By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, Feb 24 (Reuters) - Tuesday's State of the Union address provides President Donald Trump with a nationally televised opportunity to persuade skeptical American voters to rally behind his threatened strikes against Iran over its nuclear program.
Advisers have urged Trump to focus on the economy, immigration and other domestic policy issues when he takes the U.S. House of Representatives podium for the speech at 9 p.m. ET (0200 GMT on Wednesday).
That has not been his focus
to date.
Instead, the run-up to the event has been overshadowed by a huge buildup of U.S. military forces in the Middle East and preparations for a conflict with Iran that could last for weeks if Tehran does not reach a deal to solve a longstanding dispute over its nuclear program.
On Monday, Trump dismissed talk that some members of his administration have doubts about going to war with Iran.
"I am the one that makes the decision, I would rather have a Deal than not but, if we don't make a Deal, it will be a very bad day for that Country and, very sadly, its people," Trump said in a social media post.
Trump rose to the top of U.S. politics with the passionate support of a political base that embraces his "America First" policies and his vow to end an era of "forever wars" like the long conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Trump's fellow Republicans also took control of both the House of Representatives and Senate as his "Make America Great Again" message resonated with many Americans, but opinion polls show the party will struggle to keep control of Congress.
The risks from an Iran conflict are not merely political.
Trump and his aides have touted his successful capture last month of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, but Iran, a nation of 93 million people with a large supply of missiles, is a more formidable foe.
Trump asserted in July that U.S. strikes on Iran the previous month had been so successful that they "obliterated" the country's nuclear facilities, saying, "It would take years to bring them back into service."
However, as U.S. ships and other military equipment amassed near Iran, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, who leads nuclear negotiations on the U.S. side, said on Sunday on Fox News that Iran was "probably a week away from having industrial-grade bomb-making material."
Trump's audience on Tuesday includes Democrats in Congress who criticized him for scrapping a 2015 agreement that limited Iran's nuclear program in return for sanctions relief only to later threaten military action while seeking a new pact.
“Trump is bumbling his way toward war with Iran in a feeble attempt to accomplish what had already been done by a diplomatic deal that was effectively curbing Iran’s nuclear program — until Trump tore it up, over the objections of his then-Secretaries of Defense and State,” Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia said in a statement.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Don Durfee and Howard Goller)
