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Dewey Sim

Zhao Ziwen

US President Donald Trump pushed a message of economic strength and global leadership in the first State of the Union address of his second term on Tuesday night, seeking to rally voters ahead of the November midterm elections.
In the nearly two-hour speech – the longest of its kind – the American leader made no direct mention of China, a move analysts said could be aimed at avoiding fresh friction with Beijing ahead of his visit.
Trump’s administration is grappling with a range of challenges.
At home, he is readying for what are anticipated to be tough midterm elections as his approval ratings hover at a record low and as voters voice dissatisfaction over rising living costs.
As widely expected, Trump devoted most of his remarks to domestic issues and his administration’s main achievements since his return to the White House a year ago.
He said he inherited a “nation in crisis” with a stagnant economy, high inflation and rampant crime, with “war and chaos all over the world” at that time.
“But tonight, after just one year, I can say with dignity and pride that we have achieved a transformation like no one has ever seen before and a turnaround for the ages,” he said.

Touting a “golden age of America”, Trump said the country’s border was now secure, inflation had plummeted, incomes had risen and the US economy was “roaring like never before”.
“Our enemies are scared. Our military and police are stacked. And America is respected again, perhaps like never before,” he said, in an apparent appeal to voters.
It was only after the one-hour mark of his speech on Tuesday that Trump turned his attention to issues beyond American borders, making sweeping claims about his role as a global peacemaker.
In a rapid-fire list, he said his administration had stopped or de-escalated eight major international conflicts, including those between Cambodia and Thailand and between India and Pakistan, as well as the Israel-Gaza war.
“My first 10 months, I ended eight wars,” Trump claimed. “Pakistan and India would have been [in] a nuclear war – 35 million people, said the prime minister of Pakistan, would have died if it were not for my involvement.”
Washington’s standing and credibility on the world stage have been dented by the Trump administration’s actions, including an attack on Venezuela in January, but the US leader hailed the Venezuela strikes as “one of the most complex, spectacular feats of military competence and power in world history”.
He called the special operation “an absolutely colossal victory for the security of the United States and it also opens up a bright new beginning for the people of Venezuela”.
Despite speaking for nearly two hours, Trump avoided making direct reference to China, only mentioning the Asian economic giant briefly when poking fun at Chinese military technology in use by the Venezuelan military at the time of the American operation to depose the country’s former leader, Nicolas Maduro.
“This was a major military installation, protected by thousands of soldiers and guarded by Russian and Chinese military technologies. How did that go for them?” he quipped, referring to the January operation.


Sun Chenghao, a fellow at Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy, said Trump’s address contained a “strong domestic political mobilisation element” aimed at winning over voters in the midterm elections rather than a traditional statement of national strategy and policy.
Trump showed “remarkable restraint” by not criticising China directly in his address, Sun added, unlike previous speeches that took a more explicit stance towards Beijing.
He suggested the decision could be viewed as a tactical adjustment by the Trump administration to leave room for future diplomatic engagement and trade negotiations, particularly ahead of Trump’s visit to China next month.
While Beijing has yet to formally confirm Trump’s visit, the White House last week announced that Trump would visit China from March 31 to April 2. Beijing said the two sides were communicating about the trip.
“After all, under significant domestic political pressure, deliberately avoiding mentioning China on important public occasions helps to retain greater diplomatic flexibility and avoid creating unnecessary friction before negotiations,” Sun said.
Trump also staunchly defended his tariff policy, reasoning that countries had been “ripping us off”, while calling last week’s Supreme Court ruling that struck down his executive tariff powers “very unfortunate”.
“I used these tariffs, took in hundreds of billions of dollars, to make great deals for our country, both economically and on a national security basis,” he said. “Countries that were ripping us off for decades are now paying us hundreds of billions of dollars.”
Following the ruling, Trump said he imposed a 15 per cent temporary tariff rate on imports from all countries. He has said his administration will determine and issue “new and legally permissible tariffs” in the next “short number of months”.
On the foreign policy front, there was some anticipation over whether Trump would address escalating tensions with Iran after he repeatedly threatened military action against Tehran.
During his speech, Trump described the Iranian regime as having “spread nothing but terrorism, death and hate”, claiming it was “working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America”.


“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy. But one thing is certain, I will never allow the world’s number one sponsor of terrorism … to have a nuclear weapon,” he said.
“No nation should ever doubt America’s resolve. We have the most powerful military on Earth.”
Josef Gregory Mahoney, a professor of international relations and politics at Shanghai’s East China Normal University, said Trump urgently needed a China visit to present a diplomatic success to his domestic audience ahead of the midterm elections – and that would mean avoiding steps that could anger Beijing or jeopardise the trip.
“Trump seems aware that missteps presently could derail a planned visit to China. He and Republicans appear to need this trip more than the Chinese side does.”
Mahoney added that Trump’s deliberate omission of China could signal a broader calculation beyond the coming trip and the midterm elections, as Washington increasingly saw restraint towards Beijing as a structural decision shaped by past experience with China’s retaliatory responses.
“Trump is not broadly perceived at home or abroad as winning against China, quite the opposite, and it’s clear that there are concerns that China in some cases is both able and willing to frustrate Trump’s foreign policy when it runs contrary to Chinese interests,” he said.
Furthermore, Mahoney said, Washington had reached “a tipping point” of losing its allies, including some of its closest such as Britain and Canada, both having pivoted to Beijing. Any mention of Beijing could therefore be highly sensitive diplomatically, he added.
But Sun also cautioned that Trump’s seeming restraint in his State of the Union address did not equate to a policy change, saying that structural challenges in the US-China competition remained.
According to Sun, Trump’s remarks on Iran’s nuclear programme and his defence of his tariff policy underscored that the American leader “does not intend to soften his principles on foreign and trade policies”.
“In Trump’s view, diplomacy is a negotiation process that maximises interests, and he should firmly grasp economic and military leverage to gain an advantage in global competition,” he said. “This attitude suggests that he is more likely to continue using tools such as pressure, sanctions and tariffs”.


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In nearly two-hour State of the Union speech, American leader focuses on economic strength and global leadership ahead of midterm elections


In nearly two-hour State of the Union speech, American leader focuses on economic strength and global leadership ahead of midterm elections.


Donald Trump touts US ‘golden age’, avoids direct mention of China ahead of Beijing visit

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In nearly two-hour State of the Union speech, American leader focuses on economic strength and global leadership ahead of midterm elections

In nearly two-hour State of the Union speech, American leader focuses on economic strength and global leadership ahead of midterm elections