Trump’s Very Long Congressional Speech Roundup
It made history in many ways.
While I’ve tended to skip these speeches, whether officially “State of the Union” addresses or not, in recent years, the tumult of the first six weeks of the second Trump presidency compelled me to watch. It was, to say the least, unlike any I’ve ever seen. There’s not a whole lot beyond that I feel comfortable saying but will round up some other reactions below.
The headlines and lede paragraphs from the major print outlets (which were frustratingly hard to find; the front pages of the sites are littered with opinion pieces):
NYT, “A Combative Trump Says ‘America Is Back’ and Taunts His Political Rivals“
President Trump vowed not to lift tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners in his first address to Congress on Tuesday, but appeared ready to reduce tensions with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine just days after an Oval Office blowup in which he threatened to abandon a key ally fighting an invasion.
During the 100-minute speech — the longest presidential address to Congress in modern history — Mr. Trump read aloud a message of gratitude that Mr. Zelensky had posted on social media earlier in the day. Mr. Trump said he appreciated the message, and had received “strong signals” from Russia that the country was eager for peace.
“Wouldn’t that be beautiful?” Mr. Trump said.
WaPo, “Defiant Trump signals full speed ahead on divisive policies“
President Donald Trump on Tuesday night addressed a divided nation in a speech marked by acrimony, as a Texas Democrat was escorted from the chamber within the first few moments and as Trump taunted Democrats in the room — outlining a message of defiant optimism for those who support him and gloomy despair for those who don’t.
WSJ, “Trump’s ‘Swift and Unrelenting Action’ Tests Americans’ Appetite for Upheaval“
President Trump, in his address to Congress Tuesday, celebrated the whirlwind of changes he has brought to the federal government. His success from this point on will depend largely on whether Americans believe the unease caused by his speedy actions—an unsettled stock market, a trade war with allies and uncertainty over the extent of federal job and spending cuts—will lead to the American renewal he promised.
AP, “Trump vows to press ahead on reshaping America in speech to Congress as Democrats register dissent“
President Donald Trump vowed to keep up his campaign of “swift and unrelenting action” in reorienting the nation’s economy, immigration and foreign policy in an unyielding address before Congress that left Democratic legislators to register their dissent with stone faces, placards calling out “lies,” and one legislator’s ejection.
Trump’s prime-time speech Tuesday was the latest marker in his takeover of the nation’s capital, where the Republican-led House and Senate have done little to restrain the president as he and his allies work to slash the size of the federal government and remake America’s place in the world.
The president’s address, clocking in at a record 99 minutes, added up to a defiant sales pitch for the policies that Trump promised during his campaign and leaned into during his first weeks back in office. Trump pledged to keep delivering sweeping change to rescue the nation from what he described as destruction and mistakes left by his predecessor. He seldom addressed his comments directly to the American people, who are trying to keep up with the recent upheaval, while repeatedly needling the Democratic lawmakers seated before him.
There were lots of fact checks. They were long.
- AP, “FACT FOCUS: A look at false and misleading claims made by Trump during his address to Congress”
- Glenn Kessler, WaPo, “Fact-checking 26 suspect claims in Trump’s address to Congress“
- NPR, “Read NPR’s annotated fact check of President Trump’s address to Congress”
- CNN, “Fact-checking Trump’s address to Congress“
- ABC News, “Fact-checking Trump’s speech to Congress“
The columnists had opinions:
Dana Milbank, “In just five days, Trump has set the country back nearly 100 years“
With a modesty we have come to expect of him, President Donald Trump informed Congress on Tuesday night that he had already ushered in “the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country.” He told the assembled lawmakers that he “accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in four or eight years.”
Armed with a portfolio of fabricated statistics, Trump judged that “the first month of our presidency is the most successful in the history of our nation — and what makes it even more impressive is that you know who No. 2 is? George Washington.”
Karen Tumulty, “A classic Trump speech, rich in showmanship and at odds with reality“
On the most ominous day of his second presidential term, Donald Trump swaggered through his address Tuesday to a joint session of Congress — the master showman as always, creating an illusion at odds with an anxious reality.
Technically, this was not a State of the Union address, but the 100-minute speech had the pageantry associated with one, with the House, Senate and Supreme Court gathered in the House chamber and partisans leaping to their feet to cheer. “America’s momentum is back,” Trump proclaimed. “Our spirit is back, our pride is back, our confidence is back. And the American Dream is surging bigger and better than ever before.”
That was a big claim, considering Trump is less than halfway through his first 100 days and what he has achieved thus far is mostly turmoil and a blizzard of legal challenges. On Tuesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 670 points, driven downward by Trump’s decision to impose punishing tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China. In just a couple of days, the broader market wiped out all the gains it had made since the election.
