President Trump Addresses Joint Session of Congress

ruticker 05.03.2025 11:07:48

Recognized text from YouScriptor channel C-SPAN

Recognized from a YouTube video by YouScriptor.com, For more details, follow the link President Trump Addresses Joint Session of Congress

**About an hour ago, this is his fifth overall and the first of his second term, about 43 days in. His address comes as lawmakers are working to cut government spending, come up with a federal budget, and deliver on President Trump's goals of $2 trillion in savings. It comes after uncertainty on U.S.-Ukraine policy and the beginning of a potential tariff war.** Here's a live look at the White House, where the Trumps will be departing shortly for the 16-block drive to the Capitol down Pennsylvania Avenue. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt gave a preview of his speech earlier today, calling it a *renewal of the American dream*. We'll talk more about the message of tonight's address and the guests the president is bringing with him with the two journalists who will be with us in studio tonight. Now back on Capitol Hill, arrivals for tonight's address are already underway as the more than 500 elected lawmakers and their guests make their way to the House chamber. We soon see Senators gathered to make their way over to the House, along with the arrival of cabinet secretaries, Supreme Court Justices, and many other dignitaries. Right outside the House chamber is Statuary Hall, where dozens of journalists are positioned to cover the evening. C-SPAN, of course, has live coverage throughout the evening on all of our networks and platforms. Well, joining us from Capitol Hill is Dave Clark with Punchbowl News. Mr. Clark, all day long today, there were a lot of press conferences with some pre-speech positioning by both parties. **Yes, there certainly were.** I mean, obviously, the White House previews its message that the president's going to deliver tonight, and Democrats are giving a little bit of a taste of how they're going to counter-program the event. I think what we're going to hear from the president tonight is kind of twofold. One is he's going to try to explain what he's done during these first six weeks of his administration, which have been a bit of a whirlwind. He's going to be trying to kind of put together all these executive orders that he's put out and tell a story about those. Then he's going to kind of look forward and say what else he wants to do. He's going to probably make a push for more border security funding from Congress. He's going to talk about likely his trade wars or the tariffs he's ratcheting up on some of our allies and adversaries. When it comes to summing up what he's done so far, he's going to try to make sense of all these executive orders. He's going to talk about his effort to shrink the government through Doge and Elon Musk. I think he's also going to touch a lot on some of the culture war issues, whether that's orders that he put out on transgender people or ending DEI programs in the government. Meanwhile, Democrats are going to talk about some of the same themes but obviously with a different touch. They're going to be highlighting all the services that Americans might not be getting if the government's dismantled the way the president's trying to do that. They're going to be focusing on some of the possible budget cuts to programs like Medicaid that Republicans are considering. So there'll definitely be a lot of talk tonight, a lot of jousting over what the agenda ahead should be. **So how would you describe the mood up there, Mr. Clark?** For Republicans, it's pretty jubilant, right? They control both chambers of Congress, and they have President Trump in the White House, so they're riding pretty high. There's a little bit of nerves among some of them on the various moves President Trump has made. Some of the defense hawks are not very happy with the way things are going in Ukraine. We'll see how much the president talks about that tonight, but overall, Republicans are feeling in a very good spot, despite little nerves here or there. I think in the speech tonight, he's really going to be talking to those Republicans but, more importantly, his base of voters. I mean, he's really going to be trying to rile them up and sell a message to them. I don't think he's going to be trying to do a lot of converting tonight; I think he's really going to be speaking to the faithful. **Mr. March 14th is just around the corner, the end of government funding. Can you give us a status update on the budget talks?** Yeah, we're running up once again to a government funding deadline and warnings about a shutdown right now. What Republicans are doing is talking about passing what is known as a clean continuing resolution. Essentially, they're talking about just extending current funding through the end of this fiscal year, which is at the end of September. But that could be a real difficult task for them because they have a very tight majority in the House, and Democrats are really in no mood to help Republicans out here. So one big question is going to be: Can Republicans pass that continuing resolution with just their own votes? That's going to be very tough, and if they can't, are they going to be able to sway any Democrats to vote for that resolution? If so, what are they going to have to give them to get their votes? **Dave Clark, Punchbowl News, we really appreciate you spending a few minutes with us. Where are you going to be during the speech?** Up in the gallery. Have you gotten a transcript of it yet? No, I've not gotten a transcript of it yet, and as of my coming over here, we hadn't seen the excerpts yet, so they're keeping a tight hold on it so far. Thanks for joining us from Capitol Hill. **Well, here in our studio, Jasmine Wright is a reporter with Notice News of the United States, and Jason Dick is the editor-in-chief of Roll Call. Very quickly, what are you looking for tonight?** I'm really interested in the approach that Trump takes from the get-go. I mean, as Dave sort of alluded to, the expectation from a lot of people is that he's going to be speaking to his base. He feels that he has a mandate, or at least this is what he and his allies tell people. There is no advantage to them looking like they need to reach out to Democrats or even to wavering Republicans. Sometimes these speeches can be conciliatory, or they can be about how great things are. I think Trump is going to step on the gas and come out aggressive. **Jasmine Wright, same question.** I'm looking at his tone—his tone, his tone. I was talking to a source familiar with the speech preparations, and they said it's not going to be flowery language. They said that it's going to be impassioned; it's something that he has been deeply involved in, that he's kind of been editing up until the last moment. It's going to reflect, I think, this shift that you've seen in the White House, certainly since at least last year. I mean, since last week after that Zelensky meeting, really a feuded yelling match in the Oval Office, him doubling down and his administration doubling down on this idea that they are projecting American strength. So I'm looking to see if the tone reflects what we've seen from them over the last four days, which is kind of a doubling down of this projection that they're making. **Well, we will be back with Jasmine and Jason in just a minute, but as always, our co-host this evening is Greta Broner. Hi, Greta.** Hey, Peter. As you were talking about lawmakers, the president gets to invite guests in the House chamber for this address to Congress. Topping the list is a name that many people have heard repeatedly over the first 40 days of this administration, and that's Elon Musk. Billy House, who reports for Bloomberg News, putting on X today that Speaker Mike Johnson wanted Musk to be on the House floor tonight and made inquiries about his access as a non-official government officer or employee. But the speaker told Billy Johnson that Musk will be seated, in fact, in the gallery above the floor with the First Lady. Now, in the box with the First Lady will be around 11 guests, and you'll hear the president introduce each of them in his speech tonight. Here's an idea of the people and the themes that they reflect in why they were invited to sit with the First Lady tonight. As we said, Elon Musk—the president is expected to highlight the work of the Department of Government Efficiency. Doge, Allison, and Lauren Phillips are the mother and sister of Leak and Riley, the 22-year-old Augusta University nursing student who was murdered by undocumented immigrants. Alexis Nunez Gray is also a mother of a 12-year-old killed by undocumented immigrants. So that will be a theme tonight with those guests and others. Then, Pton McNab, a volleyball player who allegedly had a concussion while playing against a transgender competitor, and then January Little John, who is an anti-transgender parents' rights activist. Those are some of the names and the folks that will be in the box tonight with the First Lady. As for Democrats tonight, this is ABC's headline: Some Democrats are planning to skip the joint address to Congress. The list seems to be growing as the day goes on. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Senator Chris Murphy, Senator Patty Murray, Senator Martin Heinrich, and others are all planning to skip tonight's joint address. There was also reporting from Axios earlier today that Democrats are split on how to respond. Those Democrats that are going to be in the chamber, some members may walk out of the chamber when they hear something that they don't agree with. You may see props like signs or noisemakers that Democrats have in the chamber with them tonight. Some have talked about a pocket Constitution that they may wave. You'll also see members wearing ties and scarves with the colors of Ukraine's flag. Female members of the Congressional Black Caucus have talked about wearing black to mark a somber mood, and the Democratic Women's Caucus is planning to wear pink in defiance. Now, what does that look like? Take a look at this from X earlier today. This is Representative Norma Torres' tweet, putting out a picture of her and other members of the Women's Democratic Caucus wearing pink. She said it's because we're powerful, passionate, and poised. Pink isn't just a color; it's a symbol of protest, a symbol of women's power and persistence. The truth is, women can't afford Trump. Then there's also this reporting from The Hill: The House Freedom Caucus has sent a warning statement ahead of Trump's speech, threatening to formally censure any Democrats who disrupt the joint address tonight. Jerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, responded to that warning from the Freedom Caucus with just this picture—this is Marjorie Taylor Greene yelling at President Biden during his State of the Union Address last year. **Peter, Jason Dick, you've been covering these types of speeches and State of the Union addresses for a long time. Have they always been a bit unruly, or has the arc changed?** I think that there has been a market change since Trump's first term that has carried over into the Biden years. As Greta was talking about, we could expect at least something that will be kind of dramatic. There have always been moments where we can point to. I mean, there was a joint address that President Barack Obama delivered where he was talking about healthcare, and Joe Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, yelled out, "You lie!" I mean, that was obviously a moment that sort of lives in history, but that was kind of the exception to a lot of the rules that we've seen. It's been amped up a little bit in the last 10 years, but I would argue that some of the best moments of these joint addresses, which sometimes people feel can run far too long, obviously start on the East Coast a little bit late, and sometimes people believe that they are maybe a little bit too monotone. Some of the more lively moments happen through these interruptions. **Through a president like Joe Biden last year, kind of going back and forth with the Republicans when he was talking about several various things, I think those moments really liven up something that at times can be a bit stale or a bit dry or feel like, you know, once it's getting into the 90 minutes or the 100 minutes that it's just gone on too long.** That speech you brought up, Joe Biden's last year, that was just a year ago, and it was a highly lauded speech that he gave. **Yeah, and I think what was interesting about that moment was, you know, there were some discussions about his age already in the Z guys. We already had Dean Phillips basically come in and run and say that somebody needs to have this conversation that Joe Biden should no longer be president. There were some questions about whether or not he could do it in an election year, that type of speech, that type of format. Obviously, you know, Joe Biden is not necessarily known to be the best orator out of all the presidents, and so there were some questions about whether or not he could do that. He actually got rave reviews from that one because of the way that he was able to take the incoming from Republicans, because of the way that he was able to kind of go back and have this levity of banter, you know, basically saying, "I'm telling you the truth, guys, I'm telling you the truth." Those moments really marked Joe Biden. So I'm curious to see how Trump does today. He is not one to shy away from banter, quite frankly. I think he likes kind of the back and forth—not necessarily confrontation, but certainly the give and take of arguing with somebody who maybe doesn't see his viewpoints or slapping somebody down. So I'm curious to see how devoted Trump is to the text that he wants to say versus being in the moment in those intimate settings.** If you go to notice.org, news of the United States.org, you'll see Jasmine Wright; she has the lead story here: *Trump's first joint address of term two won't be anything like the last time.* **Is that what you meant when you talked about tone, tone, tone?** If you—I went back and watched his 2017 joint address to Congress. Obviously, that was his first time in office, and what somebody told me at the time, who was a part of the White House, was that they were really intent on it being Trump's reintroduction to America. They knew him as The Apprentice Donald Trump; they knew him as the campaigner Donald Trump, but they didn't know him as president. When you go back and listen to that speech, his tone is really different than I think what you will hear tonight. It was softer; it was more unifying. It was trying to show the American people that he can be presidential, and it was also trying to tell both Republicans and Democrats, "Let's put away the trivial fights and let's work together on this agenda." Now, I think if you go back and look at his first term, really only legislatively what he got done was tax cuts. He wants that to be much different this time. I think you also see a Donald Trump who's really not going to take a lot of crap from people. He is the president of a country where his party has the House, the Senate. You could argue that he has a more favorable Supreme Court for some of the things that he wants to get done. So he's really going to come in there, I believe, and kind of put the marker down and say, "This is my party; this is my country; give me what I want, and if you do not get on board, you will get left." **It's important to note too that this Congress, the majority of them have been elected since Trump was elected. So this is what they know. This is the world; this is the tone; this is the way that they see that you do things. So, you know, some of the folks who perhaps wanted a more sedate, boring approach to the State of the Union or things like that, they're gone; they're retired or they lost elections. And so this is, in a way, he's shaped not just the Republican Party but also the Democratic Party because Democrats have been in the opposition, you know, the minority and the majority, but it's always in relation to Trump. I mean, Trump, even when he was out of office, still dominated the conversation, even through Biden's four years.