Heavy on migrant crime, light on inflation: 8 takeaways from Trump’s speech to Congress
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- Trump’s address featured a slew of false claims, such as the assertion that U.S. citizens that are hundreds of years old are receiving Social Security checks.
- Trump said that the prosecutions against him in his four years out of power fueled his return to the White House.
WASHINGTON — President Trump laid out an aggressive approach to “renewing the American dream” in his address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, heavily emphasizing his crackdown on immigration, diversity policies and the federal workforce while giving passing mention to his administration’s approach to the rising costs of goods.
Here are several takeaways.
A night of hyperbole, swagger and falsehoods
Trump’s fifth address to Congress was true to form for the president. His sharp attacks against Democrats included using “Pocahontas” as a slur against Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who sat in the audience, and calling his predecessor, President Biden, the “worst president of all time.”
It also featured a slew of false claims, such as the assertion that U.S. citizens who are hundreds of years old are receiving Social Security checks and that his administration has identified “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud.”
The president also repeatedly said that his policies would produce results “like nothing that has ever been seen before,” including job growth resulting from tariffs and energy production from deregulation.
Democrats take disruption to a new level
The protests began as soon as Trump took the dais, with Democrats across the chamber raising small black signs saying “Save Medicaid,” “Musk steals” and “Protect veterans.”
Once Trump started speaking, Democrats took to live fact-checking the president, raising signs that said, “False.”
Then Trump began speaking about his victory in the November election, repeating his frequent refrain, “The presidential election of Nov. 5 was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades.” Rep. Al Green (D-Texas.) stood up and pointed his cane at the president, saying the president had “no mandate” to cut Medicaid.
House Republicans just passed a budget resolution that, while not explicitly mentioning Medicaid, many Democrats say will cut into the popular government-funded national healthcare insurance.
“It’s worth it to let people know that there are some people who are going to stand up” to Trump, Green said to reporters after being led out of the chamber.
Republicans leaped to the president’s defense, roaring against Green and chanting, “USA!”
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The protests from Democrats continued throughout the speech, as they raised signs, laughed and grumbled. Others stood up, revealing T-shirts that said “Resist.” A few left the room.
Just before the president finished his speech, Democrats chanted, “January 6th,” a reminder of the violent mob of Trump supporters that stormed the U.S. Capitol four years ago.
Climate policies and electric vehicles come under attack
Trump said he had “terminated the ridiculous green new scam” and touted his administration’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord, the second time he has taken the United States out of the landmark agreement as president.
“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 autoworkers and companies from economic destruction,” he said.
Trump revoked Biden’s goal of ensuring that 50% of vehicles on U.S. roads are electric by 2030, among his first acts in office. But his executive actions have not changed tax credits, passed by Congress, for Americans purchasing electric vehicles, or policies in states including California that have their own standards driving the production decisions of automobile manufacturers.
Evoking felony charges, Trump asks: ‘How did that work out?’
Pointing to Democratic lawmakers, at this point seated and silent, Trump said that the prosecutions against him in his four years out of power fueled his return.
“We’ve ended weaponized government where, for example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent, like me. How did that work out? Not too good,” he said, pointing to the Democrats and cheered on by the Republican caucus. “Not too good.”
Trump’s Justice Department, led by Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, has launched a “Weaponization Working Group” to investigate those who were involved in the prosecutions of Trump, who had been charged with attempting to subvert the results of the 2020 president election he lost and illegally hoarding highly classified information at his Florida estate.
The president’s Cabinet members have said that they will not tolerate any political dissent among career government employees, and that those with differing political views will be fired. Trump has also ordered that every attorney at Covington & Burling, a major law firm representing Jack Smith, the special counsel who led the investigations against Trump, have their security clearances revoked, an act that the law firm has called retaliatory.
No answers on egg prices
Trump spent little time on his plan to address the costs of everyday goods in the speech, blaming his predecessor for inflation that polls show remain a top concern of Americans.
“As president, I’m fighting every day to reverse this damage and to make America affordable again,” Trump said. “President Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control. The egg prices, 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 on that from the previous administration. Do a good job.”
The price of a dozen eggs, now averaging roughly $5 nationwide, is expected only to increase over the coming year as a widespread bird flu continues to devastate chicken farmers, the USDA has said, and with the Trump administration cutting the federal workforce at the agency.
‘Wokeness is trouble’
The president called diversity efforts a “tyranny” throughout the country — a stark contrast to his first address to a joint session eight years ago, which opened with an appeal to fight for civil rights — and said he would continue working to eradicate diversity, equity and inclusion measures across the federal government.
He also repeated his assertion that air traffic controllers may be getting hired based on DEI policies, alluding to claims he made in January — without evidence — that an airplane and helicopter crash at Washington’s Reagan National Airport might have been the fault of diversity hiring.
“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,” he said.
This month, the president of a union representing employees of the Federal Aviation Administration said that the Trump administration had fired essential employees from the agency as part of its government-wide purge of the federal workforce.
Trump also highlighted his efforts to restrict transgender women from playing in women’s sports and from schools “indoctrinating our children with transgender ideology.”
“Our country will be woke no longer,” he said. “Wokeness is trouble.”
Dismissing the need for immigration reform
On multiple occasions, Trump congratulated himself for the sudden drop in illegal border crossings since he took office.
“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 all we really needed was a new president,” Trump said. “Joe Biden didn’t just open our borders — he flew illegal aliens over them to overwhelm our schools, hospitals and communities across the country.
“We are achieving the great liberation of America,” he said, “but there is still much work to be done.”
He touted the first bill he signed into law this year, the Laken Riley Act, which gives authorities more power to deport immigrants accused of crimes who are in the U.S. illegally. The mother and sister of Riley — a 22-year-old Georgia nursing student who was killed by a Venezuelan immigrant in the country illegally — joined the speech from the House chamber gallery.
Trump also took the unusual act of delivering an executive order, renaming a wildlife refuge in honor of Jocelyn Nungaray, a 12-year-old from Texas who was killed in June. Two Venezuelan immigrants in the country illegally are charged in her death.
He also touted his idea for a “gold card” visa, a novel way for foreigners to obtain U.S. citizenship by paying $5 million.
“Citizenship for sale!” one Democrat in the audience cried out.
Few claps for attacks on Ukraine
Trump’s least popular segment of the speech, across party lines, was his critique of Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion.
Days after berating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in an Oval Office meeting whose reverberations were felt around the world, Trump said he received a letter from the Ukrainian president earlier Monday, saying he is ready for peace.
“I appreciate that he sent this letter,” Trump said. “Simultaneously, we’ve had serious conversations with Russia and we’ve received strong signals that they are ready for peace.”
Trump repeated his goal of ending the war in Ukraine. “The United States has sent hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s defense,” he said, eliciting the only applause of the night from the Democratic lawmakers, many of whom were wearing yellow and blue in support of the embattled country.
He praised his administration for facilitating the return of Israeli hostages in Gaza, which took place just as Biden was transitioning out of office.
“A lot of the things are happening in the Middle East,” Trump said. “It’s a rough neighborhood, actually.”
Trump also repeated his goal of taking over Greenland and the Panama Canal.
“My administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it,” he said, referencing a deal announced by BlackRock on Tuesday to take over ports in the vicinity of the canal. “We’re taking it back.”
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