President Donald Trump will make his first speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, starting shortly after 9 p.m. ET. A major theme of the address, according to the White House, will be "renewal of the American spirit."

Tonight's event is similar to a State of the Union address, though not technically the same. President Trump has not been in office long enough for that; when he speaks in front of both houses of congress next year and the two years after that, the speech will be called a State of the Union. (There are no ironclad rules about this; the name of the speech is more a matter of tradition.)

It is unclear what level of detail the president will provide, but aides have indicated he plans to discuss a military buildup, infrastructure, health care and tax reform, among numerous other topics. He will try to aim for a positive, optimistic tone, perhaps in response to how his January 20 inaugural address was perceived.

Following the speech, Democrats have selected former Kentucky governor Steve Beshear to give a response. Beshear was presumably selected to counter anything said about the Affordable Care Act (aka "Obamacare), which Republicans have pledged to repeal. Beshear successfully implemented the health-care law in his deep-red state in 2013-14.

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