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WASHINGTON, D.C. – In celebration of a successful year, President Donald Trump addressed members of Congress for his first State of the Union speech of his second term.

U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) issued the following statement after the historic speech:

“I just thought the president was fantastic tonight. He talks about so many things, it’s hard to boil it down to highlights.

“But what I really appreciated was he reiterated in very plain language without dwelling on any one thing. He articulated the victories of the last year, and particularly in the economy part of it. And of course, talking about the growth of American oil production and of course, the Venezuelan oil, the bringing down of gas prices and energy dominance. He was solid on that as he always is. Of course, reminding the people of just how overrun our nation was by illegal criminals, tens of millions of illegal aliens coming into our country. And the havoc they wreaked on us especially in certain cities and sanctuary cities especially. I just thought it was really good for him to remind us of how awful it was and then remind us of how good it is now with a border that's not only no longer wide open, but it's completely closed.

“Then to talk about those economic victories, the lowering of everybody’s taxes, the growth of our economy, the productivity of the economy, no taxes on tips, no taxes on overtime, the reduction for seniors in taxes. [It was] good news all the way around. I think it's important every now and then to remind people where we've been and where we are, and then he, of course, carved out a vision for where we're going, all in the context of the 250th anniversary of our great nation.

“I just thought he was fantastic, reminding us, helping us to believe that this is the Golden Age of America. I also thought, though, his emphasis on the cost of health care and bringing down prescription drug prices, that the most favored nation program for prescription drugs he's initiated was really, really a great message to emphasize.

“When he announced that the war on fraud program that he's initiating, and it's going to be led by Vice President JD Vance, I just thought it was fantastic. People intuitively know that the government has gotten so big we just sort of bleed money with fraudulent expenditures and being ripped off and we just sort of tolerate it because I think because it's other people's money. And, of course, we've put clamps on a lot of that, particularly in Medicaid, as well as in SNAP programs. Now he’s going after some of these programs that have been revealed in Minnesota, that the Minnesota governor and the state have been defrauding the federal taxpayers of billions of dollars with social programs, going after state by state at national level.

“[It was] just a lot of really good stuff. I was impressed, I was pleased, [and]I was grateful. He took some jabs at some folks. He took some jabs at Democrats, but they had it coming, for sure. When you can't even stand for grieving mothers or heroes in the chambers because you hate Donald Trump, so you can't applaud for a grieving mother? I think that's awful. He took some jabs out of it, but he was also, again, well-restrained.

“I frankly think it was his best State of the Union yet.”