King and john dickerson. Cbs evening news anchor jeff glor is reporting in washington, so well check in with jeff in just a moment. And were waiting for the house sergeant at arms to announce the president s entrance into the chamber. Thats an important symbol in this symbolic night. This is one of the most traditional roles of the presidency, and yet it meets a traditionbreaking president. White house aides have promised President Trumps speech will seek to unify, but what does that mean . Will the president extend an olive branch to democrats or ask them to unify by simply agreeing with him, and will democrats hoping to run against the president in this Election Year be in any mood to listen to him . The answers to those questions will set the tone for negotiations on president ial priorities like immigration and infrastructure. Right now as everyone is entering the chamber, they seem to be in a great mood. Lots of handshakes and smiles on both sides of the aisle. This is an important moment for President Trump. He can sell brit a big win on his tax overhaul. The president s special guests are sitting in the fridays section. They include a welder from ohio who says that he benefits from the tax cuts, the parents of victims of the ms13 street gang, and heros from last years hurricanes and california wildfires. There, of course, the president S United States ambassador, nikki haley. Linda mcmahon following her into the chamber. The president and his advisers that i spoke with today said this speech is 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. Jeff and i first lady melania trump, were seeing her for the first time tonight. There she is indeed. Jeff glor is on capitol hill. Jeff, we spent some time with the president today. He tried to make the case that he wanted this to be a unifying speech. A few very interesting moments that we both saw earlier. The president was asked what he learned in his first year in office. He told us governing requires a lot of heart and come passion far beyond money, which he said was his focus as a businessman. He cited the immigration issue saying it would be easy to solve it if it was purely a business matter, but he says he tries to put himself in the position of millions of people who are affected by this, and he added that he believes he has to add more heart and soul in the 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. Chief White House CorrespondentMajor Garrett is just down the street. He has more information now on how this speech came together. Major . Jeff, President Trumps advisers and Congressional Republicans ive spoken to today say in addition to unity and bipartisanship, ritual themes in these state of the Union Addresses, the overriding goal of the president s speech tonight is to put the first year of his presidency in context, and by that they mean emphasize what they regard as the president s effectiveness of the economy at home and also his skills and effectiveness on National Security, especially as it relates 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 also loom large in this speech because it was the triggering cause of that par, 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, the National Security adviser, and the president s economic adviser, gary cohn. Jeff . The president is just about to walk into the chamber now. [applause] the president of the United States. [cheering and applause] its interesting, nancy, 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, our chief congressional correspondent. Is there an issue right now that democrats and republicans can come together on . Well, the first issue they need to come together on, jeff, is immigration. Nothing else can happen until they settle this issue of the socalled dreamers. 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 challenges, hes got a lot of members in his own party who worry about too much government spending. And so he has really scaled back his goals to about 200 billion in federal funds over ten years. Democrats say thats a droop 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, it is just not going to go very far. The first lady again. Spending time here on the hill, thats a big point of discussion now, how much of that spending is private versus public spending. As the president makes his way along, there we will head back to new york for now. Norah . Jeff, thank you so much. There you see the president there, 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 views that as a big moment for the president this past year, placing him on the Supreme Court some of the themes we have heard from white house officials, the president tonight will declare our new american moment, saying there has never been a better time to start living the american dream. Greeting, of course, the Vice President and the speaker of the house, two men who know each other well. They actually served together 12 years in the house. And now President Trump in his first state of the Union Address. He just handed copies of his speech to the speaker and his Vice President. And another round of applause. [applause] everybody seems to be soaking in this moment. We should note there are a number of democrats who are boycotting the speech tonight. Many of the Democratic Women in the house are wearing black. It is a sign that they want to show unity to victims of sexual assault. And recognize the movement that is sweeping the nation right now. Democrats are not joining in the applause. The white house says the president s speech is 50 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 will he stick with the script . Heres the president of the United States. Members of congress, i have the highest privilege and the distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the United States. [applause] mr. Speaker, mr. Vice president , members of congress, the 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 ma i majestic chr to speak on behalf of the American People and to address their concerns, their hopes, and their dreams. That night our new administration had already taken very swift action. A new tide of optimism was already sweeping across our land. 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] 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 new american heroes to remind us who we are and show us what we can be. 