Was Trump’s State of the Union address a copy of Bush’s 2003 speech?

US President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union speech before the Congress sounded extraordinarily like George W Bush’s infamous 2003 speech in their rancour, rhetoric, and structure as he proceeded to paint North Korea in the same light as Bush painted Iraq prior to the war. While diplomatic tensions between the United States and North Korea are at their highest yet, Trump elected to honour a North Korean defector by seating him next to First Lady Melania Trump, and recounted the story of his escape to the Congress near the end of his speech. The transcript, provided by CNN, reads: “But no regime has oppressed its own citizens more totally or brutally than the cruel dictatorship in North Korea. “North Korea's reckless pursuit of nuclear missiles could very soon threaten our homeland. “We are waging a campaign of maximum pressure to prevent that from happening. “Past experience has taught us that complacency and concessions only invite aggression and provocation. I will not repeat the mistakes of past administrations that got us into this dangerous position. “We need only look at the depraved character of the North Korean regime to understand the nature of the nuclear threat it could pose to America and our allies.” Then he proceeded to describe the life of Ji Seong-ho – the defector – who fled from North Korea in 2006. JI lost his limbs in a freak accident when he fainted on a train track. He lost and arm and a leg to amputation and was tortured by North Korean authorities when he returned from a visit to China. AFP reports the members of Congress gave Ji a standing ovation, who responded by raising his crutches with triumphant air which elicited further cheers from those in attendance. Trump ended his speech by reiterating the fortitude, resilience and the many virtues of the American people. In 2003, Bush similarly raised the Iraq issue before the end of his speech. He too, had referred to defectors in order to gain sympathy for the invasion of Iraq which turned into a near decade-long occupation and one of the costliest wars, costing the US taxpayers approximately $2 trillion, according to Reuters. Bush said: “Our nation and the world must learn the lessons of the Korean Peninsula and not allow an even greater threat to rise up in Iraq. A brutal dictator, with a history of reckless aggression, with ties to terrorism, with great potential wealth, will not be permitted to dominate a vital region and threaten the United States. “From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. “Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained — by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape. If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning. “We will bring to the Iraqi people food and medicines and supplies — and freedom.” The threat of a fresh war notwithstanding, it appears that both Melania and Donald now face allegations of copying speeches by their predecessors. At the Republican National Convention in 2016, Melania Trump virtually recanted Michelle Obama’s speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.