Fact-Checking Trump’s Address to Congress

“We found hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud.”

But even Elon Musk’s government overhaul team does not purport to have found that much in specific savings, much less in fraud alone.

According to DOGE, the agency has generated $105 billion in savings, as of March 2. The initiative’s website includes descriptions for less than $20 billion in terminated grants, contracts and leases, with the rest appearing unexplained.

But, as The New York Times and other news outlets have documented, that figure is also not verified. The initiative has updated its website periodically to address mistakes such as contracts erroneously listed as being worth billions but are actually worth millions, contracts that were counted multiple times, and contracts that have long ended or were not actually canceled.

Late on Sunday, the group erased or altered more than 1,000 contracts it had claimed to cancel, representing more than 40 percent of all the contracts listed on its site last week — and valued at more than $4 billion.

The federal Government Accountability Office estimated last year, before the creation of DOGE, that the government loses $233 billion to $521 billion a year to fraud. But it is unclear whether any of the Trump administration cuts announced thus far were canceled payments for fraudulent services.

While Mr. Trump and other officials have cast spending they disagree with as wasteful, fraud involves deception or misrepresentation. For example, DOGE has said that it has canceled leases at underused and vacant properties and that there is “plenty of available office space for the current work force.” It did not mention fraud in those leases.

“As you know, we inherited, from the last administration, an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare.”

After rising last summer, the unemployment rate has stabilized at 4 percent, not too far from a roughly half-century low. Wages continue to rise, too, even if at a more modest pace and growth has stayed resilient.

In the final quarter of 2024, U.S. gross domestic product, adjusted for inflation, grew at a 2.3 percent annual rate. For the year as a whole, measured from the end of 2023 to the end of 2024, G.D.P. increased 2.5 percent.

Inflation did surge during the Biden administration, but the Consumer Price Index has come down significantly since peaking around 9 percent in the summer of 2022. As of January, it stands at 3 percent — still too high for the Federal Reserve’s liking, but in a far better place than just a couple of years ago.

There were many reasons for the inflation surge. Stimulus programs first enacted by the Trump administration and later by the Biden administration helped to provide much-need support for Americans and shore up an economy that had started to crater as lockdowns shuttered businesses and layoffs soared. But the trillions of dollars in financial assistance boosted demand at a moment when supply chains were completely upended by the pandemic, helping to ignite inflation.

“We will take in trillions and trillions of dollars and create jobs like we have never seen before.”

Tariffs that high would probably discourage Americans from buying imports, shrinking the amount of revenue that could be collected. One estimate by the Peterson Institute of International Economics calculated that putting a 10 percent tariff on all imports and a 60 percent tariff on products from China — measures Mr. Trump proposed during the campaign — would generate about $225 billion per year. In 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection collected $88 billion in tariffs, taxes and fees, government statistics show.

Tariffs can create jobs in the industries they protect, but because they raise costs and incite retaliation, they can sometimes destroy jobs, too. Some economic research has found that the tariffs Mr. Trump imposed in his first term neither created nor destroyed jobs in the sectors that the levies protected, while the retaliatory tariffs that other countries imposed hurt jobs, particularly in agriculture.

“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.”

“I’ve stopped all government censorship and brought back free speech in America.”

“We suffered the worst inflation in 48 years, but perhaps even in the history of our country. As president, I’m fighting every day to reverse this damage and make America affordable again.”

But economists warn that some of his policies may actually do the opposite. That fear centers in large part around the tariffs Mr. Trump has decided to impose on the United States’ biggest trading partners.

On Tuesday, he put in place steep tariffs on Mexico and Canada, having already raised new penalties on China. Tariffs of this aggressive nature are expected to not only raise prices for U.S. consumers but also hurt growth. The magnitude of the impact will depend on how long these policies are in place, how aggressively other countries pursue retaliatory measures and whether businesses plan to pass along those costs to Americans.

John Williams, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said he expected to see some of the effects from tariffs “later this year” as he warned on Tuesday that tariffs was likely to lead to higher U.S. prices.

There are also concerns that Mr. Trump’s plans to deport millions of immigrants will affect the economy in a similar way, exacerbating a worker shortage in certain sectors and potentially causing wage pressures while also forcing other businesses to pull back on investments.

“Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control — and we’re working hard to get it back down.”

Since January 2022, when the virus was first detected in the country, infections in poultry flocks have led to the killing of more than 166 million birds, including egg-laying hens.

Mr. Trump and others in his administration have repeatedly invoked the record prices of eggs as a top priority. Last week, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced $1 billion in efforts to contain the bird flu outbreak and “make eggs affordable again.”

She zeroed in on poultry and egg prices to such an extent that she did not mention dairy cattle. The virus has affected dairy cattle in 17 states since it was first discovered in cows more than a year ago.

The Agriculture Department would provide up to $500 million to egg producers to help them establish measures to prevent the virus from spreading in their facilities and another $400 million to compensate farmers whose flocks are destroyed by the virus.

