Ahead of his first State of the Union address, US President Donald Trump today said he wants to bring the country back from a 'tremendous divisiveness'.
"Let me just say this: I want to see our country united. I want to bring our country back from a tremendous divisiveness, which has taken -- not just over one year, over many years -- including the Bush years, not just Obama. You go back to the Bush years. You go back to the Clinton years," Trump said during a luncheon with a group of news channel anchors.
Trump interacted with a group of news channel anchors ahead of his maiden State of the Union Address later today.
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He noted that 'uniting' the country was not an easy thing to do due to the presence of divergent views.
"But then -- this has been -- there's been tremendous divisiveness. Not in the last year, there's been tremendous divisiveness for many years. I would consider it a great achievement if we could make our country united. If I could unite the country. That's not an easy thing to do because the views are so divergent," he said.
Trump said he would like to bring the country together, without a major event.
"There's a question whether or not -- can you bring that together or do you just win every four years. Somebody wins one way or the other and they have (won)-- but just to say, I would love, I would love to be able to bring back our country into a great form of unity," he said.
"Without a major event where people pull together, that's hard to do. But I'd like to do it without that major event, because usually that major event is not a good thing. I would love to do it," the US President said.
The luncheon meeting was closed for the press. The White House released transcripts of some parts of the question and answer session of the luncheon.
