WASHINGTON — President Trump was the boisterous showman in chief before a joint session of Congress Tuesday night — boldly declaring “America is back” and its “greatest era” was underway as he brushed past petulant Democratic protests to lay out both the accomplishments and the agenda of his second term.
Trump, 78, described his avalanche of executive orders and new initiatives as a “common sense revolution” during the 99-minute address — the longest in modern history — echoing the theme of his second inaugural address as the opposition largely sat on their hands and seethed before drifting quietly into the DC night.
“Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the golden age of America. From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country,” Trump said.
“We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years, and we are just getting started. America’s momentum is back. Our spirit is back. Our pride is back. Our confidence is back, and the American Dream is surging bigger and better than ever before.”
Trump, so often prone to asides and tangents, largely kept to his script Tuesday night, proudly proclaiming that “it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency is the most successful in the history of our nation — and what makes it even more impressive is that, do you know who number two is? George Washington. How about that?”
“Our country is on the verge of a comeback, the likes of which the world has never witnessed and perhaps will never witness again,” he said, self-consciously referencing his 2024 election win despite four criminal indictments and two assassination attempts.
“Over the past six weeks, I have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions, a record to restore common sense, safety, optimism and wealth all across our wonderful land.”
Trump gave an exhaustive rundown of his early-term actions, including announcing major investments in the country and enacting an array of policy pivots — while inviting Greenland’s citizens to vote to join the United States and threatening to take back the Panama Canal.
The list included orders to make English the country’s official language, rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” ordering federal workers to return to offices, require the government to recognize only two genders, move to defund school districts that allow transgender athletes in girls’ sports and end diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
Trump also touted forthcoming initiatives to sell $5 million “gold cards” to wealthy foreigners and plans to drop the high prices of eggs, which he blamed on former President Joe Biden.
Democrats throw a fit
Trump received a warm welcome from congressional Republicans — who have since his return to Washington proposed legislation to allow him to seek a third term and to place his face on the $100 bill — but was repeatedly protested by Democrats.
Less than five minutes into the prime-time address, Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) bellowed: “You don’t have a mandate” after Trump cited his decisive victory in the Nov. 5 election.
Green persistently heckled Trump with similar utterances, waving his gold-handled walking cane in the air as he did so.
When the Texan would not sit down, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) directed the House sergeant-at-arms William McFarland to restore order, saying, “Remove this gentleman from the chamber.”
About an hour later, unidentified Democrats shouted “January 6!” at Trump while he praised police.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-NM) photo-bombed Trump’s entrance into the chamber, brandishing a sign that read “This is NOT Normal” at a TV camera tracking Trump down the center aisle of the House chamber
During the speech, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) brandished a whiteboard at Trump on which was inked: “Start paying your taxes.”
Rather than lashing out and giving his detractors a headline, Trump said calmly: “These people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements. They won’t do it no matter what. Five times I’ve been up here, it’s very sad. And it just shouldn’t be this way.”
He added: “Democrats sitting before me, for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America? For the good of our nation, let’s work together, and let’s truly make America great again.”
Most Democrats did not take him up on it, stubbornly remaining seated as Trump recognized the family of Laken Riley, murdered by an illegal immigrant; a teen with brain cancer who was designated as an honorary Secret Service agent, and the announcement of the capture of the “mastermind” behind the August 2021 terrorist bombing at Kabul’s international airport that killed 13 service members.
Ukraine waits 86 minutes
Ukraine was one of the most-anticipated elements of the speech — after Trump and Vice President JD Vance clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Friday in the Oval Office — but viewers were left waiting 86 minutes as the president focused on domestic concerns.
Zelensky had been due to ink a deal with Trump granting the US a stake in his country’s rare earth elements, but that pact was left unsigned — as administration officials demanded that Kyiv’s leader apologize for allegedly disrespectful conduct, which he has not done.
“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 told the country’s assembled legislators, who have approved $183 billion to finance Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s three-year invasion.
The remark yielded yet another instance of Democratic heckling — apparently from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
“You want to keep it going for another five years? Yeah, yeah, you, you would say — Pocahontas says yes,” Trump announced.
Trump, continuing his remarks, said that “earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelensky of Ukraine. The letter reads, ‘Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer…. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.’”
Trump added that “we’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace — 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.”