Ms. Rollins said the remaining $100 million would go toward research on vaccines and treatments. But the administration has yet to embrace vaccination of poultry, mainly because of trade concerns. And while she has suggested that chickens on farms with outbreaks are killed unnecessarily, there are no known antivirals that can stave off illness in infected birds.

Ms. Rollins also announced plans to challenge laws requiring a minimum space between egg-laying hens and to import eggs in the short term.

“Our goal is to get toxins out of our environment, poisons out of our food supply, and keep our children healthy and strong.”

Mr. Trump has already bragged about rescinding Biden-era environmental regulations. Many of those were aimed at reducing air pollution and emissions of toxic chemicals in the air and water.

The Justice Department intends to drop a federal lawsuit against a chemical manufacturer accused of releasing high levels of a likely carcinogen from its Louisiana plant, as The New York Times has reported.

And Mr. Trump has stacked his Environmental Protection Agency with former lobbyists and lawyers for the oil and chemical industries, many of whom worked in his first administration to weaken toxic pollution protections.

“Over the past four years, 21 million people poured into the United States — many of them were murderers, human traffickers, gang members and other criminals from the streets of dangerous cities all throughout the world. Because of Joe Biden’s insane and very dangerous open border policies, they are now strongly embedded in our country. But we are getting them out and getting them out fast.”

Compared with the pace of deportations during parts of the Biden administration, the numbers have lagged. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported about 600 people a day in mid-February, according to the latest government data available. During the last year of the Biden administration, ICE deported about 750 a day in the 12 months through November.

At the current pace, the Trump administration will deport 219,000 people over a 12-month period. That would be half as many deportations as the Obama administration carried out in the 2013 fiscal year. President Barack Obama oversaw the most deportations of any president in recent history, a record that eluded Mr. Trump in his first term.

“1.3 million people from ages 150 to 159, and over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are age over 160 years old.”

But whether those examples amount to an extraordinary amount of fraud is a matter of opinion.

Last year, a report from the Social Security Administration’s inspector general’s office found that the agency had issued $71.8 billion in improper payments from fiscal years 2015 to 2022.

That figure represents about 0.84 percent of $8.6 trillion in benefits paid over that time. A report released in November 2021 estimated that the agency had made $298 million in payments to about 24,000 deceased beneficiaries. It urged the agency to improve the timeliness and accuracy of its death data.

The inspector general’s office also reported in 2023 that there were 18.9 million people born in 1920 or earlier with Social Security numbers but for whom there was no death information in the electronic file that the agency uses to identify each person. About 44,000 of those people were receiving Social Security benefits. The Census Bureau estimated that there were about 86,000 people in the United States older than 100.

“The tariffs will go on agricultural product coming into America, and our farmers, starting on April 2. It may be a little bit of an adjustment period. We had that before when I made the deal with China — $50 billion of purchases. And I said, ‘Just bear with me,’ and they did. They did. Probably have to bear with me again. And this will be even better.”

“Countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them.”

America’s average tariff rate for all products is about 3 percent, compared with 4 percent for Canada, Japan and the United Kingdom. The European Union’s average tariff rate is 5 percent and it’s 2 percent in Australia, according to World Trade Organization data. China’s average tariff rate for all products is 8 percent, while India’s is 17 percent.

Tariffs for various products vary widely depending on the country and on which industries that governments have chosen to try to protect.

“They have allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and many very young, beautiful people, destroying families.”

According to provisional data released last month, overdose deaths in the 12-month period ending in September 2023 are expected to drop nearly 24 percent compared with the previous year.

Although Mr. Trump said “hundreds of thousands” had been killed, the C.D.C. predicts that there were 87,000 deaths between October 2023 and September 2024, down from 114,000, the fewest overdose deaths in any 12-month period since June 2020.

While fentanyl is the dominant drug listed in a majority of these deaths, the presence of other substances, notably stimulants like methamphetamine and cocaine, is increasingly being detected.

Epidemiologists and addiction medicine experts attribute the overall decline in drug mortality to interventions like naloxone, an overdose reversal drug that became available over the counter under the Biden administration, and to loosened restrictions on access to drug treatment medications.

“Today, interest rates took a beautiful drop, big, beautiful drop. It’s about time.”

But the reason for the drop is perhaps not one that Mr. Trump should celebrate. The decline has come as investors have become spooked about the outlook for the economy in large part because of the president’s decision to enact much more extreme tariffs than expected.

U.S. stocks dropped sharply on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 falling as much as 2 percent before recouping some of those losses.

While economists are very worried about the possibility that tariffs will reignite price pressures, they have increasingly become concerned about the potential hit to economic growth.

The global economy suffered a big blow the last time Mr. Trump embarked on a trade war during his first administration. As uncertainty about trade policy soared during that period, the amount that U.S. businesses spent on large investments fell sharply as expansion plans were put on hold.

“$1.9 billion to recently created decarbonization of homes committee, headed up — and we know she’s involved — just at the last moment, the money was passed over by a woman named Stacey Abrams. Have you ever heard of her?”