** **And Jason Dick, just to pick up on what Jasmine was saying, the lead story in your publication, Roll Call, hints from Trump's first term addresses. Do you agree that the tone could be a little bit different tonight?** **Oh, absolutely.** You saw that, you know, the tone shift just in his first four addresses. I mean, you did see this conciliatory, you know, "I'm going to run the country; I'm going to reach out to Democrats; we're going to get a lot of stuff done; we're going to cut taxes." At the end of his last State of the Union, he had Nancy Pelosi ripping up her copy of the speech behind him, and he didn't shake her hand. So, you know, I think that we're going to see more like that last speech than we are the first speech, even though there are no Democrats who are going to be behind him. **This address to the joint session should begin in a little bit under an hour. Coming up in the next 10 to 15 minutes or so, you'll see the president and Mrs. Trump depart the White House. You'll see the lights come up in the House chamber, and you'll see the members milling about. Of course, we will go to that as soon as that's available. You'll see the Supreme Court; you'll see the Joint Chiefs; you'll see the Diplomatic Corps all coming in, and the president's cabinet as well, all coming into the chamber. Of course, that's all going to be live on C-SPAN and on C-SPAN 2, so you can watch it there as well or on our online platforms.** **This is called a joint session. Is that different than a State of the Union? Is it technically different, or is it just in tone?** I think it's technically different. I mean, they have two different titles. The pomp and circumstance is kind of minute different, but I think you'll see it kind of amped up when he gets to the State of the Union next year. But certainly, the effect is the same. It is a president, his first month or so, first five weeks in office, laying out what they have already done and what they want to do. We know that Trump has come into office after four years of basically kind of being in, you know, D.C. exile in West Palm. Obviously, the people that make up his cabinet, the people that make up his White House, some of his most trusted advisers spent four years in some of these right-leaning think tanks figuring out what Trump's platform should be once he gets back into office. So they're kind of moving on that. But I think what you saw for the first five weeks in his administration was executive power—him issuing over 75 executive orders, him basically pushing what a lot of people believe are the limits to those executive orders. Now, I think you're going to see Trump really try to turn onto that legislative power, making it very clear what he wants Congress to do when in office. So that is what we expect from a joint address of Congress—a joint address to Congress from a president really laying out how they want that first year to go, but then all the years after that. **But then, Jason Dick, that speech that Biden gave last year, that—let's use that as our lodestar. That did make a difference, last year's speech. Do these generally make a difference?** They certainly can, as you know, with Biden. I mean, and I think that I would argue that in 2017, Trump set the table for what he would eventually get, you know, with the tax cuts, you know, that first year. So, I mean, depending on what he wants to emphasize, I mean, it's obvious that, you know, just by the guests that they do want to emphasize issues that are important to their base. That can be something that will signal to their base, like, "Hey, we've got you; we're keeping our word." If you see, like, some of the focus groups that have come out, even people who are independent and Democrats are saying, "Well, he did say he was going to do this." Whether it's tariffs or what have you, I think that that's the thing that, you know, reaffirming that in the eyes of the White House could be good because they really actually don't have that much time for legislation. These times when the party controls the White House in both chambers of Congress are pretty fleeting. They have a few months to do it, and then they're in the midterms, and then usually they lose one of the chambers. So they know that they're on the clock, and they want to hit the ground running, and this is the first chance to speak directly to the American people after the election. **Let's check back in with Greta Broner.** Peter, Jason Dick mentioned the former speaker ripping up the speech of President Trump during his first term and what his last address to Congress at his State of the Union. Manu Raju of CNN caught up with the former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who recalled tearing up President Donald Trump's speech in 2020 after a State of the Union Address. She told him, "Hopefully, he won't lie so much this time. It was a manifesto of lies," as I said at the time. **There's a quote from the former speaker ahead of tonight's speech by President Trump, his first of his second term. You were talking about do these speeches make a difference? Let's take a look at where the polls stand right now for the president, his favorability numbers. These are being tracked by YouGov and The Economist since the beginning of the second administration. You can see at the end of January, he was above water, plus two. In the first week of February, he evened out, and then his favorability and unfavorability numbers shown there—you can see the favorables start to drop mid-February. In the last week of February, his unfavorable number at 47% to 50% for his favorable. Then take a look at 538 and their average of the president Trump's approval rating: 48% approve, 47% disapprove. His unfavorables, according to the average by 538, at 48.2% and his favorables at...** **at 46.5%. Now, when you break this down by agenda items, the White House is keen to point you to a Harvard Harris poll that was done recently, and this is what they found: support among voters for deporting immigrants with a criminal history is 81%. According to this poll, 76% at the time that this Harvard Harris poll was taken said that they would approve the Doge cost-cutting efforts. Additionally, 76% support closing the U.S.-Mexico border, 69% support banning trans athletes from girls' sports, and only about 39% are in support of renaming the Gulf of America to the Gulf of Mexico. Then, Reuters had a recent poll that we want to share with you ahead of tonight's address by the president. The Reuters Ipsos poll asked about the wrong track, and they found that 44% said that we are going on the wrong track for employment and jobs, 53% said for the national economy, and 64% said on the cost of living.** **Peter, well, the Senate is getting ready to come over to the House. This is a live picture of the U.S. Senate. Lindsey Graham is there on your screen, talking with Rand Paul and a couple of other members. This is the Democratic side of the aisle now, and there's Rand Paul down there on the far right. It looks like Peter Welch, the gray-haired gentleman with the glasses, is talking to a couple of members. There's Josh Hawley up in the far left corner, a Republican from Missouri, and Shelley Moore Capito, the woman in that picture.** **Jasmine Wright, Jason Dick, how much time do you all spend up on Capitol Hill or with these members?** **John Thune, the majority leader, is of course right there up at the top with Tom Cotton and Mark Wayne Mullen, a real ally to President Trump who was responsible, at least in part, for getting a lot of cabinet members through, kind of pulling them, counseling them, walking with them through the offices. I actually don't spend that much time on the Hill; I'm usually at the White House. But when I do stories, I kind of go there day-to-day; you know, it's a quick way to get quotes. I think what's really interesting, to your point, is how much of the makeup of both the Senate and the House has changed over the last eight years and how much it is Donald Trump's party. I mean, you can kind of look at that group. Obviously, Elizabeth Warren is not included in this comment or this section about how many people are real advocates of President Trump in a way that the Senate just certainly wasn't during Trump's first term. In a lot of ways, it was not just Democrats who were objecting to what Trump wanted to do in office, but it was his own party. They kind of found him a little bit unserious; they didn't seem to like him very much. And so that is completely different. These are people who really like Trump, who like what he's doing, and who ultimately know that the American public that voted for Trump is with Trump and not necessarily with them.** **And Jason Dick, often the Senators line up D and R together and walk over. Not sure they're going to do that this time; they very well may, but it's 53-47. And as Jasmine was saying, they support President Trump. He has had a good run on his presidential cabinet; he's gotten everybody through, only one cabinet position still to be filled, and that's labor to be voted on. But besides the Matt Gaetz thing, he's had a pretty good run.** **Yes, I mean, it does bring to mind the cliché about Democrats and Republicans: that Democrats have to fall in love and Republicans have to fall in line. And Republicans have definitely fallen in line. You mentioned Jasmine Mark Wayne Mullen; he really is—it's almost like he's playing to type. This is a guy who's a martial artist and likes to be known as sort of a tough guy, and he has been kind of one of the big enforcers for the Trump Administration in a way where he's actually still working with his colleagues. You don't hear a lot of negative things about Mark Wayne Mullen. He's in Trump's kitchen cabinet; he doesn't have a formal leadership position, but he is somebody who has a lot of respect in a very short period of time in the Senate. And yes, this is definitely, you know, we're looking at the Senate floor right now. Janes Ernst, you know, she questioned whether Pete Hegseth was the right person to run the Defense Department and just got sort of overwhelmed by reaction to Trump's allies, both inside that building and outside it, and quickly got in line.** **And outside the White House, there is some activity. It looks like the Trumps will be coming out to the limousine shortly, and obviously, we will bring you that. And if the president speaks to the press while he is there, we will certainly listen in on that. There's one third location we want to show you; this is live from Statuary Hall. This is where all the reporters gather and where everybody will march through as they get ready to come into the House chamber. We expect the House lights to come on very shortly and for Speaker Mike Johnson to call the House to order. That's due to start at any point here.** **Jason Dick, have you ever spent time up in Statuary Hall during a State of the Union or a joint address?** **Yes, both on the floor, and there's also this little catwalk above the top stat camera there too. It's a great sort of bird's-eye view. I'm sorry to mix metaphors there, but it's a really great spot. You know, there's a lot of camaraderie in the press.** **In Statuary Hall, in that little catwalk, is among my favorite spots. Now, Jasmine Wright, you say you spend most of your time at the White House. Do you have access to a booth there at the White House?** **We don't have a booth because we are a new organization with Notice, but we are part of the White House Correspondents Association. I spend a lot of time at the White House; I was just out there at the South Lawn on Friday when Trump left for Mar-a-Lago, his West Palm Beach hotel location, right after that blow-up with Zelensky. I mean, it's quite a privilege to be able to walk the White House grounds and be able to report, particularly at a time like this where you just don't know what's happening.** **How often does the president stop and talk with you all out there on the South Lawn?** **Oh, I've actually done four departures. He usually leaves at this point; it's only been a couple of weeks, but you know, almost every weekend. And there's only been one time that I've been out there that he didn't stop to talk. He is chatty; he likes to talk; he likes to give his point of view. I find it actually to be so helpful that he is talking so often because I think one difference between the Biden Administration and this Administration is that you had to talk to a lot of people around Biden to get Biden's point of view, whereas Trump will give it to you straight away. It's typically the most unfiltered version; it's typically the most straightforward version of what he's thinking at any moment.** **Oh, there he goes! The First Lady is in the car. Let's see if he—let's just listen for a minute. No stopping. I mean, from what I've heard from folks around him, he's really taking this speech seriously. He's really been involved with the framing of it. I think when he's talked to reporters yesterday, he didn't want to get into the details when he was asked about the Ukraine rare minerals deal. He said, "I'll get to that in my speech." So he doesn't really want to talk about what he's going to say; I think he really wants it to be a surprise. And I think that has followed from his staff as well. They said that there are going to be surprises in the speech. I didn't, by the time I sat down, have a transcript, and the press pool has not been given a transcript yet.** **Back into the Senate, there's Tim Scott in the center with Shelley Moore Capito. They're lining up; the Senators are lining up. It will take them all of two and a half minutes to get from that location over to Statuary Hall. We will see them then come through right through here. We're going to see the president's cabinet as well, the Supreme Court, the Joint Chiefs, and we expect the lights to go on in the House very shortly. We can see the members in there, and we will go live to that. Jason Dick, how would you—I'm not sure how to ask this question—how would you describe the relationship between Mike Johnson and President Trump and Mike Johnson and the 218 Republican members of Congress?** **Yeah, that is a good question. I mean, I do think that, on a very simple level, Mike Johnson is there to help implement the president's agenda, and he's made no bones about that. How he gets that does account for some of the interesting relationships he has with his members. He's had to navigate a very small majority; he has two members who have two vacancies—two Florida members, Matt Gaetz and Michael Waltz—and won't get those replaced until April at a minimum. So, you know, he has his lieutenants like a lot of speakers do. But the thing is that the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, for that matter, are more homogeneous in their beliefs than they have been in almost any part. They very much vote together, even if there are some defectors.** **Is that easier to do in the opposition?** **It's certainly easier to do in the opposition, and I would argue that it actually gets easier when you have a margin like Johnson has right now, where, you know, when Pete Heth was confirmed, he lost three Republicans. Nobody wanted to be the fourth Republican who would sink the nomination. So there's a lot of pressure when the margins are very close. You can see Vice President Vance is joining the Senate to walk over. It becomes, you know, there are some very dark choices, like where you mentioned when you were talking with Mr. Clark earlier that they have a funding deadline in a few days—in a little over a week. If the Democrats don't play ball in the House, then that puts a lot of pressure on all the Republicans. Do they want to be the person who is going to be saddled with the blame for a government shutdown? The dynamic is a little different in the Senate because they do have the filibuster on appropriation bills. The March 14th budget resolution process, where the tax cuts will be, is a different process, and we're going to get to that in a few months. It seems like eons, you know, that we have. But I do think that you never want to be the one person who gets singled out as the person who sunk the president's agenda in these tight situations. The minority can just say, "We're not in the minority; we're not the majority; you have to do it on your own."** **There's one senator who is not present in the Senate chamber, and that would be Senator Alyssa Slotkin, a Democrat from Michigan. She is giving the response tonight from Michigan. What can you tell us about freshman Senator Slotkin?** **Yeah, well, I mean, it's a big job for her; it's a big perch; it comes with a big spotlight. I saw that she posted a photo earlier today, you know, black and white, as she's preparing for her speech. But I think that should this go well, she's in a good position to be at least one of the people who are leading the Democratic Party at a time where the Democratic Party is lacking a real singular leader. I think that one of the reasons or a couple of reasons why they chose Senator Slotkin is because she won a state in which Kamala Harris didn't during the same time frame, by several points. It is because she is from the Midwest, and people believe that she appeals to American voters in a way that they think the Democratic message was lacking this election. She is somebody who comes from a national security background, so she can talk about that from a firsthand point of view. People believe that she's more down-to-earth. I think the other really interesting thing about Senator Slotkin is that she was actually among some of the Democrats to pretty early question the viability of Joe Biden, question whether or not he should be the party leader, whether or not he should be on the ticket in a way that other folks didn't. So I think that she has a big platform today, and time will only tell whether or not she delivers or whether or not people like her message. But certainly, this is an area for Democrats in which they don't have a real leader.** **Yeah, we just saw the Senate leave the chamber; they are out of session now, and this is live in Statuary Hall. As you can see, it did not take long for the Senate to make its way over to Statuary Hall. JD Vance is leading the charge of Senators. I just also wanted to piggyback a little bit on what Jasmine was saying about Senator Slotkin. She was first elected in 2018 as part of this, you know, kind of National Security Democratic moms group with people like Abigail Spanberger, who left Congress and is now running for governor, and Mikey Cheryl, who's a combat pilot, is also running for governor of New Jersey. Right, and so they are all Democrats, all women, all national security backgrounds, all moms. They are very much like dream candidates, and they were part of that big wave when the Democrats reclaimed the majority in 2018. I think that what Democratic operatives are looking for is more of the same if they can tap into that imagery and their expertise.** **Well, it looks like there, like Angus King, the gentleman with the mustache, is right behind him. Rand Paul is walking in with the senator from Washington State and Maggie Hassan from New Hampshire. So it does look like they are doing the D and R thing like they have done in the past here. So it is, you know, I would love to see some of these dynamics as you get down to the last bit. You know, it's almost like being picked last for a basketball game. Some people are naturally very compatible, and then sometimes you get stuck with somebody who you can't imagine ever wanting to take a photo with.** **Yeah, you're like, "Please don't film me." I mean, it's interesting; we just saw Katie Britt, Senator from Alabama, pass by. She obviously gave the rebuttal last year, and that was frankly not a great moment for her. I think that people did not receive it well; it felt a little bit odd, her speaking the way that she was during it.** **And if you could just hold that thought for two seconds, Jasmine Wright, let's listen to Speaker Johnson. You can see the two Senate leaders there, John Thune and Chuck Schumer, just snuck by. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Democrat, JD Vance, the Vice President is in that mix; he's shaking people's hands on the side. John Barrasso, who is in the leadership for the Republicans, Dick Durbin, 80 years old, in the leadership there—the gentleman in the gray hair in the back and the blue shirt—was just reelected in 2020, and so he will be up in 2026 if he runs again. And there's JD Vance. Jason Dick, you have been covering these types of speeches. What time do they get down there? The late Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas, was famous for always being on the aisle regardless of presidents. I'd love to see that collection of photos, but how long does it take if you're going to get on the aisle here to greet the president and everybody else?** **Sometimes they get there very early—sometimes four or five hours, or as soon as the security sweep is over. It is a first-come, first-served situation. It's a little nerve-wracking to be that, but they want to position themselves, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, like they like those like cor. There's Nancy Mace in the white dress, talking to JD Vance. Yeah, they sometimes—I mean, it was a little lonely. I mean, some of the other people who come to mind who have gotten there very early: Lee Engel, a former member, former Democrat from New York; Cynthia McKinney, a Democrat from Georgia. You'd hear about also just like small little bits of bonding, you know, sometimes for people who wouldn't necessarily spend a lot of time together, particularly Democrats and Republicans from different parts of the country and so forth. It is one of those quirky kind of rituals that makes covering Congress a lot of fun to know about. You know, these sort of things. We've got some old photos in the Roll Call archive of people bringing newspapers, just reading them all day long, waiting for the president and people to start filling in. And you can see the Joint Chiefs have come in. There's Senator Scott behind JD Vance, Byron Donalds, running for governor of Florida as a Republican, a big Trump supporter on the campaign. There's Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, who has been a supporter and been, you know, sometimes a little bit of an iconic figure.** **Yes, there we go! That's a nice former staffer for Ted Cruz. Jasmine Wright, you were talking about Senator Katie Britt last year, up to that rebuttal. She was chosen because she was seen as a rising star and potential VP pick.** **Yeah, she was seen as a rising star; she was seen as someone who had a great future ahead of her. I would argue that she is still really in the mix. She is one of the White House's most used Senators, most talked-to Senators on the Hill. So, you know, I think that these rebuttals go poorly—obviously, it's some bad PR, but it doesn't completely derail your entire career. But certainly, I think after hers, there were a lot of questions about whether or not she would be a good person.** **Do you see a lot of members, by the way? We have been simulcasting on C-SPAN and C-SPAN 2. Now we're going to say goodbye to our C-SPAN 2 viewers, and that will be completely sights and sounds. So if you want just sights and sounds, stay with C-SPAN 2. If you want to continue listening to our program, we'd love to have you stay with us. Jasmine Wright of Notice, Jason Dick of Roll Call will be here along with Greta Broner, of course. So I didn't mean to interrupt you; say goodbye.** **Yeah, no, I think that they, you know, people question whether or not she'd be a good person to be Trump's number two, but still, she has a very big role in the Senate and is well-utilized, I think, by the White House. There, see who's in the chamber there, or up in the gallery, I should say. That was Elon Musk who has now arrived, and we should be seeing Usha Vance, Second Lady, and Trump shortly arriving in there as well.** **Yeah, I have a sneaking suspicion that we are going to see a lot of Elon Musk throughout this speech as he sits next to Melania and next to the Second Lady up in the gallery. Is that Tom Homan? That is Tom Homan. Yeah. Do you see him at the White House from time to time?** **Yes, he gaggles twice with reporters there. He often goes out to Pebble Beach along the cameras next to the White House that are typically out of the screen when they're doing things on the North Portico to go do TV hits with various different networks and comes and talks to the press. He is very press-friendly and very open to talking about the latest numbers that they've been able to accumulate through deportations, the fact that they would like more money from Congress to continue to do those widescale deportations—something that we know that Trump is going to ask Congress for again today, really trying not just to get money for deportations but to get money for a larger border security package.** **There's Mark Warner, John Boehner, Newton, Calista Gingrich, former Speaker, is up in the chamber or up in the gallery as well. Yeah, it's—and you can see that we have extra cameras on the floor of the House. When we have shots like this, usually the House of Representatives controls the cameras, but on special occasions, they give the press pool, the C-SPANs, the CNNs, etc., like multiple speaker votes, for instance. Yes, we had several extra cameras, and of course, there's Speaker Pelosi. It looks like a Ukraine-colored flag or scarf in her hand, and Steny Hoyer with a Ukraine-designed tie, the former leaders of the House.** **House Democrats: John Bozeman is right there in the center of your screen. He is a Republican from Arkansas working his way down. There's Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, former governor of Virginia, right behind him. Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts. The Senate still has not gotten seated; we've been watching them come down the aisle for quite a while. Hakeem Jeffries and Debbie Dingell—Debbie Dingell's husband, John Dingell, the late John Dingell, was a dean of the House from Dearborn, Michigan, for years and years. Now she's been in Congress for years, and of course, Hakeem Jeffries is the leader of the Democratic Party.** **Jasmine Wright, do you see a lot of members coming through at the White House?** You actually do sometimes. They particularly, in the first few weeks, would come into the press briefing after an unannounced meeting with the president because, you know, I hadn't been here in four years; I wasn't invited the entire time that Joe Biden was in office. They were really excited to be back in the Oval Office, frankly, to be back in power. I think the president has been really adamant about having these members of Congress come over to the White House. It's one of the biggest tools that the president can use—not just the power of the pulpit there, but really bringing lawmakers on Air Force One, bringing them into the Oval, allowing them into the grandness of the White House so that, in turn, they can give you kind of this legislative freedom to do what you will and to make your agenda become a reality. **And so I think that is what Donald Trump is using. But we know tomorrow the House Freedom Caucus, Chip Roy—we saw him a few moments ago—they will be going to the White House as Trump tries to pull them along. Lindsay Graham, who we see on the screen right now, was at the White House on Friday. He came out to the sticks to talk to reporters after the Zelensky blow-up and, you know, kind of started at least publicly rolling the tires on whether or not there should be a regime change in Ukraine. Obviously, that language has softened in the last really like three hours.** **I believe that's Lisa Murkowski coming up on the screen. Is that—looks like—is that Senator Smith in front of her? Yes, Smith and Tina Smith and Catherine Cortez Masto. He was with Ben Ray Lujan from New Mexico. Lisa Murkowski has been somebody who, you know, moves to the—should we go with his word—iconoclastic? Yes. Is that Cash Patel, FBI Director Cash Patel down there? He's in the gallery, it looks. He’s up in the gallery. There's Ivanka; that was Ivanka, I believe. Was that Ivanka? Yeah, I think that was. All right, and there's Mrs. Vance. Yep. And you can see the Vice President and the Speaker waiting for everything to happen. Just looking at the schedule that we were given ahead of time, it looks like they are running just a few minutes late, but all is well. And that's Tiffany; there's Tiffany Trump, I believe, right behind her. Yeah, the whole family is up there.** **Hey, let's check in with Greta Broner. Hi, Greta.** Peter, you've pointed out a couple of members of the president's cabinet tonight. One you will not see is the Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins. He is the designated survivor tonight, per the White House official by CNN's Caitlyn Collins reporting that the designated survivor skips out on these joint addresses, the State of the Unions, in case of a catastrophic event. And so tonight, it is the VA Secretary Doug Collins who will not be in the chamber. And then you were talking about those folks that line up on the center aisle. Billy House of Bloomberg noting that the great center aisle seat claimers of the past—Elliot Engel, the late Sheila Jackson Lee, Michelle Bachmann—they're not there tonight, but a new group has appeared to be already getting in place. This was hours ago, at 4 PM Eastern time; they were getting in place along the center aisle, and that included Representative Anna Paulina Luna, Republican of Florida, other Republicans Andy Ogles of Kentucky, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Congresswoman Miller-Meeks of Iowa—all lining up on the Republican side on the center aisle hours before the speech in hopes that they get to shake the president's hand when he comes down the aisle. **Jason Dick, has this become more of a blown-up event than it used to be, or has this always been a lot of, you know, razzmatazz?** I think that it depends on how far back you want to go. I mean, Lyndon Johnson in 1966 moved the speech from the mid-afternoon to the evening in order to catch a better audience, and that was 1966. He saw that television helped his predecessor, John F. Kennedy, get elected, and he wanted the committee on the part of the House to escort the president of the United States into the chamber. **The following gentlemen from Louisiana, Mr. Scalise; the gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. Emmer; the gentlewoman from Michigan, Mrs. Dingell; the gentleman from North Carolina, Mr. Hudson; the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. Ren Thaler; the gentleman from Utah, Mr. Moore; the gentlewoman from Indiana, Mrs. Houchin; the gentleman from Oklahoma, Mr. Hearn; the gentleman from New York, Mr. Jeff; the gentlewoman from Massachusetts, Miss Clark; the gentleman from California, Mr. Aguilar; the gentleman from California, Mr. Lou; the gentleman from Colorado, Mr. Nuss; the gentlewoman from Washington, Miss DelB; the gentlewoman from Michigan, Mrs. Dingell. The president of the Senate, at the direction of that body, appoints the following Senators as members of the committee on the part of the Senate to escort the president of the United States into the House chamber: the senator from South Dakota, Mr. Thune; the senator from Wyoming, Mr. Barrasso; the senator from Arkansas, Mr. Cotton; the senator from Oklahoma, Mr. Lankford; the senator from West Virginia, Mrs. Capito; the senator from South Carolina, Mr. Scott; the senator from New York, Mr. Schumer; the senator from Illinois, Mr. Durbin; the senator from Minnesota, Miss Klobuchar; the senator from New Jersey, Mr. Booker; the senator from Wisconsin, Miss Baldwin. The members of the escort committee will exit the chamber through the lobby doors.** **Speaker: The Dean of the Diplomatic Corps. Jan, my wife loves this gray suit; I hate it. I wear it. I'm a blur. And we're about 5 to 10 minutes away from the president entering the chamber and beginning his speech.** **Jasmine Wright, Jason Dick, we've been watching this, chatting amongst ourselves. Is there anything that we can share that we were talking about?** I think one thing that I'm noticing is a difference between the way that former Vice President Harris and Speaker Mike Johnson were talking last year versus now. I mean, it's so much more jovial with Vice President Vance and Speaker Johnson than it was. It's so much more kind of homey; these people know each other, and they're kind of on the same side. It's just interesting to watch the differences, you know, just a year. **Would you call Harris and Johnson formal?** That's great. Well, Jason Dick, we were just watching the Supreme Court come in. We saw Justice Roberts, Kavanaugh, Barrett, and we did not see Justices Brown Jackson, Sotomayor, Alito, Gorsuch, or Thomas. We did see Anthony Kennedy, retired Justice Anthony Kennedy. Does that tell you anything? I mean, Justice Alito has been skipping this for quite a few years after, you know, sort of some of his motions and kind of mouthings caught the cameras during one of Barack Obama's addresses. Thomas has also skipped quite a few lately. It's not surprising to me because I do think that some people feel like they don't have to be there; they've done this before. A lot of them have done this before, even for people who are relatively new. But you don't see this necessarily as a protest by two of the Democratic-appointed justices, Brown Jackson and Sotomayor. It could be. You can see Justice Roberts. **Yeah, I mean, the Supreme Court is a very tight group. They spend a lot of time around one another. Whether or not it's a protest or whether it's just— I think I want to just, you know, catch some black docs on Netflix. Might back that too. I had a reservation; I couldn't miss right at the local earring. Yeah, it is Mardi Gras, you know, maybe they're a deline in downtown.** **Yeah, Jasmine Wright, when we were talking, you were talking about JD Vance and Mike Johnson, and I asked the question before we got interrupted, which was, would you consider the Harris-Johnson relationship formal?** Yeah, I mean, I'm not even sure I would call it a relationship. Those were two people that didn't really know each other, that didn't really talk. It was these moments in which they kind of interfaced a lot more after Johnson became Speaker, and obviously, the Vice President was on her fourth year of being the Vice President. I believe that Johnson was asked later on in an interview what they talked about, and he said, you know, we made niceties; we didn't talk about politics. We talked about things that two people, two humans, talk about. I’m not sure that that is the case right now. JD Vance and Johnson, I think that they're talking pretty frequently. JD Vance was at the Capitol earlier today for a confirmation hearing for one of the people nominated to join the FBI, one of his longtime friends. So I think that they're continuously having conversations in a way that Johnson wasn't having with the previous administration. **We have about a minute and a half before William McFarland, the House Sergeant-at-Arms, is scheduled to announce Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States, etc. What are you listening for in tonight's speech, Jason Dick?** Mainly about the border. I think that there is going to be a lot of discussion about immigration and the border. Trump has always felt that this is the winning issue for him, and I think that it's going to be a big part of things. **Jasmine Wright?** The economy. I mean, this tariffs move that happened, you know, overnight into today—obviously, there's some thinking that maybe they would, you know, pull back the tariffs or bring it down to a lower percentage. But people are concerned about the economy. They're giving Trump some more time, but people are concerned, so I want to hear how he not just blames the Biden administration but how he talks about it moving forward. **Well, late tonight or later tonight, Howard Lutnick, the new Commerce Secretary, made a statement.** Yeah, he said that they had been on the phone with both their Mexican and Canadian counterparts trying to make a deal and that President Trump may announce, if not here, maybe tomorrow, that they are pulling back some of the tariffs—not completely letting them go, but certainly pulling them back as long as these countries say and then become more forceful on issues like fentanyl, on issues that the reason why these tariffs are put in place. But I think the reality is that Trump saw the stock markets. He is somebody who follows the stock markets quite religiously, and they were going back and forth, really kind of freaking out negatively about these tariffs. So I don't think that the White House will be able to say quite credibly that that wasn't the reason or that wasn't a reason as to why they're kind of saying we're going to pull these back. But certainly, only time will tell what percentage that is, how much that is, and whether or not they still do reciprocal tariffs on April 2nd. **Nidia Vasquez, a Democrat from New York, talking with Nancy Pelosi there—both long-term members. I apologize for not recognizing that face. There are 62 new members of Congress; nearly 20% of Congress is new, and so that's a lot of new members. And I'm not quite sure who that one was. I think we've had a pretty good batting record—80%. Oh, I think more than that. And Melania Trump, who was on Capitol yesterday as well. Was that a surprise to you down at the White House that she came down?** I mean, I think those were her first public remarks since Donald Trump took office. There were some questions about how much she would be in Washington, how frequently she'd be around. But I think that there's a real shift in energy, not just from the president but also from her office, trying to do things much differently this time around. **Mr. Speaker, the President's cabinet.** That's true; I should have done. And now the cabinet is coming in: Secretary of State Rubio, Secretary of the Treasury Bent—we saw there as well—Attorney General Pam Bondi, Pete Heth was there, Mr. Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, who we talked about a little bit earlier, RFK Jr. of course, HHS. There's Scott Turner, HUD. There's Seth Duffy. I'm so sorry, Shawn Duffy, Transportation. There's Senator Adam Schiff sitting with a senator from—yep, the new senator from Delaware, Lisa Blunt Rochester. We had Carol from Illinois, Carol Mosley Braun. We have Angela also Brooks, Maryland. Harris was the second Harris, of course, and then Lisa Rochester interchangeably—three or two. And there's Chrisye Noome, who he is talking there with the—Is that the congressman from New Jersey, Jeff? That's Tim Burchett from Tennessee. There we go. Is that Brook Rollins, the secretary? It is sort of odd to have something like this with—I mean, there's so much we're paying attention to the fashion because of, like, some of the protests and so forth, having just done the Oscars two nights ago. It's not quite as glamorous. Not quite the same. Not quite the same, but it is—there is a lot more power. **I would simply say, Jason Dick, that nobody in the world cares what you or I are wearing. Last year, Joe Biden took at least a half hour to get out of the chamber. It was a moment for him politically that boosted him. Yeah, that got rid of some of the rumors of mental decline, etc., and he worked that room for a half an hour. It's one of the most, in a sense, iconic things I've ever seen in politics. Do we expect President Trump to do the same?** I don't know. I don't know if he likes to chat. I don't know if President Trump will be there as long. I mean, in that span, Joe Biden had like two hot mic moments that went viral. I mean, he was there for forever. I don't know if you expect President Trump to be there for that long, but the reality is that, as I've talked to people close to him, he is enjoying this moment. He's happy to be back in the White House; he's happy to have a party that responds to him, that respects him. And he's happy, you know, back to being the center of everything. So I think you're going to see him show that happiness, shaking hands with his friends, shaking hands potentially with people who don't like him very much—Democrats, you know, kind of pushing them to say something. Potentially, he's kind of reveling in this moment that he has now that he's back in the White House. And so I think he is going to be there a long time. Whether or not he's there as long as Joe Biden, I think only time will tell because Joe Biden—I mean, I remember being there, covering it last year and being like, "Dang, can you leave? I'm trying to go home." So it did have an end-of-the-night, high school reunion type of feel—like, "Wrap it up, Joe." We'll see what Donald Trump does. **Yeah, I would guess too that, like, some of that is there's a little bit of wistfulness, you know, like that Biden, you know, was running for re-election. But, you know, who knows what kind of doubts he may have had about his own path? That this is like a beginning as opposed to sort of an end, even if it seems like we've been in this loop for a while.** **Yeah, you can see that the cabinet is still not completely seated, and they're not going to bring him in while there are still people in the aisles. But he is nearby; he's in the holding room next to the chamber and should be coming in shortly. Just want to remind our viewers, obviously, we're going to shut up as soon as the president gets in there. We're going to listen to everything that happens; we'll watch the president leave the room—all without us. There's Tulsi Gabbard, of course, talking with Chip Roy.** **Kelly? Yeah, that's right, former senator from Georgia. RFK—I haven't seen RFK Jr. talk to a lot of people. I don't know if that's a—I saw him talk to Jeff Andrew, and I wonder if it was a conversation about fluoride. Who knows? Guess Jeff Andrew is a dentist. Is he really? Did not know that. Did not know that. Yeah, I mean, RFK is, you know, having quite the moment right now too with this measles outbreak, kind of going back and forth between whether or not he should be promoting vaccines, whether or not he should be promoting, you know, more homeopathic remedies that aren't necessarily shown to have, you know, much weight against a measles outbreak. I would be interested to see if Donald Trump brings that up. I'd be a little shocked if he does. But again, the entire speech, of course, and the Democratic response—Senator Alyssa Slotkin, freshman Democrat from Michigan, will be speaking from Michigan, and we will bring to you live, of course. And as always, after all that, we're going to get your reaction. Greta is going to be here getting reaction from members and some of the play out from the speech, etc. And before the president comes in, let's check in one more time with a quick excerpt from the president's speech tonight on tariffs. You guys were talking about that and the impact of it on the economy. This is from Jake Sherman: "Whatever they tariff us, we tariff them. Whatever they tax us, we tax them. And if they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market." So you can expect to hear some tough talk from the president tonight on that. That is ahead of the markets closing tonight. CNBC with this headline: "Dow tumbles again, loses more than 1300 points in two days as Trump ignites trade war."** **Peter, as you mentioned, you were talking exactly about that. Yeah, I mean, it is going to be incumbent upon the president to have the American people understand why he's putting in place these tariffs that, in a lot of ways, have a negative connotation even amongst people within his own party. They're not necessarily one of those quote-unquote conservative values. It's something that even as lawmakers publicly say we are okay with giving Trump the latitude on tariffs, certainly privately they're concerned about them. They don't like them. And so I think that he's going to have to explain why. Of course, he says that tariffs are his fourth favorite word in the dictionary; it used to be his first. I would be surprised if he does not repeat that again in an ad-lib. But yeah, I think that tariffs are going to be a large part of this. For viewers who are seeing a State of the Union or a joint session for the first time on your screen, the Republicans will be on the left and the Democrats will be on the right. So you can always tell what the applause lines are by which side stands up, and it gets pretty stark at times, doesn't it?** **It absolutely does. And I mean, another thing that I'm looking for, in addition to, you know, just some of the policy notes that we're looking at, is just how the Democrats are going to approach things that they feel are a winner for them. You know, whether it's something—if Trump does talk about tariffs and he does talk about how great they are, we're seeing, again, mention Jasmine, the market does not like them. The Wall Street Journal editorial page doesn't like them. This is, you know, kind of across the board, and the economy, over and over again, came up as the number one issue. People are worried about it, but he's also going to go for some base issues, you know, like transgender issues. How is that going to be received?** **Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States!** **Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It's a great honor. Thank you very much, Speaker Johnson, Vice President Vance, the First Lady of the United States, members of the United States Congress. Thank you very much. And to my fellow citizens, America is back!** **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. We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplish in four years or eight years, and we are just getting started.** **I returned to this chamber tonight to report that 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. The American dream is unstoppable, and our country is on the verge of a comeback the likes of which the world has never witnessed and perhaps will never witness again. There has never been anything like it.** **The presidential election of November 5th was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades. We won all seven swing states, giving us an electoral college victory of 312 votes. We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country 2,700 to 525 on a map that reads almost completely red for Republicans. Now, for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction. In fact, it's an astonishing record 27-point swing—the most ever. Likewise, small business optimism saw its single largest one-month gain ever recorded—a 410 jump.** **Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House and to cease any further disruptions. That's your warning. Members are engaging in willful and continuing breach of the quorum, and the chair is prepared to direct the sergeant-at-arms to restore order to the Joint session. Mr. Green, take your seat. Take your seat, sir. Take your seat. Finding that members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum, the chair now directs the sergeant-at-arms to restore order and remove this gentleman from the chamber. Members are directed to uphold and maintain the quorum in the House. Mr. President, you continue.** **Thank you. 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. The people elected me to do the job, and I'm doing it. In fact, it has been stated by many that the first month of our presidency is the most successful in the history of our nation. By many. And what makes it even more impressive is that you know who number two is? George Washington! How about that? How about that? I don't know about that list, but we'll take it.** **Within hours of taking the oath of office, I declared a national emergency on our southern border and deployed the U.S. military and border patrol to repel the invasion of our country. And what a job they've done! As a result, illegal border crossings last month were by far the lowest ever recorded—ever! They heard my words, and they chose not to come. Much easier that way. 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. Who would want to do that?** **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. Nothing I can do. I could find a cure to the most devastating disease—a disease that would wipe out an entire nation—or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded, and 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. So, 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. Together, and let's truly make America great again!