Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 6 hours ago

Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com

Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English

Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Transcript
00:00Donald Trump spoke for an hour and 47 minutes in his first State of the Union address of his
00:05second term. The U.S. president took a very long time to tout his successes on the economy as well
00:10as immigration and said America was winning so much. The speech for a largely domestic audience
00:17kept foreign policy on the back burner. There was very little mention of Ukraine as the Russian
00:22invasion entered its fifth year. But Trump did talk about Iran as the U.S. military buildup in
00:28the Middle East continues.
00:32They've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas and they're
00:38working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America. After midnight
00:44hammer they were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program and in particular
00:53nuclear weapons. Yet they continue starting it all over. We wiped it out and they want to start
00:59all over again and are at this moment again pursuing their sinister ambitions. We are in negotiations
01:07with them. They want to make a deal but we haven't heard those secret words. We will never have a
01:14nuclear weapon.
01:16For more on this story we can bring in our international affairs editor Philip Terrell. Philip good to see you.
01:21Now this speech
01:22was largely for a domestic audience but it obviously comes as this U.S. military buildup
01:28in the Middle East continues and amid fears that the U.S. could be preparing some sort of strike or
01:33action
01:34on Iran. I think the foreign policy aspect of this speech was what was sadly lacking. One of the only
01:43areas
01:44that Donald Trump did talk about was Iran and even that has blown up a polemic today. A tick for
01:51tack between
01:52what the Iranians are saying and what the Americans are saying. Donald Trump who was hearing in that comment
01:57day he was saying well we haven't heard the words we will never have a nuclear weapon from the Iranians
02:04saying that he will never allow the Iranians to have nuclear weapons. The country the biggest sponsor
02:11of terrorism in the world. The reply from the Iranians is basically well Donald Trump has been lying.
02:18Donald Trump is not telling the truth. He's been repeating and repeating the same lie
02:21which basically means at the end of the day people are going to believe that that is the truth. But
02:25the Iranians say yes we have said that we will not be pursuing a nuclear weapons program. So what
02:32happens now is that these discussions that are taking place beginning tomorrow overseen by Oman.
02:39They're taking place in Geneva. But this is really a pivotal moment I think in the discussion between
02:44the United States and Iran. We will see what happens next. But there's no getting away from the fact
02:50Donald Trump has sent the military to the coast of Iran and into the region building up the biggest
03:00military supplies there since the Iraq War of 2003. What he intends to do with that we still don't know.
03:06And we still don't know if the US is thinking about a military strike on Iran. I think Donald Trump
03:11is
03:11definitely weighing that up. But for the moment he hasn't made a decision because he knows it could go very
03:15well,
03:15but it could go disastrously badly. But really that was the only foreign policy
03:21discussion there was during or statement there was during during that speech. No mention of Ukraine
03:26just very rapidly on passing, no mention of Russia, no mention of Greenland and pretty much
03:34keeping two domestic policies only. What about the state of the US economy? Because Donald Trump can tell
03:41Americans that they are winning so much, but are they essentially going to buy what the US president
03:45selling? Well, this is also curious because there is a difference between what Donald Trump is saying.
03:51And if you listen to the speech that he made, he is giving the impression that everything is going
03:56brilliantly well in the United States. It's never been so good. People are living in the best possible
04:02country in the world that is back from the brink. And it's all thanks to Donald Trump. This is all
04:06about
04:07Donald Trump in this speech. Economy is the big subject. Immigration was the other big subject.
04:15But when push comes to shove, even though Donald Trump is saying the economy is doing much better,
04:22the American people themselves don't seem to be feeling that. And I think that that is showing the
04:29difference between what Donald Trump thinks and the support he's been given by his Republican base,
04:36who are just giving him good news about the economy, saying things like inflation is on the way down,
04:41when in fact, last year, it went up a little bit. And people are struggling to make ends meet.
04:49But I'm not sure that this is being bought by many of the American who voted for Donald Trump and
04:54his MAGA base, because we've seen a fall in support for the US president now about 39%. That's a 10
05:00.4
05:00over the last year. So Donald Trump is beginning to worry about the midterm elections, which are
05:05coming up in November, which the Republicans could lose in favour of the Democrats.
Comments

Recommended