President Trump Delivers Address

President Donald Trump delivered a vision of common national purpose Tuesday night during his first address to Congress in the Capitol building. Trump shared policies on issues ranging from trade, healthcare, defense, immigration and counterterrorism. As required by the Constitution which states that the president “shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the State of the Union,” President Trump smoothed his rough edges, soothed congressional Republicans and reached out to populations he'd previously alienated. Delivered as an uplifting and unifying message that many Americans have rarely heard from Trump early on in his presidency, he change in his tone was evident from the first moments of his speech. A senior White House official said Trump wrote the speech himself with input from almost every member of his presidential team of advisers. According to an immediate CNN poll of speech-watchers, nearly 70% who watched said the President's speech made them feel more optimistic about the direction of the country. That could be the start of an important change in direction for the president who has been beset by the lowest approval ratings of any new commander-in-chief of modern times.

In Other News One of the two women who survived a deadly small plane crash in Southern California was found in the bedroom of a home the plane crashed into. The woman, who was on board the plane Monday when it went down, suffered third-degree burns to 90% of her body. The other survivor was found near the crash scene and aided by residents who assisted firefighters with the rescue. Both women are in critical condition. Three others on the plane were killed. The victims include an adult male, an adult female and a teenage female. No one on the plane has been identified and officials weren't sure whether they were all part of the same family. Making a determination on the cause of the crash could take more than 18 months. In the United States, a designated survivor is an individual in the presidential line of succession, usually a member of the United States Cabinet, who is arranged to be at a physically distant, secure, and undisclosed location when the President and the country's other top leaders (e.g., Vice President and Cabinet members) are gathered at a single location, such as during last night’s State of the Union address. This is intended to guarantee continuity of government in the event of a catastrophic occurrence that kills the President and many officials in the presidential line of succession, such as a mass shooting or bombing. If such an event occurred, killing both the President and Vice President, the surviving official highest in the line would become the Acting President of the United States under the Presidential Succession Act. Last night, the designated survivor was Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin.