WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump touted his newly imposed tariffs and basked in Republican applause for his administration’s swift early actions, while he drew a wave of protests from Democrats as he spoke to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday.
Leaning into culture wars, Trump inveighed against transgender rights, “they/them” pronouns and diversity, equity and inclusion programs. He celebrated his crackdown on migration. He repeatedly taunted his predecessor, Joe Biden, saying the former president imposed “insane and very dangerous open border policies.”
“Wokeness is bad,” Trump said. “It’s gone.”
Congressional Democrats in the room heckled and disrupted Trump, shouting at him not to cut Medicaid, waving an eclectic mix of signs to protest him and periodically shouting antagonistically at him.
Here are five takeaways from the speech — and how it sets up the rest of Trump’s 2025.
Trump defends his tariffs
Trump defended the sweeping 25% tariffs he imposed Tuesday on products from Canada and Mexico, saying “now it’s our turn” after other countries have levied them against the United States.
“It’s very unfair,” Trump said as scores of Republicans stood to applaud his tariffs, which he said “are about protecting the soul of our country.”
It’s a sign of how Trump has transformed the traditionally pro-free trade GOP, though there is some unease in the party about the tariffs’ effects on prices and the broader economy.
“There’ll be a little disturbance,” Trump added. “But we’re OK with that. It won’t be much.”
The tariffs sent stocks tumbling Tuesday, and some Democrats shouted “stock market!” as Trump spoke.
Trump also promised an economic revival and blamed ongoing problems like inflation and egg prices on Biden.
Trump outlines his policy agenda
Trump spent significant time on issues from transgender athletes to the work of the Department of Government Efficiency. But the biggest thing Congress may work on this year will be a massive tax and spending bill, and Trump outlined his priorities.
Trump reiterated his calls to cut taxes and include several campaign trail tax promises in a bill later this year — specifically killing taxes on tips and overtime. Congressional Republicans are wrestling with the feasibility of those proposals as they seek to pass a big party-line bill to advance core pieces of Trump’s agenda. They are still seeking to find room for the trillions of dollars in tax breaks Trump has called for.
Trump also called for repealing the CHIPS and Science Act, a bipartisan law that passed the Senate 64-33 and was signed by Biden in 2022.
“We should get rid of the Chip Act,” Trump said, referring to the law that invests in domestic research and semiconductor manufacturing.
Democrats heckle, wave signs and interrupt
Within minutes of Trump’s beginning, Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, interrupted and heckled him, yelling, “You have no mandate to cut Medicaid.” He was escorted out after he refused to stop shouting. There were other unintelligible shouts from Democrats during the speech. At another point, several Democratic members walked out in protest.
A group of House Democrats waved signs that read “MUSK STEALS,” “SAVE MEDICAID” and “PROTECT VETERANS.” Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., brought a whiteboard and wrote different messages on it through Trump’s speech, including “NO KING” and “LIES.”
Some Democrats laughed out loud when Trump said the era of rule by “unelected bureaucrats” is over, and they pointed at Trump’s billionaire adviser Elon Musk, who watched from the gallery.
Other Democrats skipped the speech entirely, including Sen. Chris Murphy, of Connecticut, who wants to lead his party’s strategy, and Sen. Patty Murray, of Washington, the vice chair of the Appropriations Committee and the recent former Senate president pro tempore.
The top three Democratic leaders in each chamber attended. They, like most others in the party, sat quietly and listened without disrupting Trump’s remarks, as Democrats work through their loss last year and how best to advance their agenda and oppose Trump’s in 2025 and beyond.
Trump soaks in GOP adulation
It has been months since Trump played to the crowd at one of his signature political rallies. He got a hero’s welcome and a standing ovation from Republicans in the Capitol, who regularly leaped to their feet to applaud him.
As Trump said he is waging the “most sweeping border and immigration crackdown in American history” and touted actions he has taken, the GOP side of the aisle erupted into chants of “Trump! Trump! Trump.”
Trump had no olive branch to offer his opponents, instead needling Democrats at the beginning of his speech, saying there was nothing he could say that would make them clap or smile — and later blasting “radical left lunatics” whom he called weak on crime. In response, some Democrats yelled, “January 6th!” referring to Trump’s pardons of rioters who stormed the Capitol, some of whom attacked police officers.
Biden offered during his first address to Congress to team up on “bipartisan” goals — a word he used multiple times in 2021 — like infrastructure, cancer research and access to education.
Trump, meanwhile, chided Democrats early in his speech for refusing to give him enough. He set the tone early by calling Biden “the worst president in American history” and played to a longtime presidential tradition: blaming his predecessor for problems facing the country.
“Everybody here — even this side — I appreciate you,” Trump quipped, drawing laughter from the GOP side of the aisle.
Ukraine, Panama Canal and Greenland
Trump lamented the billions of dollars the United States has spent to help Ukraine defend itself from Russia’s incursion, drawing ironic and extended applause from Democrats who support the military and economic assistance.
“You want to keep it going for another five years?” Trump asked.
“Pocahontas says yes,” he said, using a derisive nickname for Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., which prompted numerous Democrats to walk out of the chamber.
Trump also kept up his calls to bring the Panama Canal and Greenland into U.S. control.
“We didn’t give it to China. We gave it to Panama. We’re taking it back,” Trump said of the Panama Canal.
“We need Greenland for national security and international security,” he continued, calling it a “very, very large piece of land.”
“I think we’re going to get it. One way or the other, we’re going to get it,” he said as Republicans applauded and laughed.
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