President Trump said he hoped to encourage the country to abandon its "tremendous divisiveness" and instead move toward "a great form of unity" when he delivers his first State of the Union address Tuesday night.

"Let me just say this: I want to see our country united," Trump told network anchors at a traditional off-the-record lunch on Tuesday.

"I want to bring our country back from a tremendous divisiveness, which has taken — not just over one year, over many years — including the Bush years, not just Obama. You go back to the Bush years. You go back to the Clinton years," Trump said.

Although most of his comments to the television reporters were off-the-record, the White House released a portion of Trump's conversation after the lunch had concluded. In it, Trump recalled a conversation he had had with a Democratic lawmaker about the tumultuous later years of Bill Clinton's presidency.

"You take a look at that impeachment of Bill Clinton. I actually asked a longtime senator — happened to be a Democrat — 'Is this the worst you've ever seen it?'" Trump recalled. "He said, 'Absolutely not. During the impeachment of Bill Clinton was much worse than this.' So many of you are too young to remember that. I feel too young to remember it, but I guess I'm not."

Trump cited the impasse over healthcare as an example of the deep divisions that exist between Republicans and Democrats, noting Republicans want to offer private sector solutions to the problem of rising premiums and Democrats want to solve the same problem with "free healthcare, paid [for] by the government."

"You know, everybody is a good person, but they have really divergent views," Trump said of congressional lawmakers.

"So there's a question whether of not — can you bring that together or do you just win every four years," Trump said. "I would love to be able to bring back our country into a great form of unity."

Trump said unifying the country can be "hard to do" in the absence of an event that brings people together independently of politics.

"I'd like to do it without that major event, because usually that major event is not a good thing," Trump said. "I would love to do it."