President Trump and first lady Melania Trump have invited 13 people to attend the State of the Union as their guests, a diverse group described by the White House as representing "the very best of America."
The guests include Debra Bissell, Heather Armstrong, and Madison Armstrong, the daughter, granddaughter, and great-granddaughter of a husband and wife allegedly shot last month in Reno, Nevada, by an undocumented immigrant; former opioid addict Ashley Evans; Roy James, plant manager of Mississippi's Vicksburg Forest Products; Homeland Security investigator Elvin Hernandez; Tom Wibberley, whose son Craig was killed in the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole; and young brain cancer survivor Grace Eline.
Two guests were recently released from prison: Alice Johnson, whose sentence was commuted by Trump last year after lobbying by Kim Kardashian West, and Matthew Charles, sentenced in 1996 to 35 years in prison for drug dealing, but released last month as a result of the First Step Act. Two other guests survived last year's mass shooting at Tree of Life synagogue: congregation member Judah Samet and Pittsburgh Police Department SWAT officer Timothy Matson. The final guest is 11-year-old Joshua Trump of Delaware, who says he's been bullied because he shares a last name with the president.
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