Dan Balz, “Trump delivered a rally speech to Congress, but the reckoning is ahead“
For President Donald Trump’s most loyal followers, these early weeks have been satisfying in the extreme, and his Tuesday night speech to a joint session of Congress offered them a moment of collective celebration. As with so much about the president, the speech was like no other, delivered before a raucous audience of cheering Republicans and sullen and often silent Democrats.
But as Trump left the divided chamber Tuesday night, he and his advisers must have been mindful that harder days and more significant tests lie ahead. He has called for dramatic and often controversial change. Whether he can turn early disruption into effective governance and tangible results is a far different question. His tariffs risk higher prices for consumers and problems for farmers. Failure to lower egg and grocery prices will renege on a major campaign promise.
David Sanger, “Trump Celebrates His Disruption but Slides Over Its Costs“
In the days immediately preceding his address to Congress on Tuesday night, President Trump took a chain saw to government agencies, initiated a trade war, cut off arms to Ukraine and sided with a brutal authoritarian, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
But a visitor arriving from a distant planet who listened to Mr. Trump’s address before an audience of enthusiastic Republicans and dejected, powerless and angry Democrats would not have sensed the scale and intensity of the disruption of the past 44 days and the deep concerns it has produced.
Maureen Dowd, “The State of Himself“
Interviewing Donald Trump over the decades, I would sometimes do a lightning round of questions at the end. It was always his favorite part. He relished giving short bursts of opinion on a range of political and cultural topics.
Now he has turned his entire presidency into a lightning round, putting out a breathless stream of executive orders, slapping tariffs around the globe, siccing Elon Musk on the federal government to rip it apart from the inside out, blowing up alliances as he pulls Vladimir Putin close. Trump’s energy, his output and the sheer volume of words he has uttered in the first six weeks of his presidency are stunning.
He spilled many more words on Tuesday night during his address to a joint session of Congress, talking for 100 minutes, the longest presidential address to Congress ever.
Again, it played like a lightning round. He was Action Jackson, racing through pledges to cut regulations, getting rid of seemingly silly or superfluous foreign aid programs, leaving the World Health Organization. He sped through boasts about economic success, even though the Atlanta Fed says the economy will contract this quarter. He dashed through sketchy claims, painting electric cars as evil, predicting that tariffs will lead to a car boom and asserting that there are nearly 20 million centenarians — some pushing 150 — who are getting Social Security. (Data shows that only 89,000 people over 98 received Social Security payments in December 2024.)
He sounded like a Bob Barker-style game show host, tossing out prizes in a rapid-fire style to his guests in the gallery. Congratulations, you’re going to West Point! Congratulations, you’re in the Secret Service now!
He was loud, confidant and forceful and, for his supporters, enormously effective. G.O.P. lawmakers were jubilant, even though many are unnerved by his tariff infatuation — markets plummeted over the past week — and his disgusting embrace of Putin.
The White House has a roundup of its own:
But I think Jeff Greenfield (“What Trump Knows Instinctively About Speeches“) likely has the key takeaway:
Do presidents begin their speeches to Congress by boasting of their election victories? Do they repeatedly insult their predecessors by name (“the worst president in American history”)? Do they cheerfully repeat blatantly false, repeatedly debunked assertions about 200-and 300-year-olds receiving Social Security payments? Do presidents promise a balanced budget while simultaneously calling for trillions of dollars in tax cuts on tips, overtime and God knows what else?
These are the wrong questions.
If you approach President Donald Trump’s address with the tools of traditional analysis, you’re going to find yourself hopelessly at sea. This was a speech that demonstrated just how unique this president is, just how unbound he is by the norms of decent political behavior — and just how effective he is at communicating powerful emotional messages.
In complete contrast with his first speech to Congress in 2017, which struck notes of unity and civility, this was Trump red in tooth and claw, turning the solemn occasion of what’s effectively a State of the Union address into a campaign rally and — most strikingly — a television spectacle, with a supporting cast of real-life victims, survivors and heroes.
More than two decades ago on his old PoliBlog site my friend and co-blogger coined Taylor’s Iron Law of Political Speeches: “it’s the sound bites that matter, not the speech itself.” The overwhelming number of people don’t watch them in real time, after all. Statesmanlike addresses that hold together analytically and factually may not play well in 15-second clips the next day. Conversely, rambling speeches (like George W. Bush often gave) may well have so great one-liners or moments of warmth and humor that play well.
