Some 45.6 million people watched President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address this past Tuesday night.
The speech ran for 80 minutes, making it the longest State of the Union address since former President Bill Clinton’s address back in 2000 clocked in at 89 minutes.
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Trump spoke decisively throughout the address while also extending a conciliatory hand to Democrats who disagree with him on key issues, including immigration policy, border protection, national security, and more. (Many Dems wore sourpuss faces as they sat on their hands during some of Trump’s most stirring and definitive lines.) Even media pundits who generally rip into the president for every move he makes admitted the speech was optimistic and strong.
LifeZette watched the speech, read the speech, and sifted through it multiple times. Here, we’ve listed some of the strongest and most memorable lines Trump spoke on Tuesday night — lines that will live on long after this week as analysts and pundits continue to pick over the speech and articulate their views of the president’s performance and demeanor — and his chances of pushing through his ambitious key policy initiatives over the next several years.
“It was perhaps the most robust defense of American exceptionalism since [Ronald] Reagan,” said Fox News host Laura Ingraham Wednesday night on “The Ingraham Angle.”
Here are 12 memorable statements by Trump:
1.) “The state of our Union is strong because our people are strong. And together, we are building a safe, strong, and proud America.”
2.) “No people on Earth are so fearless, or daring, or determined as Americans.”
3.) “To every citizen watching at home tonight — no matter where you have been, or where you come from, this is your time. If you work hard, if you believe in yourself, if you believe in America, then you can dream anything, you can be anything, and together, we can achieve anything.”
Related: State of the Union Was Trump’s ‘We’ vs. Obama’s ‘I’
4.) “We all share the same home, the same heart, the same destiny, and the same great American flag. Together, we are rediscovering the American way. In America, we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of the American life.”
5.) “America has finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs, and our nation’s wealth. The era of economic surrender is over. From now on, we expect trading relationships to be fair and to be reciprocal.”
6.) “We can lift our citizens from welfare to work, from dependence to independence, and from poverty to prosperity.”
7.) “America is a nation of builders. We built the Empire State Building in just one year — is it not a disgrace that it can now take 10 years just to get a permit approved for a simple road?”
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8.) “The United States is a compassionate nation. We are proud that we do more than any other country to help the needy, the struggling, and the underprivileged all over the world. But as president of the United States, my highest loyalty, my greatest compassion, and my constant concern is for America’s children, America’s struggling workers, and America’s forgotten communities.”
9.) “I want our youth to grow up to achieve great things. I want our poor to have their chance to rise.”
10.) “Americans are dreamers, too.”
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11.) “Atop the dome of this Capitol stands the Statue of Freedom. She stands tall and dignified among the monuments to our ancestors who fought and lived and died to protect her. Monuments to Washington and Jefferson — to Lincoln and King. Memorials to the heroes of Yorktown and Saratoga — to young Americans who shed their blood on the shores of Normandy, and the fields beyond. And others, who went down in the waters of the Pacific and the skies over Asia. And freedom stands tall over one more monument: this one. This Capitol. This living monument to the American people. A people whose heroes live not only in the past, but all around us — defending hope, pride, and the American way.”
12.) “As long as we have confidence in our values, faith in our citizens, and trust in our God, we will not fail.”
Did we miss any of your favorites? Disagree with the above? Let us know by sharing your thoughts in the comments section!
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