Democrats swore they weren’t going to make the president’s joint address to Congress about him. It happened anyway.
Despite their best efforts to keep their response focused on how President Donald Trump’s policies are affecting Americans, Democrats couldn’t help but make it about Trump Tuesday night.
But the president couldn’t help but make it about himself, either.
Throughout Trump’s nearly two-hour speech, the president went after Democrats for not applauding him (“there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy, or to make them stand, smile or applaud”). He talked about how he had done more in his first 43 days in office than most presidents do in four years (“or eight years”). And he bragged about the size of his electoral win (“on a map that reads almost completely red for Republican”).
And if Trump’s digs were meant to trigger Democrats, it worked.
Before the speech, Democratic leaders broke with tradition by not escorting the president to the podium. And as Trump made his way to the dais, Democratic Rep. Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico held up a white paper with a handwritten message that said, “This is not normal.” Republican Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas snatched it from Stansbury and threw it to the ground.
The speech started contentiously enough when Rep. Al Green almost immediately challenged the president. Green, an 11-term Democrat from Texas, was the first lawmaker to introduce articles of impeachment against Trump in the president’s first term. And Green said Tuesday night that he was already working on a new impeachment resolution.
But Green made news Tuesday night for refusing to sit down as Trump talked, with Green wagging his cane at the president and shouting, ”You have no mandate.”
Eventually, Speaker Mike Johnson warned Green that if he continued to disrupt the joint session, the sergeant-at-arms would remove him from the chamber.
As Green continued — and as Republicans spiritedly shouted at their Democratic colleague to sit down — officers eventually escorted Green from the floor. And as he walked out of the chamber, Republicans sang, “Na na na naa, na na na naa, hey hey hey, goodbye!”
From there, Democrats found plenty more to disagree with.
At one point in the speech, Trump called out Social Security payments going to people who are more than 160 years old, even though fact checkers have called his claim “baseless.” Democrats couldn’t help but jeer.
When Trump rattled off supposed savings from his Department of Government Efficiency, Rep. Gil Cisneros shouted, “Those are lies!”
When Trump touted that he was ending the reign of unelected bureaucrats, Rep. Nydia Velázquez stood up and pointed to Elon Musk in the gallery.
At another point, Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost took off his jacket, exposing a shirt that said “No Kings Live Here” on the back. He stood with his back toward Trump until sergeant-at-arms staff escorted him off the floor.
Rep. Jasmine Crockett, donning a shirt that said “Resist” on the back, also left the chamber midway through Trump’s speech. And Rep. Yassamin Ansari said in a post on X that she walked out because she could not “listen to Trump’s hate and lies anymore.”
Throughout the speech, a number of Democrats in the Congressional Progressive Caucus held up black placards with white lettering that said things like “Save Medicaid,” “Musk Steals” and “Protect Veterans.” On the back of the placards, there was another message: “FALSE.”
Democrats routinely held up that message as Trump spoke and made claims that indeed had a tenuous relationship with the truth.
The signs were organized by the CPC, a person familiar with the idea told NOTUS. And this person said Democrats believed the signs were in line with a larger approach of bringing the focus back to health care, veterans and federal spending cuts.
But the signs also served as a largely silent protest against a president Democrats increasingly see no common ground with, as Trump shreds whole agencies in the federal government, withholds congressionally appropriated funds and sides with Russia over Ukraine.
There was little that Democrats could applaud, save for a moment when Trump noted that the United States had sent “hundreds of billions of dollars to support Ukraine’s defense.”
Democrats, many of them wearing ties with Ukraine’s blue-and-yellow stripes, tried to hijack the moment by applauding. But Trump struck back by asking Democrats whether they want to keep the war in Ukraine going “another five years.”
“Pocahontas says yes,” Trump said, derisively referring to Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Even during the most heartfelt portion of the speech, when Trump made a 13-year-old with brain cancer an honorary member of the Secret Service, Democrats remained in their seats and resisted applause. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who brought a whiteboard to the speech so she could adjust her protest message on the fly, wrote, “You cut cancer research.”
At various points in the speech, Tlaib displayed signs that said, “Cut Elon not Social Security,” “Start by paying your taxes,” “Stop lying to the American people” and one that simply said “LIES!”
While Democrats after the address tried to refocus their response to how Trump’s policies have been economically harmful to Americans — at one point, Trump touted his commitment to tariffs — the feisty speech caused plenty of personal consternation.
“It was one lie heaped on another,” Sen. Warren said after the speech — a claim that CNN partially backed up in a fact check of the president’s address.
“I am astonished at the statements that were made, the off-script rambling and the blatant half steps and mistruths that were told,” Rep. Troy Carter told NOTUS. “He said he was the best, most successful president, and second to him is George Washington. He professed his love and support for police officers but released and pardoned January 6ers. It was the most unorganized compilation of half-truths that I’ve ever heard from a United States president.”
Rep. Jennifer McClellan told NOTUS it was difficult to listen to “two hours of misinformation.”
“Pitting one group of Americans against another and stoking bigotry and division and justifying chaos and the putting our federal workforce in trauma,” she said. “It was hard to listen to him tout economic policies that have raised prices on everything from gas to groceries and toys to technology, and parrot talking points from Vladimir Putin while attacking our allies and neighbors.”
Rep. Brad Sherman was similarly outraged. “You’ve got a president there who is building the case to destroy Social Security by claiming that millions of people over the age of 150 are receiving the checks,” he said.
Sherman continued that Trump’s staff knows — “I don’t know whether he understands it, but his people know full well” — they are spreading lies. “He tells the lies over and over again in order to get you to hate Social Security recipients and Haitian immigrants,” he said.
Meanwhile, Democratic leaders hardly seemed pleased with how rank-and-file members handled the address. As Green continued to shout at Trump, a sergeant-at-arms officer could be seen consulting with former Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who appeared less-than-thrilled with Green’s decision to get tossed from the chamber.
Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar all looked concerned during Green’s outburst, and none of them joined the hecklings or sign-holdings. After the address, Jeffries was laconic.
“Donald Trump delivered one of the most divisive presidential addresses in American history,” he said in a statement.
But Democratic members were careful to note there wasn’t a coordinated Democratic response one way or another.
“We didn’t all organize some big thing,” Rep. Marc Veasey told NOTUS. “There’s groups that obviously did what they wanted to do. My whole deal was I was focused on exactly what he was saying — and a lot of what he said was just lies.”
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Daniella Diaz is a reporter at NOTUS. Calen Razor, Shifra Dayak and Samuel Larreal are NOTUS reporters and Allbritton Journalism Institute fellows.
Oriana González, who is a reporter at NOTUS, and Ben T.N. Mause, who is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow, contributed to this report.