In his first address to a joint session of Congress since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump touted his accomplishments over his six weeks back in office while also sparring with Democrats.
What You Need To Know
- In his first address to a joint session of Congress since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump touted his accomplishments over his six weeks back in office while also sparring with Democrats
- Trump opened his speech by declaring, “America is back!"
- Among the more notable moments, House Speaker Mike Johnson ordered Texas Rep. Al Green, a Democrat, be removed from the chamber after his outburst
- The topics the president discussed included the U.S. DOGE Service, Ukraine, tariffs and immigration
Trump opened his speech by declaring, “America is back!" He said he has accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplish in four years, adding, “We are just getting started.”
More than an hour and 40 minutes later — a new record for a presidential speech to Congress — he closed by saying, “The golden age of America has only just begun.”
Here are six takeaways from Trump’s address.
Democrats protest and a congressman is booted
Amid continued disruptions in the early minutes of the address, House Speaker Mike Johnson halted the speech to warn against outbursts and eventually order Texas Rep. Al Green, a Democrat, removed from the chamber.
Green could be seen shouting and waving his cane, and Republicans in the chamber began chanting “USA” to drown him out.”
When Johnson ultimately ordered Green to be removed, the longtime congressman went with security without resisting but appeared to shout something as he left toward the dais where Trump, Johnson and Vice President JD Vance were situated.
“Members are engaging in willful and continuing breach of decorum, and the chair is prepared to direct the sergeant at arms to restore order to the joint session,” Johnson said.
It was the only act of defiance by Democratic lawmakers. Some shouted “lies” after some of Trump’s more dubious claims.
After one such exchange, Trump countered with a message for the opposition party: “This is my fifth such speech to Congress, and once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me, and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud.”
Trump applauds Musk, DOGE while repeating false Social Security claim
Trump gave special recognition to Elon Musk, who was in attendance at the Capitol, for his efforts and those of the U.S. DOGE Service at reducing government spending and purging thousands of workers from the federal government.
“Thank you, Elon. You’re working very hard," Trump said. "He didn't need this. He didn't need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it."
He went on to list “appalling waste” in federal spending that he credited Musk and DOGE with cutting, mostly focused on programs that appear to be connected to programs with a focus on race and gender abroad. It could not be immediately verified whether the programs and the dollar amounts Trump cited were accurate, and Musk’s team has previously boasted of billions in savings that later proved to be inaccurate.
“Eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of,” Trump said.
Numerous programs he listed were in Africa, South America and Asia.
He went on to falsely claim that millions of Americans were claiming Social Security benefits for people as old as 360, a claim Musk previously made that experts suggest is likely a coding error in the benefits program’s record keeping and not actually representative of millions of fraudulent Social Security payments.
Trump decries U.S. support for Ukraine, says he will work to end the war
Days after his public spat with Ukrainian President Volodmyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office and 24 hours after pausing U.S. aid to Ukraine, Trump said he appreciated Zelenskyy’s willingness to return to the negotiating table and sign an economic deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s mineral resources.
But the president decried U.S. support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders and belittled other European allies for not contributing enough to the fight.
“Millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded in this horrific and brutal conflict with no end in sight. The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine's defense with no security, with no anything,” Trump said. “The Russian young people, the Ukrainian young people. They're not Americans, but I want it to stop.”
Trump said he received an “important letter” from Zelenskyy earlier on Tuesday that stated the Ukrainian government was willing to work with Trump’s administration in negotiations with Russia.
“I appreciate that he sent this letter,” Trump said. “Simultaneously, we've had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace. Wouldn't that be beautiful? Wouldn't that be beautiful?”
“It's time to stop this madness. It's time to halt the killing. It's time to end the senseless war,” Trump added.
President touts tariffs
Trump issued a warning to any company that does not make its products in America but instead imports it into the country: “You will pay a tariff.”
“Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it's our turn to start using them against those other countries,” he said, referring to his pledge to implement reciprocal tariffs on trading partners on April 2.
Along with the reciprocal tariffs — which Trump has presented as an effort to level the playing field on trade — the president has also announced fees on all imports of steel and aluminum. He launched investigations into whether to impose similar duties on imports of copper and lumber.
His speech came the same day his long-pledged 25% tariff on goods from Mexico and Canada, as well as an additional 10% fee on goods from China, went into effect.
“We’ve been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer,” Trump declared.
Trump pledges ‘great liberation of America’ from undocumented immigrants
The president promised to usher in the “great liberation of America” from undocumented immigrants through mass deportation operations and by waging “war on the cartels.”
He highlighted victims of violent crimes at the hands of immigrants and signed a document renaming a wildlife refuge after a 12-year-old Texas girl who was killed last year, allegedly by two undocumented immigrants. And he repeated false claims about Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, that he often made on the campaign trail about how they were being terrorized by undocumented immigrants.
“Every last one will be rounded up and forcibly removed from our country, or if they're too dangerous, put in jails, standing trial in this country, because we don't want them to come back ever,” Trump said.
He pointed to his designation of international drug cartels as terrorist organizations and said that “the cartels are waging war in America, and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels.”
Democratic response
Newly elected Michigan Sen. Elissa Slotkin, tapped by Democrats to deliver their official English-language response Trump’s address, portrayed the president’s policies as “an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends” and relying on her personal history to appeal to Republicans.
The former House member and CIA analyst who served in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations appealed to Republicans’ sense of patriotism in painting Trump as a figure in opposition to Americans’ “shared values that were bigger than any one party.”
“Because whether you're from Wyandotte or Wichita, most Americans share three core beliefs: that the middle class is the engine of our country, that strong national security protects us from harm, and that our democracy, no matter how messy, is unparalleled and worth fighting for,” Slotkin said, later adding that “as much as we need to make our government more responsive to our lives today, don't for one moment fool yourself that democracy isn't precious and worth saving.”
The message in her roughly 10-minute remark was that Trump’s promises on the economy, foreign policy and democratic governance were misleading and hurtful to American people.
“As a Cold War kid, I'm thankful it was [President Ronald] Reagan and not Trump in office in the 1980s. Trump would have lost us the Cold War. Donald Trump's actions suggest that in his heart, he doesn't believe we’re an exceptional nation,” Slotkin said, referring to Trump’s friendly relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and hostility toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.