In his first address to Congress on Tuesday night, President Trump took a highly partisan victory lap as Democratic lawmakers openly protested against him.Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The Times, walks us through the speech, including the reactions to it in the room.Guest: Maggie Haberman, a White House correspondent for The New York Times.Background reading: A combative President Trump taunted his political rivals during his speech.Here are six takeaways from Mr. Trump’s address to Congress.For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Chapter 1: What was the atmosphere like during Trump's first speech to Congress?
From The New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro. This is The Daily. In his first address to Congress on Tuesday night, President Trump took a highly partisan victory lap as Democratic lawmakers openly protested against him. Today, my colleague Maggie Haberman walks us through the speech and the reactions to it in the room. It's Wednesday, March 5th. So, Maggie, are you ready to begin? I am, Michael.
Okay. Well, thank you for joining us at 11.40 p.m.
11.41, and thank you for having me.
Thank you for correcting my time stamping. It only feels appropriate. So, Maggie, describe the scene for us on the house floor as all of this gets underway on Tuesday night.
Mr. Speaker, the President of the United States.
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Chapter 2: How did Democrats react to Trump's speech?
So, Michael, about 15 minutes after 9 p.m., The announcement goes out that the President of the United States is going to be walking in. Already, this is a different setting than we are used to for this kind of a speech because normally there is an escort committee. It's a bipartisan escort committee. Right. And Democrats help walk in the Republican president.
Republican members help walk in a Democratic president. This year, Democrats decided not to be part of that committee. So... Right away, this was a new moment. And newly partisan. And newly partisan. And there were other signs of Democratic protest. He's being applauded by Republicans who are, you know, trying to touch him as he's walking down the aisle. Most Democrats are refusing to stand.
If any did. I didn't see any who did.
Right. And usually both parties stand just out of respect for the office.
For the most part, yes. And it foretold a very, very intensely partisan night that was about to come.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It's a great honor. Thank you very much. Speaker Johnson. Trump reaches the lectern, and then he starts to speak. Members of the United States Congress, thank you very much. And to my fellow citizens, America is back.
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Chapter 3: What were the key highlights of Trump's speech?
And there's huge cheers from Republicans. And Trump relives his election victory.
The presidential election of November 5th was a mandate like has not been seen in many decades. We won all seven swing states, giving us an electoral college victory of 312 votes.
He claims falsely that his popular vote win was by a large margin. It was not. There was nothing historic about it other than that it happened.
But he seemed to be doing that deliberately, as he has in the past, to suggest in this room before the entire country, in this live televised address, that he has a mandate.
Yes. And he does have a mandate. He just doesn't have the mandate that he keeps saying he does. But so at that moment, as he's declaring this, Democratic Congressman Al Green, who has been firmly against Trump for a very long time, stands up and he starts to heckle the president.
We won the popular vote by big numbers and won counties in our country.
And heckling is not as unusual as it once was for this kind of important speech. But Green seemed to go further than your average heckler.
Right. This was Green continuing to stand, literally waving his cane, brandishing it almost as if it was a sword, essentially, and refusing to sit.
Members are directed to uphold and maintain decorum in the House and to cease any further disruptions. That's your warning.
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Chapter 4: How did Trump address the concept of 'woke' culture?
That is exactly what ends up happening. And it gave Donald Trump a moment that he clearly wanted.
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. Nothing I can do.
Trump was trying to set up this notion that whatever he does, Democrats are going to oppose it and therefore Democrats are unreasonable and bad actors. And again, this is his perspective. I'm just saying what he is trying to set up and that they are not going to endorse him no matter what.
Okay. After this set of back and forth between the president and unhappy Democrats, we finally get to the meat of this speech.
Right. So from that moment, Trump begins to describe the version of America that he defeated in 2024 in his telling and the one that he's sweeping away. And it is one that, to use a word he uses often, is woke.
And what are the examples of this woke version of America that he's sweeping away?
We have removed the poison of critical race theory from our public schools.
It's a pretty familiar list, Michael, for anyone who has listened to a Trump campaign speech. It's culture war issues.
And I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders, male and female.
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Chapter 5: What economic policies did Trump propose in his speech?
who apparently suffered a head injury because of it.
Peyton is here tonight in the gallery, and Peyton, from now on, schools will kick the men off the girls' team or they will lose all federal funding. And then he pivots... As you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare. Very abruptly to the government that he inherited...
And to that end, I have created the brand new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE.
And he starts going through a list of programs, and it's long, that he says are programs that DOGE, Musk's effort, has identified as spending that Trump considers wasteful.
Just listen to some of the appalling waste. We have already identified... In many cases, it's foreign aid. $45 million for diversity, equity, and inclusion scholarships in Burma.
It's promoting efforts in Africa.
$8 million to promote LGBTQI+. in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of.
He sort of mocks the name of a country there. He mispronounces another country. He goes through this lengthy list and... $20 million for the Arab Sesame Street. It's very hard to know how accurate this list is because a lot of what has been put out there by Doge as their cost-cutting measures, some is accurate, some is not.
$47 million for improving learning outcomes in Asia... Asia's doing very well with learning.
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Chapter 6: What new trade policies did Trump announce?
April 2nd, reciprocal tariffs kick in. And whatever they tariff us, other countries, we will... Tariff them. That's reciprocal, back and forth. Whatever they tax us, we will tax them.
Which may inevitably increase costs for U.S. consumers.
That's right. And he goes specifically to talking about the agriculture community.
A new trade policy will also be great for the American farmer. I love the farmer.
He describes himself as loving America's farmers.
Who will now be selling... Into our home market, the USA, because nobody is going to be able to compete with you.
But that group of people are really concerned about the tariffs that are coming. And Trump does acknowledge that there might be, quote, a little bit of an adjustment period.
It may be a little bit of an adjustment period.
As these tariffs go into place.
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