In his annual address to Parliament, the US president highlighted his success in his first term and strongly criticized the opposition and their potential candidate, Trump. He also made some announcements to win the hearts of the voters.
The conflict between the two political camps has intensified in this presidential election year in the United States. Despite claims of considerable success in areas such as the economy and employment, current President Joe Biden is not doing well in public opinion polls. Debate over whether he is fit to serve another four years because of his age casts a dark shadow over his re-election bid. On the other hand, former President Donald Trump is moving forward on the way to the nomination of the Republican Party after handling the shock of lawsuits and controversies.
In such a context, Biden tried to present himself as strong in the President’s ‘State of the Union’ speech. He announced several measures to win the hearts of the voters. In further proof that he is fighting for the common man as president, Biden announced tax increases on the wealthy and big corporations. Along with that, he is going to reduce the tax burden of low-income people in the United States. However, due to the deadlock in the Parliament, there is doubt whether all those proposals will be approved at all.
In addition to positive steps, Biden strongly criticized Trump, a possible rival in the next election, in his speech. He said that the freedom and democracy of the United States has not been under such threat since the time of President Lincoln and the Civil War. Without directly mentioning Trump’s name, he referred to him as ‘my predecessor’ a total of 13 times and accused Russia of surrendering. Biden strongly opposed Trump’s comments about the military alliance NATO.
Biden also made bitter comments about the current state of the Republican Party due to the strong influence of Trump. He alleged that they were only trying to gain political advantage at the expense of the country by blocking his administration’s proposal to reduce infiltration, particularly at the border with Mexico. Biden claimed that if the bill is passed, it will be possible to strengthen border controls. The US President called for solving the border problem through cooperation instead of conflict.
Biden also announced some steps in his speech to win the hearts of all the supporters of the Democratic Party. To ease some of the anger the Biden administration’s continued support for Israel has caused, particularly in the Middle East crisis, Biden pledged to build a temporary port on the Gaza coast and distribute more relief aid there. However, Biden has assured that US troops will not enter Gaza even if the US military is ordered to do so. He called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
