Wednesday 01 March 2017 7:22 am

President Trump promises “new chapter of American greatness” in first speech to Congress

President Donald Trump promised a "new chapter of American greatness" in his first speech to Congress, though he's still yet to provide detail on his plans.

The President said the US was witnessing a "renewal of the American spirit" and that "our allies will find that America is once again ready to lead".

"A new chapter of American greatness is now beginning," he said. "A new national pride is sweeping across our nation. And a new surge of optimism is placing impossible dreams firmly within our grasp."

While Trump spent more than an hour covering job creation, immigration, national security and international trade, saying he will return "millions of jobs" and calling for a cut in corporate taxes, he still didn't provide much detail on plans for infrastructure spending and tax reforms.

Capital Economics' Paul Ashworth said: "With Congress getting bogged down by Republican infighting over efforts to repeal and replace existing healthcare legislation, it will take considerably longer to pass tax reform than we initially thought on election night."

He added in a note: "There is now a good chance that it won't happen until early next year."

Trump said he wanted to provide "massive tax relief" to the middle class and cut corporate tax rates, but didn't provide specifics, nor did he cover the proposed border adjustment tax to boost exports over imports.

He did though, comemnt on recent suspected hate crimes early on in the speech, saying America is "a country that stands united in condemning hate and evil in all its ugly forms" and on immigration, said he will make US communities safer "by finally enforcing our immigration laws".

Trump also noted several major firms such as Ford and Softbank announcing the creation of new jobs since he took office and pointed to record gains in the stock market.