In first State of the Union address, Trump vows to keep Guantanamo Bay prison open
President Donald Trump made a pitch for national unity and strong borders in his maiden State of the Union address on Tuesday, calling for "one team, one people, and one American family" after a year plagued by acrimony, division and scandal.
He also announced that he would keep Guantanamo Bay open, breaking from his predecessor Barack Obama's lengthy and ultimately failed efforts to shutter the maligned detention facility.
"I just signed an order directing Secretary Mattis to reexamine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay," Trump said, in his address to Congress, in keeping with a campaign promise.
On the campaign trail, Trump had famously vowed he would load Guantanamo with "bad dudes" and said it would be "fine" if US terror suspects were sent there for trial.
Read: Guantanamo Bay, the infamous jail Obama could not shut
Though Obama could not closed Guantanamo, the population had dropped from 242 to 41 under his watch.
During his speech, the president also said that he wanted Congress to pass a law ensuring US foreign aid goes only “to America’s friends” — a reference likely to his frustration at US aid recipients that voted at the UN to rebuke his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
'One American family'
Delivering his biggest speech of the year, this most polarizing of presidents sought to put the spotlight on the economic achievements of his first year in office and called on a packed joint session of Congress to enact hardline curbs on immigration.
"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 we were elected to serve," he said.
"Tonight, I want to talk about what kind of future we are going to have, and what kind of Nation we are going to be. All of us, together, as one team, one people, and one American family."
Trump's tone was uncharacteristically conciliatory, although it bridged no compromise on his drive to reduce immigration, which he painted as responsible for a plethora of social ills.
Looking on, were dozens of Democratic lawmakers, some decked in black to honour the victims of sexual harassment and still others wearing butterfly stickers in support of immigrants ─ two social issues that more than any others have roiled America in the age of Trump.