Trump promises to ‘rediscover the unstoppable power of the American spirit’ in sweeping address to Congress

In a joint session of Congress, President Donald Trump said America can enjoy the “greatest era” in the history of the country after years adrift under Democrats.

In an address that also laid out future policy priorities, Trump highlighted the extraordinary number of actions taken by his administration in the last 43 days to change America’s trajectory from the “insane policies” of the Biden administration.

The speech to the joint session stood in lieu of the State of the Union speech, which is given after a president has served at least one year of his term.

“Over the past six weeks, I have signed nearly 100 executive orders and taken more than 400 executive actions, a record to restore common sense, safety, optimism and wealth all across our wonderful land,” Trump told Congress. “The people elected me to do the job, and I’m doing it,” he added. 

The president’s talk was frequently interrupted by vigorous applause from Republicans, while Democrats sat on their hands – or held up signs in protest – even when Trump invoked tackling bipartisan issues such as soaring autism rates and hailed a 13-year-old boy in attendance who had cancer. 

“This is my fifth such speech to Congress, and once again, 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,” Trump scolded. 

Trump outlined the impact of many of the executive actions he’s taken since his inauguration, including reducing illegal border crossings, termination of Biden’s “Green New Deal” policies that drove up energy prices, exiting the Paris Climate accord, leaving the World Health Organization and walking out of “the anti-American UN Human Rights Council.”  

“To unshackle our economy, I have directed that for every one new regulation, 10 old regulations must be eliminated, just like I did in my very successful first term,” Trump said.  

Trump repeatedly needled Democrats over his November victory and the missteps by the liberal opposition that created his comeback win.  

“The presidential election of Nov. 5 was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades,” Trump told Democrats. “We won all seven swing states, giving us an Electoral College victory of 312 votes. We won the popular vote by big numbers and won [the] counties in our country.”  

The victory, he said, lifted American confidence according to a number of indicators, including right track/wrong track polls and small business confidence.   

The speech was interrupted at that point by Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, who stood and heckled Trump, refusing to allow the president to continue uninterrupted until House Speaker Mike Johnson called for his removal. 

Besides the Green outburst, the speech was largely free from verbal liberal protests, which was a concern going into the night. Scattered demonstrations simply consisted of elected Democrats lifting pre-printed signs the size of a ping-pong paddle from the Congressional Progressive Caucus that read “Musk Steals,” “Save Medicaid,” “False” and “Protect Veterans.” 

After several minutes, the Associated Press feed of the speech either stopped showing the demonstrations or Democrats stopped using the paddles.  

After Green was escorted from the chamber, Trump continued with a litany of policy changes he’s made since he entered the White House.  

Trump attacked the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies championed by Democrats, noting, “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 also described actions taken to combat inflation, as well as waste, fraud and abuse in government. 

Trump noted a long list of outrageous spending, including $22 billion to house illegal aliens in the U.S., $8 million to promote LGBTQ in the obscure African nation of Lesotho and “$8 million for making mice transgender.”  

“This is just the beginning. The Government Accountability Office, a federal government office, has estimated annual fraud of over $500 billion in our nation, and we are working very hard to stop it,” he said.  

The president added that federal workers must return to in-person work or risk being fired, saying the days of an “unaccountable bureaucracy” of “unelected” officials in government is over.  

“And we have ended weaponized government, where, as an example, a sitting president is allowed to viciously prosecute his political opponent like me,” Trump said.  

He then asked liberals in Congress, “How did that work out?” referring to a variety of impeachments and other investigations of Trump and others by Democrats against their political opponents.  

In foreign policy, Trump talked tough on trade but was bullish on peace for Europe.  

Trump said that for “decades” even America’s allies have often locked the U.S. out of their economies, with monetary and non-monetary tariffs on U.S. products.  

He called for “reciprocal” policies to even out the playing field for U.S. companies.  

“April 2nd, reciprocal tariffs kick in, and whatever they tariff us – other countries – we will tariff them,” Trump said. “That’s reciprocal; back and forth.” 

Later in the speech, Trump read out a letter by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who told the U.S. president that Ukraine is ready, with Trump’s help, to negotiate a “lasting peace” between Russia and Ukraine. 

The letter comes after Trump and Zelenskyy engaged in a now infamous argument last week before the eyes of the press at the White House.  

“I appreciate that he sent this letter, just got it a little while ago,” Trump told Congress. “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 laid out legislative priorities for Congress that would cement many of his executive orders.  

He asked Congress to pass tax cuts for “everybody” including no taxes for tips, overtime pay and Social Security benefits.  He also called for a balanced budget and a program that would allow the “most successful” people from around the world to begin the path to U.S. citizenship.  

The “Gold Card” visa program would allow high-net-worth individuals to get a U.S. visa for $5 million according to Trump.  

“So, while we take out the criminals, killers, traffickers and child predators who are allowed to enter our country under the open border policy of these people, the Democrats, the Biden administration – the open border, insane policies that you’ve allowed to destroy our country– we will now bring in brilliant, hard-working job creating people,” the president said.  

Trump left his most soaring rhetoric for the end.  

In a nearly 600-word peroration, Trump invoked the American triumphs of the past, including the building of the railroads and highway system, the construction of the Empire State Building, and the Golden Gate Bridge by past generations to remind Americans that the U.S. is “a country of doers, dreamers, fighters and survivors.”  

“They lit the world with electricity, broke free of the force of gravity, fired up the engines of American industry, vanquished the communists, fascists and Marxists all over the world, and gave us countless modern wonders sculpted out of iron, glass and steel,” said Trump.   

Today’s generations “stand on the shoulders” of those who accomplished so much before us, he noted.   

“Now it is our time to take up the righteous cause of American liberty, and it is our turn to take America’s destiny into our own hands and begin the most thrilling days in the history of our country,” added Trump. “This will be our greatest era. With God’s help, over the next four years, we are going to lead this nation even higher, and we are going to forge the freest, most advanced, most dynamic and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face of this earth.”   

Image credit: @POTUS (via X.com)