WASHINGTON: When US President Donald Trump delivers his second State of the Union speech to Congress on Tuesday, his guests will include Joshua Trump, a sixth grader passionate about science and animals.
The youngster isn't a member of the president's family, but instead a boy from Wilmington, Delaware, who has been bullied in school as a result of his last name, according to a short statement issued the White House.
"He appreciates science, art, and history," the statement said.
"He also loves animals and hopes to pursue a related career in the future," it continued, adding young Trump's hero and best friend is his Uncle Cody, a member of the United States Air Force.
"Unfortunately, Joshua has been bullied in school due to his last name. He is thankful to the First Lady and the Trump family for their support," the statement concluded.
The president, first lady, and the 535 members of Congress are permitted to invite guests to the annual speech, a key fixture in the American political calendar which sees the US leader tout their successes and outline goals.
The first couple's other guests include family members of Gerald and Sharon David, an elderly couple killed in January allegedly by an undocumented immigrant; and Matthew Charles, a former drug dealer who turned his life around in prison and was the first person released under a criminal justice reform law passed in December.
US president invites bullied boy named Trump to annual speech
US president invites bullied boy named Trump to annual speech
- Trump delivers his second State of the Union speech to Congress on Tuesday, his guests will include Joshua Trump, a sixth grader passionate about science and animals
- The president, first lady, and the 535 members of Congress are permitted to invite guests to the annual speech, a key fixture in the American political calendar
Gordon Brown ‘regrets’ Iraq War support, new biography says
- Former UK PM claims he was ‘misled’ over evidence of WMDs
- Robin Cook, the foreign secretary who resigned in protest over calls for war, had a ‘clearer view’
LONDON: Former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown regrets his failure to oppose Tony Blair’s push for war with Iraq, a new biography has said.
Brown told the author of “Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose,” James Macintyre, that Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary who opposed the war, had a “clearer view” than the rest of the government at the time.
Cook quit the Cabinet in 2003 after protesting against the war, claiming that the push to topple Saddam Hussein was based on faulty information over a claimed stockpile of weapons of mass destruction.
That information served as the fundamental basis for the US-led war but was later discredited following the invasion of Iraq.
Brown, chancellor at the time, publicly supported Blair’s push for war, but now says he was “misled.”
If Brown had joined Cook’s protest at the time, the campaign to avoid British involvement in the war may have succeeded, political observers have since said.
The former prime minister said: “Robin had been in front of us and Robin had a clearer view. He felt very strongly there were no weapons.
“And I did not have that evidence … I was being told that there were these weapons. But I was misled like everybody else.
“And I did ask lots of questions … and I didn’t get the correct answers,” he added.
“Gordon Brown: Power with Purpose,” will be published by Bloomsbury next month.
