Trump's Congress speech to reassert 'America First' vision

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump was to give on Tuesday his first major speech to Congress. The landmark address, after a frenzied 51/2 weeks in office, will set out his pugnacious plan for 2017 and beyond, with national security and foreign policy - including the possibility of rapprochement with Russia - at the heart of this agenda. The speech - which will also focus on key domestic policy areas such as tax cuts, infrastructure and healthcare - will reaffirm his "new foreign policy direction", potentially the biggest shake-up since 1945. This is challenging key elements of postwar orthodoxy pursued, in different ways, by Democratic and Republican presidents based, in part, on a commitment to expand the liberal democratic order.

Only on Friday, Mr Trump affirmed his nationalist forward direction, asserting he will soon make a budget request to Congress for "one of the greatest military build-ups in American history" to make the country's defences "bigger and stronger than before so that nobody is going to mess with us".

He also confirmed he is working on a new homeland security plan, including a fresh immigration clampdown so "foreign terrorists will not be able to strike America", plus the hiring of potentially tens of thousands of new border officials; and that work will start "ahead of schedule" on the Mexico "border wall" that could cost an estimated US$21.5 billion; while developing a military plan to "obliterate" the so-called Islamic State abroad.