Trump will travel to Virginia, Florida to promote agenda: aide
President Trump will drive home themes from his first address to Congress by pitching them directly to Americans outside Washington, D.C. later this week, according to a White House spokeswoman.
Trump plans on detailing his goals in Virginia and Florida Thursday and Friday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said during the daily White House press briefing Tuesday.
Trump’s Tuesday night address is expected to lay out his policy agenda.
Sanders said Trump will first travel to Newport News, Va., Thursday, where he will tout his push for an increase in defense spending at a soon-to-be commissioned aircraft carrier.
{mosads}Trump’s stop at Newport News Shipbuilding, Virginia’s largest industrial employer, is aimed at showing lawmakers how a defense buildup could boost the economy.
Sanders said Trump will also participate in a roundtable with shipbuilders and service members at the shipyard, which creates the Navy’s aircraft carriers and many of its ships and submarines.
Trump will state his case for a major investment in the military, focusing particularly on the Navy.
Sanders noted Trump will then journey to Orlando, Fla., for a listening session on school choice at St. Andrews Catholic School Friday.
Trump’s visit to Orlando is his second in two weeks, and it will also let the president call for education reform in a fitting setting.
Sanders added that Trump plans on discussing repealing and replacing ObamaCare and tax reform at some point during one or both stops.
Trump’s administration announced Monday it is proposing a budget that would increase defense spending by $54 billion, paying for it with cuts to non-defense spending.
The president will reportedly demand big cuts at the State Department and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to fund his defense boost.
Reports emerged Tuesday that the administration is floating a 37 percent spending reduction for State and the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Similar reductions at the EPA are less severe, with up to 24 percent of its budget getting trimmed, according to reports Monday.
Office of Management and Budget officials have not specified where the overall budget reductions would occur.
Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Education secretary, has long been a fervent advocate for school choice reform like the kind being discussed in Orlando Friday.
Trump also signed an executive order Tuesday afternoon reorganizing a federal initiative that supports historically black colleges and universities.
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