Taxes and tariffs
Trump doubled down on his actions to roll out tariffs under 24 hours after imposing sweeping 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico and a new 20% tariff on Chinese goods — while calling on Congress to quickly pass his proposed tax cuts.
“Bear with me,” Trump urged his audience on tariffs, which critics fear will increase consumer costs.
“Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again and it’s happening and it will happen rather quickly. There’ll be a little disturbance. But we’re okay with that. It won’t be much,” Trump said, before an audible outburst from the chamber.
“No, you’re not? Ohhh,” he said in another instance of playing to the crowd.
Some of Trump’s signature campaign pledges are pending in Congress but have an uncertain path forward due to disagreement on tactics between House and Senate Republicans.
“To get urgently needed relief to Americans hit especially hard by inflation, I’m calling for no tax on tips, no tax on overtime and no tax on Social Security benefits for our great seniors,” Trump said.
Trump told the Democrats present, “I’m sure you’re going to vote for those tax cuts, because otherwise, I don’t believe the people will ever vote you into office, so I’m doing you a big favor by telling you that.”
Trump also repeated his call for tax deductions for domestic car loan interest and for lower individual tax rates in his 2017 tax cuts law to be made permanent.
In addition to the tariffs imposed Tuesday on America’s top three trading partners, Trump has stiffened steel and aluminum tariffs and announced plans to impose tariffs on copper, lumber, pharmaceuticals and computer chips — plus a “reciprocal” tariff policy that he says could impact European allies and Japan.
Trump said he spoke earlier in the day with the leaders of the Big Three American carmakers and they were “so excited” about his plans.
“Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries, on average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India Mexico, and Canada —have you heard of them? — and countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs, than we charge them. It’s very unfair,” Trump said.
DOGE spending cuts
Among those in attendance was Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and the leader of the Department of Government Efficiency initiative that’s aiming to slash $1 trillion in annual spending through deep spending cuts.
The president called on the SpaceX and Tesla CEO to stand in the gallery for applause.
“Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it. I believe. They just don’t want to admit that,” the president claimed before reading aloud a laundry list of spending line items that Musk’s team had axed — treating it like a standup comedian delivering punchlines.
“$8 million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of,” Trump said about the landlocked 2-million-person country surrounded by South Africa.
“$8 million for making mice transgender — this is real,” Trump read.
“$1.5 billion for voter confidence in Liberia … $59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City … $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia.”
“We found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud … and we’ve taken back the money and reduced our debt to fight inflation and other things,” Trump said.
“I want to do what has not been done in 24 years, balance the federal budget.”
“My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again,” he said.
“And any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately. Because we are draining the swamp. It’s very It’s very simple, and the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over.”
Border victory lap
Trump also celebrated the fact that arrests for illegal border crossings hit the lowest level in at least 25 years in February.
“They heard my words and they chose not to come — much easier that way,” he said of would-be migrants.
“In comparison, under Joe Biden, the worst president in American history, there were hundreds of thousands of illegal crossings a month, and virtually all of them, including murderers, drug dealers, gang members, and people from mental institutions and insane asylums were released into our country.”
During his speech, Trump renamed a wildlife refuge along the Gulf of America after Jocelyn Nungaray, the 12-year-old Texas girl allegedly murdered last year by Venezuelan migrants, and whose mother Alexis Nungaray was one of Trump’s guests.
Trump hailed his action to designate foreign criminal organizations as terrorist groups, which devotes fresh intelligence resources to hunting down the entities and stiffens penalties for aiding them.
“The cartels are waging war in America, and it’s time for America to wage war on the cartels which we are doing,” he said.
He also touted the fact that monthly arrests for illegal border crossings hit the lowest level in at least 25 years in February, his first full month in office.
“My administration has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history, and we quickly achieve the lowest numbers of illegal border crossers ever recorded,” Trump said.
“The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation, we must have legislation to secure the border — but it turned out that all we really needed was a new president.”
Trump also demanded that Congress fully fund “the largest deportation operation in American history” before concluding his speech with a reference to his own brush with mortality during a July assassination attempt, saying “I was saved by God to make America great again.”
“Despite the best efforts of those who would try to censor us, silence us break us destroy us, Americans are today a proud free sovereign and independent nation that will always be free, and we will fight for it till death,” he said.
“This will be our greatest era. With God’s help, over the next four years, we are going to lead this nation even higher, and we are going to forge the freest most advanced most dynamic and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face of this earth.”
