Highlights from President Donald Trump’s 2025 joint address to Congress

The president has always reveled in his reputation for tough talk. But a look back at 2017, when Trump gave his first speech to Congress in his first term, shows how Trump has only become more of a hardliner.

Eight years ago, he talked about working with Canada’s Trudeau to support women entrepreneurs in both countries. He paid homage to “our nation’s path towards civil rights.” He said “real and positive immigration reform is possible.” There was no reference to Barack Obama, who he replaced in the White House.

Now Trump is feuding with Trudeau over tariffs. He used his speech to criticize diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which he’s been swiftly eliminating across the federal government. His remarks on immigration focused on deporting criminals. And he repeatedly derided Biden.

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Espaillat claimed in his Spanish rebuttal that the Trump administration created the Department of Government Efficiency, to cut essential programs like Social Security, Medicaid and benefits for veterans.

The Social Security Administration is preparing to lay off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000, according to a person familiar with the agency’s plans who is not authorized to speak publicly. It’s not clear how the layoffs would impact the benefits of the 72.5 million Social Security beneficiaries.

Trump set a tone of division almost from his first words, calling his predecessor Joe Biden the worst president in history and chiding Democrats as so stinting in their praise of him they would not even grant him perfunctory applause.

He placed himself alongside the country’s first president, George Washington, when discussing what he said were the flood of early achievements of his second term.

Trump leaned hard into cultural flashpoints — his opposition to affirmative action, diversity programs and transgender rights.

He inflated the scale of his victory in November, the margin of which was actually among the smallest in American history. The tenor was more that of a campaign speech than an address to Congress.

Trump described Democrats as a lost cause. “There is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy,” he said.

▶ Read more takeaways from Trump’s address to Congress

Rep. Adriano Espaillat of New York, chair of the Hispanic Caucus, gave a rebuttal in Spanish, criticizing Trump for not doing enough to bring prices down and instead signing orders such as changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told Fox News there may be a censure resolution brought to discipline Texas Rep. Al Green. Green was removed from the chamber for disturbing Trump’s address.

“It’s late,” she began, “so I promise to be a lot shorter than what you just watched.”

Slotkin’s response to Trump’s speech was as concise as the president’s was wordy.

The Michigan senator’s address clocked in at around 11 minutes, compared to the about one hour and 40 minutes Trump’s speech took.

Slotkin implored listeners, “Don’t tune out. It’s easy to be exhausted. But America needs you now more than ever.” That sentiment came after Trump spoke for nearly 100 minutes.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform, which backs immigration restrictions, predictably applauded Trump for his actions since Jan. 20 and the agenda he laid out in his speech. The group took him to task, though, for touting a $5 million “gold card” path to citizenship for wealthy buyers.

“Rather than a plan to allow people to buy their way into our country, the president should put forward a long overdue proposal to reform our legal immigration system that selects new immigrants based on merit, not money,” said Dan Stein, the group’s president.

Slotkin closed her response to Trump’s speech by saying, “This isn’t the first time we’ve experienced significant and tumultuous change as a country.” She described herself as a student of history and said that the U.S. is resilient and has emerged stronger from periods of social and political upheaval in the past.

Grocery prices aren’t actually rising by much, except for high-profile items such as eggs. Grocery costs, on average, have risen just 1.9% in the past year. At the peak of inflation in 2022, grocery prices soared more than 13% in a year.

Slotkin criticized a Trump administration effort led by Musk for firing scores of federal employees only to rehire them then after realizing those dismissed worked on critical issues.

She suggested that Musk himself would have lost his job if he had done similarly in the business world.

Slotkin said that President Trump is “trying to deliver an unprecedented giveaway to his billionaire friends.”

Slotkin is attempting to present a refined economic message as the Democratic Party continues to struggle to unify around a strategy to counter Trump.

Michigan Democratic Sen. Elissa Slotkin is giving the Democratic response to Trump’s speech from Wyandotte, Michigan, where she noted that both she and Trump won with voters last November.

She opened her remarks promising to keep things much tighter than Trump, who set a record for a joint address to Congress by talking for around an hour and 40 minutes.

“America is once again standing strong against the forces of radical Islamic terrorism,” Trump said in reference to a 2021 attack in Afghanistan that killed more than a dozen American service members and around 170 Afghan civilians.

Muslims around the world, including an estimated 4.5 million who live in America, began observing on Friday the holy month of Ramadan, during which many fast, gather and commit to strengthening their faith.

Trump has set a record for the longest address to a joint session of Congress. And it wasn’t even close.

