Im Nora Odonnell with my colleagues gayle king and john dickerson. Well check in with jeff in just a moment. Were awaiting the house sergeant of arms to announce the president s entrance into the chamber, one of the important symbols on this symbolic night, one of the most traditional roles. White house aides have promised President Trumps speech will seek to unify, but what does that mean . They seem to be in a great mood, lots of handshakes and smiles on both sides of the aisle. This is a very important moment for President Trump. He can celebrate a big win on his tax overhaul. The president s first guests are sitting in the first section including a welder from ohio who says he benefits from the tax cuts, the parents of the victims of the ms13 street gangs and some victims from the hurricanes and the wildfires. Ambassador haley, nicky mcgahn following her into the chamber. The president said his speech will be about bringing people together. Hes trying to kick off his second year in office by making some moves on trade, get increased defense spending. Jeff glor is on capitol hill. Were seeing Melania Trump for the first time tonight. There she is indeed. Jeff glor is on capitol hill and, jeff, we spent some time today with the president. He really tried to make the case that he wanted this to be a unifying speech. Reporter yeah, nora, a few very interesting moments as we both saw earlier. The president was asked what hes learned in his first year in office. He told us governing requires a lot of heart and compression far beyond money which was he said his focus as a businessman. He cited the i he did cite the immigration issue saying it would be very easy to solve it. It was purely a business matter, but he said he tries to put himself in the position of millions of people who are affected by this and has to add he believes more heart and soul in those decisions in the year ahead more than he thought he had to to start. So it was a more reflective president at times earlier today. Today. Chief white house corre chief White House CorrespondentMajor Garrett is just down the street and he has more information now on how this speech came together. Major . Jor . Jeff, president reporter jeff, President Trumps advisors and Congressional Republicans ive spoken to today say in addition to unity and bipartisanship is the overriding goal the president s speech tonight is to put the first year of his presidency in context. They mean emphasize what they regard as the president s effectiveness on the economy at home and also his skills and effectiveness on National Security, especially relating to degrading isis in iraq and syria. They also hope the president can persuade the nation, if only for a night, to forget their memories of his volatility and occasional pettiness in that first year. Immigration will loom large in this speech because it was the triggering cause of that partial Government Shutdown that just ended and it could be a trigger for one a couple weeks from now. The president will Tell Congress he wants a bipartisan compromise but will need their help to achieve it. The speech came together over the last three weeks. Chief speechwriter Stephen Miller put it together with help from h. R. Mcmaster, National Security adviser, and the president s security advisor gary cohen. The president is just about to walk into the chamber now. The chamber now. [applause] the president of the united [ applause ] mr. Speaker, the president of the United States [cheering [ cheering and applause ] [ applause ] its interesting to listen to some of these conversations as the president first walks in. There has been a lot of talk today about unity. Nancy cordes joins us, chief congressional correspondent. Is there an issue right now democrats and republicans can come together on . The first issue they need to come together on is immigration. Nothing else can happen until they settle this issue of the socalled dreamers and thats because democrats are simply not going to lend their votes to other things like increasing military spending until that is off of the plate of congress and this is such a fraught issue as you know. The president is going to talk a lot tonight about infrastructure and that is an issue that excites leaders from both sides. The challenge is hes got a lot of members in his own party who worry about too much government spending. So he has really scaled back his goals to about 200 billion in federal funds over 10 years. Democrats say thats a drop in the bucket. In fact, one democratic senator pointed out to me tonight thats less money per year than he wants for the first year of wall funding, the border wall he wants to build. When youre talking about an entire country in need of infrastructure reform, its not going to go very far. The first lady again spending time here on the hill. That is a big point of discussion now, how much Infrastructure Spending is private versus public spending and as the president makes his way along there, we will head back to new york for now. Nora . Jeff, thank you so much. There you see the president , just four members of the Supreme Court joining him tonight. You see the chief justice there, Justice Roberts there, and Justice Gorsuch who he appointed, certainly the white house viewing that as a big moment for the president this past year placing him on the Supreme Court. Some of the themes we have from white hou some of the themes that we have heard from white house officials, the president tonight will declare our new american moment. E has never been a time to saying there has never been a better time to start living the American Dream. Greeting, of course, the vice er of the greeting, of course, the