%.
Finally, there were veiled references to the 2028 Republican primaries. In his speech, Trump explicitly praised Marco Rubio, calling him a “great secretary of state”, who “will go down in history as the best ever”. On the other hand, the occupant of the White House spoke of Vance as a “great vice president”, announcing that he had placed him in charge of the fight against fraud. Trump knows well that, in all likelihood, the challenge for the nominations presidential election in 2028 will be played between Rubio and Vance. And it is preparing the ground for the competition to take place in the least stormy way possible.