“I withdrew from the corrupt World Health Organization.”

He tried in July 2020 to withdraw from the W.H.O., an agency within the United Nations, but the effort was blocked by his successor, President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Mr. Trump has long argued that the W.H.O., whose stated aim is to “confront the biggest health challenges of our time and measurably advance the well-being of the world’s people,” is corrupt. Many public health experts have called for decades for reforms to the agency, arguing that it has been too timid in calling out its members’ missteps, holds a rigid view of what constitutes medical evidence and has too many areas of focus. Still, many countries rely on the W.H.O. for public health guidelines, childhood vaccinations and drug approvals, among many other global health efforts.

“Small-business optimism saw its single largest one-month gain ever recorded, a 41-point jump.”

“I withdrew from the unfair Paris climate accord, which was costing us trillions of dollars that other countries were not paying.”

“The previous administration cut the number of new oil and gas leases by 95 percent.”

The Biden administration “closed more than 100 power plants.”

“Now, for the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction. In fact, it’s an astonishing record: 27-point swing, the most ever.”

In a February poll from Rasmussen, 47 percent of respondents said they believed the country was headed in the right direction, compared with 46 percent who said it was headed in the wrong direction. That was the first time in the poll’s 20-year history where right direction exceeded wrong direction, the group said.

Other recent polls, however, showed more respondents answering that the country was headed in the wrong direction: 55 percent in a Morning Consult poll, 48.9 percent in a YouGov/Economist poll and 62 percent in a Marquette University poll.

“Millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded in this horrific and brutal conflict, with no end in sight.”

“Not long ago, and you can’t even believe these numbers, one in 10,000 children have autism. One in 10,000. And now it’s one in 36. There’s something wrong.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the head of the Department of Health and Human Services, has suggested that there is a link between childhood vaccinations and autism. But dozens of studies have examined that theory and dismissed it. Instead, studies suggest that most of the increase in autism diagnoses is on the milder end of the spectrum, in part because the diagnostic criteria have widened.

There may also be genetic and environmental factors involved. More than 100 genes are associated with the condition, and older parents, particularly older fathers, are more likely to have children with autism.

Trump says a man behind the attack on the Kabul airport was captured.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif of Pakistan said that Mr. Sharifullah, an Afghan national, had been arrested by Pakistani security forces in the border region with Afghanistan. Axios first reported details of Mr. Sharifullah’s arrest.

The Abbey Gate attack became a symbol of the chaos of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in the opening months of the Biden administration. The military had been warned about the possibility of terror attacks at the airport, where thousands of Afghans were converging, hoping to flee as the Taliban took hold of the country.

Although he did not name Mr. Biden during his remarks on the attack, Mr. Trump lamented the withdrawal from Afghanistan as “disastrous and incompetent.” He called the Abbey Gate attack “perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country.”

Since taking office, Mr. Trump’s C.I.A. director, John Ratcliffe, has spoken with Pakistan’s intelligence chief, Lt. Gen. Asim Malik, about Mr. Sharifullah, current and former officials said. Mr. Sharifullah is a leader of the group known as Islamic State Khorasan Province, or ISIS-K.

Cliff Sims, an informal adviser to Mr. Ratcliffe, wrote in a social media post that one of Mr. Trump’s first orders to the agency was to prioritize the hunt for those responsible for the Abbey Gate attack.

“On his second day in office, Ratcliffe raised the issue during his first call with the Pakistani spy chief and reiterated it during their meeting at the Munich security conference,” Mr. Sims wrote. “This cooperation led to a huge counterterrorism win for the United States and progress toward justice for the families of the American heroes we lost that day.”

In another social media post, Kash Patel, the F.B.I. director, said Mr. Sharifullah had been extradited to the United States. “One step closer to justice for these American heroes and their families,” Mr. Patel wrote.

A U.S. official said that the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. were notified 10 days ago that Pakistan had captured Mr. Sharifullah and that he was expected to arrive in the United States on Wednesday, developments reported earlier by Axios.

Trump taps into his instinct for political showmanship in honoring guests during his Capitol address.

Sean Curran, the director of the Secret Service, handed D.J. a badge as the audience applauded and chanted his name. D.J. embraced Mr. Curran, and the two exchanged words for a few moments as the crowd cheered.

Another invited guest was Alexis Nungaray, the mother of Jocelyn Nungaray — a 12-year-old girl from Houston who was murdered last year. Mr. Trump acknowledged Ms. Nungaray in his speech, and assailed the Venezuelan migrants charged in her murder as “savages” and “illegal alien monsters.”

Mr. Trump then announced that he had renamed a national wildlife refuge east of Houston in memory of Jocelyn, who he said loved animals and nature.

Mr. Trump also recognized a third guest, Jason Hartley, who Mr. Trump said had descended from generations of military service members. Jason’s father, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy, had died, and Mr. Trump said, Jason wanted to carry on the family’s legacy of military service.

“His greatest dream is to attend the U.S. Military Academy at West Point,” Mr. Trump said. “And, Jason, that’s a very big deal getting in. That’s a hard one to get into.”