Vice President and House Speaker paul ryan, two men who served together 12 years in the house and actually know each other well. Now President Trump in his first state of the Union Address. [ applause ] handing copies of his speech to the speaker and Vice President and another round of applause. [ applause ] he really seems to be soaking in this moment. We should note there are a number of democrats boycotting the speech tonight. Many of the Democratic Women are wearing black. It is a sign they want to show unity to victims of Sexual Assault and recognize the me too movement that is sweeping the nation now. Looks like the democrats are not joining in the applause. The white house said the president s speech is 15 minutes, but that probably doesnt account for moments like this where there will be extended applause. The big question, will he go off script tonight or stick with his script . Heres the president of the United States. Members of congress, i have the high privilege and the distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the United States. [ cheering and applause ] mr. Speaker, mr. Vice mr. Speaker, mr. Vice president , members of congress, first lady of the United States and my fellow americans, less than one year has passed since i first stood at this podium in this majestic chamber to speak on behalf of the American People and to address their concerns, their hopes and their dreams. That night our n that night our new administration had already taken very swift action. A new tide of optimism was already sweeping across our land. Nd. Each day since we hav gone each day since we have gone forward with a clear vision and a Righteous Mission to make America Great again for all americans. [cheering and [ applause ] the last year we over the last year we have made incredible progress and achieved extraordinary success. We have faced challenges we expected and others we could never have imagined. We have shared in the heights of victory and the pains of hardship. We have endured floods and fires and storms, but through it all we have seen the beauty of americas soul and the steel in americas spine. Each test has forged n each test has forged new american heros to remind us who we are and show us what we can be. We saw the of we saw the volunteers of the cajun navy racing to the rescue with their fishing boats to save people in the aftermath of a totally devastating hurricane. Strangers shielding s from a hail we saw strangers shielding strangers from a hail of gunfire on the las vegas strip. We heard tales of americans like coastguard petty officer ashlee lepper who is here tonight in the gallery with melania. [ applause ] ashley was f the ashlee was aboard one of the first helicopters on the scene in houston during the hurricane harvey. Through 18 hours of wind and rain ashlee braved live power lines and deep water to help save more than 40 lives. Ashley, we all t ashlee, we all thank you. Thank you very much. [ applause ] e we heard about americans like Firefighter David dahlberg. Hes here with us, also. David faced down walls of flame to rescue almost 60 children trapped in a california summer camp threatened by those devastating wildfires. Ting to everyone still recovering in texas, florida, louisiana, puerto rico and the virgian islands, everywhere we are with you. We love you and we always will pull through together always. [ applause ] thank you to david and the brave people of california. Thank you very much, david. Great job. Some trials over the past year touched this chamber very personally. With us tonight is one of the toughest people ever to serve in this house, a guy who took a bullet, almost died and was back to work 3 1 2 months later, the legend from louisiana, congressman steve scalise. [cheerin [ applause ] i think they like you, steve. [ laughter ] i think t were incredibly grateful for the heroic efforts of the Capital Police officers, the Alexandria Police and the doctors, nurses and paramedics who saved his life and the lives of many others, some in this room. Oom, in and the aftermath yes, yes. [ applause ] in the aftermath of that terrible shooting we came together not as republicans or democrats, but as representatives of the people, but it is not enough to come together only in times of tragedy. L tonight i call upon all of us to set aside our differences, to seek out Common Ground and to summon the unity we need to deliver for the people. This is really the key. These are the people we were elected to serve. applause [ applause ] thank you. Over the last year the world has seen what we always have known, that no people on earth are so fearless or daring or determined as americans. If there is a mountain, we climb it. A frontier, we cro if there is a frontier, we cross it. There is a challenge, we tame it. Re is if theres a challenge, we tame it. If theres an opportunity, we seize it. s begin tonight b so lets begin tonight by recognizing that the state of our union is strong because our people are strong. [ applause ] and together we are building a safe, strong and proud america. Since the have since the election we have created 2. 