President Donald Trump’s tone was jubilant and defiant.
He proudly listed the congressionally approved foreign-aid funds the Department of Government Efficiency has now frozen. He directly credited Elon Musk for leading DOGE, despite a White House court filing stating that Musk, who has not been confirmed by the Senate, is not leading the office.
He said that his administration would acquire Greenland “one way or another,” even as Denmark has said explicitly the island is not for sale. And early in his address to the joint session of Congress, the 45th and 47th president heralded renaming North America’s tallest mountain after William McKinley, despite Alaska’s two Republican senators moving to change it back to the mountain’s old name, Denali.
“The people elected me to do the job and I’m doing it,” Trump said at his first address to a joint session of Congress since retaking the White House. “It has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country.”
His actions during the first two months of his second presidency have resulted in dozens of lawsuits. Republicans in Congress and agency officials have been caught off guard by many of his moves — some of which have directly interfered with Congress’ power of the purse, gone against lawmakers’ wishes and at times conflicted with court orders.
But on Tuesday, Trump declared his mandate, pushing Republicans to pass his legislative agenda and prodding Democrats to bend to his will in the longest presidential address to a joint session of Congress, clocking in at almost one hour and 40 minutes.
Trump doubled down on his most controversial actions in office to a standing ovation from Republicans, who have repeatedly rubber-stamped the White House’s expansive view of executive power.
“The golden age of America has just begun. It will be like nothing that has ever been seen before,” Trump said.
Democrats, who were divided on how they should respond to Trump ahead of his speech, booed, heckled and raised “Musk steals” signs. Speaker Mike Johnson called for Rep. Al Green to be escorted out for protesting. Others walked out wearing “RESIST” t-shirts.
Trump, singling them out repeatedly, invited Democrats to “join us in celebrating so many and incredible wins for America,” which was met by blank faces. At another point, he derisively called Sen. Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas” and claimed baselessly that she wants the war in Ukraine to continue.
“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,” Trump said. “It’s very sad and it shouldn’t be this way.”
Trump delivered his speech as his administration faces several major early tests domestically and in foreign policy. On Tuesday, there was an apparent breakthrough in relations between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after their meeting last week devolved into a public yelling match. On Monday, Trump had temporarily paused military aid to Ukraine.
But on Tuesday, Trump said he received a letter from Zelenskyy.
“I appreciate that he sent this letter,” Trump said. “Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace. Wouldn’t that be beautiful?”
Trump also took the opportunity to once again push an aggressive tariff regime, even as his administration is poised to roll back some of the 25% tariffs it placed on Mexican and Canadian imports as of Monday.
“It may be a little bit of an adjustment period,” the president said of tariffs, calling out their possible impacts on U.S. farmers. But ultimately, Trump gave a full-throated endorsement of the trade policy. “Whatever they tariff us, we tariff them. Whatever they tax us, we tax them. 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,” Trump said Tuesday. “We will take in trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before.”
Republicans applauded the comments, even as many of them have expressed concerns about trade wars.
At every turn, Trump’s address emphasized the power of his White House.
On immigration, he said: “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 the new president.”
On foreign policy, Trump asked Congress to fund “a state-of-the-art golden dome missile defense shield to protect our homeland in the USA,” announced his intentions to build a new White House shipbuilding office and said that his administration would be “reclaiming” the Panama Canal.
To date, Trump has signed 76 executive orders, according to the Federal Register, touching everything from border security and culture war issues to federal staffing and funding.
“The days of rule by unelected bureaucrats are over,” he said. “We are draining the swamp, it’s very simple.”
Democrats in the chamber pointed toward Musk.
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Jasmine Wright is a reporter at NOTUS.