Joe Biden will try to stamp out doubts about his re-election prospects in his State of the Union speech on Thursday, while laying out the choice facing American voters in this year’s presidential race.

The speech to Congress, just two days after he and Donald Trump both dominated primary votes in a host of states, will take on issues ranging from immigration to the war in Gaza and domestic inflation — and contrast the president’s record with that of his opponent.

Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, told reporters that Biden would “lay out the historic achievements he has delivered on for the American people and his vision for the future”. The president would compare this with Trump’s “failed record and dark vision for this country”, his campaign officials said.

But Biden’s address will meet a hostile reception from Republicans in the crowd. “America is in decline, nothing he says tomorrow night is going to change that,” Mike Johnson, the House speaker and a close Trump ally, said on Wednesday.

The speech is an opportunity for the president to shift perceptions that have pushed down his approval ratings and left him trailing Trump in polls of voters in the swing states that will decide November’s election.

But some of the angst is within Biden’s own Democratic ranks, where even members of the donor class that has poured money into his coffers are expressing concern that the president, who is 81, is not up to the task of beating his 77-year-old opponent.

One Democratic mega donor, who co-hosted a fundraiser for the president last year, told the Financial Times that Biden should “step down” for the next generation of leaders.

“I’m worried he’s not going to win,” the donor said, while complaining that Biden hadn’t taken questions at the event. “Our democracy is at stake. And there’s too much on the line here for the Democrats.”

Others have swatted aside such criticism as “Republican misinformation”. Kurt Rappaport, a California real estate investor who has played host to Biden and visited him at the White House over the past year, said the commander-in-chief remained “extremely sharp” with “boundless” energy. “He’s such a decent, quality, stand-up human being.”

But perceptions of frailty are borne out by polling, and were reinforced by a recent report from the special counsel investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents, which described the president as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”.

The television audience and Biden’s opponents in Congress on Thursday will be watching his delivery intensely, upping the stakes for the president.

He will have to address the surge of immigrants through the US-Mexico border, trying at least to neutralise an issue that has become an attack line for Trump and Republicans — and a point of contention within the Democratic party.

Having struggled to gain credit from Americans for the strong economy since he took office, Biden is expected to take aim in his speech at corporations, calling for higher taxes on big businesses and the wealthy.

“Even as prices have come down on important items like a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs, some corporations aren’t passing those savings on to consumers,” Lael Brainard, director of the White House’s National Economic Council, told reporters this week. “President Biden is fed up with corporate practices that unfairly raise costs for consumers.”

On foreign policy, Biden is expected to push Congress to finally back a $95bn package of security aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

He will tread carefully on Israel, given a backlash from the Democratic party’s left at his support for the war in Gaza. The president is expected to criticise Israel for not doing enough to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, while highlighting his push for a ceasefire in exchange for a hostage release and prisoner swap. Biden wanted to tout just such a deal on Thursday, but the timeline has slipped.

He will also touch on issues that energise the Democratic base, put Republicans in a bind, and are expected to be central to his re-election prospects this year — particularly the threat to reproductive rights following the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling to end the constitutional right to abortion.

Katherine Clark, a Massachusetts Democrat, invited a woman from Texas who went into septic shock after her waters broke at 18 weeks of gestation and she could not access care, to attend Biden’s speech. “[The Republicans’] mission is clear: a nationwide abortion ban,” Clark said.

FOREIGN POLICY:

During his remarks, Biden is expected to criticise Israel for not doing enough to allow humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. In recent days, especially as talks on a six week ceasefire in exchange for a hostage release and prisoner swap have faltered, the US has focused more on trying to surge humanitarian assistance to Gaza and stepping up its criticism of Israel for failing to let more in.

Earlier this week vice-president Kamala Harris made the sharpest criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, calling the conditions “inhumane” and said it must do “significantly more to increase the flow of aid.” Biden will probably adopt this harsher tone. While US officials say that he is unwilling to use US military assistance to Israel as a lever he is increasingly frustrated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and relations are at a low point.

On Ukraine, Biden will press the case for House Speaker Mike Johnson to bring the Ukraine supplemental up for a vote. Biden had invited Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska to be a guest for the speech but she declined, citing a busy schedule. He had also invited Alexey Navalny’s wife Yulia who also declined, pointing to the challenging few weeks since her husband’s death and the need to rest.

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