4 million new jobs including [ applause ] including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone. Tremendous tremendous number. [ applause ] after years and years of wage stagnation we are finally seeing rising wages. [ applause ] unemployment claims have hit a 45 year low. [ applause ] pplause thats something im very and something im very proud of, African American unemployment stands at the low e rate lowest rate ever recorded. [ cheering and applause ] and hispanic american unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history. [ applause ] Small Business confidence is at an all time high. The stock market has smashed one record after another gaining 8 trillion and more in value in just this short period of time. The great news [ applause ] the great news for americans, 401k, retirement pension and College Savings accounts have gone through the roof and just as i promised the American People from this podium 11 months ago, enacted the biggest tax cuts we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in american history. cheering and pplause [ applause ] [ cheering and applause ] ive tax cuts provide our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and Small Business to lower tax rates for hard working americans. We nearly doubled the standard deduction for everyone. [ applause ] now the first 24,000 earned by a married couple is completely tax free. [ cheering and applause ] we a we also doubled the child tax credit. [ applause ] a typical family a typical family of four making 75,000 will see their tax bill reduced by 2,000 slashing their tax bill in half. cheers [ applause ] in april this will be the last time you will ever file under the old and very broken system and millions of americans will have more take home pay starting next month, a lot more. [ cheering and applause ] applau [ applause ] we eliminated especially we eliminated an especially cruel tax that fell mostly on americans making less than 50,000 a year forcing them to pay tremendous penalties simply because they couldnt afford governmentordered health plans. We repealed the core of the disastrous obamacare, the individual mandate is now gone. cheers and applaus [ cheering and applause ] we slashed we slashed the business tax rate from 35 all the way down to 21 so American Companies can compete and win against anyone else anywhere in the world. [ applause ] these changes alone are estimated to increase average Family Income by more than 4,000, a lot of money. [ applause ] Small Businesses have also received a massive tax cut and can now deduct 20 of their business income. Here tonight are steve stout and sandy keplinger, stout manufacturing in ohio, a small beautiful business in ohio. Theyve just finished their 20th year. [ applause ] [ applause ] because of tax r because of tax reform they are handing out raises, hiring an additional 14 people and expanding into the building nextdoor. Good feeling. Good feeling. applause [ applause ] one one of their employees, cory adams, is also with us tonight. Cory is an all american worker. He supported himself through high school, lost his job during the 2008 recession and was later hir ed by staub where he trained to become a welder. Like many hard working americans, cory plans to invest his tax cut raise into his new home and his two daughters education. Cory, please stand. [ applause ] [ applause ] and he welder. And hes a great welder. I was told man t i was told that by the man that owns that company thats doing so well. So congratulations, cory. Since we passed tax since we passed tax cuts roughly 3 million workers have already gotten tax cut bonuses. Many of them are thousands and thousands of dollars per worker and its getting more every month every week. Apple has Just Announced it plans to invest a total of 350 billion in america and hire another 20,000 workers. [ cheering and applause ] and just a while just a little while ago exxon mobil announced a 50 billion investment in the United States, just a little while ago. applause [ applause ] our this, in fact, is our new american moment. There has never been a better time to start living the American Dream. So to every watching at so to every citizen watching at home tonight no matter where youve been or where youve come from, this is your time. Ork f you if you work hard, if you believe in yourself, if you believe in america, you can dream anything. You can be anything and together we can achieve absolutely anything. [ applause ] what kin of tonight i want to talk about what kind of future were going to have and what kind of a nation were going to be. S together as team, all of us together as one team, one people and one american family, can do anything. We all share the same home, the same heart, the same destiny and the same Great American flag. cheers and app [ applause ] together we are rediscovering the american way. In america we know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy, are the center of american life. The motto is in god we trust. [ applause ] celebrate our and we celebrate our police, our military and our amazing veterans as heroes who deserve our total and unwavering support. [ cheering and applause ] here is here tonight is preston sharp, a 12yearold boy from redding, california, who noticed that veterans graves were not marked with flags on veterans day. Veterans day. He decided all by himself to change that and started a movement that has now placed 40,000 flags at the graves of our great heroes. Preston, a job well done. cheers and applause [ cheering and applause ] young patriots like ch al young patriots like preston teach all of us about our civic duty as americans and i met preston a little while ago and he is something very special. That i can tell you, great future. Thank you very much for all youve done, preston. Thank you very much. [ applause ] prestons reverence for those who have served our nation reminds us of why we salute our flag, why we put our hands on our hearts for the pledge of allegiance and why we proudly stand for the national anthem. [ cheering and applause ] ir americans love their country and they deserve a government that shows them the same love and loyalty in return. Almost for the last year we have sought to restore the bonds of