** **Every day, my administration is fighting to deliver the change America needs to bring a future that America deserves, and we're doing it. This is a time for big dreams and bold action. Upon taking office, I imposed an immediate freeze on all federal hiring, a freeze on all new federal regulations, and a freeze on all foreign aid. I terminated the ridiculous Green New Deal. I withdrew from the unfair Paris Climate Accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars that other countries were not paying. I withdrew from the corrupt World Health Organization, and I also withdrew from the anti-American UN Human Rights Council. We ended all of Biden's environmental restrictions that were making our country far less safe and totally unaffordable. And importantly, we ended the last administration's insane electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto workers and companies from economic destruction.** **To unshackle our economy, I have directed that for every one new regulation, ten old regulations must be eliminated, just like I did in my very successful first term. And in that first term, we set records on ending unnecessary rules and regulations like no other president had done before. We ordered all federal workers to return to the office. They will either show up for work in person or be removed from their job. And we have ended weaponized government, where, as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent—like me. How did that work out? Not too good. Not too good. And I have stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America. It's back! And two days ago, I signed an order making English the official language of the United States of America. I renamed the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America, and likewise, I renamed for a great president, William McKinley, Mount McKinley again. Beautiful Alaska! We love Alaska!** **We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector. And our military and our country will be woke no longer. We believe that whether you are a doctor, an accountant, a lawyer, or an air traffic controller, you should be hired and promoted based on skill and competence, not race or gender. Very important! You should be hired based on merit, and the Supreme Court, in a brave and very powerful decision, has allowed us to do so. Thank you! Thank you very much! Thank you!** **We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools, and I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female. I also signed an executive order to ban men from playing in women's sports. Three years ago, Payton McNab was an Allar High School athlete, one of the best, preparing for a future in college sports. But when her girls' volleyball match was invaded by a male, he smashed the ball so hard in Payton's face, causing traumatic brain injury, partially paralyzing her right side and ending her athletic career. It was a shot like she's never seen before. She's never seen anything like it. Payton is here tonight in the gallery. And from now on, schools will kick the men off the girls' team, or they will lose all federal funding. And if you really want to see numbers, just take a look at what happened in women's boxing, weightlifting, track and field, swimming, or cycling, where a male recently finished a long-distance race five hours and 14 minutes ahead of a woman for a new record—by five hours! Broke the record by five hours! It's demeaning for women, and it's very bad for our country. We're not going to put up with it any longer.** **What I have just described is only a small fraction of the Common Sense Revolution that is now, because of us, sweeping the entire world. Common sense has become a common theme, and we will never go back. Never! Never going to let that happen! Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families. As you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare. Their policy drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs, and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans. They've never had anything like it. We suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in the history of our country. They're not sure. As president, I'm fighting every day to reverse this damage and make America affordable again. Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control. The egg price is out of control, and we're working hard to get it back down. Secretary, do a good job on that! You inherited a total mess from the previous administration. Do a good job!** **A major focus of our fight to defeat inflation is rapidly reducing the cost of energy. The previous administration cut the number of new oil and gas leases by 95%, slowed pipeline construction to a halt, and closed more than 100 power plants. We are opening up many of those power plants right now, and frankly, we have never seen anything like it. That's why, on my first day in office, I declared a national energy emergency. As you've heard me say many times, we have more liquid gold under our feet than any nation on Earth, and by far! And now, I fully authorize the most talented team ever assembled to go and get it. It's called "Drill, baby, drill!"** **My administration is also working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska, among the largest in the world, where Japan, South Korea, and other nations want to be our partner with investments of trillions of dollars each. There's never been anything like that one. It will be truly spectacular. It's all set to go. The permitting has gotten done. And later this week, I will also take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA. To further combat inflation, we will not only be reducing the cost of energy, but we will be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars. And to that end, I have created the brand new Department of Government Efficiency. Perhaps you've heard of it? Perhaps? Which is headed by Elon Musk, who is in the gallery tonight. Thank you, Elon! He's working very hard. He didn't need this; he didn't need this. Thank you very much! We appreciate it. Everybody here, even this side, appreciates it. I believe they just don't want to admit that.** **Just listen to some of the appalling waste we have already identified: $22 billion from HHS to provide free housing and cars for illegal aliens; $45 million for diversity, equity, and inclusion scholarships in Burma; $40 million to improve the social and economic inclusion of sedentary migrants—nobody knows what that is; $8 million to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Luto, which nobody has ever heard of; $60 million for indigenous peoples and Afro-Colombian empowerment in Central America; $60 million; $8 million for making mice transgender—this is real; $32 million for a left-wing propaganda operation in Mova; $10 million for male circumcision in Mozambique; $20 million for the Arab Sesame Street in the Middle East—it's a program; $20 million for a program; $1.9 billion to a recently created decarbonization of homes committee headed up—and we know she's involved—just at the last moment, the money was passed over by a woman named Stacey Abrams. Have you ever heard of her? $3.5 million consulting contract for lavish fish monitoring; $1.5 million for voter confidence in Liberia; $14 million for social cohesion in Mali; $59 million for illegal alien hotel rooms in New York City—he's a real estate developer; he's done very well; $250,000 to increase vegan local climate action innovation in Zambia; $42 million for social and behavior change in Uganda; $14 million for improving public procurement in Serbia; $47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia—Asia is doing very well with learning; don't know what we're doing; should use it ourselves; $11 million for DEI contracts at the Department of Education—the most ever paid; nothing even like it under the Trump Administration. All of these scams—and there are far worse, but I didn't think it was appropriate to talk about them; they're so bad. Many more have been found out and exposed and swiftly terminated by a group of very intelligent, mostly young people headed up by Elon, and we appreciate it. 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, taking back a lot of that money. We got it just in time. This is just the beginning. The Government Accountability Office, a federal government office, has estimated annual fraud of over $500 billion in our nation, and we are working very hard to stop it. We're going to. We're also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors, and that our seniors and people that we love rely on. Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old. It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. I don't know any of them. I know some people that are rather elderly, but not quite that elderly. 3.47 million people from ages 120 to 129. 3.9 million people from ages 130 to 139. 3.5 million people from ages 140 to 149. And money is being paid to many of them, and we're searching right now. Fact, Pam, good luck! Good luck! You're going to find it! But a lot of money is paid out to people because it just keeps getting paid and paid, and nobody does anything, and it really hurts Social Security and hurts our country. 1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159, and over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are aged over 160 years old. We have a healthier country than I thought, Bobby! Including, to finish, 1,039 people between the ages of 220 and 229; one person between the age of 240 and 249; and one person is listed at 360 years of age—more than 100 years older than our country! But we're going to find out where that money's going, and it's not going to be pretty. By slashing all of the fraud, waste, and theft we can find, we will defeat inflation, bring down mortgage rates, lower car payments and grocery prices, protect our seniors, and put more money in the pockets of American families. And today, interest rates took a beautiful drop—a big, beautiful drop! It's about time! And in the near future, I want to do what has not been done in 24 years: balance the federal budget! We're going to balance it! With that goal in mind, we have developed in great detail what we are calling the Gold Card, which goes on sale very, very soon for $5 million. We will allow the most successful job-creating people from all over the world to buy a path to U.S. citizenship. It's like the green card, but better and more sophisticated. And these people will have to pay tax in our country. They won't have to pay tax from where they came—the money that they've made. You wouldn't want to do that. But they have to pay tax, create jobs. They'll also be taking people out of colleges and paying for them so that we can keep them in our country instead of having them being forced out. Number one at the top school, as an example, being forced out and not being allowed to stay and create tremendous numbers of jobs and great success for a company out there. So while we take out the criminals, killers, traffickers, and child predators who are allowed to enter our country under the open border policy of these people—the Democrats, the Biden Administration—the open border insane policies that you've allowed to destroy our country, we will now bring in brilliant, hardworking, job-creating people. They're going to pay a lot of money, and we're going to reduce our debt with that money. Americans have given us a mandate for bold and profound change. For nearly 100 years, the federal bureaucracy has grown until it has crushed our freedoms, ballooned our deficits, and held back America's potential in every possible way. The nation founded by pioneers and risk-takers now drowns under millions and millions of pages of regulations and debt approvals that should take 10 days to get instead take 10 years, 15 years, and even 20 years before you get rejected. Meanwhile, we have hundreds of thousands of federal workers who have not been showing up to work. My administration will reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy, and we will restore true democracy to America again. And any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately because we are draining the swamp! It's very simple! And the days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over! And the next phase of our plan to deliver the greatest economy in history is for this Congress to pass tax cuts for everybody! They're in there; they're waiting for you to vote! And I'm sure that the people on my right—I don't mean the Republican right, but my right, right here—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! But I know this group is going to be voting for the tax cuts! Thank you! It's a very, very big part of our plan. We had tremendous success in our first term with it—a very big part of our plan. We're seeking permanent income tax cuts all across the board and 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. And I also want to make interest payments on car loans tax-deductible, but only if the car is made in America. And by the way, we're going to have growth in the auto industry like nobody's ever seen! Plants are opening up all over the place! Deals are being made! Never seen! That's a combination of the election win and tariffs! It's a beautiful word, isn't it? That, along with our other policies, will allow our auto industry to absolutely boom! It's going to boom! I spoke to the majors today—all three of the top people—and they're so excited! In fact, already numerous car companies have announced that they will be building massive automobile plants in America, with Honda just announcing a new plant in Indiana—one of the largest anywhere in the world! And this has taken place since our great victory on November 5th—a date which will hopefully go down as one of the most important in the history of our country. In addition, as part of our tax cuts, we want to cut taxes on domestic production and oil manufacturing. And just as we did before, we will provide 100% expensing. It will be retroactive to January 20th, 2025, and it was one of the main reasons why our tax cuts were so successful in our first term, giving us the most successful economy in the history of our country. First term, we had a great first term! If you don't make your product in America, however, under the Trump Administration, you will pay a tariff—and in some cases, a rather large one. 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! India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100%! China's average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them, and South Korea's average tariff is four times higher! Think of that—four times higher! And we give so much help militarily and in so many other ways to South Korea, but that's what happens! This is happening by friend and foe! This system is not fair to the United States and never was! And so, on April 2nd—I wanted to make it April 1st, but I didn't want to be accused of April Fool's Day. That's what that one day cost us a lot of money! But we're going to do it in April! I'm a very superstitious person! April 2nd, reciprocal tariffs kick in! And whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them! That's reciprocal—back and forth! Whatever they tax us, we will tax them! If they do non-monetary tariffs to keep us out of their market, then we will do non-monetary barriers to keep them out of our market! There's a lot of that too—they don't even allow us in their market! We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before! I did it with China, and I did it with others, and the Biden Administration couldn't do anything about it because it was so much money they couldn't do anything about it! We have been ripped off for decades by nearly every country on Earth, and we will not let that happen any longer! Much has been said over the last three months about Mexico and Canada, but we have very large deficits with both of them. But even more importantly, they've allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and many very young, beautiful people—destroying families! Nobody's ever seen anything like it! They are, in effect, receiving subsidies of hundreds of billions of dollars! We pay subsidies to Canada and Mexico of hundreds of billions of dollars, and the United States will not be doing that any longer! We're not going to do it any longer! Thanks to our America First policies we're putting into place, we have had $1.7 trillion of new investment in America in just the past few weeks! The combination of the election and our economic policies! The people of SoftBank, one of the most brilliant anywhere in the world, announced a $200 billion investment! Open AI and Oracle—Larry Ellison announced a $500 billion investment, which they wouldn't have done if Kamala had won! Apple announced a $500 billion investment! Tim Cook called me; he said, "I cannot spend it fast enough!" It's going to be much higher than that! I believe they'll be building their plants here instead of in China! And just yesterday, Taiwan Semiconductor, the biggest in the world, most powerful in the world, has a tremendous amount—97% of the market—announced a $165 billion investment to build the most powerful chips on Earth right here in the USA! And we're not giving them any money! Your Chips Act is a horrible, horrible thing! We give hundreds of billions of dollars, and it doesn't mean a thing! They take our money, and they don't spend it! All that meant to them was they didn't want to pay the tariff, so they came in, they're building, and many other companies are coming! We don't have to give them money! We just want to protect our businesses and our people, and they will come because they won't have to pay tariffs if they build in America! So it's very amazing! You should get rid of the Chips Act, and whatever is left over, Mr. Speaker, you should use it to reduce debt or any other reason you want to!