Trump’s Congress address: ‘It was a run through of his greatest hits so far’
Donald Trump has given his first address to Congress, in which he played down fears of a global trade war due to his tariffs, blamed Joe Biden for the price of eggs, and celebrated Elon Musk for cutting tens of thousands of federal jobs.
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In brief…
- The president was heckled by Democrats inside Congress, as he delivered a speech to senators celebrating his own actions during the first months of his second presidency.
- The News Agents describe his address as a “greatest hits” of his first weeks in power, only briefly touching on important issues such as Ukraine and the US cost of living crisis.
- Trump admitted that things may get “bumpy” with the introductions on tough tariffs for imports from Canada, China and Mexico, which The News Agents say will not go down well with the American public.
What’s the story?
Donald Trump's first address to congress since becoming president was all about his favourite subject: Donald Trump.
As Democrats heckled the president, waving signs which read "This is a lie", “Musk steals” and "False", Trump congratulated himself on the achievements of his first few weeks in The White House.
These included withdrawing the US from the Paris climate accord, the "corrupt” World Health Organisation (WHO), ending the environmental restrictions introduced by Joe Biden, and cutting foreign aid.
Trump also gave a personal thanks to Elon Musk, who has personally overseen tens of thousands of job cuts for federal workers, and cut numerous programmes and initiatives inside the US government in his unelected role as head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
He claimed his tariffs will make America "rich again", despite fears of a global trade war caused by levies placed on Mexico, Canada and China. Trump said there may be "a little disturbance" but added he was "ok with that".
Setting his sights on taking over Greenland, he also stated that America would acquire its neighbour "one way or another", in a message some took as a threat.
“It was a run through of his greatest hits so far, in which he said essentially that he's the best president America has ever had,” says Emily Maitlis.
Senator Elissa Slotkin spoke for The Democratic Party, accusing the president of hosting an "unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends", and warned that the US could face recession as a result of his actions.
What happened in Congress?
Emily describes the address as a combination of a formal presidential event, and a campaign rally,
Among the president’s many claims of his second term’s successes, he claimed to have cut funding for research into “transgender mice”, and claimed to have cut the funding for “LGBTQI+” in the African nation of Lesotho, resulting in laughter from Republicans as he said he’d never heard of the place.
“If anyone was watching last night, expecting to see the Trump thesis on America's foreign policy, his position on NATO, his understanding of where the Ukraine war was going now, they got none of it,” Emily says.
“All we heard was that Trump believes he has accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplish in four years.
“He's only been in power for five weeks, and during that time, he's managed to piss off the whole of Europe, to call Zelensky a dictator, to sidle up to Putin, to cancel huge numbers of programs that were actually helping ordinary Americans, including veterans.”
The impact of this was highlighted when Texas Democrat representative Al Green, a veteran himself, protested Trump’s cuts to MEDICAID, yelling “You have no mandate,” before being ejected from the hall.
Trump did mention Ukraine, briefly, deep into his address, saying he welcomed a letter from Zelensky about working with the US.
“I think there are things that are moving, and I think wheels are turning there, but Trump was focused on domestic policy, trying to say how fantastic everything is, except for the small matter of the tariffs that have just come in,” says Jon Sopel.
“And there was just the slightest acknowledgement that Americans might find it bumpy as a result.”
Emily describes this as a “forewarning” that things will get worse for Americans before they, potentially, get better.
What’s The News Agents’ take?
Trump’s address was celebrated by Republican supporters inside Congress, and heralded as a triumph by MAGA supporters on social media, but the reality for the people of the US appears to be a little less positive.
“His poll numbers have fallen quite substantially on this one issue of the economy, which is the foremost issue for most Americans,” says Emily.
“Since he's been in power, we've seen him lose around 10 points in terms of his popularity, because the very thing that he promised on the campaign trail all the way through was that he was going to make America rich again and profitable again.”
She believes they are not swallowing his lines about how tariffs will make things better – and goods more affordable – for the average citizens, who are instead following the facts to the contrary provided by experts.
“They're seeing what the stock market is doing as tariffs come in, and they're listening to how people are responding to what is going to be the impact on their goods when tariffs are imposed, because prices will rise,” adds Emily.
“That is not going to go down very well.”
Trump criticised Joe Biden’s administration during his address, but Jon says it is hard to blame the former president for the current “precipitous” falls in the US stock market attributed to his tariffs.
“As Justin Trudeau said yesterday, ’Donald, what you are doing is dumb’,” says Jon.
“But Donald Trump still seems to believe that this is the best way for him to assert America first, to slap tariffs on his allies of Mexico and Canada.
“This is self-inflicted.”