He talked for more than an hour and 40 minutes, breaking the previous record set by President Bill Clinton’s 2000 State of the Union address, which ran 1 hour, 28 minutes and 49 seconds.

That’s according to the American Presidency Project at the University of California at Santa Barbara, which has tracked speech length since President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.

Trump’s speech is not technically a State of the Union since he only took office about six weeks ago. But his lengthy address is nonetheless the longest offered to a joint session of Congress.

“The golden age of America has only just begun,” he told Congress as he finished his speech after speaking for nearly 100 minutes.

Republican lawmakers rose to their feet and cheered the conclusion of Trump’s address, pumping their hands in the air while chanting “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Democrats quickly streamed from the chamber while GOP lawmakers tallied to shake hands with the president.

Trump said that driving down childhood cancer rates and studying autism cases in the U.S. will be a top priority for his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine and environmental advocate who is lobbying to redesign the U.S. food supply.

Childhood cancer remains rare in the U.S., with about 15,000 children diagnosed with the disease every year.

Cases of pediatric cancer have risen in recent years, but treatments have improved, leading to a decline in deaths from the disease.

Among 8-year-olds in the U.S., about 1 in 36 were diagnosed with autism in 2020.

Trump recited a letter he received earlier Tuesday from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying that the wartime president wants to come back to the table after an explosive Oval office meeting last week broke down negotiations for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

“We’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace,” Trump said. “Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”

President Trump says the U.S. government is extraditing a suspect in the deadly Abbey Gate bombing in the final days of the Afghanistan withdrawal that killed 13 American servicemembers.

The White House identified the man as Muhammed Sharifullah and said he was on his way to the U.S. to face charges.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the extradition was the result of work by the FBI, Justice Department and CIA.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Army had its best recruiting in January, suggesting that the turnaround is tied to his time in office.

In fact, according to Army data, recruiting numbers have been increasing steadily over the past year, with the highest total coming in August 2024 — before the November election. Army officials closely track recruiting numbers.

A significant driver of the recruiting success was the Army’s decision to launch the Future Soldier Prep Course at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in August 2022. That program gives lower-performing recruits up to 90 days of academic or fitness instruction to help them meet military standards and move on to basic training.

Trump gave a shoutout to Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, as the president detailed his plans to “reclaim” the Panama Canal. But Trump’s comments appeared to also be a veiled warning for his Cabinet official, who is under immense pressure to execute massive cuts to U.S. foreign policy efforts abroad.

But he joked that he would “know who to blame if anything goes wrong,” resulting in some laughter from Republicans. He quickly pivoted to point out that Rubio was confirmed unanimously in the Senate and that “he’s going to do a fantastic job.”

Seated Democrats joined Republicans’ standing applause for Americans recently released from Russia through a deal brokered by the Trump administration.

It was the only line from Trump’s speech that drew more applause from Democrats than Republicans, yet Democrats applauded as Trump acknowledged that the U.S. has sent billions of dollars in military aid for Ukraine.

A few Republicans also applauded but were more subdued. However, GOP lawmakers rose in a standing ovation when Trump told them that Ukraine was showing it was ready to negotiate a peace deal.

Trump said the U.S. supports Greenland’s right to determine its own future but would “welcome” the country into the United States for national security — and to make them rich, he claims.

Since his first term in office, Trump has expressed interest in acquiring Greenland, which is a semiautonomous territory of Denmark, a longtime U.S. ally and a founding member of NATO. It is also home to a large U.S. military base.

Democratic lawmakers are continuing to duck out of President Trump’s speech.

The Democratic side of the chamber now has plenty of open seats as lawmakers leave. Some made shows of their exit to protest the president’s remarks, while others appeared to be simply ducking out as Trump’s speech goes on.

The members of Congress included Reps. Veronica Escobar, Ilhan Omar, Pramila Jayapal and Jamie Raskin.

Trump wants the United States to start building more large ocean-going vessels. It’s a push also being made by labor unions who see job gains in shipyards. But it’s unclear just what Trump’s move would accomplish.

Trump’s address has gone beyond the 80-minute mark. His campaign speeches often went above 90 minutes. His inaugural address in January, however, was about 30 minutes long.

Trump signed an executive order renaming a wildlife refuge for a young girl who prosecutors say was killed by two Venezuelan men in the country illegally.

Jocelyn Nungaray’s death was one of several cases last year that became flashpoints in the immigration debate. Prosecutors have charged two Venezuelan men who entered the U.S. illegally with capital murder. Nungaray’s mother campaigned for Trump. She was in the audience Tuesday as Trump gave his address.