“But,” Mr. Trump said, “ I’m pleased to inform you that your application has been accepted. You will soon be joining the corps of cadets.”

As the crowd whistled and cheered on Mr. Hartley, D.J., the newly minted Secret Service agent, tapped him on the shoulder and gave him a high-five.

Here are six takeaways from Trump’s speech.

Democrats lodged protests throughout the evening, with one representative getting kicked out and others holding signs in silent opposition. But Mr. Trump argued that it was the Democrats who left him a country besieged by crises and that his administration was working to clean them up.

Here are six takeaways from Mr. Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress in his second term.

Video

transcript

Takeaways From Trump’s Speech to Congress

During the 100-minute address, Trump lauded the actions he has taken so far, while Democrats lodged protests throughout the evening.

America is back. U.S.A.! U.S.A.! Remove this gentleman from the chamber. 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. The egg price is out of control. Pass tax cuts for everybody. They’re in there. They’re waiting for you to vote. Whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them. We’ve ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and, indeed, the private sector and our military. And our country will be woke no longer. Today. I received an important letter from President Zelensky of Ukraine. The letter reads: Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer.

Trump signaled a reset with Ukraine after his explosive meeting with that country’s president.

One day after Mr. Trump temporarily suspended the delivery of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, he signaled a willingness to reset the relationship. The president said he appreciated a message from President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, in which he said his country was “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer.”

The new posture comes days after Mr. Trump’s explosive Oval Office meeting with Mr. Zelensky, which resulted in the Ukrainian leader hastily departing the White House without signing a deal for the United States to have access to Ukraine’s revenue for rare earth minerals. In his message, which was posted on social media on Tuesday, Mr. Zelensky said he was ready to sign the deal, a top priority for Mr. Trump.

On Tuesday night, Mr. Trump also said he had had “serious” discussions with Russia and they have signaled they also are “ready for peace.”

“It’s time to stop this madness,” he said. “It’s time to halt the killing. It’s time to end the senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides.”

Trump reiterated his support for tariffs, despite early market turmoil.

Mr. Trump widened his trade wars on Tuesday when he instituted sweeping tariffs on imports from Canada, Mexico and China. Despite the markets’ plunging in response to his actions, Mr. Trump said he would not budge, dismissing the reaction as “a little disturbance.” He said more tariffs would go into effect on April 2.

“Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries,” he said.

Earlier in the day, Howard Lutnick, the commerce secretary, said Mr. Trump could announce a new trade deal with Mexico and Canada as soon as Wednesday. But the president made no mention of that in his speech on Tuesday night.

“Whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them,” he said. “That’s reciprocal, back and forth.”

Trump faced sustained opposition from Democrats throughout a contentious night.

Within the first few minutes of Mr. Trump’s speech, Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, stood up and started heckling the president. After Mr. Green ignored multiple warnings from Speaker Mike Johnson, Mr. Johnson ordered the sergeant-at-arms to remove Mr. Green from the chamber.

Mr. Green’s eviction marked the most contentious moment of a combative night, as Democrats organized various protests against the president. Many Democratic lawmakers held up small black signs with phrases that included “Save Medicaid,” “Musk Steals” and “False.” Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan held up a whiteboard that said “Start by paying your own taxes” as Mr. Trump talked about tax cuts. A number of Democrats, including Representatives Maxwell Frost of Florida and Jasmine Crockett of Texas, walked out during Mr. Trump’s speech.

But even as they expressed their dissent, Democrats showed they were still struggling to coalesce around a unified message of opposition to Mr. Trump.

Trump stressed his support for Elon Musk’s efforts to overhaul government.

Mr. Musk, the world’s richest man, has overseen the Trump administration’s aggressive effort to overhaul the federal government with sweeping cuts to the work force and contracts. The speed and the scope of Mr. Musk’s work has caught many in Washington off guard, with Democrats accusing him of violating congressional spending authority and civil service protections.

But Mr. Trump made clear on Tuesday that he wholeheartedly supported Mr. Musk’s radical approach.

Image

“He’s working very hard,” Mr. Trump said of Mr. Musk, who nodded and beamed in response. “He didn’t need this. He didn’t need this. Thank you very much. We appreciate it.”

Pointing to Democrats, he said: “Everybody here — even this side appreciates it, I believe. They just don’t want to admit that. Just listen to some of the appalling waste we have already identified.”

The president spent several minutes listing off a wide range of programs Mr. Musk’s team has cut, bragging that the effort had identified “hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud.” But even Mr. Musk’s initiative has claimed to have generated only $105 billion in savings, assertions that have not been verified. The New York Times has found that DOGE has erroneously reported savings based on contracts that had already ended and miscalculated numbers.

Mr. Trump also re-upped his attacks on federal workers, vowing to “reclaim power from this unaccountable bureaucracy.”

“Any federal bureaucrat who resists this change will be removed from office immediately,” he said.

Trump spent little time discussing new policies.

