UNITED STATES President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address on Tuesday met multiple heckles as the increasingly unstable leader sought to explain his domestic and foreign policies.

With an eye on the November midterm elections, where Mr Trump’s Republicans appear set for a drubbing, the president characteristically took credit even where there was none to be claimed.

He celebrated brokering a ceasefire deal in Gaza that began last October even though the Israelis have violated the truce on a near daily basis and killed more than 600 Palestinians since.

President Trump celebrated the kidnapping of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and first lady Cilia Flores during an unprovoked January 3 attack that killed 100 people.

The president also renewed his warnings to Iran to accept a deal over its nuclear programme as he has stationed a huge armada in the region and decides whether to carry out new military action against Tehran.

“As president, I will make peace wherever I can, but I will never hesitate to confront threats to America wherever we must,” Mr Trump said.

President Trump’s increasingly aggressive posture in the western Hemisphere is a concern for many in the region.

He has ordered dozens of military strikes on alleged drug-running vessels in the Caribbean, seized sanctioned oil tankers and tightened the illegal blockade of Cuba as part of what the president is referring to as the “Donroe Doctrine.”

“We’re also restoring American security and dominance in the western Hemisphere, acting to secure our national interests and defend our country from violence, drugs, terrorism and foreign interference,” President Trump said.

Although many Democrats opted to skip the address, others stayed throughout in stony silence.

But the atmosphere changed notably as President Trump began to champion his immigration crackdown.

Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib repeatedly yelled at Trump, objecting to his characterisation of Minnesota’s Somali community as “pirates” and accusing him of enabling the deaths of US citizens through his crackdown in the state.

“You have killed Americans,” Ms Omar, a Somali American who represents a Minnesota district, shouted multiple times at President Trump, before gesturing at him and saying: “You should be ashamed.”

Democratic Representative Al Green was escorted from the chamber early in the speech, after he unfurled a sign of protest that read “black people aren’t apes” in a reference to a racist video posted by Mr Trump  that depicted former president Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as primates in a jungle.