Fellow Americans, friends and colleagues.
I come to this hallowed chamber tonight to provide a report on the state of our union.
This hallowed chamber, where America has debated all of the great issues that have shaped our national character.
This hallowed chamber, where time and again, we have struggled to meet in the calm center of compromise and seek solutions to our biggest challenges.
This hallowed chamber, where we, the privileged few, are entrusted by Americans to help make their lives more secure and prosperous.
Today, I am here to tell you that the state of our great union is resilient.
It is resilient even though we are beset by challenges wherever we turn.
We’re challenged by the sovereignty and security of international borders, and our own.
We’re challenged by the sudden rise of new technologies like artificial intelligence that we don’t quite yet understand.
We’re challenged by the corrosion of trust in institutions that used to bind us together, like government, religion, and science.
And yet, in the face of challenge, we do what Americans have always done. We endure.
I know, it’s not easy. In the late 20th century, the Cold War architecture that had defined the global order collapsed, leaving us in a new era that Warren Bennis and others called the age of VUCA — volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity.
Since we entered the 21st century, America has struggled to navigate this new world order.
We faced a brutal terrorist attack on our own soil.
We entered long foreign wars with uncertain outcomes that sacrificed sacred blood and treasure.
We endured a deep economic collapse that tested our trust in free markets.
We watched as the national unity that was on display after 9/11 slowly frayed in the echo chambers of social media.
We mourned the loss of more than 1 million American lives as a pandemic swept across the globe.
And yet, we endured. We drew deeply from the well of resilience that has marked the American character since our founding. We protected our homeland. We recognized some of the mistakes we made fighting terrorism on foreign soil. We climbed back from the economic abyss of 2008 and 2020.
We endured. America today is an empire of wealth that remains the envy of the world. We have the highest standard of living, the biggest and deepest financial markets, the largest GDP, the highest level of technological innovation, and the largest agricultural and energy markets of any country in the world.
There are some, even in my own party, who would apologize for this and point to our gains as ill-gotten or unfairly distributed.
To some extent, this is true. But America is, has been, and will always be a work in progress. And the arc of that progress is always bending up. We should all take pride in this.
The constitutional heart and soul of our country is the never-ending process of building a more perfect union.
The fact that we sometimes fall short of this ideal should not diminish our achievements. It should propel us forward.
Let me share some ideas of what that might look like, of what I believe are good solutions as we continue on our longer quest of creating a more perfect union. If perfection is our destination, good is the road that will help us get there.
Today, our challenges are more complex and ambiguous than we’ve faced in most of our lifetimes. And they require solutions that are smart and pragmatic and readily at hand.
They require solutions that answer in the affirmative these two essential questions: Will they help make America more secure? And will they help make America more prosperous?
Here are three solutions I’m proposing to my colleagues tonight that are smart, pragmatic and within our grasp, solutions that are focused on the fundamental security and prosperity of the American people.
First, I am signing an executive order tomorrow that will shut down our borders for six months while I work with Congress to fix our chaotic immigration system.
This order will surely be challenged in the courts, but we will defend it.
Living in America, and enjoying its benefits, is a privilege, not a right. It must be earned by respecting the laws and covenants required to live within our borders.
For our part, we must refresh those laws and covenants to reflect the world as it is today. Global migration has changed profoundly over the past several decades. Failed states, repressive states and kleptostates have created millions of refugees seeking a better life.
This, of course, is the American origin story. We were founded by those fleeing persecution in their home country. We have a natural affinity for today’s refugees, but we also recognize the limits of our capacity.
To Congress I say, let’s work together to renew the security of our border.
We’ll do this with brick and mortar, with technology and with people. It will require funding for more physical security, including, yes, a longer and stronger wall along some portions of the border.
It will require funding for new technology, like drone support, subterranean sensors and AI.
And it will require funds for more legal infrastructure so we can end the failed catch-and-release program.
Securing our border cannot be tainted by political gamesmanship. Let’s build a solution brick by brick, piece by piece. Jim Lankford, Kyrsten Sinema and Chris Murphy showed us what the first step looks like. Let’s embrace that and then start building on it. Now.
Second, I announced recently that my administration was pausing the issuance of permits for new liquefied natural gas, or LNG, projects.
We have finished that review and concluded that it’s in the best interests of America to go forward with new LNG infrastructure in this country.
America is already the world’s largest producer of oil and gas. Natural gas should be the centerpiece of our energy policy right now. It’s plentiful, affordable and drastically reduces the carbon emissions of coal and oil.
America is already on the road to a clean energy future, which at some point will drive carbon emissions to near-zero. But that reality is still decades away. The scale of the world’s energy system is as large as the timeline to transition it.
