WASHINGTON — For years, immigration advocates have defined hundreds of thousands of young people brought to the country illegally as children by the sympathetic term “Dreamers.” Long irritated by the rhetorical branding, President Trump finally came up with his own rejoinder: “Americans are Dreamers, too.”

The point was to shift the terms of the polarizing immigration debate and reinforce the argument that those born in the United States or living here legally deserve sympathy as well. But if Mr. Trump believed the line in his State of the Union address would help bring the sides together for the bipartisan agreement he says he seeks, he received little encouragement on Wednesday. The two sides appeared further apart than ever.

Although Mr. Trump characterized his immigration proposal as a “down-the-middle compromise,” his speech further alienated him from the bipartisan group of lawmakers trying to negotiate a deal. Rather than act as a catalyst for cooperation, it seemed to only deepen the divide. And it underlined the political ramifications of the nativist language that the president used in the 2016 campaign and during his first year in office.

The president faces a year in which a bitterly divided Congress and a swirling Russia scandal could rob him of any high-profile legislative successes. He is sure to play up the benefits of the landmark tax cuts that he helped push through last year, as he did at the White House on Wednesday in an appearance with families who will benefit from the plan. But his proposal for a $1.5 trillion building program to fix the nation’s roads, bridges, airports and other structures generated little enthusiasm, and he offered few other major concrete ideas for legislation.