Speaking of Jocelyn’s love of animals, Trump said he decided to rename the wildlife refuge near her Houston home for her.

Trump has already used executive actions to roll back a series of Biden administration policies promoting transgender rights, and he has vowed to stamp out “gender ideology.”

During his speech, the president asked Congress to limit gender-affirming surgeries performed on minors, though he offered few details. Some of Trump’s executive actions, meanwhile, have already been met by legal challenges.

Both Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colorado, are still standing, of course. Both figured in Trump’s campaign. The president amplified false conspiracy theories that legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating dogs and cats.

Aurora had a more serious issue — a series of incidents at rundown apartment complexes, one of which was captured on video that showed heavily armed men going door to door. But the buildings have since been closed and Aurora, population 400,000, is the size of Tampa. It never buckled.

More than a dozen Democrats joined Republicans in a standing ovation for a guest of Trump, a child diagnosed with cancer who Trump said aspires to become a policeman. The child, named DJ, was held up by his father as Republicans and attendees in the House gallery chanted “DJ.”

Trump announced DJ would be sworn in by his new Secret Service director as a member of the force. DJ was held up by his father as he received a Secret Service badge by Director Sean Curran.

Democrats then went largely silent as Trump discussed his health policies. Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib held up a whiteboard that read, “You cut cancer research.” One Republican shouted, “MAHA baby!”

While Trump is touting his support of police, one of his first actions after returning to the White House in January was granting clemency to the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot, including dozens of people who assaulted police.

Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas., first shouted “January 6th” as Trump recounted his plans for combatting crime throughout the country. At least a dozen Democrats joined in the repeated chant as Trump discussed the need to crack down on violent criminals.

Those pardoned include more than 250 people convicted of assault charges, including people who attacked police with makeshift weapons such as flagpoles, a hockey stick and a crutch. One officer suffered a heart attack after a rioter pressed a stun gun against his neck and repeatedly shocked him. Many of the crimes were captured on surveillance and body camera footage and detailed in harrowing court testimony from officers who desperately fought to protect the Capitol.

“HOLY COW!!!!!” reads the subject line of an email from former Vice President Kamala Harris seeking contributions to the Democratic National Committee.

Harris and the Democratic Party’s prodigious fundraising operation raised more than $1 billion in their campaign against Trump. But the former vice president has continued to solicit contributions under the “Harris Fight Fund.”

That’s the postelection label for the “Harris Victory Fund,” a joint fundraising operation of Harris’ campaign, the DNC and state Democratic parties.

Trump has long promoted a tough-on-crime agenda and sought to paint Democratic-led cities as besieged by violence, despite statistics showing a downward trend in violent crime after a coronavirus pandemic-era spike.

Trump’s comments also echo his campaign trail rhetoric about the need for more aggressive policing. He suggested last year that “one rough hour” of law enforcement action would tamp down retail theft. He has also advocated for ensuring that officers “have immunity from prosecution.”

Trump praised his wife for lobbying for a bill that would make it a federal crime to post intimate imagery online, whether real or fake. He thanked the Senate for passing the measure.

The president called it a “terrible, terrible thing” to publish such images online, and then seemingly joked he would use that bill for himself.

“Nobody that gets treated worse than I do online. Nobody,” he said.

Trump is banking on the idea that taxing imports is the road to riches for the United States. Most economists say Trump’s tariffs would hurt the country, as they’re tax increases that could raise the costs of goods in ways that could also harm economic growth. Trump suggests that the impact on inflation would be minimal.

When the Yale University Budget Lab looked at the tariffs that Trump imposed Tuesday on Canada, Mexico and China, it found that inflation would increase a full percentage point, growth would fall by half a percentage point and the average household would lose about $1,600 in disposable income.

Laying out more details on how he plans to stimulate the farming economy, Trump argued that increasing U.S. tariffs on agriculture products from abroad would protect domestic producers at home while acknowledging, “It may be a little bit of an adjustment period.”

But tariffs wouldn’t necessarily stop farm products from coming aboard, only make them more expensive for U.S. consumers.

Trump is touting a plan he announced Feb. 26 to offer a “gold card” for prospective, rich immigrants.

The program will replace an existing one offering U.S. visas to investors who spend about $1 million on a company that employs at least 10 people.

Under Trump’s plan, investors would have to pony up $5 million. They would have to pay taxes in the U.S., Trump said. More than 100 countries around the world have something similar.

But some countries, including Spain and the U.K., have ended their programs. Spain’s program was criticized for causing soaring housing prices, while there were security concerns over the U.K. program.