Presidents often use addresses to a joint session of Congress to lay out their agenda for the year ahead. But not Mr. Trump. He did not unveil new policies, and devoted little time to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, both of which Mr. Trump has vowed to end.

Mr. Trump also did not address another time-sensitive issue: how to prevent the government from shutting down next week. Even with Republicans controlling the House and the Senate, there are still disagreements about the best ways to proceed on the funding battle.

The president reiterated that he wanted Congress to allocate more money for immigration enforcement while cutting taxes, but how lawmakers will achieve that remains unclear.

Trump is still re-litigating the 2024 presidential campaign.

Mr. Trump is always in need of an opponent, and for now, it appears former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is still in his cross hairs. Even after winning the election in November, defeating Kamala Harris, Mr. Trump mentioned his predecessor’s administration more than a dozen times and called Mr. Biden “the worst president in American history.”

He blamed Mr. Biden for a litany of problems, including the high costs of eggs, crime and drugs flooding across the border, and accused him of being weak on China.

At times, Mr. Trump appeared to be giving one of his stump speeches from the campaign trail, as he railed against Mr. Biden’s immigration policies, support of transgender rights and “wokeness.”

“Wokeness is trouble. Wokeness is bad,” Mr. Trump said, without specifying what exactly he was referring to. “It’s gone. It’s gone.”

Minho Kim and Chris Cameron contributed to this report.

Trump says South Korea and Japan want to invest in an Alaska pipeline.

However, under the threat of tariffs from Mr. Trump, officials and executives in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan have started exploring ways to invest in Alaska L.N.G. The discussions have included infrastructure financing and signing long-term contracts to purchase its gas.

“Japan and South Korea and other nations want to be our partner with investments of trillions of dollars each,” Mr. Trump said on Tuesday during his address to Congress. “It’s all set to go,” he said of the project, which would be one of the largest energy investments in U.S. history.

Mr. Trump promised to boost the production of fossil fuels during his campaign by speeding up the approval of permits and opening up new areas for exploration. Any additional output would push U.S. oil and gas production beyond already record-high levels.

Mr. Trump did not explain how the project could see trillions of dollars in investment. But the serious consideration in Alaska L.N.G. shows how, just over a month into his presidency, Mr. Trump is already beginning to make potentially lasting marks on the U.S. energy industry.

In his speech, Mr. Trump reiterated his stance on slowing the U.S. transition to renewable energy while revitalizing fossil fuels despite concerns over climate change. “We have more liquid gold under our feet than any nation on earth,” he said. “It’s called drill, baby, drill.”

Venezuela is believed to have the world’s largest oil reserves.

Asked about Alaska L.N.G. at a news conference on Wednesday, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said that if good business relations were maintained, “investment in the U.S. will progress in various fields.” For now, he said, public and private customers are still discussing their future liquefied natural gas purchases and waiting for more details about the Alaska project.

News media in South Korea reported that Trade Minister Ahn Dukgeun had discussed the project with government officials on his recent trip to Washington. The trade ministry didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jin Yu Young and Hisako Ueno contributed reporting.

A combative Trump says ‘America is back’ and taunts his political rivals.

He was less conciliatory toward Canada, Mexico and China after imposing tariffs earlier in the day that roiled global markets and drew rebukes from the countries’ leaders. The president said nothing in his speech Tuesday night to suggest that an extended trade war might yet be averted.

“Whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will tariff them,” he said. “Whatever they tax us, we will 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.”

Together, the president’s remarks underscored the chaotic, whiplash nature of the opening weeks of Mr. Trump’s second term. Much of the lengthy speech was filled with grievances about his treatment by Democrats and exaggerations about his accomplishments. It capped a six-week blitz of actions since Mr. Trump took office, a period in which he has fired government workers, frozen foreign aid, upended international alliances, pardoned rioters and issued a flood of executive orders.

“Six weeks ago, I stood beneath the dome of this Capitol and proclaimed the dawn of the Golden Age of America,” Mr. Trump said, repeatedly appearing to veer from his prepared remarks. “From that moment on, it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country.”

From the first moments of his address, Mr. Trump faced heckling from Democrats as he declared that he had won a mandate from voters and that “America is back.” Democrats barely applauded, while Republicans enthusiastically cheered. When Representative Al Green, a Democratic lawmaker from Texas, yelled “you have no mandate to cut Medicaid” and refused to sit down, it exposed the deep divisions in Congress and the country.

Image

Image

“Mr. Green, take your seat,” Speaker Mike Johnson ordered him.

When he refused, he was escorted out.

“The people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements,” Mr. Trump said, striking a note of self-pity that he had not gained acceptance from Democrats in the chamber. “They won’t do it no matter what.”

There have been other outbursts during presidential speeches in recent years, including by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, during the Biden administration and Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, during the Obama administration. Both remained in the chamber after interrupting the president.

Just days after threatening to abandon a European ally at war and kicking off a trade war, Mr. Trump offered no new policy proposals, repeatedly denigrated former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and mocked Democrats in the audience for their inability to stand in the way of his agenda.

