By — Lisa Desjardins Lisa Desjardins Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/46-topics-donald-trump-covered-address-congress Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter The 46 topics Donald Trump covered in his address to Congress Politics Mar 1, 2017 4:25 PM EDT Set aside tone for a moment. That’s getting plenty of attention. In President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday night, we noticed something different: the sheer number of topics he covered. PBS NewsHour counted 46 separate topics in the roughly hour-long speech. Some topics, like immigration, earned several paragraphs of attention. Others, like “clean air” or “coal miners,” received somewhere between two and a dozen words total. We admit that counting topics is subjective, but we aimed to avoid duplication and to choose items that are clear nouns and tangible concerns, not aspirational turns of phrase. Why does this matter? Presidential speeches to Congress are important indicators of the commander-in-chief’s priorities. Yes, these remarks often contain laundry lists of proposals. But 46 topics in an hour is significant by any measure. With that, here is our list of the 46 topics the 45th president and his White House staff put in the spotlight. 1. Civil rights, including threats and vandalism against the Jewish community and the Kansas City shooting 2. The shrinking middle class 3. Inner city children, especially in Chicago, Baltimore, and Detroit 4. U.S. borders 5. Veterans care 6. Rebuilding the military 7. The opioid epidemic 8. Cost of the F-35 fighter 9. Federal hiring freeze 10. His five-year ban on lobbying by executive branch officials 11. Cutting regulations 12. Supporting the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines, and using American steel 13. Coal miners* 14. Trade, and Trans-Pacific Partnership 15. Women entrepreneurs 16. Task force to reduce crime, dismantle cartels 17. Enforcing immigration laws, targeting criminals 18. Building a wall on the southern border 19. Protecting the U.S. from radical Islamic terrorism 20. Fighting the Islamic State, working with the Muslim world 21. Iran’s ballistic missile program 22. U.S. alliance with Israel 23. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch 24. Americans living in poverty 25. Financial crises, current and past 26. National debt 27. Trade deficit 28. Tax reform 29. Harley Davidson 30. Incentives for companies to stay in the U.S. 31. Creating new jobs 32. Switching to a merit-based immigration system 33. $1 trillion national infrastructure rebuilding program 34. Affordable Care Act, five principles for replacement 35. Accessible childcare* 36. Paid family leave* 37. Women’s health* 38. Clean air, clean water* 39. Rare diseases and the drug approval process 40. Education, especially school choice 41. The murder rate (in 2015) 42. Supporting law enforcement 43. Special office to support victims of crime 44. Ryan Owens, the Navy SEAL killed in a raid in Yemen in January 45. NATO, especially on covering its share of costs 46. Refugees and displaced persons, and the need for them to be able to return home Read a full transcript of the president’s speech here. By — Lisa Desjardins Lisa Desjardins Lisa Desjardins is a correspondent for PBS NewsHour, where she covers news from the U.S. Capitol while also traveling across the country to report on how decisions in Washington affect people where they live and work. @LisaDNews
Set aside tone for a moment. That’s getting plenty of attention. In President Donald Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday night, we noticed something different: the sheer number of topics he covered. PBS NewsHour counted 46 separate topics in the roughly hour-long speech. Some topics, like immigration, earned several paragraphs of attention. Others, like “clean air” or “coal miners,” received somewhere between two and a dozen words total. We admit that counting topics is subjective, but we aimed to avoid duplication and to choose items that are clear nouns and tangible concerns, not aspirational turns of phrase. Why does this matter? Presidential speeches to Congress are important indicators of the commander-in-chief’s priorities. Yes, these remarks often contain laundry lists of proposals. But 46 topics in an hour is significant by any measure. With that, here is our list of the 46 topics the 45th president and his White House staff put in the spotlight. 1. Civil rights, including threats and vandalism against the Jewish community and the Kansas City shooting 2. The shrinking middle class 3. Inner city children, especially in Chicago, Baltimore, and Detroit 4. U.S. borders 5. Veterans care 6. Rebuilding the military 7. The opioid epidemic 8. Cost of the F-35 fighter 9. Federal hiring freeze 10. His five-year ban on lobbying by executive branch officials 11. Cutting regulations 12. Supporting the Keystone and Dakota Access pipelines, and using American steel 13. Coal miners* 14. Trade, and Trans-Pacific Partnership 15. Women entrepreneurs 16. Task force to reduce crime, dismantle cartels 17. Enforcing immigration laws, targeting criminals 18. Building a wall on the southern border 19. Protecting the U.S. from radical Islamic terrorism 20. Fighting the Islamic State, working with the Muslim world 21. Iran’s ballistic missile program 22. U.S. alliance with Israel 23. Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch 24. Americans living in poverty 25. Financial crises, current and past 26. National debt 27. Trade deficit 28. Tax reform 29. Harley Davidson 30. Incentives for companies to stay in the U.S. 31. Creating new jobs 32. Switching to a merit-based immigration system 33. $1 trillion national infrastructure rebuilding program 34. Affordable Care Act, five principles for replacement 35. Accessible childcare* 36. Paid family leave* 37. Women’s health* 38. Clean air, clean water* 39. Rare diseases and the drug approval process 40. Education, especially school choice 41. The murder rate (in 2015) 42. Supporting law enforcement 43. Special office to support victims of crime 44. Ryan Owens, the Navy SEAL killed in a raid in Yemen in January 45. NATO, especially on covering its share of costs 46. Refugees and displaced persons, and the need for them to be able to return home Read a full transcript of the president’s speech here.