Politics
Trump seeks to strike back in crucial State of the Union
- Democrats plan boycotts, silent protests during speech.
- Cost-of-living worries test Trump’s ‘Golden Age’ message.
- Iran questions hang over foreign policy signals tonight.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump will try to sell voters on the record of his first year back in power during his State of the Union address Tuesday, despite suffering a series of stinging blows ahead of November’s crucial midterm elections.
After a year of breakneck activity that has stunned America and the world, the 79-year-old Republican’s flagship speech to Congress — which he has largely sidelined — comes at a tense time.
Trump is fuming over a string of recent setbacks, including dismal approval ratings and the Supreme Court striking down his signature tariffs, a cornerstone of his economic agenda.
Adding to the drama, Trump will be speaking right in front of the same justices — including two of his own appointees — whom he branded “fools” over the stunning ruling.
If Democrats win back either the House or Senate in November, it could paralyse the rest of Trump’s second term — and put him at the risk of a possible third impeachment.
But Trump shows no signs of backing down in a speech that is likely to mix a defence of his first year with a launching pad for the midterms.
“It’s going to be a long speech because we have so much to talk about,” Trump said at the White House on Monday.
The president also dismissed “fake” polls including a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll published on Sunday showing his approval rating at just 39%.
Democrat protests
Democrats are lining up responses including boycotts and silent protests for the address — mandated by the US Constitution which says that the president shall “from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union.”
Tina Smith, a Democratic senator from Minnesota, said she would skip it because Trump uses his speeches to “spread lies — not to mention they’re long and boring.”
The speech comes after a year in which Trump has asserted unprecedented executive power, targeted opponents and slapped his name on buildings at home, while upending the world order abroad.
Trump will be keen to tout what his administration says is its success on immigration, especially on cutting crossings over the Mexican border.
But polls show that while voters like his overall stance on immigration, they don’t like the harsh deportation raids in which two US citizens were shot dead in January.
On the economy, he will be selling what he claims is success in cutting inflation and restoring what he calls a “Golden Age” of America.
But billionaire Trump also faces a challenge to convince voters who are still worried about the cost of living — which many blame on the tariffs that the Supreme Court struck down.
Iran tensions
The world will meanwhile be watching for hints from Trump about possible military action against Iran, with a huge US military build-up pressing Tehran to make a nuclear deal.
The key speech has been used to advance foreign policy before — former president George W. Bush fashioned his 2003 State of the Union speech, for instance, to make the case for war with Iraq.
Adding to the interest will be the guests that both Republicans and Democrats bring to watch the address from the gallery, part of a long tradition.
Trump has invited the US men’s ice hockey team after they won Olympic gold for the first time since 1980 by beating Canada 2-1 in Italy.
But the women’s team said they were declining Trump’s invitation, US media reported, a day after the president joked in a call to the men’s team that he would be impeached if he didn’t invite the women.
Two Democratic members of the House of Representatives said they were bringing as guests the family members of a victim of disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump has denied any links to sex offender Epstein but the scandal continues to nag at his presidency.
- Carney heads to India first on Asia-Pacific tour.
- Canada seeks to double trade, target CAN$70bn by 2030.
- Trip aims to repair ties ruptured after 2024 fallout.
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney heads to India this week, pushing to double trade and mend fractured ties, his first stop on an Asia-Pacific tour that also includes Australia and Japan as he seeks to reduce reliance on the United States.
Carney has said that the US-led global order is fading and that Canada should not expect the old system to return once President Donald Trump leaves office.
Hedging against the mercurial resident of the White House, he has sought to rebuild previously testy relations with major Asian economies, last month visiting Beijing to meet Chinese leader Xi Jinping after years of frozen ties.
Carney will leave on Thursday for India, on a visit that will be closely watched as he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi try to repair ties that effectively ruptured in 2024.
“In a more uncertain world, Canada is focused on what we can control,” Carney said in a statement announcing the trip.
“We are forging new partnerships abroad to create greater certainty, security and prosperity at home.”
Trump’s tariffs on autos, aluminium, lumber and steel are hurting the Canadian economy.
The impacts of the levies have been muted by the president’s broad adherence to an existing North American free trade agreement.
Negotiations on revising that deal are set for the start of this year and Trump has repeatedly insisted the United States doesn’t need access to any Canadian products — which would have sweeping consequences for its northern neighbour.