The president did not dwell on foreign policy, though he again threatened to annex the Panama Canal, saying that “my administration will be reclaiming the Panama Canal, and we’ve already started doing it.”

He said he wanted to construct a “golden dome” to protect the United States from missile strikes and create a new shipbuilding office, and he tried to entice Greenland to leave Denmark and join the United States. He also announced that the United States had apprehended a terrorist who organized the bombing of the Abbey Gate during the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

Mr. Trump spent much of his time telling the stories of Americans he invited to watch his address in the gallery, including the victims of violent immigrants and a boy with cancer who dreamed of becoming a police officer.

Image

Throughout, he appeared to obsess over his political rivals. At one point, he motioned to Democrats, saying the system of justice in the country had been taken over by “radical left lunatics.” In response, progressive members of the party held up panels that said “False” and “That’s a lie.”

A number of Democrats staged a small protest, standing up and turning their backs toward Trump with T-shirts that said “resist” on the back. Instead of risking being removed by the sergeant-at-arms, the group quietly walked off the House floor.

Other Democrats chose to walk out of the speech, including Representative Maxwell Frost, Democrat of Florida, who wore a shirt that said “No Kings Live Here.”

“I could not in good conscience sit through this speech and give an audience to someone who operates with lawless disregard for Congress and the people of this nation,” said Representative Ayanna Pressley, Democrat of Massachusetts.

Mr. Trump accused Democrats of ignoring the “common-sense revolution” that he and his administration had begun to put in place. He addressed his opponents in the audience with contempt, gloating about his election victory, mocked them for his ability to evade prosecutions and called Mr. Biden the worst president in American history.

At one point, the president compared the treatment he received on the internet to the victims of revenge porn, saying “nobody gets treated worse than I do online.”

Image

Image

Mr. Trump claimed falsely that he had inherited an “economic catastrophe” from Mr. Biden. In fact, the United States had the strongest economy in the world when Mr. Trump took over, but it has been showing signs of strain in recent weeks amid federal funding cuts and tariffs.

The president focused on what he claimed was fraud in the federal bureaucracy discovered by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. For several minutes, Mr. Trump listed off foreign aid and diversity programs that his government had eliminated, mocking them as unnecessary.

“Eight million to promote L.G.B.T.Q.I.+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of,” the president said.

House Republican leaders have advised their members to stop holding in-person town halls amid a torrent of large-scale protests targeting some of the budget cuts Mr. Musk is overseeing. Even so, a number of Republican lawmakers jumped to their feet and cheered as the president referred to Mr. Musk, who was sitting in the gallery.

As he had in past speeches, Mr. Trump repeated false and exaggerated claims throughout the speech, prompting reactions from the Democrats in the chamber.

“That’s not true,” Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California and the former House speaker, said quietly and shook her head as Mr. Trump ticked through debunked claims about the impossible ages of people collecting Social Security. Republicans, in contrast, cracked up, and one yelled out “Joe Biden” when Trump asserted that someone on Social Security was older than 300.

Image

Mr. Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress may have looked like a State of the Union speech and sounded like one, but it was not — at least not technically. Starting with Ronald Reagan in 1981, all presidents have delivered speeches to Congress shortly after their inauguration, and then again each year. Only those after their first year in office are considered to be State of the Union addresses.

A tradition begun by George Washington, the annual speech was discontinued by the third president, Thomas Jefferson, who opted for a written report. The speech was revived by Woodrow Wilson in 1913.

Before the speech began, Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota and the majority leader, said he hoped some of Mr. Trump’s more extreme moves were only temporary.

“It’s a pause, not a stop; I think it’s part of a negotiation,” Mr. Thune said of the freeze in aid to Ukraine. Of the new tariffs, Mr. Thune said: “These tariffs, I think, are hopefully temporary.”

House Republicans were decidedly more excited.

Speaker Mike Johnson said ahead of the speech: “I would like to frame it in gilded gold.”

Slotkin, giving Democrats’ response, warns Trump ‘will make you pay.’

In contrast, Ms. Slotkin struck a calm and upbeat tone in her brief remarks, working to appeal not just to Democrats but to Republicans as well by introducing herself via her national security credentials. (She noted that she served three tours in Iraq working for the C.I.A. under Republican and Democratic presidents.)

Ms. Slotkin chose to address the nation from Wyandotte, Mich., a city she noted that both she and Mr. Trump won in November. Mr. Trump’s speech was the longest presidential address in history, but Ms. Slotkin ignored most of what he said and kept a tight focus on her argument that the president’s actions and his agenda would make life more expensive for Americans.

“Your premiums and prescriptions will cost more, because the math on his proposals doesn’t work without him going after your health care,” she said. She noted that “Elon Musk just called Social Security the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”

Ms. Slotkin said she agreed with the idea of cutting government waste. “I’ll help you do it,” she said. “But change doesn’t need to be chaotic or make us less safe.”

Twice during her speech, she named previous Republican presidents approvingly while criticizing Mr. Trump. “I’m thankful it was Reagan and not Trump in the office in the 1980s,” she said, noting that Mr. Trump was “cozying up to dictators like Vladimir Putin.”

