Last night, Tuesday March 4, President Donald Trump made his first annual joint address to Congress. Sitting with House Speaker Mike Johnson to his right and Vice President J.D. Vance to his left, he took a victory lap about what he’s gotten done in the last six weeks, and what is still to be done.
Some Democrats refused to appear to the address. Reps like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes (NY), Don Beyer (VA) and Becca Balint (VT) along with Senators like Chris Murphy (CT) and Ron Wyden (OR) said they were skipping the event.
Trump began his speech by saying, “America is back”, referring to his comeback election win and members of congress began chanting “USA”.
Almost immediately however, Democrats began shouting at the President as he spoke, leading to Speaker Johnson to urge decorum. Democrat Congressman Al Green of Texas got removed from the House chamber for repeated disruptions.
After Green got removed, Trump continued his speech saying, “We have accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four years or eight years, and we are just getting started. America’s momentum is back. Our spirit is back. Our pride is back. Our confidence is back, and the American Dream is surging bigger and better than ever before.”
Special guests at the speech included the families of Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungaray, who were brutally murdered by illegal aliens, and Trump took a lot of pride in all his executive orders on the border to keep violent criminals out of the country. A 13 year old who survived brain cancer was also in attendance, and as he always wanted to be a police officer he was designated as an honorary secret service agent.
One of the most important issues of the speech was regarding Ukraine and their president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, following the Oval Office between him and Trump last Friday, Trump announced that they were ready to sign a peace agreement.
“Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. The letter reads, ‘Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer…. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.’”
Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan gave the Democrat rebuttal of Trump’s speech, in which she claimed that Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico could “walk us right into a recession”. She won her first term in the Senate last year by just .3%, while Trump won the state against Kamala Harris by 1.5%.
She continued saying “President Trump and I both won here in November. It might not seem like it, but plenty of places like this still exist across the United States, places where people believe that if you work hard and play by the rules, you should do well and your kids should do better. It reminds me of how I grew up. My dad was a lifelong Republican, my mom a lifelong Democrat, but it was never a big deal because we had shared values that were bigger than any one party.”
This appeared to try to continue Trump’s message of unity and shut down Democrat rebels like Al Green who fight so hard to oppose working across the aisle with the President.
The speech in full? Powerful, straightforward, clear and concise. He laid out what he’s done in six weeks and what he plans to do, such as a Ukraine peace deal. He urged unity, showed support for struggling Americans, and pledged to make America as great as it can be.
In a post-speech CBS poll, 76% of viewers, which included independents, Democrats and Republicans, approved of the speech, and his approval is still very high in consistent polling, so it’s hopefully going to stay that way as they work to start an era of optimism and prosperity.
