President Donald Trump addressed Congress for a very long time on Tuesday. It was the longest time ever, in fact, that a president has addressed lawmakers, breaking the record previously held by President Bill Clinton in 2000. Trump’s speech was filled with misinformation, jabs at Democrats, and, more than anything, droning campaign-style bluster as he touted what he described as his historic effort to lead the United States into a new “golden age.”
The “golden age” is off to a rough start. The stock market has been tumbling this week as Trump continues to toy with imposing massive tariffs on America’s biggest trading partners, a dumbfounding move that would wreak havoc on the price of everyday goods. Trump has long insisted that the impact of the tariffs would not be felt by consumers in the U.S., but seemed to acknowledge reality, albeit briefly, while speaking to lawmakers.
“Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again and it’s happening and it will be happening rather quickly,” Trump said. “There will be a little disturbance, but we’re OK with that. It won’t be much.”
It isn’t just the markets, though. Trump ran on reducing the price of groceries, but they’re continuing to soar. He blamed his predecessor, Joe Biden, naturally, on Tuesday. “Joe Biden especially let the price of eggs get out of control,” he said. “We’re working hard to get it back down.”
The shaky economy is only part of the overwhelming chaos Trump has plunged the United States into since taking office for a second time. Trump has signed a dizzying number of executive orders intended to consolidate power in the executive branch, many of which have been challenged in court. Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have recklessly fired tens of thousands of government employees, shuttered whole agencies, and halted numerous contracts and projects that Trump and Musk don’t like. Musk’s actions, too, have been met with a bevy of court challenges. Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance have all but abdicated America’s role as the leader of the free world, cowing to Vladimir Putin as Russia continues its war to seize Ukrainian territory. They’ve been buttressed by a compliant Congress and the motley crew of wholly unqualified MAGA loyalists Trump has given control of every aspect of the federal government — from the Justice Department to the Pentagon to the nation’s health systems.
“We’re just getting started,” Trump told lawmakers on Tuesday.
Several Democrats — including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) — boycotted Trump’s address on Tuesday. “We have never seen democracy so tested,” Connolly wrote in a statement. “We have never seen our laws, institutions, and the separation of powers so attacked from within. These are not normal times. The challenges my constituents face demand more than sitting in a chamber I revere, listening as if the person addressing our country is not unleashing chaos and cruelty on their lives. I cannot give audience to that.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) reportedly encouraged Democrats to attend Trump’s address, but said he respects any decision not to attend. It was reported that some Democratic lawmakers would protest Trump in various ways, either through the colors they wore, or by walking out of the building in response to certain lines. Some of them did indeed wear pink and sit together, while others wore black or sported blue and yellow to signify solidarity with Ukraine. Rep. Al Green (D-Texas) stood up and yelled that Trump had “no mandate” to cut Medicaid, as Republicans are planning to do. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had him kicked out of the chamber after he refused to return to his seat.
Trump spent much of his address trying to troll Democrats, teasing them for refusing to stand up as he touted his initial actions as president and claiming they are actually in favor of DOGE slashing and burning the federal government. He bashed Biden repeatedly, calling him the worst president in American history, and, as he is wont to do, took plenty of cheap shots, at one point referring to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) as “Pocahontas.”
Vance and Johnson sat behind him snickering, as they did throughout a speech that was largely an exercise in owning liberals — either through the aforementioned taunts, speaking at length about how his administration has slashed diversity measures and done away with “woke,” or by simply boring them out of the room. Many Democratic lawmakers had left the chamber voluntarily by the end of the president’s speech, which dragged on for nearly two hours.
One particularly excruciating stretch came when Trump listed federal expenditures that DOGE is presumably axing. The president spouted plenty of misinformation here, including by claiming again that Social Security is paying people who are hundreds of years old — a falsehood his own administration has acknowledged is wrong.
One thing Trump didn’t lie about was who is in charge of DOGE. He explicitly said that Musk is the “head” of the pseudo-agency. His administration has repeatedly denied this in court, arguing that Musk is not a DOGE employee and isn’t leading it. Sure enough, plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits brought against DOGE submitted Trump’s remark on Tuesday as new evidence.
