The US president delivered his State of the Union address after latest trade tariffs came into effect on UK imports at 10% on Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump has said he will 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% on Tuesday, lower than the 15% rate he threatened over the weekend, after he signed an executive order following the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday.
Speaking at his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress at the US Capitol in Washington DC, Mr Trump 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,” he said.
Mr Trump also called on Congress to pass a law to prevent any state from granting commercial driving licences to illegal aliens.
Describing the US as “bigger, better, richer than ever before”, he said, “this is the golden age of America”.
He welcomed 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 his reception 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”.
He repeatedly asked why they did not stand, called them “crazy”, and said “Democrats are destroying our country” over young people transitioning gender.
