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US President Donald Trump makes his first speech to a joint session of Congress in a few hours time.
White House say officials say it will define the President's desire to seek a "renewal of the America spirit", and he's expected to defend his record in office so far.
But in the hours leading up to the speech, senior Republicans have come out in opposition to the President's plan to slash funding for the State Department by more than 30 per cent in a bid to pay for the military modernization program that he's proposed.
Our Washington Correspondent Simon Marks reports.
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This is a big day for President Donald Trump - his first opportunity ever to address Congress.
It will become an annual night out, assuming nothing derails his Presidency.
And he began the day surrounded by his favorite breakfast TV presenters: the hosts of Fox and Friends on the conservative-leaning Fox News Channel.
One of them, Brian Kilmeade, suggested to the President that perhaps his predecessor Barack Obama might be behind nationwide opposition to the Trump team.
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The White House is so anxious about those leaks, that last week there were random phone checks of staffers in a bid to identify those responsible for the tsunami of information that is making its way to reporters.
No leakers were caught.
But news of the phone check quickly….leaked.
In a bid to craft his own narrative, the President was asked by the Fox hosts to grade his performance so far….on a scale of A to F.
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So in a matter of hours the floor will be his on Capitol Hill to explain himself….not just to the American public, but to members of Congress including those Republicans who still aren't entirely sold on the President's vision.
Ahead of his speech, opposition on Capitol Hill was building to a White House proposal to pay for a $54 billion military modernization program by taking a hatchet to the State Department.
Cuts in foreign aide, public diplomacy, democracy promotion and other programs would see the the Department's annual budget cut by 37 per cent.
The Republicans' leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell said he didn't think the idea would work.
Another Republican, Senator Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, went further.
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It is Republicans like Senator Graham who have the potential to become a persistent thorn in the President's side.
Some of them also expressing continued anxiety over pre-election ties between the Trump team and Russia.
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This new TV ad by a military veterans advocacy group is putting pressure on Republican lawmakers not to let the President off the hook.
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So it is President Trump's night in Washington.
But under normal circumstances, the new occupant of the Oval Office would still be enjoying a political honeymoon.
The speech he delivers here will help determine whether his ever really begins.
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