We’ll have to see how that plays out with this speech. Lord knows, there are lots of sound bites to choose from.
A CBS/YouGov poll showed 76% of those who watched the speech live approved. But, not surprisingly, those who watched it were overwhelmingly Republican.
Which, indeed, is likely the bigger takeaway: people’s opinions on this President are so set at this point that the speech won’t matter in the least.
I am testing my own Iron Law, insofar as I only saw chunks of it last night, as I did not have the bandwidth to take it all in at once.
I am not a fan of the SOTU as a thing (a speech like this is not required by the Constitution, btw), but this was a partisan rally speech, even more than these things usually are.
And, as noted, there isn’t even pretend unity at this point.
I don’t know. If I wanted to spend a long time listening to a bitter, foolish, disgusting, unpleasant, senile old man lie for hours on end, for heaven’s sake why would I?
@Kathy: I would at least get my own drinks at the other end of the bar.
I have seen 0 sound bites from this speech. I’m politically aware and reasonably active, and have managed to see only vague commentary on it. That’s encouraging – it means that Trump just wasted his 2 hours on-stage delivering what amounts to a campaign speech that didn’t move anything in any meaningful way. To a broader audience that has zero interest in his campaign speeches, this was just a waste of time.
The biggest “event” here was that Dems continue to be ineffectual and attached to backwards notions of how the nation operates. (Kudos to one getting removed.) Democrats would have had to come with a cannon to get noticed, and any protest but a direct confrontation over things that most Americans care about (continuing price growths, laid off federal workers) could have easily played into the right-wing bullshit machine. (The right-wing bullshit machine continues to grind – the MAGA Facebook asshole I use to track their noise is still 80% obsessed with other people’s genitals, 15% obsessed with “owning the libs”, and 0% interested in Constitutional destruction, financial malfeasance, and international relations disasters.)
My wife and I didn’t watch. In fact, we don’t watch news either (except weather and sports). What is the point? I rather need the aesthetic distance that reading provides rather than sight and sound. You can stay just as informed.
Re: fact checking. It would be far more efficient to note for how many milliseconds the rapist didn’t lie.
Watched 47 Ronin and an episode of Bourdain. Went to bed at peace and slept thru the night.
I tried to watch, I really did but just could not stay with it more than a few minutes.
Too boring in both content and delivery, too much time wasted on sustained applause of applause lines, I just bailed quickly. Also, just too much bullshit, obviously.
I watched Daredevil on Disney+ and played some Old World on Steam. ANything but watching a DJT speech. Props to AL Green though. I would have liked to see a series of Dems interrupting the event. Drag it out as long as possible in hope that viewers give up and go to bed.
@Daryl: did a similar move – watched La Grande Maison Tokyo (over the top Japanese culinary drama) with the family and read a few chapters of The Wise Man’s Fear. Realized recently that if I want to remain engaged with this sh**show for the long haul in a sustainable way, I cannot end my day ruminating on whatever bile-du-jour has been served up by musk/trump and their minions.
I don’t like watching SOTU speeches, particularly since they’ve become rallies rather than, well, an update on the state of the union.
Apparently Democrats are down one representative, as Rep. Sylvester Turner from Texas passed away unexpectedly last night. He replaced Rep. Sheila Jackson, who passed away from pancreatic cancer.
So does the “one way or the other” mean a military strike to take Greenland is on the table? I am not aware that any strategic minerals from Greenland are being withheld from the USA. Isn’t simply buying them the best way to get them?
@Steven L. Taylor:
The state of our political culture is certainly rancid.
I wouldn’t mind it if they pulled the plug on the SOTU address/political-rally at all. But, unfortunately that’s not going to happen.
The moment for me: After Rep. Al Green was ejected by Speaker Johnson, I recalled that when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted out from the floor that Joe Biden was a ‘liar!’ Speaker Pelosi did NOT eject her. That incident tells where the two parties are these days.
After this moment I switched over to the Warrior-Knick game, never to return to the SOTU-Grievance Address.
I watched an ep of Kite Man Hell Yeah.
I find Golden Glider a much more interesting character. And Bane keeps on stealing every scene he’s on.
@Kathy: have you watched Pantheon on Netflix?
Anyway, I finished Wolf Hall during the sotu show.
@becca:
I don’t think I’ve heard about it. I’ll look it up.
@Steven L. Taylor:
I suspect that for Trump, everyone bending the knee to King MAGA with all dissenters bashed as enemies of the people is the very definition of unity. The Will of the Governed is for suckers.
Democrats mad at Laken Riley for fighting back at Illegal Alien Latin Passion for 20 minutes and getting her head smashed in with a rock.