Ms. Slotkin said that Mr. Trump “clearly doesn’t think we should lead the world.”

She also had a message for demoralized Democrats: “Don’t tune out. It’s easy to be exhausted,” she said, warning that democracy itself was at risk.

“I’ve seen democracies flicker out,” she said. “I’ve seen what life is like when a government is rigged. You can’t open a business without paying off a corrupt official. You can’t criticize the guys in charge without getting a knock on the door in the middle of the night.”

Ms. Slotkin urged Democrats who felt lost to choose one issue they care about and get singularly involved with it. “Doomscrolling doesn’t count,” she said.

Ms. Slotkin, a center-leaning Democrat who worked as a C.I.A. analyst and in national security posts in the White Houses of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, has had her entire political career defined in opposition to Mr. Trump. She first won her House seat in 2018 as part of a tight-knit group of Democratic women with military or intelligence backgrounds who were recruited to run as a counterweight to the president.

The job of the televised response is often seen as a springboard for politicians to raise their profiles, and Ms. Slotkin reached out to viewers who might not know her. But the speaking slot can also be a thankless role, one that has been botched by so many promising elected officials in both parties that it is now considered almost cursed.

Ms. Slotkin avoided any notable missteps, opting for a straightforward delivery and a simple message calibrated to be broadly appealing. But she did not take a strident tone of resistance that many Democrats have chosen amid a backlash from their core supporters, who want them to be more forceful in opposing Mr. Trump.

Democrats protest Trump with signs, clothes and walkouts

Video

transcript

Al Green Escorted Out During Trump Speech

Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, was removed from the House chamber after he refused to sit down during President Donald Trump’s address to Congress.

Chanting: “U.S.A., U.S.A. U.S.A., U.S.A. U.S.A., U.S.A. U.S.A., U.S.A.” Speaker Johnson: “Mr. Green, take your seat. Take your seat, sir. Take your seat. If members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum, the chair now directs the sergeant at arms to restore order — remove this gentleman from the chamber. Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House. Mr. President, continue.” “Thank you.”

“What about the eggs,” one lawmaker shouted when Mr. Trump hailed improvements to the economy.

“Stock market?” a chorus of Democrats shouted, feigning puzzled expressions as Mr. Trump lauded his own economic achievements, telling lawmakers that he inherited an “economic catastrophe” from former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

Representative Jasmine Crockett, Democrat of Texas, stood and turned her back on Mr. Trump as he assigned blame to Mr. Biden for the country’s economic misfortunes. She, along with a handful of her Democratic colleagues — including Representatives Maxwell Frost of Florida, Melanie Stansbury of New Mexico and Maxine Dexter and Andrea Salinas, both of Oregon — briefly made their protests with messages on black T-shirts, some emblazoned with the word “RESIST” and exited the chamber before the sergeant-at-arms had the opportunity to remove them.

Image

Moments earlier as Mr. Trump entered the House chamber for his speech and shook the hands of dozens of Republican lawmakers, Ms. Stansbury held up a sign reading “This is not normal.” The sign was snatched from her hands by Representative Lance Gooden, Republican of Texas, but not before being captured in a frame just above Mr. Trump by the dozens of photographers who were in the chamber for the address.

While dozens of Democratic lawmakers arrived for the address sporting pink blazers and ties, carrying on a yearslong tradition of a silent sartorial protest, other members opted for a less subtle approach.

Jill Tokuda of Hawaii scrawled phrases from the 14th Amendment — which Mr. Trump has proposed changing to deny citizenship to some U.S.-born children of immigrants — onto her pink blazer. “We the people” was written across her lapels.

Representative Delia Ramirez, Democrat of Illinois, revealed a T-shirt under her black blazer reading “NO KING. NO COUP.”

The largest coordinated display of disapproval was in the form of round auction paddle-style signs held by dozens of Democrats with phrases including “Save Medicaid” and “Musk Steals.” Many of the signs had the message “False” on the reverse side. Democrats raised them throughout the speech to register nonverbal objections to specific claims by Mr. Trump without risking removal from the chamber.

Some who participated in the varied forms of protest said that the content of Mr. Trump’s remarks was too much to bear. Representative Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts was among the more than a dozen Democrats who left the speech early.

“I could not stand one more second, tolerate one more second,” she said in a video she recorded outside the chamber after exiting, adding that Mr. Trump’s remarks were full of “lies” and “propaganda.”

Al Green was removed from the House Chamber for heckling Trump during the address.

Almost instantly, he was drowned out by chants from angry Republican colleagues: “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” they shouted and clapped, which gave way to shouts of “Sit down!”

Twice, Speaker Mike Johnson interrupted the president’s address, tapped his gavel and warned Mr. Green that if he did not sit down, he would be removed from the chamber.

“Mr. Green, take your seat, sir,” Mr. Johnson said, as Mr. Green stood defiantly, refusing.

