The US economy is perhaps the best it has ever been and the country is doing really well, President Donald Trump has said.
Trump was speaking on the eve of the first anniversary of him becoming the President of the US.
“Tomorrow will mark exactly one year since I took the oath of office. And I will say, our country is doing really well. Our economy is perhaps the best it’s ever been,” Trump said in his address to March for Life Participants at the National Mall through live video address from his Rose Garden at the White House.
On June 20 last year, Trump, 71, was sworn in as the 45th President of the US. He succeeded Barack Obama in the White House.
Throughout the first year of his presidency, Trump’s popularity and approval rating have hovered in 30s.
Unmindful of such polls, which he has always doubted, Trump asserted that his policies are working for the better.
“You look at the job numbers; you look at the companies pouring back into our country; you look at the stock market at an all-time high; unemployment, 17-year low,” he said.
“Unemployment for African American workers, at the lowest mark in the history of our country. Unemployment for Hispanic, at a record low in history. Unemployment for women, think of this, at an 18-year low. We’re really proud of what we’re doing,” he said.
Trump said during his first week in office, he reinstated a policy first put in place by President Ronald Reagan, the Mexico City policy.
“I strongly supported the House of Representative’s Pain-Capable bill, which would end painful, late-term abortions nationwide,” he said and called upon the Senate to pass this important law and send it to my desk for signing.
On the National Day of Prayer, Trump said he signed an executive order to protect religious liberty.
“Today, I’m announcing that we have just issued a new proposal to protect conscience rights and religious freedoms of doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals. So important,” he said amidst applause from the select audience in the Rose Gardens.
Thousands of people listened his speech at the National Mall on a giant screen.
“I have also just reversed the previous administration’s policy that restricted states’ efforts to direct Medicaid funding away from abortion facilities that violate the law,” he said.
“We are protecting the sanctity of life and the family as the foundation of our society. But this movement can only succeed with the heart and the soul and the prayer of the people,” the President said.
Trump said Americans are more and more pro-life.
“You see that all the time. In fact, only 12 per cent of Americans support abortion on demand at any time. Under my administration, we will always defend the very first right in the Declaration of Independence, and that is the right to life,” he added.
In his remarks, Vice President Mike Pence said that Trump is the most pro-life president ever in American history.
“From preventing taxpayer dollars from funding abortion overseas to empowering states to respect life and Title X, to nominating judges who will uphold our God-given liberties enshrined in the Constitution of the United States,” he said.
“This President has been a tireless defender of life and conscience in America. And today, President Trump will do even more to defend the most vulnerable in our society,” Pence said.
PTI