** **to our new trade policy will also be great for the American farmer. I love the farmer who will now be selling into our home market, the USA, because nobody is going to be able to compete with you. The goods that come in from other countries and companies are really in a bad position in so many different ways. They're uninspected; they may be very dirty and disgusting, and they pour in and hurt our American farmers. The tariffs will go on agricultural products coming into America, and our farmers, starting on April 2nd, may have a little bit of an adjustment period. We had that before when I made the deal with China—$50 billion of purchases—and I said, "Just bear with me," and they did. They probably have to bear with me again, and this will be even better. That was great. The problem with it was that Biden didn't enforce it. He didn't enforce it. $50 billion of purchases, and we were doing great, but Biden did not enforce it, and it hurt our farmers. But our farmers are going to have a field day right now! So, to our farmers, have a lot of fun! I love you too! It's all going to happen.** **I have also imposed a 25% tariff on foreign aluminum, copper, lumber, and steel because if we don't have, as an example, steel and lots of other things, we don't have a military, and frankly, we won't have a country very long. Here today is a proud American steelworker, Jeff Dard, who has been working at the same steel plant for 27 years. In a job that has allowed him to serve as the captain of his local volunteer fire department, raise seven children with his beautiful wife, Nicole, and over the years provide a loving home for more than 40 foster children. So great, Jeff! Thank you! Thank you, Jeff! Stories like Jeff's remind us that tariffs are not just about protecting American jobs; they're about protecting the soul of our country. Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again, and it's happening! It will happen rather quickly. There'll be a little disturbance, but we're okay with that. It won't be much. No, you're not! Oh, and look where Biden took us—very low, the lowest we've ever been. Jeff, I want to thank you very much.** **I also want to recognize another person who has devoted herself to foster care community. She works so hard on it—a very loving person—our magnificent First Lady of the United States, Melania. Her work has yielded incredible results, helping prepare our nation's future leaders as they enter the workforce. Our First Lady is joined by two impressive young women: Haley Ferguson, who benefited from the First Lady's Fostering the Future initiative and is poised to complete her education and become a teacher, and Ellison Barry, who became a victim of an illicit deep fake image produced by a peer. With Ellison's help, the Senate just passed the Take It Down Act, and this is so important. Thank you very much, John Thune! Thank you! Stand up, John! Thank you! Joe, thank you all very much! Thank you! And thank you to John Thune and the Senate—great job! To criminalize the public publication of such images online is a terrible, terrible thing, and once it passes the House, I look forward to signing that bill into law. Thank you! And I'm going to use that bill for myself too, if you don't mind! See, nobody gets treated worse than I do online! Nobody! That's great! Thank you very much to the Senate! Thank you!** **But if we truly care about protecting America's children, no step is more crucial than securing America's borders. Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States, many of them murderers, human traffickers, gang members, and other criminals from the streets of dangerous cities all throughout the world. Because of Joe Biden's insane and very dangerous open border policies, they are now strongly embedded in our country. But we are getting them out and getting them out fast! I want to thank Tom Homan and Chris, I want to thank you, and Paul of Border Patrol. I want to thank you! What a job they've all done—everybody! Border Patrol, ICE, law enforcement in general is incredible! We have to take care of our law enforcement! After last year, a brilliant 22-year-old nursing student named Laken Riley, the best in her class, admired by everybody, went out for a jog on the campus of the University of Georgia. That morning, Laken was viciously attacked, assaulted, beaten, brutalized, and horrifically murdered. Laken was stolen from us by a savage illegal alien gang member who was arrested while trespassing across Biden's open southern border and then set loose into the United States under the heartless policies of that failed administration. It was indeed a failed administration! He had then been arrested and released in a Democrat-run sanctuary city—a disaster—before ending the life of this beautiful young angel. With us this evening are Laken's beloved mother, Allison, and her sister, Lauren. Last year, I told Laken's grieving parents that we would ensure their daughter would not have died in vain. That's why the very first bill I signed into law as your 47th president mandates the detention of all dangerous criminal aliens who threaten public safety. It's a very strong, powerful act; it's called the Laken Riley Act. So, Allison and Lauren, America will never, ever forget our beautiful Laken. Hope Riley, thank you very much!** **Since taking office, my administration has launched the most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history, and we quickly achieved the lowest numbers of illegal border crossings ever recorded. Thank you! 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! Thank you! Joe Biden didn't just open our borders; he flew illegal aliens over them to overwhelm our schools, hospitals, and communities throughout the country. Entire towns like Aurora, Colorado, and Springfield, Ohio, buckled under the weight of the migrant occupation and corruption like nobody's ever seen before. Beautiful towns destroyed! Now, just as I promised in my inaugural address, we are achieving the great liberation of America! But there is still much work to be done. Here tonight is a woman I have gotten to know, Alexis Nary from Houston—a wonderful woman. Last June, Alexis's 12-year-old daughter, her precious Joselyn, walked to a nearby convenience store. She was kidnapped, tied up, assaulted for two hours under a bridge, and horrifically murdered. Arrested and charged with this heinous crime are two illegal alien monsters from Venezuela, released into America by the last administration through their ridiculous open border. The death of this beautiful 12-year-old girl and the agony of her mother and family touched our entire nation greatly. Alexis, I promised that we would always remember your daughter, your magnificent Joselyn. Earlier tonight, I signed an order keeping my word to you. One thing I have learned about Joselyn is that she loved animals so much; she loved nature. Across Galveston Bay from where Joselyn lived in Houston, you will find a magnificent National Wildlife Refuge—a pristine, peaceful 34,000-acre sanctuary for all of God's creatures on the edge of the Gulf of America. Alexis, moments ago, I formally renamed that refuge in loving memory of your beautiful daughter, Joselyn. So, Mr. Vice President, if you would, may I have the order? Thank you very much!** **All three savages charged with Joselyn and Laken's murders were members of the Venezuelan prison gang, the toughest gang they say in the world, known as Tren de Aragua. Two weeks ago, I officially designated this gang, along with MS-13 and the bloodthirsty Mexican drug cartels, as foreign terrorist organizations. They are now officially in the same category as ISIS, and that's not good for them! Countless thousands of these terrorists were welcomed into the U.S. by the Biden administration, but now 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! With us this evening is a warrior on the front lines of that battle, Border Patrol Agent Roberto Ortiz—a great guy. In January, Roberto and another agent were patrolling by the Rio Grande near an area known as Cartel Island. Doesn't sound too nice to me! When heavily armed gunmen started shooting at them, Roberto saw that his partner was totally exposed at great danger, and he leapt into action, returning fire and providing crucial seconds for his fellow agent to seek safety—just barely! I have some of the prints of that event, and it was not good. Agent Ortiz, we salute you for your great courage and for the line of fire that you took and for the bravery that you showed. We honor you, and we will always honor you. Thank you, Roberto, very much! Thank you, Roberto! I actually got to know him on my many calls to the border; he's a great, great gentleman.** **The territory to the immediate south of our border is now dominated entirely by criminal cartels that murder, rape, torture, and exercise total control. They have total control over a whole nation, posing a grave threat to our national security. The cartels are waging war in America, and it's time for America to wage war on the cartels, which we are doing! Five nights ago, Mexican authorities, because of our tariff policies being imposed on them—think of this—handed over to us 29 of the biggest cartel leaders in their country! That has never happened before! They want to make us happy! First time ever! But we need Mexico and Canada to do much more than they've done, and they have to stop the fentanyl and drugs pouring into the USA. They're going to stop it! I have sent Congress a detailed funding request laying out exactly how we will eliminate these threats to protect our homeland and complete the largest deportation operation in American history—larger even than the current record holder, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a moderate man but someone who believed very strongly in borders. Americans expect Congress to send me this funding without delay so I can sign it into law. So, Mr. Speaker, John Thune, both of you, I hope you're going to be able to do that. Mr. Speaker, thank you! Mr. Leader, thank you! Thank you very much! Let's get it to me; I'll sign it so fast you won't even believe it!** **As we reclaim our sovereignty, we must also bring back law and order to our cities and towns. In recent years, our justice system has been turned upside down by radical left lunatics. Many jurisdictions virtually seized enforcing the law against dangerous repeat offenders while weaponizing law enforcement against political opponents like me. My administration has acted swiftly and decisively to restore fair, equal, and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law, starting at the FBI and the DOJ. Pam, good luck! Cash, wherever you may be, good luck! Good luck, Pam Bondi! Good luck! So important! You're going to do a great job, Cash! Thank you! Thank you, Cash! They've already started very strong; they're going to do a fantastic job! You're going to be very proud of them! We're also once again giving our police officers the support, protection, and respect they so dearly deserve. They have such a hard, dangerous job, but we're going to make it less dangerous. The problem is the bad guys don't respect the law, but they're starting to respect it, and they soon will respect it! This also includes our great fire departments throughout the country. Our firemen and women are unbelievable people, and I will never forget them! And besides that, they voted for me in record numbers, so I have no chance! One year ago this month, 31-year-old New York police officer Jonathan Diller—unbelievably wonderful person and a great officer—was gunned down at a traffic stop on Long Island. I went to his funeral. The vicious criminal charged with his murder had 21 prior arrests, and they were rough arrests too! He was a real bad one! The thug in the seat next to him had 14 prior arrests and went by the name of "Killer." He was a killer! He killed other people, they say—a lot of them! I attended Officer Diller's service, and when I met his wife and one-year-old son, Ryan, it was very inspirational, actually. His widow's name is Stephanie, and she is here tonight. Stephanie, thank you very much! Stephanie, thank you very much! We're going to make sure that Ryan knows his dad was a true hero—New York's finest! And we're going to get these cold-blooded killers and repeat offenders off our streets! So we're going to do it fast! Got to stop it! They get out with 28 arrests; they push people into subway trains; they hit people over the head, back of the head with baseball bats! We got to get them out of here! I've already signed an executive order requiring a mandatory death penalty for anyone who murders a police officer, and tonight I'm asking Congress to pass that policy into permanent law. I'm also asking for a new crime bill getting tough on repeat offenders while enhancing protections for America's police officers so they can do their jobs without fear of their lives being totally destroyed! They don't want to be killed! We're not going to let them be killed! Joining us in the gallery tonight is a young man who truly loves our police. His name is DJ Daniel. He is 13 years old and has always dreamed of becoming a police officer. But in 2018, DJ was diagnosed with brain cancer. The doctors gave him five months at most to live. That was more than six years ago! Since that time, DJ and his dad have been on a quest to make his dream come true. DJ has been sworn in as an honorary law enforcement officer actually a number of times! The police love him; the police departments love him! And tonight, DJ, we're going to do you the biggest honor of them all! I am asking our new Secret Service Director, Sean Curran, to officially make you an agent of the United States Secret Service! Thank you, DJ! DJ's doctors believe his cancer likely came from a chemical he was exposed to when he was younger. Since 1975, rates of child cancer have increased by more than 40%. Reversing this trend is one of the top priorities for our new presidential commission to make America healthy again, chaired by our new Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. With the name Kennedy, you would have thought everybody over here would have been cheering! How quickly they forget! Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong. As an example, not long ago—and you can't even believe these numbers—one in 10,000 children had autism. One in 10,000! And now it's 1 in 36! There's something wrong! 