Behind Mr. Trump, Vice President JD Vance made a gesture with his thumb indicating “throw him out,” as members jeered. Soon, Mr. Johnson read from a sheet of paper in front of him, making it official.

“Finding that members continue to engage in willful and concerted disruption of proper decorum, the chair now directs the Sergeant-at-arms to restore order,” Mr. Johnson said, prompting raucous applause from Republicans. “Remove this gentleman from the chamber!” he declared, banging his gavel.

Mr. Green’s disruption wasn’t the first time an opposition lawmaker has interrupted a president’s address to Congress. Republican Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado repeatedly interjected during former President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s State of the Union speech in 2022, shouting out phrases such as “build that wall" when he talked about securing the southern border. Neither of them were ejected from the chamber.

And Representative Joe Wilson, Republican of South Carolina, famously shouted, “You lie!” at former President Barack Obama during a 2009 speech to Congress when the president said the Affordable Care Act wouldn’t cover undocumented immigrants.

In Mr. Green’s case, he was not only challenging the president but also defying the entreaties of Democratic congressional leaders that members attend Mr. Trump’s speech and refrain from disruptions. The spectacle of a septuagenarian heckling the president while waving his cane was not ideal for Democrats, who have toiled to land on a broadly appealing message and messenger for countering Mr. Trump.

Still, after being kicked out, Mr. Green told reporters at the Capitol that his protest was “worth it to let people know that there are some people who are going to stand up” to the president.

Mr. Green is known on Capitol Hill in part for repeatedly defying his party’s leaders to push for the impeachment of Mr. Trump during his first term, long before his fellow Democrats had decided to do so. He did so three times, beginning during Mr. Trump’s first year in office, and failed each time.

But while Mr. Green is often a source of frustration for his party, he also saved Democrats in one instance last year, when he showed up on the House floor in hospital garb to tank the first Republican attempt to impeach the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas.

Tyler Pager, Robert Jimison and Annie Karni contributed reporting.

Justices can find these speeches to Congress to be a trial.

But the chief justice has continued to attend, while other members of the court have long ago stopped going. Justice Clarence Thomas, who has said that he could not abide “the catcalls, the whooping and hollering and under-the-breath comments,” has not gone for more than a decade.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. called the addresses “very political events” and “very awkward,” adding, “We have to sit there like the proverbial potted plant most of the time.”

He did speak, sort of, in 2010 in response to President Obama’s criticism of the Citizens United campaign finance decision, then just a few days old. He mouthed the words “not true.” He has not been back since.

Scholars have found that the likelihood of attendance declines with age and length of service.

Attendance in a justice’s early years may be explained in part by loyalty and gratitude. As Justice Antonin Scalia once put it, it is easier to stay home “when the president giving the State of the Union is not the man who appointed you.”

The justices say that attendance can be stressful, largely because they must make careful and coordinated choices about what statements from the president are uncontroversial enough to warrant applause.

That is hard, Justice Alito said, because presidents “will fake you out.” They may start with something bland, he said, like, “‘Isn’t this the greatest country in the world?’ ”

“So you get up and you start to clap,” he said, “and the president will say, ‘Because we are conducting a surge in Iraq’ or ‘Because we are going to enact health care reform,’ and then you immediately have to stop.”

It was not always so. In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson said, “Let this session of Congress be known as the session which did more for civil rights than the last hundred sessions combined.” Five members of the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Earl Warren, applauded.

These days, Chief Justice Roberts said in 2019, the justices have to take pains to applaud only very occasionally. “It’s not our job to express support for particular policy initiatives,” he said. “So we do sit there like mannequins.”

He said the justices were not alone. “The Joint Chiefs of Staff are in the same position,” he said. “They’re sitting there like much better dressed mannequins.”

Top Democrats accused Trump and Musk of imperiling national security.

“Make no mistake,” the Democrats wrote, “this is a concerted effort by Trump and Musk to dismantle our system of government and exploit our weakness to consolidate power that benefits the very countries threatening our national security.”

The statement was signed by the top-ranking Democrats on a trio of national security panels: Senators Jack Reed of Rhode Island, of the Armed Services Committee; Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, of the Foreign Relations Committee; and Mark Warner of Virginia, of the Intelligence Committee. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, another senior member of the foreign relations panel, also signed on.

They were joined by the ranking Democrats on the equivalent committees in the House: Representatives Adam Smith of Washington, of the Armed Services Committee; Gregory Meeks of New York, of the Foreign Affairs Committee; and Jim Himes of Connecticut, of the Intelligence Committee. Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, the senior Democrat on a special House committee formed to address threats from China, signed on as well.

In the statement, the lawmakers said that Mr. Musk was, under Mr. Trump’s direction, “destroying our federal national security work force, terminating thousands of men and women with deep expertise and a proven commitment to securing our interests around the world.”

“Chaos at our national security departments and agencies does little to promote a secure America,” they added.

The Democrats called on others to join them in voicing strong opposition to the actions of the administration in its first weeks.

“It is time to act for the sake of our national security and the American people we were elected to serve,” the statement concluded.