In the meantime, global growth demands energy. Too much of the world is experiencing energy poverty, where essentials such as refrigeration are out of reach.
Much of the world’s energy production comes from countries that either squander it or abuse it, such as Venezuela and Russia. An energy-strong America can help offset those abuses.
An energy-strong America also provides our country with more leverage in the Middle East.
And an energy-rich America will provide the kind of jobs that are the backbone of the American middle class.
So let’s prove the genius of the American system — the ability to hold two seemingly opposite ideas in our head at the same time.
We must build a virtuous circle of energy — the more we produce, the more prosperity and growth we will generate, which will in turn enable increased investment in the next generation of clean energy.
Finally, as Europe and the Middle East are engulfed in brutal and entrenched wars, let me address America’s place in the world today.
We are an undisputed global leader, but leadership is both a privilege and a burden.
It is America’s privilege because it reflects the power of our economy and the power of our ideas — that a robust, representative democracy represents the highest ideals of humanity.
It is a burden because this leadership comes at a cost.
The rough beast of totalitarian regimes is on the rise. China is rattling its saber and Russia’s is out of the sheath. Iran wreaks havoc in the Middle East through a barbaric network of proxies. Leadership requires that we resist these attacks on liberty and human dignity. And that we will.
Ukraine is a test case for America and the world.
We’ve seen this movie before, when Germany annexed Austria, then invaded Czechoslovakia and Poland while the world largely stood by and watched. The consequences spoke for themselves.
Russia’s intentions for Ukraine have been on display for the past 15 years, and it is nothing less than the destruction of Ukraine sovereignty and culture. In the mind of Vladimir Putin, Ukraine won’t be the last conquest.
America is a partner in this fight, along with the European continent. There are norms of civilization and Russia has abrogated them. As a democratic civilization, we cannot let missiles and boots gerrymander the borders of Eastern Europe. This matters to all of us.
Ukraine has proved through infinite courage and perseverance that it’s worthy of our support. Now is not the time to back down.
I’m calling on Congress to pass a robust, long-term package of aid for Ukraine — money, munitions and intelligence — and to do it quickly and unequivocally.
In the Middle East, it’s time to show some tough love toward Israel.
America has a strong affinity with Israel, which has been a beacon of democracy and stability in the region while enduring decades-long threats to its very existence.
So when its security and sovereignty were attacked by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, we immediately stood up to support Israel, which we continue to do today.
But we’ve reached the point where bloodshed must give way to humanity. The struggles of Jews and Palestinians are a labyrinth. It’s a complex labyrinth, to be sure, but there is a center and all parties must commit to finding it.
Tonight, my administration is calling for a unilateral cease-fire in this conflict so we can find a way back to that center, revive the spirit of Oslo, and regain for Palestinians and Israelis what everyone else in the world wants — security, self-determination and prosperity.
There’s more we could talk about, but let’s save that for another day.
We have work to do now and I’m calling on all of us to do it together, not as enemies but as friends.
This is not a political speech, so I’m not going to address the man who I may be facing in the fall election, a man with a very different vision of America than I, and I think most of us here, have.
We’ll leave that, also, to another day.
I would like to close on a personal note.
I’m old. I’m 81. I’m not elderly or a senior or any other polite term.
I understand this is a challenge to my reelection, that some people don’t feel I have the physical or mental stamina for the job.
I respectfully disagree.
Let me be honest with you. I have some physical issues with my age, including spinal arthritis, which gives me the proverbial gait of an old man.
I’ve struggled with a stutter my entire life, which occasionally leads me to strangle the pronunciation of a multisyllabic word.
And sometimes I forget things in the moment, but haven’t we all?
What I do have, and have in abundance, is the commitment and perseverance to move our country forward. To listen to the hopes and dreams and fears that Americans — all Americans — have for the future, and embrace them.
What I have is the experience that comes from nearly 50 years of public service. I’ve learned the value of decisiveness, but also of humility, and the wisdom to know the difference.
As Americans, we’ll continue to disagree about many things. We always have. But then we find a way to meet in the middle. This is how a democracy works.
And like leadership, democracy is both a privilege and a burden.
We are privileged to live in a system of government that values liberty, self-determination and personal responsibility. But it comes with a cost.
The cost of democracy is this: We need to listen more than we talk. We need to respect more than we criticize. We need to summon the courage to meet in the radical center of compromise.
We don’t need to make America great again. Our country is already great. We only need to renew our fealty to the heart of our Constitution to create an ever more perfect union.
It is a journey that never ends. We can always, always be better than we are.
I pledge my heart and soul to this great endeavor.
Thank you, and God bless us all.
Well said and well written.
From your mouth to Joe's ear.