1 in 36! Think of that! So we're going to find out what it is, and there's nobody better than Bobby and all of the people that are working with you! You have the best to figure out what is going on! Okay, Bobby? Good luck! It's a very important job! Thank you! Thank you! My administration is also working to protect our children from toxic ideologies in our schools. A few years ago, January Little John and her husband discovered that their daughter's school had secretly socially transitioned their 13-year-old little girl. Teachers and administrators conspired to deceive January and her husband while encouraging her daughter to use a new name and pronouns—"they/them" pronoun, actually—all without telling January, who is here tonight and is now a courageous advocate against this form of child abuse. January, thank you! Thank you very much! Thank you! Stories like this are why, shortly after taking office, I signed an executive order banning public schools from indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology. I also signed an order to cut off all taxpayer funding to any institution that engages in the sexual mutilation of our youth. And now I want Congress to pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children and forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body. This is a big lie! And our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you! Because we're getting wokeness out of our schools and out of our military, and it's already out! It's out of our society! We don't want it! Wokeness is trouble! Wokeness is bad! It's gone! It's gone! And we feel so much better for it, don't we? Don't we feel better? Our service members won't be activists and ideologues; they will be fighters and warriors! They will fight for our country! And Pete, congratulations! Secretary of Defense, congratulations! And he's not big into the woke movement, I can tell you! I know well! I am pleased to report that in January, the U.S. Army had its single best recruiting month in 15 years, and that all armed services are having among the best recruiting results ever in the history of our services! What a difference! And you know, it was just a few months ago where the results were exactly the opposite! We couldn't recruit anywhere! We couldn't recruit! Now we're having the best results just about that we've ever had! What a tremendous turnaround! It's really a beautiful thing to see! People love our country again! It's very simple! They love our country, and they love being in our military again! So it's a great thing! Thank you very much! Great job! We're joined tonight by a young man, Jason Hartley, who knows the weight of that call of duty. Jason's father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all wore the uniform. Jason tragically lost his dad, who was also a Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy, when he was just a boy, and now he wants to carry on the family legacy of service. Jason is a senior in high school, a six-letter varsity athlete—a really good athlete, they say—a brilliant student with a 4.46 GPA! That's good! And his greatest dream is to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point! And Jason, that's a very big deal! Getting in—that's a hard one to get into! But I'm pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted! You will soon be joining the Corps of Cadets! Thank you, Jason! You're going to be on the Long Gray Line! Jason, as Commander-in-Chief, my focus is on building the most powerful military of the future. As a first step, I'm asking Congress to fund a state-of-the-art Golden Dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland—all made in the USA! Ronald Reagan wanted to do it long ago, but the technology just wasn't there—not even close! But now we have the technology! It's incredible, actually! Other places have it! Israel has it; other places have it! And the United States should have it too! Right, Tim? Right? They should have it too! So I want to thank you, but it's a very, very important—this is a very dangerous world! We should have it! We want to be protected, and we're going to protect our citizens like never before! To boost our defense industrial base, we are also going to resurrect the American shipbuilding industry, including commercial shipbuilding and military shipbuilding. And for that purpose, I am announcing tonight that we will create a new Office of Shipbuilding in the White House and offer special tax incentives to bring this industry home to America, where it belongs! We used to make so many ships; we don't make them anymore very much! But we're going to make them very fast, very soon! It will have a huge impact! To further enhance our national security, my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we've already started doing it! Just today, a large American company announced they are buying both ports around the Panama Canal and lots of other things having to do with the Panama Canal and a couple of other canals! The Panama Canal was built by Americans for Americans—not for others! But others could use it! But it was built at a tremendous cost of American blood and treasure! 38,000 workers died building the Panama Canal! They died of malaria; they died of snake bites and mosquitoes! Not a nice place to work! They paid them very highly to go there knowing there was a 25% chance that they would die! The most expensive project also that was ever built in our country's history! If you bring it up to modern-day costs, it was given away by the Carter Administration for $1! But that agreement has been violated very severely! We didn't give it to China; we gave it to Panama, and we're taking it back! And we have Marco Rubio in charge! Good luck, Marco! Now we know who to blame if anything goes wrong! Now, Marco's been amazing, and he's going to do a great job! Think of it! He got 100 votes! You know, he was approved with actually 99, but the 100th was this gentleman! And I feel very certain! So let's assume he got 100 votes! And I'm either very, very happy about that, or I'm very concerned about it! But he's already proven! I mean, he's a great gentleman! He's respected by everybody! And we appreciate your voting for Marco! He's going to do a fantastic job! Thank you! Thank you! He's doing a great job! Great job! And I also have a message tonight for the incredible people of Greenland: We strongly support your right to determine your own future, and if you choose, we welcome you into the United States of America! We need Greenland for national security and even international security, and we're working with everybody involved to try and get it! But we need it really for international world security! And I think we're going to get it one way or the other! We're going to get it! We will keep you safe; we will make you rich! And together, we will take Greenland to heights like you have never thought possible before! It's a very small population but a very, very large piece of land and very, very important for military security! America is once again standing strong against the forces of radical Islamic terrorism! Three and a half years ago, ISIS terrorists killed 13 American service members and countless others in the Abbey Gate bombing during the disastrous and incompetent withdrawal from Afghanistan! Not that they were withdrawing; it was the way they withdrew! Perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country! Tonight, I am pleased to announce that we have just apprehended the top terrorist responsible for that atrocity, and he is right now on his way here to face the swift sword of American justice!** **Justice, and I want to thank especially the government of Pakistan for helping arrest this monster. This was a very momentous day for those 13 families, who I actually got to know very well—most of them whose children were murdered—and the many people that were so badly injured, over 42 people, on that fateful day in Afghanistan. What a horrible day! Such incompetence was shown that when Putin saw what happened, I guess he said, "Wow, maybe this is my chance." That's how bad it was. Should have never happened! Grossly incompetent people! I spoke to many of the parents and loved ones, and they're all in our hearts tonight. I just spoke to them on the phone; we had a big call. Every one of them called, and everybody was on the line, and they did nothing but cry with happiness. They were very happy, as happy as you can be under those circumstances. Their child, brother, sister, son, daughter was killed for no reason whatsoever in the Middle East.** **We're bringing back our hostages from Gaza. In my first term, we achieved one of the most groundbreaking peace agreements in generations: the Abraham Accords. And now we're going to build on that foundation to create a more peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region. A lot of things are happening in the Middle East. People have been talking about that so much lately with everything going on with Ukraine and Russia, but a lot of things are happening in the Middle East. It's a rough neighborhood, actually. I'm also working tirelessly to end the savage conflict in Ukraine. 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. Do you want to keep it going for another five years? Yeah, you would say "Pocah" says yes! 2,000 people are being killed every single week—more than that! They're Russian young people; they're Ukrainian young people. They're not Americans, but I want it to stop!** **Meanwhile, Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine—by far! Think of that! They've spent more buying Russian oil and gas than they have defending, and we've spent perhaps $350 billion—like taking candy from a baby! That's what happened! And they've spent a hundred billion dollars! What a difference that is! And we have an ocean separating us, and they don't! But we're getting along very well with them, and lots of good things are happening! Biden has authorized more money in this fight than Europe has spent—by billions and billions of dollars! It's hard to believe that they wouldn't have stopped it and said at some point, "Come on, let's equalize!" You've got to be equal to us, but that didn't happen! 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. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians," he said. "My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump's strong leadership to get a peace that lasts. We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time that is convenient for you." I appreciate that he sent this letter; I just got it a little while ago. 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! If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides.** **Nearly four years ago, amid rising tensions, a history teacher named Mark Fogle was detained in Russia and sentenced to 14 years in a penal colony—rough stuff! The previous administration barely lifted a finger to help him. They knew he was innocent, but they had no idea where to begin. But last summer, I promised his 95-year-old mother, Maline, that we would bring her boy safely back home. After 22 days in office, I did just that, and they are here tonight: two more, Mark and his great mom! We are delighted to have you safe and sound and with us! As fate would have it, Mark Fogle was born in a small rural town in Butler, Pennsylvania—have you heard of it?—where his mother has lived for the past 78 years. I just happened to go there last July 13th for a rally that was not pleasant, and that is where I met his beautiful mom right before I walked onto that stage. I told her I would not forget what she said about her son, and I never did! Did I? I never forgot! Less than 10 minutes later, at that same rally, gunfire rang out, and a sick and deranged assassin unloaded eight bullets from his sniper's perch into a crowd of many thousands of people. My life was saved by a fraction of an inch, but some were not so lucky. Corey Comparator was a firefighter, a veteran, a Christian, a husband, a devoted father, and above all, a protector. When the sound of gunshots pierced the air—it was a horrible sound—Cory knew instantly what it was and what to do. He threw himself on top of his wife and daughters and shielded them from the bullets with his own body. Corey was hit really hard; you know the story from there. He sacrificed his life to save theirs. Two others, very fine people, were also seriously hit, but thankfully, with the help of two great country doctors, we thought they were gone, and they were saved. Those doctors had great talent! We are joined by Corey's wife, Helen, who was his high school sweetheart, and their two beloved daughters, Allison and Kaylee. Thank you to Helen, Allison, and Kaylee! Corey is looking down on his three beautiful ladies right now, and he is cheering you on! He loves you! He is cheering you on! Corey was taken from us much too soon, but his destiny was to leave us all with a shining example of the selfless devotion of a true American patriot. It was love like Cory's that built our country, and it's love like Cory's that is going to make our country more majestic than ever before. I believe that my life was saved that day in Butler for a very good reason. I was saved by God to make America great again! I believe that! Thank you very much!** **From the patriots of Lexington and Concord to the heroes of Gettysburg and Normandy, from the warriors who crossed the Delaware to the trailblazers who climbed the Rockies, and from the legends who soared at Kitty Hawk to the astronauts who touched the moon, Americans have always been the people who defied all odds, transcended all dangers, made the most extraordinary sacrifices, and did whatever it took to defend our children, our country, and our freedom. And as we have seen in this chamber tonight, that same strength, faith, love, and spirit is still alive and thriving in the hearts of the American people, 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! We will never let anything happen to our beloved country because we are a country of doers, dreamers, fighters, and survivors. Our ancestors crossed a vast ocean, strode into the unknown wilderness, and carved their fortunes from the rock and soil of a perilous and very dangerous frontier. They chased our destiny across a boundless continent. They built the railroads, laid the highways, and graced the world with American marvels like the Empire State Building, the mighty Hoover Dam, and the towering Golden Gate Bridge. They lit the world with electricity, broke free of the force of gravity, fired up the engines of American industry, vanquished the communists, fascists, and Marxists all over the world, and gave us countless modern wonders sculpted out of iron, glass, and steel. We stand on the shoulders of these pioneers who won and built the modern age—these workers who poured their sweat into the skylines of our cities, these warriors who shed their blood on fields of battle and gave everything they had for our rights and for our freedom. Now it is our time to take up the righteous cause of American liberty, and it is our turn to take America's destiny into our own hands and begin the most thrilling days in the history of our country. 