On March 4, President Donald Trump gave his first address to Congress of his second presidency at the United States Capitol in Washington D.C. In his 90-minute speech, the longest presidential address in the country’s history, Trump addressed his accomplishments while laying out his plans for the future. Here are some notable moments and topics he discussed in the address.
Border Control
Trump promptly started his speech by declaring that his administration has “accomplished more in 43 days than most administrations accomplished in 4 years [or] 8 years,” listing the actions he took in the first days of his office. He emphasized declaring a “national emergency on our Southern border” and deploying “the U.S. military and Border Patrol to repel the invasion of our country.”
“The people elected me to do the job, and I’m doing it,” Trump said.
Accusing Joe Biden of allowing “drug dealers, gang members and people from mental institutions and insane asylums” into the country, Trump emphasized the importance of border control by alluding to the Laken Riley Act, the first bill Trump signed in his second term honoring Laken Riley, a nursing student who was assaulted and killed by Jose Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela.
“If we truly care about protecting America’s children, no step is more crucial than securing America’s borders,” Trump said.
Tariffs
Furthermore, Trump stated that he will implement harsh tariffs on other nations and non-American products.
“If you don’t make your product in America, under the Trump administration, you will pay a tariff and, in some cases, a rather large one,” he said. “Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades, and now it’s our turn to start using them against those other countries.”
He claimed that the current tariff system is “unfair” to the U.S., accusing countless nations, both “friend and foe,” of putting much higher tariffs than the U.S. charges them.
“India charges us auto tariffs higher than 100 percent,” he said. “China’s average tariff on our products is twice what we charge them. And South Korea’s average tariff is four times higher. Think of that: four times higher. And we give so much help militarily and in so many other ways to South Korea, but that’s what happens.”
With the reciprocal tariffs he will be enforcing starting April 2, Trump stated that he will stop the U.S. from getting “ripped off” by other countries, especially from Mexico and Canada, which Trump claimed, “have allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens.”
Attacks on the Left
Looking at the stoic faces of the Democrats in the room juxtaposing the wild cheers of the Republicans, Trump made several attacks against the left.
“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,” Trump said. “I could find a cure to the most devastating disease — a disease that would wipe out entire nations, or announce the answers to the greatest economy in history or the stoppage of crime to the lowest levels ever recorded, and these people sitting right here will not clap, will not stand, and certainly will not cheer for these astronomical achievements.”
He also accused the “radical-left lunatics” of corrupting the justice system by not condemning “dangerous repeat offenders” but instead “weaponizing law enforcement against political opponents like [himself].”
The Economy
Trump claimed that his administration “inherited a total mess,” declaring that the Biden administration “drove up energy prices, pushed up grocery costs, and drove the necessities of life out of reach for millions and millions of Americans.”
“Among my very highest priorities is to rescue our economy and get dramatic and immediate relief to working families,” Trump said. “As you know, we inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare. They’ve never had anything like it.”
To fight against inflation, Trump stated that he will “not only be reducing the cost of energy, but [also] be ending the flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars” through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). He accused the Biden administration of “scam,” famously noting among others that it used “$8 million for making mice transgender.”
Trump also stated that the Government Accountability Office “has estimated annual fraud of over $500 billion in our nation” and identified “shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors.”
“Believe it or not, government databases list 4.7 million Social Security members from people aged 100 to 109 years old,” Trump said. “It lists 3.6 million people from ages 110 to 119. I don’t know any of them. I know some people that are rather elderly, but not quite that elderly.”
Removing “Wokeness”
Trump also addressed his decision to sign the executive order preventing transgender women from participating in women’s sports, as well as the order declaring “that there are only two genders: male and female.” He then proceeded to propose a plan to “pass a bill permanently banning and criminalizing sex changes on children.”
“Wokeness is bad,” Trump said. “It’s gone. It’s gone. And we feel so much better for it, don’t we? Don’t we feel better?”
The Middle East and Ukraine
Trump stated that the U.S. was “bringing back hostages from Gaza” and noted that “a lot of things are happening in the Middle East.” He declared that he plans to “create a more peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region.”
Concerning the Russia-Ukraine War, Trump stated that he was “working tirelessly to end the savage conflict in Ukraine,” as “millions of Ukrainians and Russians have been needlessly killed or wounded in this horrific and brutal conflict with no end in sight.”
However, he expressed strong disapproval towards continuing the Biden administration’s efforts to send Ukraine “more money in this fight than Europe has spent by billions and billions of dollars.
He also revealed receiving a letter from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier that day on being open for negotiations and the minerals deal that fell through on February 28. As talks of a ceasefire continue, Trump expressed his strong desire to end the war with negotiation.
“It’s time to stop this madness,” Trump said. “It’s time to halt the killing. It’s time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides.”
With the discussion of various topics and his specific rhetoric, Trump clearly established the direction his administration would be taking throughout his term.
“This will be our greatest era,” Trump said. “With God’s help, over the next four years, we are going to lead this nation even higher, and we are going to forge the freest, most advanced, most dynamic, and most dominant civilization ever to exist on the face of this Earth.”
