Obama to preview State of the Union speech

President Obama's domestic trips this week will include announcements about an executive action to promote home ownership and a new "manufacturing innovation hub" in Tennessee, a top aide says.

The visits to Michigan, Arizona, and Tennessee will also provide a preview of Obama's State of the Union Address on Jan. 20, senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer writes on the White House website.

"Building on the momentum of the last several weeks, the president didn't want to wait until the State of the Union to take new steps to help the middle class and lay out his ideas to keep strengthening the economy," Pfeiffer writes.

On Wednesday, Obama visits a Ford plant near Detroit to talk about the recovery of the auto industry.

During a Thursday visit to a school in Phoenix, Obama "will announce a new executive action that will help more responsible Americans own a home, building on efforts already underway to cut red tape that holds them back," Pfeiffer writes. He did not provide details.

Obama travels Friday to Knoxville, Tenn., to talk about education policy. While in the state, Pfeiffer says, the president will announce creation of a new manufacturing innovation hub for eastern Tennessee, a public-private partnership designed to forge high-tech jobs in specific areas.

Pfeiffer also writes that — "despite what you might hear from the Beltway pundits" — the president also plans to work with the new Republican Congress, a pledge he plans to make in his State of the Union.

"That means working with the 114th Congress to make sure that more middle class families feel the benefits of our recovery," Pfeiffer writes. "But it also means making sure that the new Congress doesn't roll back the progress and protections that Americans have fought so hard for the last six years."