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. We saw strangers shielding strangers from a hail of gunfire on the las vegas strip. We heard tales of americans like coast guard petty officer Ashley Lepard who is here tonight in the gallery with melania. [applause] applause applause ashley was aboard one of the first helicopters on the scene in houston during hurricane harvey. Through 18 hours of wind and rain, ashley braved live power lines and deep water to help save more than 40 lives. Ashley, we all thank you. Thank you very much. applause applause we heard about americans like Firefighter David dalberg. Hes here with us also. David faced down walls of flame to rescue almost 60 children trapped at a california summer camp threatened by those tef stating devastating wildfires. To everyone still recovering in texas, florida, louisiana, puerto rico and the virgin islands, everywhere, we are with you, we love you, and we always will pull through together. Always. [applause] applause applause thank you to david and the brave people of california. Thank you very much, david. Great job. Some trials of the chamber touched us personally. With us tonight is one of the toughest ever to serve this house, a guy who took a bullet, almost died, and was back the work three and a half months later, the legend from louisiana, congressman steve scalise. [cheering and applause] cheers and applause applause applause i think they like you. Steve. [laughter] were incredibly grateful for the efforts of the Capitol Police officer, and the doctors, nurses, and paramedics who saved his life and the the lives of my others, some in this room, in the aftermath applause yes. Yes. 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. 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 over the last year, the world has seen we go higher each always known that no people on earth is r so fearless, daring and determined as mention. If there is a mountain, we climb it. If there is a frontier, we cross it. There is a challenge, we tame it. If there is an opportunity, we seize it. So lets begin tonight by recognizing that the state of our union is strong. Because our people are strong. applause cheers and applause applause and together we are building a safe, strong, and proud america. Since the election we have created 2. 4 million new jobs,co including. Including 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone. Tremendous numbers. applause after years and years of wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages. cheering and applause unemployment claims have hit a 45year low. applause thats something im very proud of. African american unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded. cheering and applause and hispanic american unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history. cheers and applause applause Small Business confidence is at an al naim is at an al allte high. The stock market has gained 8 trillion in value in just this short period of time. The great news for americans, 401 k , 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, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in american history. cheering and cheers and applause cheers and applause our massive tax cuts provide tremendous relief for the middle class and Small Business. Lower tax rates for hardworking americans, we nearly doubled the standard deduction for everyone. Now the first 24,000 earned by married couple is completely taxfree. applause we also doubled the child tax credit. applause a typical family of four making 75,000 will see their tax bill reduced by 2,000, slashing their tax bill in half. cheers and 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 takehome pay starting next month, a lot more. cheers and applause applause 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 healthcare. We repealed the core of the disastrous obamacare, the individual mandate is now gone. Thank heavens. cheers and applause applause applause 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. Thats a lot of money. cheers and 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 of stout manufacturing, a small, beautiful business in ohio. Theyve just finished the best year in their 20year history. applause because of tax reform they are handing out raises, hiring an additional 14 people, and expanding into the building next door. Good feeling. applause of staubs employees, corey adams, is also with us tonight. Corey is an allamerican worker. He supported himself through high school, lost his job during the 2008 recession, and was later hired by staub, where he trained to become a welder. Like many hardworking americans, corey plans to invest his taxcut raise into his new home and his two daughters education. Corey, please stand. applause applause and hes a great welder. I was told that by the man that owns that company thats doing so well, so congratulations, corey. Since we passed tax cuts, roughly three million workers have already got taxcut bonuses, many of them thousands and thousands of dollars per worker. Its getting more every month, every week. An pal has Just Announced it plans to invest a total of 350 billion in america and hire another 20,000 workers. cheers and applause applause and just a little while ago exxonmobil announced a 50 billion investment in the United States, just a little while ago. applause this, in fact, is our new american moment. There has never been a better time to start living the american dream. So to every citizen watching at home tonight, no matter where youve been or where youve 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 absolutely anything. cheers and applause applause tonight i want to talk about what kind of future were going to have and what kind of a nation were going to be. 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 applause 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. cheers and applause applause and we celebrate our police, our military, and our amazing veterans as heroes who deserve our total and unwavering support. applause here tonight is preston sharp, a 12yearold boy from redding, california, who noticed that veterans graves were not marked with flags on 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 applause applause young patriots like peston 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. cheers and applause applause applause americans love their country, and they deserve a government that shows them the same love and loyalty in return. For the last year, we have sought to restore the bonds of trust between our citizens and their government. Working with the senate, we are appointing judges who will interpret the constitution as written, including a great new Supreme Court justice and more Circuit Court judges than any new administration in the history of our country. cheers and applause we are totally defending our Second Amendment and have taken histo