President Donald Trump was to urge unity in his State of the Union speech Tuesday but the new spirit of bipartisanship risked withering before he even reached the podium.
The White House said the annual speech to Congress would see an "optimistic" Trump seeking to heal the Republican-Democratic divide.
"The president is calling for unity," senior advisor Kellyanne Conway told Fox News.
However, the president got into a testy exchange with the senior Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, just hours before he was due to give the nationally televised address from the chamber of the House of Representatives.
"The state of the Trump economy is failing America's middle class," Schumer tweeted.
"The state of the Trump healthcare system is failing American families. The state of the Trump Administration is chaos."
Trump ripped back at Schumer for "already criticizing my State of the Union speech, even though he hasn't seen it yet."
Another tough preview was due a few minutes before the speech when Democratic Senator Kamala Harris, who has announced a challenge to Trump in the 2020 presidential election, planned a so-called "prebuttal."
In his latest tweet on the subject Tuesday, Trump again resorted to hyperbole, warning of "tremendous numbers" of illegal immigrants approaching, stating "we will build a Human Wall if necessary."
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