Trump has also repeatedly threatened to annex Canada, and last month posted an image on social media of a map with Canada — as well as Greenland and Venezuela — covered by the American flag.
Carney says that to safeguard Canada’s economic future the country needs to massively expand non-US international trade.
‘New challenges’
India is a key target and Carney says he wants to more than double bilateral trade, eyeing a target of CAN$70 billion ($51 billion) by 2030.
The two countries last year agreed to launch talks on a new free trade agreement.
The meeting is all the more significant given the bitter fallout from Canadian accusations that New Delhi was involved in the 2023 assassination of a Canadian Sikh leader — claims which India denied.
That rift severely disrupted consular and trade services between the nations, which exchanged about CAN$28 billion in goods and services in 2023.
Carney will then visit Sydney and Australia’s capital, Canberra, for meetings with local counterpart Anthony Albanese.
Albanese’s office said the trip would focus on economic security and critical minerals, as well as defence.
“As our countries face new challenges and opportunities, we must deepen our cooperation with partners to promote our national interests,” the Australian prime minister said.
Carney will wrap up his tour in Japan, where he will hold talks with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.
He will fly back to Canada on March 7.
- Over two-and-a-half feet of snow paralyses US Northeast.
- At least 7,400 flights cancelled, thousands more delayed.
- Millions stranded as over 600,000 homes, businesses lose power.
NEW YORK: A powerful blizzard dropped more than two-and-a-half feet of snow (76.2 cm) across parts of the US Northeast on Monday, bringing travel to a near-standstill for millions of residents as the treacherous conditions closed roads, shut down train services and forced the cancellation of some 7,400 flights.
Thousands of homes and businesses lost power and officials, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, urged residents to stay off the roads so emergency crews could clear the streets. Schools in New York and throughout the region were closed. Broadway shut its theatres.
“New York remains in a state of emergency,” Mamdani said. “The travel ban has ended today at noon, but a hazardous travel advisory remains in place through midnight tonight.”
More than 19 inches (48 cm) of snow had fallen on New York City’s Central Park by 1 pm ET (1800 GMT) on Monday and over 14 inches fell in Boston, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Centre.
Winds, at times reaching between 40 to 60 mph (64–100 kph), blew snowdrifts several feet high.
“It’ll probably take a week to dig out,” Oravec said.
Philadelphia received 14 inches while Providence, Rhode Island, was buried under more than 32 inches of snow, a record for the city.
More than 608,711 homes and businesses across the US were without power as of Monday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us. That included one in 10 of the nearly 3 million power customers PowerOutage.us tracks in Massachusetts.
Many were astounded by the depth of the snowfall. In her 20 years or so living in New Hyde Park, on hard-hit Long Island, Sandra Wu said she had never seen a winter storm this bad. Her family could not open the front door and could barely see out of some windows because of the high snowdrifts.
“My husband went out early through the garage to start digging us out, but it was pointless,” Wu said.
Wu, 53, a veterinarian, said the storm, which had dropped about 18 inches of snow, reminded her of the storms in the 1990s when she lived in Buffalo, New York, which gets an average annual snowfall of 92 inches.
Her two children, ages 13 and five, were thrilled to have a snow day off from school, so they slept in.
“We thought we’d lose power, thankfully not,” she said. “So we’re baking today. There’s nothing else to do while we wait for the snow to stop.”
Regional emergencies
At least seven US states had declared states of emergency in response to the storm as of Monday.
Airlines had cancelled more than 7,400 flights by Monday afternoon and delayed another 2,300, according to the tracking site FlightAware.com. That figure included more than 1,800 cancelled Tuesday flights, according to the site. Most of the cancellations and delays were in the northeastern US, including New York’s John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports, Boston’s Logan Airport, and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she had activated 100 National Guard members to assist in Long Island, New York City and the lower Hudson Valley, areas expected to bear the brunt of the heavy snow and coastal winds. The storm forced the closure of the UN headquarters complex in Manhattan on Monday.
The Department of Homeland Security said that despite its ongoing funding lapse the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster-response work would continue uninterrupted, including staff travel, emergency operations and critical assistance for people affected by active disasters.
Last week, Reuters reported the Trump administration had ordered FEMA to suspend the deployment of hundreds of aid workers to disaster-affected areas around the country while the DHS is shut down.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey declared an emergency and told state workers to stay home. Connecticut barred commercial vehicles from limited-access highways, exempting only emergency and essential deliveries.
