Media playback is unsupported on your device
US President Donald Trump is about to deliver his annual State of the Union address before Congress.
He is expected to use the speech to restate his case for a wall along the border with Mexico – and to outline what he believes are his major achievements after two years in office.
He is also likely to talk about North Korea and the trade dispute between the US and China.
In a rebuttal, Democrats will accuse Mr Trump of abandoning US values.
What will he say?
After two years of toxic partisanship, Mr Trump on Tuesday night repeated calls for political unity that he has made in his previous two State of the Union speeches.
“Together, we can break decades of political stalemate,” he will say, according to excerpts of the address.
“We can bridge old divisions, heal old wounds, build new coalitions, forge new solutions, and unlock the extraordinary promise of America’s future. The decision is ours to make.”
Hours before the speech, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader of the Senate, poured pre-emptive scorn on Mr Trump’s remarks.
The New York senator said on the chamber floor: “It seems every year the president wakes up and discovers the desire for unity on the morning of the State of the Union, then the president spends the other 364 days of the year dividing us, and sowing a state of disunion.”
The president fired back on Twitter: “I see Schumer is already criticizing my State of the Union speech, even though he hasn’t seen it yet.”
In a private lunch with news anchors at the White House on Tuesday, Mr Trump called Mr Schumer “nasty”, using an offensive term, reports the New York Times.
The president was also quoted as having called former US Vice-President Joe Biden, a potential White House challenger in 2020, “dumb”.
As Mr Trump delivered his primetime speech on Tuesday, his chief congressional antagonist was sitting at the rostrum over his shoulder.
The Democratic leader of the House of Representatives, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has staunchly resisted the president’s demands for funding for a US-Mexico border wall and regularly mocks him.