Bo Erickson: Reuters reporter recaps Donald Trump's State of the Union address

A record-breaking State of the Union speech from Donald Trump.

His 107 minute address today is the longest since records began in 1964.

The US president also spoke directly to invited guests - including the US Olympic champion men's hockey team, victims of crime by illegal immigrants, and a 100-year-old World War II veteran. 

Reuters reporter Bo Erickson says Trump covered a wide-range of topics. 

"He really, kind of, treaded on older ground, though - focusing on a lot of domestic issues, like the economy and what his administration's trying to address." 

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Donald Trump has delivered his State of the Union address.
The bulk of his speech was spent riving about his
achievements on the economy, declearing once and for all that
America is.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Back, Members of Congress, and my fellow Americans, our nation
is back, bigger, better, richer, and stronger than ever before.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Bo Erickson is Reut's US politics correspondent with US right now.

Speaker 3 (00:24):
Hi, Bo, Hello there.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
How much of the speech was grounded in reality?

Speaker 3 (00:30):
You know, it was a long speech. It was an
hour and forty seven minutes. That is the longest State
of the Union address in history, as we can tell.
And a lot of the speech really focused on politics,
so we made a lot of political claims. He really
kind of treaded on some kind of older ground, though,
focusing on a lot of domestic issues like the economy

(00:52):
and what his administration's trying to address, some affordability issues
here in the United States, but really focused on like
some goal examples of immigration, trying to talk up his
immigration enforcement effort here in the United States. And there
is this time that kind of made my eyes like
a little wide open because he was referencing in gory

(01:14):
details the killings of several Americans by undocumented Americans, and
he was trying to kind of use these as an
examples to say why he needed to kind of put
kind of this tough, armed approach to immigration here in
the United States, which has been very controversial, to say

(01:34):
the least.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Now, obviously he's kind of positioned this as something of
a snump speech. Has any ahead of the midterms? Is
this actually going to convince any of the voters that
everything is absolutely fine?

Speaker 3 (01:47):
You know, this speech is a big deal for voters
because not a lot of people are able to watch
what the president says on an every day basis. So
for even if there wasn't a lot of new Paulicy
in here, some of the things that President Trump was
talking about, like his tax legislation that was passed last summer,

(02:07):
and some of the small, smaller targeted initiatives kind of
like some of these home investments and some of these
what he calls Trump accounts investments for babies that are
born in the next three years. This is an opportunity
for him to kind of talk directly to voters. But
there also was a lot of red meat in this speech,
So voters who may not hear from him every day.

(02:31):
Really had to wait and sit through a lot of
the storytelling in that hour and forty seven minutes.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Good to talk to you as always, Boie ericson Reutter's
US politics correspondent. For more from Hither Duke Lassy Allen Drive,
listen live to news Talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.