Train and bus commuter lines in New Jersey were halted, while the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority said it would suspend all service through Monday and would announce plans to resume service only when conditions improve.
Even some ships were caught by the storm. Wu said her elderly in-laws were stuck on a cruise ship docked in New York Harbour, which cannot start sailing to the Bahamas on a planned holiday.
But Wu said they were enjoying themselves despite the delay.
“They are having the best time with 20 of their friends, eating well with plenty of entertainment,” while they wait for the storm to pass, Wu said.
- Over two-and-a-half feet of snow paralyses US Northeast.
- At least 7,400 flights cancelled, thousands more delayed.
- Millions stranded as over 600,000 homes, businesses lose power.
NEW YORK: A powerful blizzard dropped more than two-and-a-half feet of snow (76.2 cm) across parts of the US Northeast on Monday, bringing travel to a near-standstill for millions of residents as the treacherous conditions closed roads, shut down train services and forced the cancellation of some 7,400 flights.
Thousands of homes and businesses lost power and officials, including New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, urged residents to stay off the roads so emergency crews could clear the streets. Schools in New York and throughout the region were closed. Broadway shut its theatres.
“New York remains in a state of emergency,” Mamdani said. “The travel ban has ended today at noon, but a hazardous travel advisory remains in place through midnight tonight.”
More than 19 inches (48 cm) of snow had fallen on New York City’s Central Park by 1 pm ET (1800 GMT) on Monday and over 14 inches fell in Boston, said Bob Oravec, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Centre.
Winds, at times reaching between 40 to 60 mph (64–100 kph), blew snowdrifts several feet high.
“It’ll probably take a week to dig out,” Oravec said.
Philadelphia received 14 inches while Providence, Rhode Island, was buried under more than 32 inches of snow, a record for the city.
More than 608,711 homes and businesses across the US were without power as of Monday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us. That included one in 10 of the nearly 3 million power customers PowerOutage.us tracks in Massachusetts.
Many were astounded by the depth of the snowfall. In her 20 years or so living in New Hyde Park, on hard-hit Long Island, Sandra Wu said she had never seen a winter storm this bad. Her family could not open the front door and could barely see out of some windows because of the high snowdrifts.
“My husband went out early through the garage to start digging us out, but it was pointless,” Wu said.
Wu, 53, a veterinarian, said the storm, which had dropped about 18 inches of snow, reminded her of the storms in the 1990s when she lived in Buffalo, New York, which gets an average annual snowfall of 92 inches.
Her two children, ages 13 and five, were thrilled to have a snow day off from school, so they slept in.
“We thought we’d lose power, thankfully not,” she said. “So we’re baking today. There’s nothing else to do while we wait for the snow to stop.”
Regional emergencies
At least seven US states had declared states of emergency in response to the storm as of Monday.
Airlines had cancelled more than 7,400 flights by Monday afternoon and delayed another 2,300, according to the tracking site FlightAware.com. That figure included more than 1,800 cancelled Tuesday flights, according to the site. Most of the cancellations and delays were in the northeastern US, including New York’s John F. Kennedy International and LaGuardia airports, Boston’s Logan Airport, and New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul said she had activated 100 National Guard members to assist in Long Island, New York City and the lower Hudson Valley, areas expected to bear the brunt of the heavy snow and coastal winds. The storm forced the closure of the UN headquarters complex in Manhattan on Monday.
The Department of Homeland Security said that despite its ongoing funding lapse the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster-response work would continue uninterrupted, including staff travel, emergency operations and critical assistance for people affected by active disasters.
Last week, Reuters reported the Trump administration had ordered FEMA to suspend the deployment of hundreds of aid workers to disaster-affected areas around the country while the DHS is shut down.
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey declared an emergency and told state workers to stay home. Connecticut barred commercial vehicles from limited-access highways, exempting only emergency and essential deliveries.
Train and bus commuter lines in New Jersey were halted, while the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority said it would suspend all service through Monday and would announce plans to resume service only when conditions improve.
Even some ships were caught by the storm. Wu said her elderly in-laws were stuck on a cruise ship docked in New York Harbour, which cannot start sailing to the Bahamas on a planned holiday.
But Wu said they were enjoying themselves despite the delay.
“They are having the best time with 20 of their friends, eating well with plenty of entertainment,” while they wait for the storm to pass, Wu said.
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