Trump says Iran must never get nuclear weapon as he vows to keep tariffs
US president says negotiations with Tehran are under way, but refuses to accept assurances on nuclear restraint
Donald Trump has said he could never allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon, as he insisted his administration would continue imposing tariffs on other countries despite a Supreme Court ruling overturning his import tax policy.
Labelling Iran as the “world’s number one sponsor of terror” during his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress at the US Capitol in Washington DC, Mr Trump said: “We are in negotiations with them. They want to make a deal, but we haven’t heard those secret words, ‘we will never have a nuclear weapon’.
“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy.”
Turning to trade, Mr Trump said he would continue imposing tariffs on other countries despite the Supreme Court ruling that overturned the import tax policy.
Mr Trump’s latest trade tariffs came into effect on UK imports at 10 percent on Tuesday, lower than the 15 percent rate he threatened over the weekend, after he signed an executive order following the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday.
Speaking during the address, the president said: “Almost all countries and corporations want to keep the deal that they already made.
“Knowing that the legal power that I, as president, have to make a new deal could be far worse for them, therefore, they’ll continue to work alongside the same successful path that we had negotiated before the court’s unfortunate involvement.
“Countries that were ripping us off for decades are now paying us hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet these countries are now happy and so are we. We made deals. The deals are all done. And they’re happy.”
Mr Trump said “many of the wars I settled” were because of the “threat of tariffs”.
“Tariffs, paid for by foreign countries will, like in the past, substantially replace the modern-day system of income tax, taking a great financial burden off the people that I love,” he said.
“Trillions and trillions of dollars will be pouring into the United States of America, because we finally have a president who puts America first.”
Elsewhere in the speech, Mr Trump announced a “war on fraud” headed by Vice President JD Vance, saying members of the Somali community in Minnesota had “pillaged an estimated 19 billion dollars (£14 billion) from the American taxpayer”.
He said: “We have all of the information. And in actuality, the number is much higher than California, Massachusetts, Maine, many other states are even worse.”
Mr Trump also called on Congress to pass a law to prevent any state from granting commercial driving licences to illegal aliens and the Save America Act to prevent “unpermitted persons” from voting.
In the longest State of the Union address at one hour and 48 minutes – 19 minutes longer than Bill Clinton’s final address – he described the US as “bigger, better, richer than ever before” and said “this is the golden age of America”.
The Winter Olympic gold medal-winning US men’s ice hockey team and Erika Kirk – widow of murdered activist Charlie Kirk, who Mr Trump said had been “martyred” – were among the invited guests, but the president was not universally well-received.
Texas Democratic representative Al Green was escorted from the chamber early in the speech after unfurling a sign which read “Black People Aren’t Apes!” as Mr Trump entered, apparently referencing a video posted by the president on social media featuring former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama depicted as apes.
He was also heckled by Democrats after saying they should be “ashamed of yourselves” after they did not stand to support his statement that the government’s duty was “to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens”.
Mr Trump repeatedly asked why they did not stand, called them “crazy”, and said “Democrats are destroying our country” over young people transitioning gender.
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