President Will Talk About Infrastructure, Dereg

Look for President Donald Trump to talk about his deregulatory efforts as furthering his goal of making America greater, and about his infrastructure rebuild plans in the Jan. 30 State of the Union speech, which will frame concepts like liberty and unity in terms of boosting jobs and the economy and furthering a “safe, strong and proud America,” the President’s theme for the speech.

That is according to a senior White House official who briefed reporters on the outlines of the address.

The President was recently talking up the rural broadband portion of that trillion-dollar infrastructure investment as a way to make sure farmers did not get left behind in the digital ditch. He will talk about the urgency of that infrastructure the official said.

The President has said that his reduction in federal regulations expands liberty by "freeing Americans to do more economic activity," the official said, and is expected to touch on that theme in the speech, including how deregulation has freed up innovations, something FCC chairman Ajit Pai has been saying as well.

Asked if the President will try to unify by reaching out to people beyond his base, the official said the President would be speaking to the country, not his base or a particular party. He said talking about where the country is going and what kind of country it will be transcends party differences.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.