Riley, a University of Georgia student, was killed by an immigrant in the country illegally. Congress passed and Trump signed into law a bill bearing her name as his first piece of legislation in his second term. Most Democrats were seated and, after the round of applause, again held up “False” signs at Trump’s claims about the Biden administration’s approach to immigration.

That figure, which Trump cites regularly, is highly inflated. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports more than 10.8 million arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico from January 2021 through December 2024.

That’s arrests, not people. Under pandemic-era asylum restrictions, many people crossed more than once until they succeeded because there were no legal consequences for getting turned back to Mexico. So the number of people is lower than the number of arrests.

Trump’s order actually states that there are only two immutable sexes, and it was one of a series Trump has signed that target the rights of transgender people.

The orders paved the way for kicking transgender people out of the military, denying changes to the sex marker on passports and erasing any mention of transgender people from a website commemorating the Stonewall riot, among others. And they’re facing legal challenges.

Two judges in the past week have kept on hold a policy to block federal funding for gender-affirming health care for transgender people under age 19.

Trump said farmers need to “bear with me again” as he imposes tariffs. But the retaliatory action from other countries could hurt farmers’ bottom lines by billions of dollars collectively if they remain in place long term, and consumers could quickly see that result in higher prices of produce and ground beef at the grocery store.

The exact toll is hard to predict at this stage. But tariffs make farmers uneasy about investing in expensive equipment. “Farmers are very concerned,” said Steve Kuiper, a director at the Iowa Corn Growers Association.

Trump was taunting Democrats for opposing his tax cut plans, which could cost anywhere from $5 trillion to $11 trillion over 10 years, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a fiscal watchdog.

Of course, Democrats know what happened after they opposed Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, many of which are set to expire next year because they were funded through debt. There was no political penalty for opposing Trump’s cuts that Democrats portrayed as favoring those with extreme wealth. In the 2018 midterms, Democrats picked up a majority by gaining 40 seats, their strongest gain since the 1974 elections.

Trump promised that come April 2, reciprocal tariffs will be imposed for most of the country’s trading partners.

“That’s reciprocal, back and forth. Whatever they tax us, we will tax that,” he said. Trump has made similar threats for weeks but said he didn’t want to make the announcement on April 1 because of April Fool’s Day.

Trump’s shoutout to one of his guests, an Alabama steelworker, father of seven and foster parent to forty, received a standing ovation from Republican lawmakers and applause from a clear majority of the seated Democratic caucus. Other of Trump and First Lady Melania Trump’s guests received scattered seated applause from Democrats as well.

Trump cited the funding as an example of government waste uncovered by his administration and the Department of Government Efficiency. Trump’s move to freeze foreign aid has significantly impacted a program that fights HIV in Lesotho, a poor nation in south Africa. The program was started by Trump’s Republican predecessor, former President George W. Bush.

One of Trump’s orders is intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. At least 24 states have already passed similar laws and a federal version sputtered this week in the U.S. Senate.

Like others, he portrays it as a way to protect girls and women. And in the audience was Payton McNabb, a former North Carolina high school athlete who suffered a concussion and neck injury that ended her athletic career after a ball hit by a transgender athlete struck her in a 2022 match.

The president of the NCAA said last year he was aware of fewer than 10 active NCAA athletes who identified as transgender.

Trump is touting his moves to cut federal staffing and downsize America’s global diplomatic footprint as a win, a “big dream” that will protect American interests. The groups cited by Trump play a significant role in setting global policy on climate change, pandemics and human rights. Trump also withdrew the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission during his first term. The organization has been criticized by Israel.

The databases may list those people, but that does not mean they are getting paid benefits, as Trump implied.

Social Security’s acting administrator, Lee Dudek, said last month: “The reported data are people in our records with a Social Security number who do not have a date of death associated with their record. These individuals are not necessarily receiving benefits.”

Part of the confusion comes from Social Security’s software system, which is based on the COBOL programming language and has a lack of date type. This means that some entries with missing or incomplete birthdates will default to a reference point of more than 150 years ago.

During his campaign, Trump pledged to bar public schools from teaching content he deemed to be “woke,” including the vaguely defined “critical race theory.”

The term refers to an academic framework, but Republican activists repurposed it to include a broad range of lessons, including those on institutional racism and those that emphasized the role of slavery in U.S. history. He has pledged to cut federal funding to schools that teach content deemed to be critical race theory and told schools to end diversity programs.

Some schools have complied, but others have shrugged off the directive.