Supporters of the president are already praising his accomplishments after one year in office.

Some women have chosen to wear black to highlight their support for #MeToo .

Representative Lois Frankel of the Democratic Women's Working Group is encouraging all people, no matter their politics, to wear black and stand in solidarity with women who are fighting sexual assault and harassment around the globe.

Women in Congress will take a page from Hollywood stars who wore black to the Golden Globes to support the #TimesUp movement which aims to end sexual harassment in the workplace.

Wearing black is not the only cue that has been taken from the Golden Globes, either.

Members of the Congressional Black Caucus plan to wear red pins in honour of Recy Taylor, a black women who was kidnapped and raped by six white men in 1944. They hope to raise awareness of the particular vulnerability of black women to sexual assault.

Oprah Winfrey memorialised Taylor during a moving speech at the Golden Globes.

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Vice-president Mike Pence has arrived in the congressional chamber, where he received a round of applause from the audience.

Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, the top Republican on Capitol Hill, is bringing to tonight's speech a man formerly addicted to opioids, a woman who performed an abortion despite her religious beliefs, and a six-year-old cancer survivor.

An iron worker and union organiser, who plans to run against him in the mid-term election later this year, will be in the audience watching as Ryan is seated behind Trump during the speech.

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The president has departed the White House and is en route to Congress, where he is set to deliver his first State of the Union speech.

President Trump will promise a "new American moment" in his address - but it's not the first time the phrase has been used.

His one-time arch-rival, Hillary Clinton, has used it publicly at least twice - once in a speech in 2010, external, and before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2009, external.

Image source, Reuters

The BBC's Colleen Hagerty, external is in Washington state (on the West Coast) where she'll be watching the speech tonight with a group of local Republicans.

The BBC's Rajini Vaidynathan, external is in the halls of Congress, which she says are "buzzing" with politicians, their staffers and guests.

Follow her coverage, which begins with a ride on the congressional underground subway.

Trump’s speech serves as an informal kick-off to the 2018 mid-term election season, in which nearly every seat in the House of Representatives is up for grabs.

Among the guests who have been invited to prove a point is Randy Bryce, an iron worker and union organiser who is challenging Speaker of the House Paul Ryan for his Wisconsin congressional seat.

Bryce, who is the guest of another Wisconsin congressman, will be watching as his rival sits behind Trump during his speech.

'They’re working together, and the fact that they’re going to be standing so close to each other - Paul Ryan is literally going to have Donald Trump’s back - which is pretty much the way it’s been going for this past year,' Bryce told Politico, external.

Here's the campaign advert that he plans to start airing during tonight's speech.

Image source, Getty Images

A member of the party opposing the president traditionally delivers a rebuttal to the State of the Union speech only minutes after the president finishes speaking.

The Democrats have selected Massachusetts Congressman Joe Kennedy, 37, who plans to tout the achievements of immigrants.

"Bullies may land a punch. They might leave a mark. But they have never, not once, in the history of our United States, managed to match the strength and spirit of a people united in defence of their future," he plans to say, according to excerpts released by his office.

Read our profile of Kennedy here:

A new Kennedy in the political spotlight

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All eyes will be on Melania Trump, the president's wife, who has been notably absent from the public in recent weeks.

She will be hosting 15 guests in her own viewing box., external

The first lady abruptly cancelled her plans to travel to Davos, Switzerland, with her husband last week, and their wedding anniversary passed without any public comment.

Her disappearance follows a report by the Wall Street Journal that a lawyer for Trump paid porn actress Stormy Daniels $130,000 to keep private an affair which allegedly took place only months after the birth of their son.

The White House has denied the allegations.

A spokeswoman for the first lady blasted the report as a "laundry list of salacious & flat-out false reporting about Mrs Trump".

According to the New York Times, the first lady is "furious with her husband" and was caught "blindsided" by the reported payoff.

Image source, Getty Images

Women's rights group UltraViolet is projecting a protest slogan on the Trump International Hotel, which the president's motorcade will pass on its way from the White House to the US Capitol in less than an hour.

They are calling on Congress to investigate several allegations of sexual assault against Mr Trump.

They aren't the first group to use Trump's hotel as a political backdrop.

In June, artist Robin Bell told BBC News about how she projects political messages onto the Trump Hotel, as well as the World Bank and FBI headquarters.

The president is expected to say: "Struggling communities, especially immigrant communities, will also be helped by immigration policies that focus on the best interests of American Workers and American Families."

Immigration has been a divisive issue.

The children who were brought illegally to the US from other countries - known as Dreamers - risk losing their legal ability to remain in the US, a country where many of them lived for their entire adult lives.

"Life in the US is like a roller coaster" says one man.

Hear what they want politicians in Washington know about their lives.

There was a mad dash to reprint tickets ahead of the State of the Union when lawmakers pointed out a glaring typo.

The tickets invited people to attend President Donald Trump's "State of the Uniom".

Senator Marco Rubio was among many attendees who poked fun at the mistake on Twitter, which was made by the office of the Sergeant at Arms of the US House of Representatives.

Two Arizona Republicans are quarrelling on social media over one congressman's call to US Capitol Police, requesting they check the immigration status of tonight's attendees.

At least 28 Democrats are bringing so-called Dreamers, who risk losing their legal US residency in March, as their guests at the speech.

Representative Paul Gosar tweeted that he’d ask the police who guard Capitol Hill to "consider checking identification of all attending the State of the Union address and arresting any illegal aliens in attendance".

"Of all the places where the Rule of Law needs to be enforced, it should be in the hallowed halls of Congress. Any illegal aliens attempting to go through security, under any pretext of invitation or otherwise, should be arrested and deported," said Gosar.

In response, Senator Jeff Flake wrote: "This is why we can’t have nice things…"

Image source, Getty Images

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue has been selected to skip the State of the Union in order to be the "designated survivor" in case disaster strikes Congress during Trump's speech.

Last year Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin was assigned to watch the speech from an undisclosed secure location.

Former "designated survivor" Jim Nicholson told NBC News that the experience can be very sobering, external.

"One part of it seems totally unrealistic. Then there's a certain realism that sets in and you have to take it seriously," the former Veterans Affairs secretary said.

Using the hashtag #SOTUblackout, a liberal grassroots campaign has been urging television viewers to tune out of the speech, so as to deprive the ratings-conscious president of high viewership figures.

"Watch SOTU online after it airs via YouTube, MSNBC, or CNN. Don’t DVR or watch it live," tweeted one supporter of the idea.

According to excerpts of his speech released by the White House, the president will take credit for the positive economic figures of his first year.

"Since we passed tax cuts, roughly three million workers have already gotten tax cut bonuses - many of them thousands of dollars per worker.

"This is our new American moment. There has never been a better time to start living the American dream."

Many Republicans are in agreement that the economy should be a central message tonight.