President Trump will deliver his third State of the Union address tonight to a joint session of Congress.  The anticipated start time is 9:00pm Eastern.  Livestream links below:
UPDATE: Video Added

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Earlier today President Trump held an oval office event focused on protecting every student’s constitutional right to pray in school. The president is updating Federal guidance regarding protected prayer and religious expression in public schools (not updated since 2003).  The new guidance makes clear that students can read religious texts or pray during recess and other non-instructional periods, organize prayer groups, and express their religious beliefs in their assignments.  [Video and Transcript Below]
The president also answered questions from the attending press pool:

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. A couple of things happened today that are very exciting. The USMCA passed the Senate. It’s one of the biggest trade bills ever made.
And then, yesterday, as you know, China passed, and that’s something that is extraordinary. And it’s going to have tremendous far-reaching effects, including our relationship, long term, with China, our farmers and manufacturers and bankers, and everybody. It’s jobs. It’s jobs like we’ve never seen before, and that’s going to be something very special. And USMCA today, which just passed by a very comfortable vote — a very high vote — we are very proud to have that.
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Chopper pressers are the best pressers. Earlier today President Trump and First-Lady Melania Trump departed the White House traveling to New Orleans for the NCAA football championship game LSU -vs- Clemson. President Trump delivered brief remarks
[Video and Transcript Below].

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[Transcript] – THE PRESIDENT: So we’re going to the game. It’ll be a great game. It’ll be something that a lot of people want to see. And we’ll be in New Orleans, and we look forward to it.
The stock market way up. The country is doing really well. And we’ll see you at the game.
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President Trump sits down for an extensive interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham.  There are a few parts where the interviewers’ self-importance, non-listening and Hannity-esque interrupting surfaces, but overall a good discussion.
The interview is in a few segments.
Here’s Part I: Iran and Soleimani

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Earlier today Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin held a press conference in the White House to announce new sanctions against Iran. The secretaries also took questions from the press pool. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – SECRETARY MNUCHIN: Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here today. I’d just like to make a brief comment before we talk about Iran sanctions. I’m sure everybody saw that the DOW hit 29,000. The President’s economic plans are clearly working. We’re looking forward to the China signing, USMCA, and a very strong economy this year.
As previously announced by the President, we are announcing additional sanctions against the Iranian regime as a result of the attack on U.S. and allied troops.
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Following remarks during the National Environmental Policy Act event at the White House, President Trump held a press conference with media: [Transcript Below]

[Transcript] THE PRESIDENT – We’ll take a few questions. Please.

Q Mr. President, you mentioned the Chinese trade deal that you’re working on; you’re going to be signing, next week, phase one. Can you give us a sense of phase two —

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

Q — what you hope to accomplish there? And will you be travelling to Beijing for that?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, phase one is a big, big number. It’s a big percentage of the deal. Some would say half, some would say a little less, or a little more than half. But it’s a tremendous percentage. It’s pretty much all for the farmers — also, bankers. We also have regulations for a lot of different — a lot of things are covered that people are going to be very surprised to see, but it’s a big chunk of it.

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Earlier today President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania welcomed the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and his wife Mrs. Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotakis to the White House.  Prior to their bilateral meeting the two leaders held a press availability in the oval office. [Video and Transcript Below]

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[Transcript] – PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. On behalf of the First Lady and myself, it’s an honor to have the Prime Minister of Greece and First Lady of Greece with us. We really appreciate it. We have many things to discuss.

The relationship is extr- — really extraordinary, I would say. Right? It’s as good as it can get. We’re doing a lot of things together — military. We’re also doing big trade. A lot of trade. And Greece has made a tremendous comeback. We’ve worked with them very closely. And, really, the Prime Minister will have some interesting things to say. So you have to tell them one statistic, because it’s a great statistic. We’re very proud of Greece and the comeback that they’re making. And we will continue it forward. There’s no doubt about it. Thank you very much for being here.

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Earlier today President Trump called in to the Rush Limbaugh show for an interview about current political events.  [Transcript Below]
RUSH: Welcome back the EIB Network, and Rush Limbaugh back at it after a couple of weeks off for Christmas. Not much happening. We are happy to have here with us the president of the United States, Donald Trump. It’s so great to have you back here, sir. Thank you for joining us.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you, Rush, very much.

RUSH: Okay. I have had a lot of people say to me — they’re reacting to the media reaction of the action we took, that you took against the Quds Force commander in Iran. Mr. President, people are being scared to death, their kids are being scared to death out of their minds that somehow this is gonna start World War III, that we are now more unsafe than we have ever been. Could you explain to people why what you’ve done here makes us safer, why it was necessary, and why what we did was right.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, this should have been done for the last 15 to 20 years, him in particular. He was their real military leader. He’s a terrorist. He was designated a terrorist by President Obama, and then Obama did nothing about it except give them $150 billion and — even more incredibly — $1.8 billion in cash. You hear me talking about that all the time, and you talk about it all the time. He gave them all this money. He never wanted to do anything about it. President Bush should have taken him out. He’s responsible for the IEDs.
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This afternoon President Trump delivered a statement on Iran outlining the successful preemptive strike against Iranian terrorist leader Qasem Soleimani.

…“We took action last night to stop a war. We did not take action to start a war.”…

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[Rough Transcript] Thank you very much, and good afternoon.
As president my highest and most solemn duty is the defense of our nation and its citizens. Last night, at my direction, the United States military successfully executed a flawless precision strike that killed the number one terrorist anywhere in the world, Qassem Soleimani.
Soleimani was plotting imminent and sinister attacks on American diplomats and military personnel, but we caught him in the act and terminated him.
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Incredible.  Continuing a legacy of transparency and availability the People’s President stops to hold an impromptu presser upon arrival for the Mar-a-Lago New Year’s eve celebration.  [Video and Transcript Below]
Dressed in formal attire with our stunning First Lady Melania Trump beside him, President Trump responds to a variety of media questions.  WATCH:

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[Transcript]  THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. We’re going to have a great year, I predict. I think it’s going to be a fantastic year. We had the best economic year, I think, in our country’s history. And I think we’re really set for additional growth and jobs and everything else. It’ll be great.
Kevin?
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