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Trump airs familiar grievances, charts MAGA plan in address before bitterly divided Congress

PHOTO: President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on Mar. 4, 2025 in Washington.
5:34
Win McNamee/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Biggest moments from Trump’s joint session to Congress address
By Alexandra Hutzler, Ivan Pereira, Emily Chang, Julia Reinstein
Last Updated: March 4, 2025, 9:41 PM

President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, six weeks into his historic return to the White House.

During the speech, Trump said "America is back" and defended the tariffs on key U.S. trading partners. He touched on immigration and the mineral deal with Ukraine, but neglected to go into detail on his economic plan. The speech was also met with protests and disruptions from Democrats.

Key headlines:

  • Slotkin encourages concerned Americans not to despair and organize
  • Slotkin: Reagan 'rolling in his grave' over Trump's foreign policy approach
  • Slotkin slams DOGE, Trump over mass firings of federal workers
  • Slotkin criticizes Musk's power in government
  • Slotkin starts with economy, says Trump talked a 'big game'
Here's how the news developed:

Mar 04, 2025 9:41 PM

Who’s watching?

Is a State of the Union a speech or a campaign event? Either way, there'll be a fair bit of cheerleading going on.

That's because Americans who identify with the president's party almost always constitute a plurality or even majority of viewers, according to post-speech polling. In 26 of 27 State of the Union or similar joint addresses to Congress, more fellow party identifiers watched than people who identified with the other major party -- the one exception came in 1995, when Gallup found the same share of Democrats and Republicans took in President Bill Clinton's speech. In fact, a larger share of the audience often identifies as independent than with the opposition party, even though independents tend to be less politically engaged.

The degree to which Trump's speech will attract a more Republican-tilted audience could say something about how people are engaging -- or not engaging -- with politics at the start of Trump's second term. For Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, their first joint addresses to Congress featured especially lopsided audiences made up of viewers who predominantly hailed from their party. Yet in Trump's first term, his initial audience was not as overwhelmingly Republican -- perhaps because people were especially curious to see what a Trump speech in a formal setting would look like.

-Geoffrey Skelley, 538


Mar 04, 2025 9:33 PM

AOC, Wyden plan to skip speech, host livestreams

Several prominent Democrats announced that they would not be attending Trump's speech and instead will be offering their time to constituents.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said earlier Tuesday that she would skip the speech in person, but would be posting about it on BlueSky and then doing an Instagram livestream after it was done.

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden said he would be hosting a livestream on Facebook during the speech.


Mar 04, 2025 9:33 PM

'This is theater!': CBC members say Trump's policies 'screw' Black Americans

Just hours ahead of Trump's joint address to Congress, Congressional Black Caucus lawmakers held a fiery media briefing discussing their deep concerns for Black Americans during Trump's second term.

"This is theater tonight," former CBC Chairman Rep. Steven Horsford, a Democrat, told reporters. "He wants to distract us like he's done, so that he can do one thing, and that's to screw America. And Black America is at the top of his list."

Rep. Horsford and most CBC members said they would be attending Trump's joint address to Congress, but they decried his cuts to programs that they said directly impact Black families in America.

With American Federation of Government Employees members in attendance, the CBC described this as an "unprecedented moment" in America that is harmful to Black people and Black federal workers.

- ABC News' Arthur Jones II



Mar 04, 2025 9:33 PM

Theme for Trump's speech is 'Renewal of the American Dream'

A White House official told ABC News Senior Politics Correspondent Rachel Scott that Trump's remarks will focus on four parts: the president's record so far, the economy, border security and plans for "peace around the globe."

The president will push Congress to pass more border security funding for deportations and the border wall, the official said.

PHOTO: A protestor waves an upside-down American flag, a sign of dire distress according to the United States Flag Code, outside the Capitol in Washington, Mar. 4 2025.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
A protestor waves an upside-down American flag, a sign of dire distress according to the United States Flag Code, outside the Capitol in Washington, Mar. 4 2025.
Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

On foreign policy, the president is expected to touch on his efforts to help broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. He is also expected to focus on his administration's efforts to bring home hostages amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.


Mar 05, 2025 3:50 AM

Trump misleads about autism statistics

Trump said “not long ago, and you can't even believe these numbers, one in 10,000 children had autism, one in 10,000 and now it's one in 36.”

He is correct about the current rate being one in 36, per the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s not clear what year Trump was referencing for his “one in 10,000” statement, but in 2000 it was one in 150, according to the CDC.

There are reasonable explanations for why the rate is higher now than decades ago. The autism criteria shifted in 2013 when three diagnoses — autistic disorder; Asperger's syndrome; and pervasive developmental disorder, not otherwise specified — were merged into a singular autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, Evan H. Dart, University of South Florida associate professor in the school psychology program, previously told PolitiFact.

"This alone could explain large increases in medical diagnoses of autism since the 2000s, even more so compared to the 1980s," when autism first appeared in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Dart said.

— Amy Sherman, PolitiFact


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