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. We are going to create the highest quality of life, build the safest, wealthiest, healthiest, and most vital communities anywhere in the world. We are going to conquer the vast frontiers of science, and we are going to lead humanity into space and plant the American flag on the planet Mars and even far beyond! And through it all, we are going to rediscover the unstoppable power of the American spirit, and we are going to renew the unlimited promise of the American dream. Every single day, we will stand up, and we will fight, fight, fight for the country our citizens believe in and for the country our people deserve. My fellow Americans, get ready for an incredible future because the golden age of America has only just begun! It will be like nothing that has ever been seen before! Thank you! God bless you, and God bless America! Thank you very much! Great job! Thank you! Great honor! Thank you! Thank you! Get this place going! Thank you! It's a great honor! Thank you! Thank you, Mr. President! Thank you very much! Thank you very much! Appreciate it! Thank you! See you soon! Young people, have a great night! Thank you! That's your thank you very much! Appreciate it! How? Thank you again! Thank you again! Won't forget! It's so good! Yeah, it's good! It's so good! Sir, terrific! Mr. President, really, really good! Thanks, sir! Of your best! Thanks again, Mr. President! Thank you for the phone call last night! I'm not going to get—thank you, everybody! Best speech ever! President Roger Williams! Thanks for the call! I love Roger Williams! Thank you! You don't have to introduce yourself; I know you better than you do! Right? Thank you so much! Great baseball! America! Great job you're doing! America is back! Thank you so much! Welcome! You're back in Pennsylvania anytime soon! They stood for another country! That phenomenal! It's hard to believe, isn't it? That was fantastic! Thank you so great! Speech! Oh, good! Good! How you doing? I shook his hand earlier! A picture shaking his hand or anything! You're good! Thank you very much! Let's do it! Thank you! Love you! Best speech ever! It was so good! So you rocked it, Mr. President! We're with you 100%! Crush! Really good! Congratulations! Let's go get down to that! You get good luck! Yes, sir! Thank you, everybody! Good job! Thank you! Good to see you! Slam D! You're doing good! Thank you, sir! You did amazing, as usual! Thank you! I'll see you! Thank you! Thank you! Love you, Mr. President! Thank you, everybody! Look at this new Congress from Eastern Washington! We've never met! Mich! Bob! I was Mike! One of Mike Leach's best friends! He thinks very highly! Tremendous! He was a great, great—thank you! You did! You thank you! Home run! Home run! Home run! Thank you very much! Looking good! Look at them! Need to talk to you about some buildings! Some public buildings! You let me know! I will! Thank you, sir! Get the House will be in order! Representative Virginia Fox of North Carolina is gaveling the House out of session as the president has left the House chamber. The Democrats in mass walked out ahead of him, and the people that he was greeting on the way out were the Republican members who were there. They are in the majority: 218 Republicans, 215 Democrats, two empty seats—both Republican-held seats from Florida because of appointments to the White House and Matt Gaetz's seat is the other one that is still open. Two special elections to bring the House up to 435. Well, you heard the president speak for almost two hours—about an hour and 40, 45 minutes that he spoke—and we're going to be getting your reaction now this evening. 202 is the area code: 748-8920 if you are a Democrat, 748-8921 for Republicans, Independence 748-8922, and if you want to send a text message, we'd love to hear from you! Please include your first name and your city: 22748. 18903. That number is reserved for text messages only. We'll begin taking those calls right after the Democratic response. Senator Alysa Slotkin, freshman Democrat from Michigan, will be giving that response in just a few minutes. Of course, we will go live to it, and after that, we will begin hearing your voices. But let's check in with Greta Broner for some reaction to the president's speech.** **Peter, let's start with some early headlines in reaction to the president's speech, starting with the LA Times. Their headline right now on their website: "Trump Takes Credit for Swift and Unrelenting Action on Immigration, Economy, and Security." And this from the Washington Examiner, the conservative outlet here in Washington: "Trump Declares America is Back!" Back! And then this headline from The Wall Street Journal: "Trump Touts Early Action, Says He's Just Getting Started." And in his speech, the president stood behind his tariffs and cheered Musk's Doge moves. And then from The Washington Post: "Trump Doubles Down on Sweeping Deportation Efforts." And finally, from Capitol Hill, Politico's headline this evening: "Trump Makes it a Culture War Speech." Speaker Mike Johnson ordering Representative Al Green removed from the chamber after the Texas Democrat shouted that Trump had no mandate. Al Green catching up with reporters after he was removed from the chamber, saying, "I'll accept the punishment if there is one. It's worth it to let people know that there's some of us who are going to stand up against this president's desire to cut Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security." By the way, other protests were taking place by Democrats. Manu Raju of CNN noting that in a sign of protest, House and Senate Democratic leaders didn't leave to join the escort committee despite being called to do so. That's the committee of Republicans and Democratic leaders that follow the president into the chamber. A spokesperson for Hakeem Jeffries told me, "It speaks for itself." We'll show you other moments throughout the speeches—the speech tonight by the president—how Democrats were reacting in the chamber, and of course, getting our viewers' reaction as well, Peter. In about a minute, Alysa Slotkin, freshman senator from Michigan, will be giving the Democratic response from Michigan. That's why she was not there tonight. So we will bring that to you live. She was elected this past election cycle in 2024, had served in the House from 2019 to 2025, former acting assistant defense secretary in the Obama administration, and a former CIA analyst. We're going to put the numbers back up on the screen. Dial in; we'll take those calls right after Senator Slotkin speaks. 202 is the area code for all of our numbers, and here is Senator Slotkin.** **Hi, everyone! I'm Alysa Slotkin. I'm honored to have the opportunity to speak tonight. It's late, so I promise to be a lot shorter than what you just watched. I won't take it personally if you've never heard of me. I'm the new senator from the great state of Michigan, where I grew up. I've been in public service my entire life because I happened to be in New York City on 9/11 when the Twin Towers came down. Before the smoke cleared, I knew I wanted to make a life in national security. I was recruited by the CIA and did three tours in Iraq alongside the military. In between, I worked at the White House under President Bush and President Obama—two very different leaders who both believed that America is exceptional. You can find that same sense of patriotism here in W. Michigan, where I'm speaking from tonight. It's a working-class town just south of Detroit. President Trump and I both won here in November. It might not seem like it, but plenty of places like this still exist across the United States—places where people believe that if you work hard and play by the rules, you should do well, and your kids should do better. It reminds me of how I grew up. My dad was a lifelong Republican, my mom a lifelong Democrat, but it was never a big deal because we had shared values that were bigger than any one party. We just went through another fraught election season. Americans made it clear that prices are too high and that the government needs to be more responsive to their needs. America wants change, but there's a responsible way to make change and a reckless way. And we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country and as a democracy. So that's what I'm going to lay out tonight because whether you're from W. Michigan 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.** **Let's start with the economy. Michigan literally invented the middle class—the revolutionary idea that you could work at an auto plant and afford the car you were building. That's the American dream! And in order to expand and protect the middle class, we have to do a few basic things: we need to bring down the price of things we spend the most money on—groceries, housing, healthcare. We need to make more things in America with good-paying union jobs and bring our supply chains back home from places like China. We need to give American businesses the certainty they need to invest and create the jobs of the future, and we need a tax system that's fair for people who don't happen to make a billion dollars. Look, the president talked a big game on the economy, but it's always important to read the fine print. Do his plans actually help Americans get ahead? Not even close! President Trump is trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends. He's on the hunt to find trillions of dollars to pass along to the wealthiest in America, and to do that, he's going to make you pay in every part of your life. Grocery and home prices are going up, not down, and he hasn't laid out a credible plan to deal with either of those. His tariffs on allies like Canada will raise prices on energy, lumber, and cars and start a trade war that will hurt manufacturing and farmers. Your premiums and prescriptions will cost more because the math on his proposals doesn't work without going after your healthcare. Meanwhile, for those keeping score, the national debt is going up, not down, and if he's not careful, he could walk us right into a recession. And one more thing: in order to pay for his plan, he could very well come after your retirement—the Social Security, Medicare, and VA benefits you worked your whole life to earn. The president claims he won't, but Elon Musk just called Social Security the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time. While we're on the subject of Elon Musk, is there anyone in America who is comfortable with him and his gang of 20-year-olds using their own computer servers to poke through your tax returns, your health information, and your bank accounts? No oversight, no protections against cyberattacks, no guardrails on what they do with your private data! We need a more efficient government! You want to cut waste? I'll help you do it! But change doesn't need to be chaotic or make us less safe. The mindless firing of people who work to protect our nuclear weapons, keep our planes from crashing, and conduct the research that finds the cure for cancer—only to rehire them two days later? No CEO in America could do that without being summarily fired!** **fired. Okay, so we've talked about Economic Security. How about National Security? Let's start with the border. As someone who spent my whole career protecting our homeland, every country deserves to know who and what is coming across its border, period. Democrats and Republicans should all be for that. But securing the border without actually fixing our broken immigration system is dealing with the symptom and not the disease. America is a nation of immigrants; we need a functional system key to the needs of our economy that allows vetted people to come and work here legally. So I look forward to the president's plan on that. Because here's the thing: today's world is deeply interconnected—migration, cyber threats, AI, environmental destruction, terrorism. One nation cannot face these issues alone; we need friends in all corners, and our safety depends on it. President Trump loves to say "peace through strength." That's actually a line he stole from Ronald Reagan. But let me tell you, after the spectacle that just took place in the Oval Office last week, Reagan must be rolling in his grave. We all want an end to the war in Ukraine, but Reagan understood that true strength required America to combine our military and economic might with moral clarity. And that scene in the Oval Office wasn't just a bad episode of reality TV; it summed up Trump's whole approach to the world. He believes in cozying up to dictators like Vladimir Putin and kicking our friends, like the Canadians, in the teeth. He sees American leadership as merely a series of real estate transactions. As a Cold War kid, I'm thankful it was 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. He clearly doesn't think we should lead the world. Look, America is not perfect, but I stand with the majority of Americans who believe we are still exceptional, unparalleled, and I would rather have American leadership over Chinese or Russian leadership any day of the week. Because for generations, America has offered something better: our security and our prosperity, yes, but our democracy. Our very system of government has been the aspiration of the world, and right now, it's at risk. It's at risk when the president decides he can pick and choose what rules he wants to follow, when he ignores court orders and the Constitution itself, or when elected leaders stand by and just let it happen. But it's also at risk when the president pits Americans against each other, when he demonizes those who are different and tells certain people they shouldn't be included. Because America is not just a patch of land between two oceans; we are more than that. Generations have fought and died to secure the fundamental rights that define us. Those rights and the fight for them make us who we are. We're a nation of strivers, risk-takers, innovators, and we are never satisfied. That is America's superpower. And look, I've lived and worked in many countries. I've seen democracies flicker out. I've seen what life is like when a government is rigged. You can't open a business without paying off a corrupt official. You can't criticize the guys in charge without getting a knock at the door in the middle of the night. So 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. But how do we actually do that? I know a lot of you have been asking that question. First, don't tune out. It's easy to be exhausted, but America needs you now more than ever. If previous generations had not fought for this democracy, where would we be today? Second, hold your elected officials, including me, accountable. Watch how they're voting; go to town halls and demand they take action. That's as American as apple pie. Third, organize. Pick just one issue you're passionate about and engage. Doom scrolling doesn't count! Join a group that cares about your issue and act. And if you can't find one, start one. Some of the most important movements in our history have come from the bottom up. In closing, we all know that our country is going through something right now. We're not sure what the next day is going to hold, let alone the next decade. But this isn't the first time we've experienced significant and tumultuous change as a country. I'm a student of history, and we've gone through periods of political instability before. And ultimately, we've chosen to keep changing this country for the better. But every single time, we've only gotten through those moments because of two things: engaged citizens and principled leaders. Engaged citizens who do a little bit more than they're used to doing to fight for the things that they care about, and principled leaders who are ready to receive the ball and do something about it. So thank you tonight for caring about your country. Just by watching, you qualify as engaged citizens, and I promise that I and my fellow Democrats will do everything in our power to be the principled leaders that you deserve. Good night, everyone!** **And that was Alysa Slotkin, about 11 minutes from W. Michigan, with the Democratic response. She's a freshman senator, former Assistant Secretary of Defense, former CIA analyst, former representative. We're going to get to your calls after we check in one more time with Greta Broner.** **Peter, Alysa Slotkin promising to be brief tonight, and she was, especially in comparison to President Trump. He set a record tonight in this speech. Take a look at what C-SPAN has put out on X tonight. We are tracking the length of the speech as we usually do here on C-SPAN, and President Trump clocking in at just under 100 minutes—99 minutes and change there—the longest address to Congress in U.S. history. Look at how it compares to previous presidents and their State of the Union addresses. Biden back in 2020 going almost 65 minutes; he held the record. And President Trump tonight with 1 hour, 39 minutes, and 38 seconds. Peter, and now to your phone calls and your voices. We want to get your reaction to what President Trump had to say or the Democratic response. Phil is in Queens, New York, a Democrat. Phil, you're first up this evening. Good evening! Thanks for taking my call, and thanks to C-SPAN—always great coverage. And when you watch C-SPAN, you're really there. All the other networks have talking heads for most of the time. I'm now a Trump Dem.**

Назад

Залогинтесь, что бы оставить свой комментарий